
Two weeks ago, Texans defensive coordinator Wade Phillips said his preseason schemes were purposefully “vanilla,” basic in design so he could evaluate players in 1-on-1 matchups with their offensive counterparts.
When the Texans kick off the regular season on Sunday against rookie quarterback Ryan Tannehill and the Miami Dolphins at Reliant Stadium, Phillips will add some new ingredients to the mix.
“We’re going to put some chocolate and strawberries and everything on that vanilla – and you know I like that stuff,” Phillips said on Thursday, smiling and patting his stomach. “We’ll give them some different looks now. They’ve seen some of the things we did last year, but we’ve got some new wrinkles for them.”
The Texans set a team record with 44 sacks last season, which ranked sixth in the NFL. They led the AFC this preseason with 17 sacks – vanilla scheme and all.
“I like chocolate and strawberries and all that stuff, too,” said outside linebacker
Phillips has had an entire offseason to tinker with pass rushers like Barwin,
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