The Texans (8-3) host the Browns (4-6-1) in a Week 13 matchup at NRG Stadium. Cleveland's head coach Gregg Williams and some players shared their thoughts on the Texans below.
Cleveland head coach Gregg Williams on the Texans offense: "I think Bill (O'Brien) has done a very good job of crafting the best things that all of the guys he's coaching can do. Obviously, the big run the other night got everybody's attention. They've done a very good job with how they've done the run game on things that he's been able to do at other places. I even see some of the similarities of what they were doing when they were back with Belichick, back there in the run game that I've seen them doing."
Williams on Texans QB Deshaun Watson: "I think he's taken the next step. I think Bill O'Brien and that staff have done a very good job on some of the very same things that we were talking about Baker (Mayfield) on on devising and setting the skillsets up to what Deshaun can do. I think the game's slowing down for him. You can see that he's more relaxed. He never did show any stress or panic, but you can see he's more comfortable in what he's doing."
LB Joe Schobert on Watson: "He has great feet and great pocket awareness. You see a lot of teams surround him, and he is able to kind of escape out from a side or a gap right up the middle. A lot of times, he has thrown the ball just as much as running it down the field on scrambles. He is making good throws down the field so he definitely presents a challenge kind of unique to any other quarterback in the NFL."
Cleveland DB Denzel Ward on Watson: "We are still going to play man-to-man. It is just depending on if you are going to play two-man, have more guys back to the ball or spying him."
Schobert on Texans RB Lamar Miller: "Miller is hitting the hole and he is hitting it fast and violent, and he is breaking arm tackles. There are linebackers and D-line are in the holes and just trying to reach out trying to bring him down. He is running through it and you see he has the speed to take it all the way to the house like we saw the other day. I think a part of it is with the zone-read scheme, but part of it has just been hitting the holes hard and being a very physical downhill runner."
Williams on Texans WR Demaryius Thomas: "He's a very powerful player at the point of attack. It takes a while for a quarterback and a receiver to get in sync, but I thought they took the next step on getting in sync here this past week. I saw more confidence out of both of them in this last ballgame."
Williams on Texans DE J.J. Watt: "If he's not all the way back, then I'll be shocked because I think he's playing outstanding. I thought this Monday night he was as powerful and ballistic as I've seen him be in quite a long time. We have to understand where he's at all times. He's a really good football player. It brings a smile to my face – I was talking to people up here, too about some of the arguments that other staffs that I've been on on how we evaluated him – I had an awful high evaluation on him at the time and was getting questioned about that, about why I felt that strongly about him."
Cleveland OL Joel Bitonio on the Texans front seven: "This is the best group we will have faced probably overall all year. They can do it in the run. They can do it in the pass. The tough thing about them is with Watt, (Texans DE/OLB Jadeveon) Clowney and (Texans OLB Whitney) Mercilus and their big guys inside, a lot of them kind of have free reign to do what they want. Sometimes when you see a defense, you know that they are holding a specific gap, but if Watt makes a play, they do not really mind what it looks like. He will take himself out of his gap and make a play in the backfield. He is such a big, powerful guy that you think that he is going to want to try to run you over, but then he will hit you with a quick move, a quick swim. They are a talented group. It is definitely going to be a good test for us."
Williams on the Texans secondary: "It's extremely versatile. The mix-up and the dynamics of how they change the scheme and change the look to provide a different look to the quarterback to cause a reset or to cause some type of a slight distraction, they've done a pretty good job. All those guys' versatility of being able to play more than one position, it only helps you."
Cleveland QB Baker Mayfield on the Texans secondary: "Obviously, those are very talented guys to begin with. They make plays on the ball, they do all the right things of creating huge plays for a defense. Then you add in the front that the Texans defense has – it's a huge opportunity for them to play even more aggressive and make more plays. Like I said, it presents a huge challenge for us."
