Jerry Hughes continues to make plays.
The veteran defensive lineman began the 2022 campaign with two sacks, a forced fumble and an interception in the Week 1 tie with Indianapolis.
Since then, he's kept up nearly a sack-per-game pace in 2022.
On Sunday's loss in New Jersey, Hughes dropped Giants Quarterback Daniel Jones for a loss of five yards on the first half's final play.
Along with that sack, he added a fourth quarter tackle for a loss of five yards on a Saquon Barkley run, a first quarter stop for a 1-yard Barkley gain and a third quarter tackle of Barkley for no gain.
Hughes now has eight sacks on the season, and Head Coach Lovie Smith wishes the Texans had more Jerry Hughes on the squad.
"We'd be undefeated if everybody was playing, if we we're all doing our job as well as Jerry is doing his," Smith said during a Monday press conference at NRG Stadium.
But that's impossible, as there's only one Hughes to go around for Houston. The Texans fell, 24-16, on Sunday to New York. Hughes, in NFL year 13, didn't take much joy in his individual heroics. Instead, he pointed blame back at himself for the Texans' seventh loss of the season.
"We just didn't do enough on defense," Hughes said. "We got to get turnovers. It starts with me. Coach talks about getting the ball out, punching the ball out to create short fields to help our offense. We just didn't have enough. I didn't do enough."
The Texans defense didn't come up with an interception or fumble recovery against New York, and allowed the Giants to run the ball 47 times for 191 yards. While Hughes was quick to give credit and praise to New York, he explained what he and the defense must do to improve.
"We just have to understand situational football and know that teams are going to come run the football at us," Hughes said. "We have to stop the run first and as a D-line, we have to play that better."
Nevertheless, Smith and the coaching staff have been glad to have Hughes on board in 2022.
"His play has been outstanding every game," Smith said. "There's a certain level of play, he's not going to make every tackle, every play, but he's going to be someone that teams have to take notice of. We have a lot of young players playing. They need to see guys like Jerry Hughes that are just nonstop, every snap."
Hughes and company will host the Commanders this Sunday at noon CT inside NRG Stadium. Browse tickets.
