Sleeper of the Game is presented by Mattress Firm
As the Houston Texans prepare to face the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday at NRG Stadium, one defensive lineman has emerged as a difference-maker just when the team needs it most.
Tommy Togiai is the Mattress Firm Sleeper of the Game.
"The other night, two TFLs. He had a bat down," Johnny Harris said. "He, I don't want to say stuffed the stat sheet. But it's getting to a point where you want Tommy Togiai on the field almost as much as any of the other defensive linemen. You want him on the field. You need him on the field."
Togiai's production has been impossible to ignore in recent weeks.
"He's hot. He's really hot. He's playing very, very well," Harris continued. "And against a zone stretch kind of team, it was interesting talking to Bill Davis. And this is evident when you watch the Niners as well. He reiterated they do everything in the run game, but their zone stretch is kind of what they're known for."
That's where Togiai's skill set becomes crucial against San Francisco.
"Tommy's speed, agility, quickness, and power can help a lot against an offensive line. It's good, not great, but good," Harris explained. "And Tommy, I think his ability to penetrate, create problems, make McCaffrey have to make a running decision before he's ready. If you can disrupt that, even get him to slow his feet a little bit, that's a win."
The journey to this point hasn't been straightforward for Togiai.
"I mean, we saw preseason, and you and I talked about it. Tommy Togiai is one of the best players of preseason," Marc Vandermeer recalled. "Then he's inactive for the first two weeks as you're trying to kind of feel things out. And they're like, we got to get this dude on the field. He goes to Jacksonville and starts making plays week in and week out."
Now, Togiai has become indispensable to the Texans' defensive front.
"And now he's gotten to a point where if Tommy Togiai were injured and out of the game, we would feel it," Vandermeer said. "And I don't want that to happen. He's got to be in the game."
"But Tommy has been so productive lately that you got to have him on the field," Harris added.
The Texans will need every bit of that production when they face Christian McCaffrey and the 49ers' zone-stretch running attack on Sunday at noon.
