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Buffalo brings the league's most productive rushing attack from a year ago into Reliant Stadium on Sunday. John Harris wants to be clear about what that actually means, because it is not the usual assignment.
"When you say stop the run against most teams, yeah, it might be a running back. We're not talking about Derrick Henry here. We're talking about Cook and Allen, the law firm of, and they are very dangerous."
Two touchdown-scoring threats on the ground, and only one of them is a running back.
The number, and the number behind the number
James Cook ran 17 times for 116 yards against Houston last season. On its own, that reads like a rough night for the Texans defense. Harris went back to the tape and found the detail that changes the picture.
"He got 58 yards of that 116, exactly half, on two runs. The other 15 runs, the Texans did a really nice job of slowing him down."
Fifteen carries defended well. Two that got out. That reframes the entire assignment — this is not a scheme problem to solve, it is a leverage-and-tackling problem to clean up.
"So, okay, what happened on those chunk runs? Misfits? Not tackling well."
Why Week 1 is different
Which brings Harris to the thing he says every September, and he says it because it keeps proving true.
"In Week 1, you know I harp on this, tackling for guys that haven't tackled since January, literally taking a guy to the ground. That can be an issue, especially against a guy like Cook."
Cook is listed at 5-11, 195, and Harris does not want anyone reading those numbers as a soft assignment.
"You think, that's not that big. But he's tough. He runs behind his pads, and he's got great vision for the home run lane. He can see where that lane is amongst the chaos and bounce out of there."
That is how the two chunk runs happened. A defender arrives half a beat late, throws a shoulder instead of wrapping up, and Cook is through it.
Harris's fix is not complicated. It is just non-negotiable.
"Tackling's got to be on point. Run fits got to be on point. And then you got to bring everybody to the party."
