National Football League

Phillips brings new scheme, mindset to Houston

Published Sep. 9, 2011 10:56 p.m. ET

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The Houston Texans' defense took a beating last season, then read about how awful they were all summer.

Houston has brought in Wade Phillips to not only implement a 3-4 scheme but reverse the self-defeating mindset that comes with repeated failures. Phillips' reputation for fixing defenses preceded him, and the Texans were ready to follow his lead before training camp even began.

''He had that respect coming into our room,'' All-Pro linebacker DeMeco Ryans said. ''You've got a lot of eager guys here who are wanting to be great on defense. Wade brings a track record of turning teams around. We were all just wide-eyed, (and thinking) `What's he got for us? We're ready to buy into it.'''

The defense showed marked improvement in the preseason, generating 15 sacks and seven turnovers in four games. But the tests start counting in Sunday's opener against the Indianapolis Colts, who will start a season without Peyton Manning for the first time since 1997. The AFC South rivals are expected to instead have veteran Kerry Collins behind center.

''I think confidence-wise, we're in a real good place,'' Phillips said. ''Now, we've got to continue to work, which they will. I think they've worked hard. I look for us to do well this season and we're pointing toward that.''

There's nowhere to go but up.

Houston ranked 30th in total defense (376.9 yards per game), and last against the pass (267.5 yards per game) in 2010. The secondary gave up 33 touchdown passes and 18 receptions covering 40 yards or more, both league highs. Up front, the Texans produced only 30 sacks to rank 23rd.

''That's a bad year to have on your resume,'' Ryans said.

Phillips didn't exactly have a banner year himself in 2010, fired as coach in Dallas after the Cowboys started 1-7. He laid low for a few months, but then jumped at the chance to work with Gary Kubiak, who was a ball boy for the Houston Oilers when Wade's father, Bum, coached the team in the late 1970s.

Phillips was also eager to move back to his specialty.

Defenses that Phillips has coordinated over the past 20 seasons have finished among the top 10 eight times and helped eight teams to the playoffs. In each of his last four stints as a defensive coordinator, the team made the playoffs in Phillips' first season after falling short in the previous year.

The track record earned him instant credibility among the Texans, and spared him the time of having to sell his new players on his system. Houston had played a 4-3 before he arrived.

''The good thing about a reputation is they believe things before you go in,'' Phillips said. ''When I was first coordinator, I had to convince everybody that I knew what I was doing. It helps that `Hey, this guy knows what he's doing. If we'll get the things that he says right, then it will work.'''

One of Phillips' first ideas caused a stir - moving defensive end Mario Williams to outside linebacker.

The 6-foot-6, 283-pound Williams has led Houston in sacks every year since he was the top overall pick in the 2006 draft. Phillips thinks he can produce even more at the same position where DeMarcus Ware excelled in Dallas.

Williams is convinced, too.

''It's definitely progressing,'' Williams said Friday. ''It's only going to get better. Pretty much, I'm just excited to go out there and play the first game and get things going.''

Phillips was hired in early January, but the lockout prevented the Texans from working with - or even contacting - their new defensive coordinator through the summer. That meant a compressed timetable for installing the scheme once training camp finally began.

Safety Danieal Manning, one of Houston's key free-agent acquisitions, said Phillips has been patient in teaching the 3-4, making sure every player understood the fundamentals before moving on to something new.

''He said, `Look, let's learn our basics. We're not going to get into the meat of everything yet. This is what we're going to hang our hats on,''' Manning said. ''He said, `We're going to run that defense, and just keep running it until we've got it. We just added a little bit at a time, one step at a time.''

Defensive end J.J. Watt, Houston's first-round draft pick, said Phillips also explained the facets of the defense in a logical order, so that the lessons from one day flowed into the next.

''The thing they did was that they tied calls in with each other that help us understand it,'' Watt said. ''It's not like we'd have a bunch of different calls where we'd have to straight memorize it. We have little tips and things that help us remember. That's good.''

The defensive players are constantly barking and signaling to one another in practice, and after a month of working with Phillips, the veteran Texans say they've never felt better about the defense heading into a season.

''We're right where we need to be,'' All-Pro linebacker Brian Cushing said. ''Now, going into the first game, he (Phillips) is going to let it all go, and we're ready for it, we're excited for it. This is the first time probably in a long time that we've been this confident as a defense, just with the game plan, and the players around us.''

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