Houston Texans' Wade Phillips primed to unleash another beastly defense - SportingNews.com

HOUSTONâ€"At 65, Wade Phillips is four decades older than most of the players he coaches as the Houston Texans’ defensive coordinator. But his ability to relate to and communicate with his youthful personnel is a big reason why he’s been able to deliver an elite 3-4 defense.

The talent of those young players also played a sizeable role in the Texans’ quick turnaround last season, Phillips’ first with the Texans. He took over a group that ranked low overall in 2010â€"32nd in passing defense, 30th in total defense, 29th in scoring defense, 23rd in sacksâ€"and, with help from a new cast, helped it rise into the NFL’s top six in all those categories.

Texans linebacker Connor Barwin is part of the defense's young, talented nucleus. (AP Photo)

More impressive, Phillips directed the team to immediate success despite a lockout-shortened offseason and while trying to get key newcomers to jell. Up front, two current second-year playersâ€"end J.J. Watt and outside linebacker Brooks Reedâ€"instantly produced with their edge pressure.

Watt started right from Week 1 as a first-round pick, and contributed 5.5 sacks. He credits Phillips’ influence as being vital to both him and his teammates.

“He’s helped me a lot personally and helped our defense out immensely,” Watt said. “He’s just so smart. He keeps the defense simple and always seems to dial up the right thing at the right time. He always puts you in the best position to have success.”

Watt, 23, is among five Texans defensive starters who are 25 or younger. Overall, the average age of the first team is 27, and the oldest returning starter is 30-year-old lineman Antonio Smith. New inside linebacker Bradie James, who used to play under Phillips with the Dallas Cowboys, joins the group as the dean at 31.

Following Dallas, Houston is the eighth NFL team for which Phillips has coordinated a defense. Add in five stints as an NFL head coach, and it feels natural to Phillips that he's leading another young crew.

“When you’ve been doing it a long time like I have, you kind of know where everybody is and you don’t really have to see the play to know what happened on the play,” Phillips said. “It’s experienceâ€"coaching the same defense for a long time, you know where they line up and where their responsibilities are.”

Another one of Phillips’ rising young stars is outside linebacker Connor Barwin. After getting his feet wet in Phillips’ edge pressure scheme early last season, Barwin blew up in the second half and finished with a career- and team-high 11.5 sacks.

Now that the Texans have been able to go through a full season with Phillips, Barwin sees the switch going on earlier in 2012.

“We didn’t kind of catch our groove till Week 6 or Week 7 of last year,” Barwin said. “With knowing the defense better now, hopefully we can start off a little quicker, a little better.”

Gone from the Texans are the two most familiar defensive names in the franchise’s history, both of whom are coming off injury-riddled seasons. Mario Williams, their first overall pick in 2006, signed with the Buffalo Bills. Former starting inside linebacker DeMeco Ryans was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles.

Although the departures of Williams and Ryans left a veteran void, Barwin saw the current unit make the necessary transition during organized team activities earlier this year. Barwin and Reed have settled into established roles after rmore than compensating for Williams missing 11 games with a torn triceps last season. Likewise, James’ knowledge of Phillips’ scheme is a nice complement to thumper Brian Cushing inside.

“With losing DeMeco and Mario, the OTAs were important just from a leadership standpoint,” Barwin said. “It allowed us to go out there and play and see what it’s like without those guys before game time. That’s the biggest advantage that we took from OTAs, just kind of seeing who is going to step up as the leaders of the defense.”

The one thing Phillips did that greatly helped his young defenders to mature so quickly was not treat them as young defenders, but rather having the same expectations of them as his most veteran players.

“You treat them as men,” Phillips said. “You ask them to do something and we expect it to be done. That’s the way we treat them.”

It also didn’t take much from Phillips and the rest of Houston’s defensive coaching staff to get the youngsters going and accelerate their learning curve in his scheme.

“They are self-motivated. They have a great work ethic,” Phillips said. “That helps any player, but the young players we have are motivated that way.“

Of all the promising players in the Texans’ front seven, there’s something electric about Watt. Even while sidelined with an elbow injury at training camp, he found a way to remain active as the team’s most athletic lineman. The one-time college tight end was caught snagging pass after pass from a JUGS machine during practice. It conjured up the lasting image of his rookie seasonâ€"when he returned an Andy Dalton interception for a touchdown to key the Texans’ win over the Cincinnati Bengals, the franchise’s first-ever playoff victory.

“I just want to do something,” Watt said. “I hate standing around. I don’t like not doing anything. If I can catch JUGS with one hand, I’m going to do it. It makes me feel like a football player.”

As a player, Watt says he’s just scratching the surface with his production as a run stopper, pass rusher and playmaker in coverage. Earlier in camp, Phillips shared his belief that Watt has a Hall of Fame look about him.

“All the great players I’ve been around have been that way, they want to do well, and they outwork people,” Phillips said. “They keep working at what they’re doing to get better at their skills. He’s one of those guys.”

For the moment, Watt is just trying to improve on the splash he made in his first year.

“I think I have a lot of good football in front of me,” Watt said. “I’m a real student of the game. I’m trying to learn how to get better with every game.”

In addition to being deeply talented, Watt is versatile and unrelenting, qualities that fit right in with the makeup of the other Texans defenders.

“We’ve got a lot of guys who can do a lot of different things,” Watt said. “The best part of our defense is high effort. Everyone puts in everything they have.”

The work of Watt and the young veterans have started to rub off on this year’s class. First-round pick Whitney Mercilus, projected to a situational pass rusher behind Barwin, is doing his best to get up to speed in camp.

“Guys are bouncing around all day, every dayâ€"you get energy from one person that bounces off to the next person,” Mercilus said. “You have one person going after the ball, you have another person making plays. It starts getting contagious and gets everybody excited. It’s kind of like a domino effect.”

Mercilus knows that, based on what he’s seen, he must go full throttle at all times.

“It’s explosive and no doubt hard-working,” Mercilus said of the defense. “There are people who get to the ball, and they finish everything.”

As well as Houston’s 3-4 has developed under Phillips, the turnaround wouldn’t have been complete without the team's additions to the back end. Last year’s free-agent signings of cornerback Johnathan Joseph and Danieal Manning added leadership behind the front seven. Houston also has built a group that nicely complements the linemen and linebackers.

“Overall, we’re aggressive,” Joseph said of the secondary. “Guys that pay attention to detail and are always in our assignment. We’re going to compete and challenge every play.

“I know the guys up front are going to pin their ears back and go after the quarterback. That makes my job easier.”

Joseph broke through an as elite all-around corner during his first season in Houston, and the former Bengal continues to be rejuvenated by what’s happening around him.

“I’m only a young 28, but a lot of these guys are 23, 24 and 25. It’s good to be around this fun and excitement because it kind of takes you back to your younger days,” Joseph said. “At the same time you want to see those guys grow and develop into great individual and team players.”

With Phillips only in Year 2 and many of his players being well short of their prime, the Texans are just getting started with something special on the defensive side. Watt anticipates riding the wave a lot longer.

“It’s a lot of fun knowing this defense will be good for a long time,” he said.