Football Outsiders looked at the Texans' sacktastic duo of Connor Barwin and Brooks Reed to see whether they can sustain their success.
↵The main conclusion was that Wade Phillips had a lot to do with those sacks. For instance, take Reed's six sacks. According to the charting process over at FO, one of those came when he was unblocked because of the rest of the Texans' blitz, one came when he mopped up a safety blitz and the third came on a bootleg to his side. But, that doesn't really take anything away from what he's done in a (relatively) small amount of playing time. It looks like the Texans found a real value in the draft in Reed.
↵On the other side, Barwin has also looked great as the Texans main pass rusher. But, look at this analysis. Barwin's 5 1/2 sacks this season came when the QB held the ball for 3.5 seconds or more. Those are not quick sacks and are more dependent on the coverage.
↵Which, again, goes back to Phillips. Barwin is fast and uses his speed well, but the combination of Johnathan Joseph and Phillips has greatly helped Barwin and Reed in rushing the passer. If you put these two with last year's secondary, things would not look nearly this good.
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