Thursday Night Football: J.J. Watt for MVP?
Sep 28, 2014; Houston, TX, USA; Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt (99) rushes against Buffalo Bills tackle Seantrel Henderson (66) during the game at NRG Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
It’s Thursday Night Football, and we’re writing two posts about opposing players who will have a significant impact on each others success that are both legitimate MVP candidates, and for the Houston Texans, it’s J.J. Watt.
Watt’s task is to make life miserable for opposing quarterbacks, and on Thursday Night Football, he’s tasked with doing that against Andrew Luck, a fellow MVP candidate and the guy who has come roaring back from an 0-2 start to have the Colts in position to take sole possession of first place in the AFC South tonight and never look back.
Watt will certainly have something else to say about it.
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The best defensive player in the league, Watt is receiving ridiculous grades from Pro Football Focus this year, and for good reason. Aside from having three passes defensed and an interception returned 80 yards for a touchdown — numbers that would have most DBs in the NFL jealous at this point — Watt has only 19 tackles and two sacks so far this season. Yet, his grade from Pro Football Focus is an out of bounds 27.7 through five games.
What Watt is doing is making life miserable for quarterbacks. He’s already got 18 hits on quarterbacks and 15 hurries. Those haven’t resulted in sacks, but anytime you get pressure at that kind of rate, you are affecting the play significantly. That’s what Watt does best, and that’s why he’s an MVP candidate for the Texans.
It’s not just about putting up big numbers in a bad season, which Luck did a year ago. A year before that, he was the defensive player of the year (Luck’s first in the league). These two are destined to battle for years and years, and this Thursday night game is just another one of those matchups.
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It’s going to be fun watching those two get to know each other over the years, but the key to Houston winning this game lies in the amount of pressure they’re able to get on Luck and how many mistakes they can force him to make. Luck isn’t averse to throwing the ball to the wrong team, and getting the home crowd involved in this game is a big advantage for Watt and his teammates.
Watt is always a defensive MVP candidate, but for him to win the MVP award outright? It’s going to take a masterful performance in big games like this. If the Texans are able to win the game, I think it will be Watt who generates the headlines. He’s the key to everything for them, the mark of a true MVP candidate.