Justin Houston’s Four Sacks vs. the Chargers

Justin Houston’s four sacks against the Chargers in week 17 gave him the NFL lead in sacks in 2014 and put his season total at 22, just a half sack short of the NFL’s single season record. The numbers say he had one of the best pass rushing seasons of all time, and the tape on the field backs it up. This article will look at Houston facing off against the Chargers’ pass blockers, primarily second year RT DJ Fluker.

In the game, Houston (#50 for the Chiefs) used three primary pass rushing techniques to great effect. Of the 36 pass rushes he had on the day, I counted 21 where I would say he beat the offensive tackle. Most of the other ones he simply didn’t have enough time to make an impact before the throw came out. He rarely gets stonewalled, which is a great trait. The caveat is that he was facing off against DJ Fluker, who is a mauler in the run game but a poor pass blocker. In fact, as I was preparing this article the news broke that the Chargers are going to move Fluker inside to guard next season, with the reason being that he does not pass block well, particularly against speed rushes.

With that said, let’s get to the tape and watch what Houston does well.

3-3-SD 38 (13:15) (No Huddle, Shotgun) P.Rivers pass incomplete short right to D.Inman (J.Houston).

This is the first pass play that the Chargers run, and Houston makes an immediate impact. What Houston does on this play is set Fluker up on the outside, then bull rush and rip back towards the inside. Rivers gets the pass off quickly, so while Houston beat Fluker pretty badly he did not get a chance to get a pressure. However, Houston gets his hands up when he sees Rivers throwing, and because he got the better of Fluker he is directly in Rivers’ throwing lane and knocked the pass down.

2-20-SD 12 (7:23) (No Huddle, Shotgun) P.Rivers sacked at SD 6 for -6 yards (J.Houston).

This play was Justin Houston’s first sack of the day. What you see here is his explosion, as he’s able to just run a circle around Fluker, and get an arm on Rivers. The pocket really collapsed from all sides, but Houston grabbed Rivers first and brought him to the ground. Houston isn’t generally a speed rusher — he prefers to bull rush and rip towards the inside, which you’ll see on the next play — but he has the full skill set as a pass rusher and will certainly take advantage of his opportunities to speed rush. It helps that Fluker is not very fast out of his stance as well.

3-8-SD 35 (2:11) (No Huddle, Shotgun) P.Rivers sacked at SD 29 for -6 yards (J.Houston).

While this play and the last play were separated by 5 minutes of game time, they were actually on consecutive dropbacks for Rivers because the Chargers ran the ball four times in between. So, while it didn’t occur on back-to-back plays, this was actually two sacks in a row for Houston. And, we can see the influence that his previous pass rush had on this sack. If you ask me, this is his most impressive pass rush of the game. Let’s look at a few stills:

The Chargers help Fluker out here by chipping Houston with Malcolm Floyd before he goes out on his route. This is to force Houston back towards the inside and prevent his speed rush.

Here we see that the chip hasn’t really worked, because Houston was still able to get to the outside on Fluker. Fluker is in a better position than he was on the last play, but he’s still moving backwards to try to catch up to Houston. Something that’s also important is that Houston’s leverage will force Rivers to step up in the pocket.

In this frame we see Houston first get extension away from Fluker so he’s harder to block, and also get low so he has leverage on Fluker. Leverage is extremely important for pass rushers, and it’s something Fluker struggles with.

Because he gained leverage on Fluker, Houston can basically force him to do what he wants. In this case, Houston rips against Fluker’s body, rushing back inside to get the sack. This show’s off Houston’s incredible strength, because he’s moving a 320 pound man at will.

Overall this play is extremely impressive from Houston. He uses his previous success to set up Fluker overcompensating for the outside rush, then he gains leverage and uses that to get back towards the inside for the sack.

1-10-SD 17 (11:35) (No Huddle, Shotgun) P.Rivers sacked at SD 14 for -3 yards (J.Houston). FUMBLES (J.Houston), RECOVERED by KC-J.Mays at SD 17.

A big aspect on line play on either side of the ball in hand fighting. Offensive and defensive linemen are pretty much in full hand to hand combat on every play (with open hands). On this play Houston shows off his hand fighting skills, and gets the better of Fluker once again. The following two images are consecutive frames in the gif:

What Houston was able to do was completely knock Fluker’s hands off of him. This is not easy to do, but as soon as Houston does this, he’s won the battle because Fluker is now off balance and he’s lost all leverage.

In this image, Fluker is trying to get back into position after getting his hands knocked off, but Houston simply has better leverage and ends up knocking Fluker back towards the end zone. From here, he gets to Rivers and eventually rips the ball out for a forced fumble which the Chiefs recovered. All of that was possible because he won with his hands in the trenches.

3-20-SD 19 (6:56) (Shotgun) P.Rivers pass short right to D.Brown to SD 27 for 8 yards (J.Fleming).

This just another impressive display of Houston’s strength. He doesn’t make the play; in fact he never disengages from Fluker. However, he forces Fluker in the direction he wants to go (at first towards the QB, then towards the RB on the screen pass). Fluker does a decent job keeping himself between Houston and his target, but he’s just being overpowered otherwise.

2-12-KC 38 (1:27) (No Huddle, Shotgun) P.Rivers pass incomplete short left to D.Inman (S.Smith). PENALTY on SD-K.Dunlap, Offensive Holding, 10 yards, enforced at KC 38 - No Play.

While this isn’t a sack, it’s almost as good as one because Houston drew a holding penalty from LT King Dunlap. Houston’s strongest move is his bull rush, and he shows it here. He knocks the massive Dunlap (6’9″, 330 pounds) back on his heels and then rips toward the inside again. Dunlap is thoroughly beaten and graps Houston out of desparation.

2-10-KC 29 (1:10) (Shotgun) P.Rivers sacked at KC 38 for -9 yards (J.Houston).

This is Houston’s fourth and final sack of the day, and it’s a great effort play. He doesn’t relly beat the offensive lineman, but the Chiefs are playing conservatively because the Chargers are in desparation mode, down by 12 with just over a minute left. The Chargers do a good job on Houston initially, but Rivers holds on to the ball because there is nothing open downfield. Houston eventually becomes free, and he then makes a beeline for Rivers and takes him down for the sack. Houston’s effort is part of what makes him a great pass rusher, and it would be disrespectful not to acknowledge it.

While Houston is best bull rushing, he displays the total package as an edge rusher, as he has the speed to turn the corner but also the power to rush towards the inside. He understands leverage well, and is a strong hand fighter. He is the total package, and all of those skills were on display as he gunned for Michael Strahan’s sack record in the final week of the 2014 football season. He fell just short, but he might not have if DJ Fluker didn’t hold him pretty blatantly on a few plays that went uncalled. Still, while it won’t go in the record books, his season should be remembered as one of the best pass rushing seasons of all time, and Houston very well might be the most dominant edge rusher in the game today.

While those are all of the plays I’m going to break down, I also made gifs of the plays that I considered a “win” for Houston. I’ve broken them down into categories, and you can see them on the next page.

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