The Houston Texans hired Lovie Smith as their new coach. The defensive coordinator and associate head coach from a year ago now becomes the fifth full-time coach in team history.
Smith was a part of a Texans team in 2021 that finished 4-13. There were sundry reasons as to why Houston struggled to match their win total from 2020, and the 63-year-old is keenly aware as to what they are.
Although Smith’s tenure with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was forgettable from 2014-15, his time with the Chicago Bears from 2004-12 is where he made his name.
Here is how Smith plans to turn around the Texans in 2022.
Play good offense
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Matt Pendleton-USA TODAY Sports
“My philosophy, I’m a little bit old school,” Smith said. “Again, I’m from a little small town of Big Sandy that’s about winning football. We had a simple formula: play good offense. And our good offense helped, what we’ll be leading, is you need to be able to run the football. There is a time we need to pass the football, but doing it in a certain way. Tough, hard-nose, disciplined ball. That’s what you’ll see from us.”
Get takeaways
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(Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
“On the defensive side of the football to be able to, again, score on offense,” Smith said. “It’s not, as we look at it, it’s not a turnover. It’s a takeaway of getting takeaways and just, again, playing a certain brand of ball.”
Play special teams (like Devin Hester)
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(AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)
“Then on special teams, you cannot win football games without that third element: special teams,” Smith said. “There’s going to be hopefully one of the all-time greats going into the Hall of Fame based on what he did [Devin Hester], guy I…
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