Every Play Counts: Mario Williams

by Michael David Smith

A year sure has done a lot to change our perception of Mario Williams, hasn't it? Last year he was a draft bust who was the butt of jokes in Houston after the Texans "wasted" the first overall pick to select him. This year he has a chance to make the Pro Bowl.

But is the perception accurate? Is Williams really getting better? To find out, I watched him on every play of the Texans' 31-13 win over the Denver Broncos. And I discovered that yes, he really is as good as people are finally starting to say he is.

Last year I watched Williams' first game and came away unimpressed [1]. But on Thursday, Williams outplayed Broncos left tackle Matt Lepsis -– who just four days earlier played very well against another elite defensive end, Kansas City's Jared Allen -– and he destroyed the series of Denver tight ends who tried to block him.

Everyone knows Williams had 3.5 sacks against the Broncos, and we'll get to those. But let's start with a running play, a handoff to Travis Henry on the first play of the Broncos' second possession. Williams lined up at right end, opposite Broncos tight end Daniel Graham. At the snap, Williams pushed Graham back, saw that the handoff was going to Henry up the middle, and collapsed the line to stop Henry for a gain of two yards. The best thing about the play for Williams was the way he used his hands to control Graham. NFL Network commentator Cris Collinsworth pointed out that Williams has improved dramatically in the way he uses his hands to control blockers, rather than letting blockers get a clean shot at his body. That requires good upper-body strength and good technique. He's always had the former; this year he's developing the latter.

Williams isn't always great against the run, though. On a third-and-1 handoff to Henry in the second quarter, Williams took a very wide rush around the outside of the tight end. That's the wrong way to approach a short-yardage play: The Texans needed Williams to stand his ground and prevent the Broncos from getting any forward push. Henry picked up the first down.

The strange thing about the way Williams ran around the tight end on that play is that when he does engage the blocker straight-on on running plays, he's great at it. On a first-and-10 handoff to Henry in the second quarter, Williams was lined up on the right side, straight up on tight end Tony Scheffler. Williams pushed Scheffler straight back into the spot where Henry tried to run, and that allowed Texans defensive tackle Amobi Okoye to grab Henry behind the line, where he and Williams tackled him for a loss of two.

Williams also came up with a big stop on a handoff to Selvin Young late in the first half, when he shoved Lepsis at the snap and then made a hard move to the inside, meeting Young at the line of scrimmage. The cameras then cut to a shot of Broncos coach Mike Shanahan looking furious. Williams is making a lot of opposing coaches mad.

Of course, playing well against the run is just icing on the cake. The reason the Texans chose Williams first overall is that they think he can become the league's next great pass rusher. I think they were right.

Williams' first sack came on first-and-10 early in the second quarter. He lined up at left end, wide of the tight end, meaning he had a long way to go to get to Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler, but a fairly clear path toward him. When Williams crossed the line of scrimmage, Broncos fullback Cecil Sapp tried to block him, but Williams just high-stepped past him. When Cutler stepped up in the pocket to avoid blitzing Houston linebacker Charlie Anderson, Williams wrestled him to the ground.

The best demonstration of Williams' great first step came on a deep incompletion Cutler threw on a third-and-12 in the second quarter. Williams got such a good step to the outside that Lepsis barely got a hand on him, and Williams missed knocking the ball out of Cutler's hand by a split-second.

Williams' second sack came on a bull-rush of Lepsis early in the third quarter, although on that play, it was really the entire Texans' defensive line that deserves credit, as well as Cutler deserving some blame for not seeing that the entire line was collapsing in front of him and getting rid of the ball in a hurry. Still, it was a solid play by Williams, and it came after he made an even better play on second down, when he pressured Cutler from the outside, only missing a sack because Lepsis stuck his arm out –- a block that easily could have been called for holding.

By my count, Lepsis got away with two blatant holds and at least two borderline holds against Williams. The officials called only one offensive holding penalty all night (against Texans tackle Ephraim Salaam; it was declined), and if they had called holding more vigilantly, Williams would have had an even greater impact. FO's Doug Farrar, who keeps a close eye on all of the league's officials, tells me that the crew that called Broncos-Texans, led by referee William Carollo, has long been known for turning a blind eye toward holding. In 2006, Carollo and his crew called holding 11 times all season (by way of comparison, the leading crew, led by referee Walt Anderson, called holding 44 times). Through Week 15 of 2007, Carollo's crew has called 14 holding penalties, while the leading crew, led by referee Ron Winter, called 52 holding penalties through Week 15. Lepsis is a smart veteran player, and he may have known in advance that he was playing in front of a ref who would let him get away with holding. Whether that was actually part of Lepsis' strategy or not, Williams' day was even more impressive when you consider how loosely Carollo enforced the rules.

Williams' third sack came on a third down when he was lined up at left end and matched one-on-one with tight end Chad Mustard. Williams burst across the line of scrimmage like Mustard was a 50-pound blocking sled, then pushed him aside. By the time Broncos right tackle Erik Pears realized that Mustard couldn't take Williams all by himself and tried to get there to help, Williams already had his arms around Cutler.

Williams shared a sack with N.D. Kalu on a basically meaningless play after the two-minute warning in the fourth quarter. It was meaningless to the result of the game, that is. It certainly wasn't meaningless to Cutler, who got drilled, or to Lepsis, who got pushed straight back into his quarterback.

That served as an exclamation point for a great game from Williams, and it was the type of game I think we'll be seeing more often. Obviously, Williams isn't going to have 3.5 sacks every week, but he has the ability to become the best defensive end in the NFL. Yes, he was mostly a disappointment last season, but we should remember that Williams is only 22 years old. Last season he was the youngest player in the league to start all 16 games, and he started all 16 games despite sitting out practice most of the time because of a foot injury. Here's my prediction for Williams' future: A couple of years from now, we'll be hearing from a lot of people who knew all along that he was the best player in the 2006 draft.