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Enough energy in Houston without J.J. Watt?

When team’s best player goes down, general opinion is that your team will suffer greatly. Houston Texans’ heart and soul, Multiple NFL defensive MVP, JJ Watt was placed on injured reserve and team needs to find the ways to win without him.

However, Watt hasn’t been the destructive force during this season as he used to be. One solo tackle, seven assisted tackles, zero interceptions, zero passes defended and 1.5 sacks during the first 3 games of the seasons are not looking like MVP numbers. Out of those three games Houston has been able to win two home games before losing week ago on TNF to New England Patriots.

Accuscore simulated rest of the season and compared Houston Texans’ numbers with and without JJ Watt. A bit surprisingly Houston is still in favorite to win AFC South even without Watt. One reason for this is the competition in the division that is not the toughest. Tennessee and Indianapolis will give big push for playoffs spot, but right now it looks like Houston has almost 50% chance to reach playoffs.

Three games are very small sample to make big decisions, but it seems that Houston have been able to win without great performances from the top guy.

Jadeveon Clowney will move to fill Watt’s defensive end position. Accuscore’s fantasy prediction, JJ Watt was predicted to generate most points among any defensive line players before his injury. Now Clowney will get boost to his fantasy predictions.

When playing together with Watt, Clowney was predicted to get following numbers during rest of the season:

Fantasy Points: 49.3
Solo tackles: 29.5
Sacks: 5.47

Without Watt, expectations to Clowney are quite a bit higher. Accuscore predicts that his numbers during rest of the season are:

Fantasy Points: 62.1
Solo tackles: 32.0
Sacks: 8.82

During last few season’s Houston has been relying heavily on their defense as offense - starting from QB position - has been in turmoil. Now Brock Osweiler needs to meet the expectations and carry the team. If that works, Houston can take the AFC South title second year in a row.

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