#ryan ramczyk

New Orleans Saints Team Captains 2022

Sean Payton on Ryan Ramczyk's performance against J.J. Watt: 'I didn't hear a lot of Watt's name'

When Houston traded Jadeveon Clowney to the Seattle Seahawks for a pauper’s bounty, many wondered if the Texans could remain dominant up front without him. It was only one game, but on Monday it was pretty clear they won’t be the same.

In particular, star defensive end J.J. Watt was unbelievably unproductive. In fact, Watt didn’t register a single stat. Not one tackle. Not one quarterback hit. Not one pass defended. Nothing. Nada. Zilch.

Watt is too good to struggle like this all season. But perhaps he benefited from Clowney more than anyone realized. We’ll soon find out.

(The above is from msn’s take on last night. Notice no mention of who caused JJ Watt’s lack of statistics in the game)

Texans defensive end J.J. Watt carries a well-earned reputation as a game wrecker.

He’s a quarterback smasher. He’s a dominant player. He’s elite. He’s a three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year.

On Monday night, though, Watt was virtually invisible. His name doesn’t appear anywhere in the box score as the Saints came back to secure a thrilling 30-28 win.

“I didn’t hear a lot of Watt’s name,” coach Sean Payton said.

Turns out the Saints had a game plan to take away Watt, who totaled five tackles, two sacks and eight quarterback hits the last time New Orleans faced the star pass rusher in 2015.

“We just knew he’s a key to that defense,” right guard Larry Warford said. “He’s very disruptive and does a lot of stuff that messes up the flow of a game, and we knew we had to control that. We had a great game plan going in.”

The large part of the plan, however, was faith in right tackle Ryan Ramczyk to handle Watt in a lot of one-on-one situations.

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