The Shutdown Corner Interview: Eric Winston (Part 2)

Note: You can find part 1 of my interview with Houston Texans right tackle Eric Winston(notes) here. In the conclusion, Eric talks about myths and misconceptions, the toughest players he faces, what Brian Cushing(notes) has been up to, and what the Texans need to do to hit the next level.

Shutdown Corner: Do you think zone blocking teams get a bad rap when it comes to overall power?

Eric Winston: It's such a fine line - it really is. When you have teams that do some different things ... the thing we've seen, especially from 2008 to 2009, is some very different ways to attack zone blocking schemes. Whether it's pinching ends (inside), or running linebackers over the top, putting guys in different gaps or just taking guys out of the play and just shooting them upfield as hard as they can to set some sort of edge, we've seen some different ways to combat what we're doing. And now, it's our turn to come back and one-up them.

I've seen guys ... if you don't teach the mentality as well as the zone scheme, you do get a little bit soft. Just because you're not always firing right off the ball. You have to be an athlete - you have to go sideways and get those hips squared. You have to know when it's okay to get parallel with the line of scrimmage and get width on a guy. And at what point do you need to push guys forward? When you juggle players in as we did last year - the zone scheme, more than anything else,  is all about playing together and being a part of it. That's something I have learned in the last couple of years; even though it's a great system, I have to understand not just who I have and what combination I have, but what are we really trying to do here? Toward the end of the year, the new guys started to understand that even if the ball was going the other way, they were really still the point of attack and they had to start getting some push. As a result, I think you saw our run stats go up toward the end of the year, more where we like it.

SC: You face the Colts twice a season and you're going up against their speed rushers - is Robert Mathis(notes) your biggest challenge, and who are a few more of the better pass-rushers you've faced?

EW: He's a guy I'm definitely not excited about playing, let's put it that way. I will say that I think I have played him well, and better than most of the right tackles I see playing him on film, but he's a tough guy to play. And the Colts, overall, are a tough team to play. They're like that pitcher you never really see ... they're like Jamie Moyer (laughs). Nobody else in Major League baseball throws 78 miles an hour - and I'm not saying the Colts are soft or anything - but that's how they are. It's so hard to get ready for them, because nobody else does what they do. Nobody else runs his offense like Peyton Manning(notes). Nobody else plays defense like they do, with all those undersized guys just going really fast. That's why I think that us, Jacksonville, and Tennessee - we play them the best. We haven't had a ton of success against them, and nobody else in our division has, but if you look at their toughest games over the last few years, we've given them everything (we could). Knowing them helps, as opposed to, "Holy crap, this defensive tackle is really running - I'd better go wider here!"

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