Houston defensive end J.J. Watt normally lines up on the left side of the Texans defense, but defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel will move him around the defensive line.

He’s the centerpiece of a strong front-seven that has registered 13 sacks, which is on pace for 52 sacks. Watt, a five-time Pro Bowl and five-time All-Pro selection, has three sacks.

If Watt stays at left defensive end, he’ll go against Falcons rookie tackle Kaleb McGary, who’ll be on the hot seat for this game. It’s unlikely that the Falcons will leave the rookie in a one-on-one situation. He’ll likely get help from tight end Luke Stocker or a back coming over to help.

But the Texans have more than just Watt upfront.

“It makes it a lot easier when you have that chemistry and you have that time in together, where you can just – it's a look, it's a nod, it's a hand signal,” Watt said. “You know what each other is going to do and sometimes it's not even that, sometimes it's purely feel during a play.”

Outside linebackers Benardrick McKinney or Zach Cunningham line up behind Watt. The massive D.J. Reader (347 pounds) is the nose tackle and Whitney Mercilus is off to a fine start at right outside linebacker.

“If I go here, then they know that OK they have to cover this, or if I see him knife in here, then I'm going to go out there,” Watt said. “There's all different things and it makes it – it's pretty cool when you can do some special stuff whereas you can 't necessarily do that if you've got somebody that you're just plugging in.”

While Watt and Mercilus work the edges of the defense, Reader anchors things in the middle.

“He plays the double team in the run game extremely well,” Watt said. “He pushes the pocket in the pass rush, he gets up the middle and can get good pressure up the middle.”

The Texans are on pace to set a team record for sacks.

“Sacks are huge, strip-sacks are even better, so the more that we can do that, the more we can get to the passer, affect the passer,” Watt said. “Get the ball back, take it away, give it to our offense. Whatever you can do to affect the game and create negative plays for their team and positive plays for our team, we're going to be in a lot better spot.”

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