Leonard Williams thinks defense can become Giants legacy

For Leonard Williams, the calculus is simple:

Honor and respect the history — and author new chapters.

“As much as I respect the legends and the people who have paved the ground for us and paved the way for us and all that type of stuff, I don’t want to always live in the shadow of former teams and former players,” Williams said after the Giants’ defense played a key role in a 24-16 win over the moribund Texans on Sunday afternoon at MetLife Stadium.

“I,” Williams continued, “want to be a part of a team that creates our own legacy.”

Whether the current squad joins the Sam Huff teams, the Lawrence Taylor teams and the Michael Strahan teams in the franchise’s lineage of great defensive units will be determined only after the passage of time.

What they have accomplished this season is simply to lay a foundation for the future.

Entering the game, the Giants were ranked 17th in the NFL in defense. Delving further into statistical analysis, the Giants had the 16th-best pass defense and were 25th against the run.

Certainly, their numbers aren’t eye-popping, but Williams believes there are intangible qualities that haven’t been accounted for.

“The number one thing that makes us a good defense is just the brotherhood,” he said. “We play for each other, you know what I mean? We support each other. If somebody messes up on a play, they know we [have] their back and vice versa. If I mess up, I know they’re [going to] have my back. And you know when we play like that, we just play a lot better.”

Just ask the Texans.

Trailing 21-10, Houston committed turnovers deep in Giants territory on consecutive series to start the fourth quarter. That, for all intents and purposes, determined the outcome.

The first turnover was a fumble by Dameon Pierce on second-and-10 from the Giants’ 10 43 seconds into the quarter. Williams forced the fumble, which Jaylon Smith recovered.

Houston’s next possession ended with free safety Dane Belton picking off Davis Mills in the end zone.

“We always want to make a play,” Belton said.

And the Giants made enough plays to leave with their seventh win in nine games.

Yes, Pierce had a strong game with 94 yards on 17 carries (5.5 yards per carry), but Houston’s other ballcarriers, Brandin Cooks (one carry for 5 yards) and Rex Burkhead (one carry for 2 yards) had a combined 7 yards on two carries.

And while Mills’ final statline was relatively impressive — 22-for-37, 319 yards, one touchdown — he was sacked four times for 33 yards.

“It feels good,” said Jason Pinnock, who recorded the last sack of the game on a safety blitz when he dropped Mills for a 10-yard loss on first-and-10 from the Giants’ 17-yard line with 44 seconds left. After the sack, Texans coach Lovie Smith decided to have Ka’imi Fairbairn kick a 48-yard field goal, which ended the scoring.

Did Wink Martindale tap into an unknown blitzing skill set or did the free safety reveal the availability to the defensive coordinator during practices? “Probably a little bit of both,” Pinnock said.

“I showed him just a little bit in practice, [being able] to get off the edge, so [I’m] just feeling good about it.”