Bears wide receiver Brandon Marshall ranks fourth in the NFL with 59 catches and is within three scores of his career high of 10. Houston cornerback Johnathan Joseph, like Charles Tillman, has two interceptions, one returned for a touchdown.
Marshall is 6-4 and expecting to see a great deal of 5-11 Joseph, the Texans tallest cornerback. They were teammates on the 2011 AFC Pro Bowl team.
He's playing the position better than most guys in this league right now, he's confident, he's tough to play against, you know the way he plays his technique, he plays within the system. I'm going to have my work cut out for me this weekend.
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Texans coach Gary Kubiak was on the AFC Pro Bowl staff last year when Marshall was a member of the squad.
Of course I got to see Brandon firsthand up at the Pro Bowl, Kubiak said. We had him this year and you all know what he did there so I know what type of talent he is.
And Marshall, whose entire pre-Chicago career was spent in the AFC, knows Joseph, a No. 1 pick of Cincinnati in 2006. He has faced Joseph four times, catching 19 passes for 235 yards but only one touchdown, last year in a loss to the Texans.
This is a team where I'm going to have some one-on-one coverage with their Pro Bowl corner, Joseph, Marshall said. I've gone up against him a few times, and he's a top-three corner in this league right now.