J.J. Watt is awesome, but Andrew Luck is more valuable

J.J. Watt is the best player in the NFL in 2014. But the rest of the Texans will keep him from being named its most valuable player.
The better and more realistic MVP candidate? That's Andrew Luck, who just led the Colts over Watt's Texans 33-28 on Thursday night.
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Luck has been great through six games, but even with some more dazzling quarterback play (25-of-44, 370 yards, three TDs, one INT), Watt was the most dominant player on the same field.
The official stats for the pass-swatting, havoc-wreaking, triple team-drawing defensive end: seven tackles, three for loss, two sacks, a fumble recovery and a fumble return for a touchdown. That TD gave the Texans' offense a chance to come all the way back from a 24-0 deficit in the fourth quarter.
The final score, however, tells you it didn't, and that's exactly what will keep dragging down Watt's otherwise undeniable case for MVP.
The Colts moved to 4-2 and took sole possession of first place in the AFC South, having won four in a row. The Texans fell to 3-3, having lost three of four.
Luck has his team firmly back in playoff position after a slow start. He's on pace for nearly 5,300 passing yards and 45 TD passes.
Dan Marino. Brett Favre. Kurt Warner. Peyton Manning. Tom Brady. Aaron Rodgers. History shows those kinds of passing numbers plus great team success equals MVP. It doesn't show that dominant defensive seasons get rewarded. Or superhuman efforts on so-so teams.
Since the NFL handed out the first Most Valuable Player award in 1957 to the best football player of all time, Jim Brown, only two defensive players, both dominant Hall of Famers, have won: Vikings defensive tackle Alan Page in 1971 and Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor in 1986.

                                   

                                         Andrew Luck, J.J. Watt (Getty Images)

Page's team went 11-3 and lost in the divisional playoffs. Taylor's team went 14-2 and won the Super Bowl on the strength of his 20.5 sacks.
Here's more of a rub again Watt: The Texans need to rally and become a playoff team. The last MVP from a non-qualifier was O.J. Simpson in 1973, and he rushed for a then-record 2,003 yards for a Bills squad that finished 9-5.
No player from a losing team has been named MVP; Watt for sure won't be it if the Texans, with a tough midseason stretch ahead, just hover around .500.
It wasn't an accident that bookmakers outside Nevada, before the game, gave Watt 15-1 odds of winning MVP . Even in a passing league, the odds just favor Luck or another of his top throwing peers, rather than its unquestioned most dangerous pass defender.
As awesome and disruptive Watt is, he can only do so much. While flying off the ball and trying to have a big hand in every defensive play, he was let down by teammates whiffing on Luck, missing tackles and blowing coverages. He scored his first of three touchdowns in 2014 as a tight end against the Raiders, but you know the Texans won't be planning to expand his role as a two-way player. It's too bad he can't play quarterback, because Ryan Fitzpatrick will be a liability for Houston all season.
Fitzpatrick didn't lose this game for his team, but he didn't win it, either. Luck did do such winning things.
That's where you see the difference in Luck vs. a defensive player for MVP. The ball is in his hands for every offensive snap; he's controlling everything. Watt can carry his team pretty far, but at some point, it's on the team to help him. That didn't happen again in Week 6.
Watt won plenty of battles against Luck, but Luck, with the hot start and a needed third-quarter touchdown strike, ensured the Colts gained the victory that matters most.
That's the weird thing about MVP. It's not an individual award. It never has been.
Luck did a lot to lift his team to the playoffs in 2012 and 2013. This year, with a healthy, deep supporting cast, improved line play, a decent running game and an offensive coordinator trusting him to sling it, he has gone from young breakout star to knocking on e-word's door. Watt is a one-man wrecking crew at times, but he also can be taken out of plays. The nature of Luck's position makes him a factor on every play.
You might as well hand Watt his second NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award in three years before Week 7. As for the bigger, rarer hardware, he has no luck, while Luck has all of it.