HOUSTON (AP) Justin Reid used to frequent his older brother’

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game film and study game preparations.The Texans rookie safety was at Stanford then , and the visits gave him a behind-the-scenes look at the NFL life of his older brother, Eric Reid, who was thriving with the San Francisco 49ers. On Friday afternoon, Justin Reid was looking forward to calling his brother back in the Bay Area to talk about Day 1 of his own NFL journey with Houston.Earlier this week, the NFL players union filed a non-injury grievance on behalf of Eric Reid, now a free agent after five seasons in San Francisco, including a Pro Bowl rookie season in 2013. Eric Reid has been a strong supporter of former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who in 2016 became the first player to kneel during the national anthem to protest police brutality and racial inequality.Last week, Eric Reid filed a collusion claim similar to one filed by Kaepernick in 2017 where several league owners and executives were deposed, including Texans owner Bob McNair.Justin Reid said he he hasn’t had a lot of time to digest his feelings on his brother’s decisions – but he supports all of them.”I’m proud of my brother and supportive of everything he does, the same way I support all of my family members,” Justin Reid said. ”If they believe what they’re doing is right, then they should do it.”Asked to describe for NFL owners what kind of person his older brother is, Justin Reid vouched for him, emphatically.”You should just hold a conversation with him,” Justin Reid said. ”I won’t speak for Eric, I’ll let him deliver his own message. But if you held a conversation with him, then you’d really understand what he’s standing for.”The Texans used their first draft pick on Justin Reid, selecting him 68th overall in the third round. He is expected to compete with Andre Hal at free safety next to strong safety Tyrann Mathieu, who played alongside Eric Reid at LSU.Coach Bill O’Brien praised Justin Reid for his size, speed and smarts. Reid raised eyebrows at the NFL combine with a 40-yard dash time of 4.40 seconds, second-fastest among safeties.”He’s a guy that’s a versatile guy who can do some different things for us, help us on special teams and obviously , help us on defense,” O’Brien said. ”He just got here, so we’ll see how he does in our system.”Reid is hoping that his experience of living vicariously through his brother over the past few years will help him adjust to the NFL. He said he feels like he’s coming into the league with the mentality of a third-year veteran. He said he watched the Texans’ most recent five games from last season and has been studying the playbook to enter camp as prepared as possible.”I kind of have a feel for how this process goes before having even gone through it,” Reid said. ”It’s still different going through it myself for the first time, but it is nice for having that rough road map and having a feel for how these things go.”— There’s a weird kind of showdown set for Sunday’s 10am (PST) game: the NFL team with the most giveaways (Tampa Bay Buccaneers), against the team with the fewest takeaways (San Francisco 49ers). It’s like an old Chinese legend from the 3rd century BC book Han Feizi. A weapons dealer was selling a spear that (he said) could pierce any shield; but he also sold a shield “that could block any spear.” A potential customer asked, what happens if you throw your spear at your shield? He had no answer.Sunday’s game will be the opposite. What if you throw a spear that can’t pierce any shield — basically a wet, crumbly dirt clod — against a shield made of tissue paper? We’ll find out soon.It’s easy to get discouraged about the turnover situation with this Niners team, and there’s no reason not to. They’re terrible. This squad has only two interceptions and three fumble recoveries all year, a total of just five total takeaways in ten games. Meanwhile, they’ve given up 12 interceptions and eight fumbles, for a turnover differential of -15.The odd thing is that Tampa Bay is a lot worse: only one INT and five FR, but they’ve given up 23 interceptions and six fumbles, for a stunning differential of -23 (50% worse than SF).Both teams are on pace to set all time NFL records, as Chronicle columnist Eric Branch pointed out. (If it really is him; Twitter refuses to verify his identity. Maybe “Eric Branch” is just a sock puppet for Jim Tomsula! Can you prove he isn’t? I didn’t think so. ) My point is, the Niners are projected to grab just eight combined takeaways in this entire season, well below the current low water mark of eleven. Meanwhile, the Buccaneers are on target to crush the record for bad turnover differential with -37, far worse than the mark set by the 1965 Pittsburgh Steelers, at -30.What will happen head to head? Will the Bucs just drop the ball on the turf, where it will sit, neglected and lonely as the clock runs out?There are reasons to be optimistic about this battle of the basement, and reasons to be glum.On the plus side:1) Nick Mullens is a big improvementIt’s true that he threw two interceptions against the Giants , both deflections, but his INT rate (3.3%) is still much lower than Beathard’s (4.1%), and even slightly below Jimmy G’s (3.4%). Perhaps more importantly, Mullens has zero sacks in two games, which does wonders to reduce the rate of strip sacks. The Niners have only one fumble in those two games, a flubbed handoff by Mullens to Breida which the RB recovered anyway. Compare that to eight fumbles lost in the previous eight games.2) The way the ball bouncesFumble recoveries (as a percentage of balls on the ground) vary wildly from year to year, which makes sense given the odd shape of the ball and resulting randomness of its bounces. So far this year, the 49ers luck has been bad; they’ve recovered just 3 of their 8 forced fumbles, while their opponents have forced 14 fumbles and recovered 8 of them. That ratio will almost certainly revert to the mean.If you want to be pessimistic, though, there’s also lots of evidence for your side of this debate.The Bucs have been tearing up the league with a powerful passing game — marred by tons of interceptions. The Niners are very weak on interceptions and pass breakups, which suggests that Tampa Bay might be able to have their usual big passing day while avoiding the INTs that destroy their scoring machine.In the end, the result of this game may boil down to one matchup — Bucs QB Jameis Winston vs. Niners CB Richard Sherman.Winston is struggling this year with a rash of INTs, while Sherman may have skewed the stats by intimidating opposing QBs. They just don’t test him that often, which makes it hard for him to intercept passes.But Winston makes bad choices when throwing, as evidenced by his soaring interception rate this year, and those choices might include throwing at the wily veteran cornerback, who has 32 career INTs. Sherman has basically shut down his side of the field this year — or perhaps, quarterbacks have shrewdly calculated that throwing at the other side of the field makes a lot more sense than going in Sherm’s direction.If this game boils down to a head-to-head matchup between Winston and Sherman, it should be a very enjoyable day for Niners fans.

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