BR:Houston Texans Look to Get Creative with Playcalling

[Wolf]

On the offensive side, traditionally, like most of the teams in the National Football League, the Texans have tried to use the run to set up the pass.

While there was some moderate success at the tailback position with the tandem in 2007, and before that Domanick Williams—Houston never really had that feature back lining up in the backfield to make this strategy a successful one.

Last year marked a change in the traditional approach.

During the 2008 season, the Texans began to use the pass to open up the run. This was in large part due to injury at the running back position.

Ahman Green could never stay healthy and Chris Brown strayed from his usual, get injured during the season approach, to getting injured before it even began.

This forced Head Coach Gary Kubiak into having to play undersized tailback Steve Slaton, something that was a blessing in disguise.

Slaton would go on to have a remarkable rookie season in which he rushed for almost 1300 yards and had 10 total touchdowns.

The Texans finally had their feature back.

Despite the success of a pass first approach, look for the Texans to experiment with bringing a heavier emphasis on the run.



http://bleacherreport.com/articles/172315-houston-texans-look-to-get-creative-with-playcalling

[badboy]

Yep, what we have been talking about for months. I really don't care which sets up the other as long as it is successful. As we all know, the run game eats up clock and keeps your defense on the field; with our new defense, players, coaches and schemes, we will be okay. Now that we have a big strong RB that we know can get that extra yard or score from inside the RZ, I just want to get down the field quickly and SCORE!

[Polo]

Now that we have a big strong RB that we know can get that extra yard or score from inside the RZ



Who is that?

[badboy]

Who is that?Oh you know! It is the TE we got in the 5th who is versatile or Chris Brown or that guy UFA who would have been a 2nd round selection if he did not get injured. I mean we did give him a 2 year contract and that should be worth a few touch downs. Or if we really luck out, Denver can cut someone and that reject could be OUR guy! Cause we know that Kubes can just plug any old running back in and get a thousand yards. I mean the choices are versatile! You know! That guy!

[Porky]

I like the philosphy that says you pass to score and you run to win. It's kind of self explanatory - build a lead using your arial attack and then grind out the win using the ground game to eat the clock.

[michaelm]

I like the philosphy that says you pass to score and you run to win. It's kind of self explanatory - build a lead using your arial attack and then grind out the win using the ground game to eat the clock.

I don't disagree, but realistically, if you're good enough to run the ball in the fourth quarter against a team that knows you're going to run, you ought to be able to run it on them at any time during the game. Unless maybe you just have them worn out by the fourth quarter...

[badboy]

I like the philosphy that says you pass to score and you run to win. It's kind of self explanatory - build a lead using your arial attack and then grind out the win using the ground game to eat the clock.I agree with an occasional draw play or catch'em sleeping and Andre torches by the CB for a long one.

[Polo]

I don't disagree, but realistically, if you're good enough to run the ball in the fourth quarter against a team that knows you're going to run, you ought to be able to run it on them at any time during the game.

Good point.

Its rare that a team has a dominant passing game and dominant running game. It happense, but most times offenses are defined by one or the other.

This offense is not this offense if we are passing to set up the run. If we want to do that then I think we need to get rid of Matt Schaub because he isn't that kind of QB.