defense in handcuffs?

[powda]

for the great majority of the defensive plays this year ive watched a defense strap itself to its own limitations. the secondary is young or inexperienced at multiple postions......glenn being the only surefire postion. robinson, needless to say, is a rookie and will continue to make mistakes (the td he gave up today was a well drawn play i think most vetrans would of given up)----but i thought his play today was solid enough. both safety postions since our teams inception have been a liability. coleman is working through it and may in time become a quality free safety. brown ,while a bone jarring highlight hitter, is a pass coverage nightmare. our defensive line played uninspired football today and was clearly domminated throughout the game all over the field ( performing only when they knew it really really counted ). as for the linebackers? i feel fortunate to have a player like sharper on the team...he's a class act, a blue colar workman, and productive every game. foreman has not been spectacular but gets the job done. wong is off to his best season as a texan but has never shown the burst u want from a key rush specialist. peek has those qualities...unbelievable speed. emotion. a game changing ability...while also being a liability in pass coverage and stuffing the run. babin? i have todays game on tape and watched him exclusivley throughout the first half. he has a motor no doubt...but kc ran at him unsparringly thoughout the first half and he could not hold the point of attack...i watched him over and over again make the wrong decissions...inside outside? attack or hold ur ground and stall the ball carrier for help? multiple spin moves in the wrong direction that only caused him to have his back to the rb. in truth our entire dl was domminated by the kc o-line...babin is not alone. and i will say babin looked solid moving into a flat zone...he is nimble but does not have peeks burst. but babin didnt have the luxry of playing on a handfull of new plays peek did...the ones peek got ur attention with...

this post isnt about babin vs peek specifically. its about a handfull of defensive plays near the end of the game...

for only the briefest moment the texans unsealed a secret chapter in their defensive playbook. in the past i will admit i've been critical of capers for thinking the rest of the league had caught up with him. maybe he and fangio werent the defensive gurus everyone had dubbed them...if u blinked durring the game u might have missed it...but for 3-5 plays near the end of the game the texans used an all out zone blitz-------AND IT WORKED! i havent seen that scheme or those blitz's ever to that extent from them in the past. fangio showed us something new today and i liked it. perhaps we havent seen it before now because expectations were'nt so high. maybe the personel wasnt prepared to execute it properly...maybe they knew a 0-3 start meant calling pallbearers for this season. maybe their waiting to unleash the extent of their playbook on division rivals...maybe it was a trial run on something we wont see again till our first playoff run or maybe i had one to many coronas. but for the first time i saw on 3-5 consecutive plays a blitz an o-line couldnt block and pressure on the qb ive never seen before.

i'd like to see more...open it up and let them play. im ready to read that chapter over and over again every sunday...

[powda]

hmmmmm.


mustve been the corona.

[HJam72]

Originally Posted by powda

for the great majority of the defensive plays this year ive watched a defense strap itself to its own limitations. the secondary is young or inexperienced at multiple postions......glenn being the only surefire postion. robinson, needless to say, is a rookie and will continue to make mistakes (the td he gave up today was a well drawn play i think most vetrans would of given up)----but i thought his play today was solid enough. both safety postions since our teams inception have been a liability. coleman is working through it and may in time become a quality free safety. brown ,while a bone jarring highlight hitter, is a pass coverage nightmare. our defensive line played uninspired football today and was clearly domminated throughout the game all over the field ( performing only when they knew it really really counted ). as for the linebackers? i feel fortunate to have a player like sharper on the team...he's a class act, a blue colar workman, and productive every game. foreman has not been spectacular but gets the job done. wong is off to his best season as a texan but has never shown the burst u want from a key rush specialist. peek has those qualities...unbelievable speed. emotion. a game changing ability...while also being a liability in pass coverage and stuffing the run. babin? i have todays game on tape and watched him exclusivley throughout the first half. he has a motor no doubt...but kc ran at him unsparringly thoughout the first half and he could not hold the point of attack...i watched him over and over again make the wrong decissions...inside outside? attack or hold ur ground and stall the ball carrier for help? multiple spin moves in the wrong direction that only caused him to have his back to the rb. in truth our entire dl was domminated by the kc o-line...babin is not alone. and i will say babin looked solid moving into a flat zone...he is nimble but does not have peeks burst. but babin didnt have the luxry of playing on a handfull of new plays peek did...the ones peek got ur attention with...

this post isnt about babin vs peek specifically. its about a handfull of defensive plays near the end of the game...

for only the briefest moment the texans unsealed a secret chapter in their defensive playbook. in the past i will admit i've been critical of capers for thinking the rest of the league had caught up with him. maybe he and fangio werent the defensive gurus everyone had dubbed them...if u blinked durring the game u might have missed it...but for 3-5 plays near the end of the game the texans used an all out zone blitz-------AND IT WORKED! i havent seen that scheme or those blitz's ever to that extent from them in the past. fangio showed us something new today and i liked it. perhaps we havent seen it before now because expectations were'nt so high. maybe the personel wasnt prepared to execute it properly...maybe they knew a 0-3 start meant calling pallbearers for this season. maybe their waiting to unleash the extent of their playbook on division rivals...maybe it was a trial run on something we wont see again till our first playoff run or maybe i had one to many coronas. but for the first time i saw on 3-5 consecutive plays a blitz an o-line couldnt block and pressure on the qb ive never seen before.

i'd like to see more...open it up and let them play. im ready to read that chapter over and over again every sunday...

How can you write so much and not say anything I disagree with?

I THINK CAPERS SHOULD COPY THIS DOWN IN HIS NOTES.

[JustBonee]

All that deep thinking and while under the influence ..

[Keldar]

I think that was an excellent take and very accurate. Especially the critique on Baa, Baa, Babin. Maybe a little less sheep and a lot more wolf on his part would increase his playmaking.

[dmt217]

Originally Posted by powda

i'd like to see more...open it up and let them play. im ready to read that chapter over and over again every sunday...

I'd love to see them open it up also, but I bet we'll be seeing the same "bend, but don't break" philosophy again next week. Did anyone notice how the Chiefs' WRs (and R. Williams) were making plays on Glenn while he was in a deep zone assignment? I'm all for mixing it up your plays, but when you have a top corner on your team, you let him man up on a player most of the time.

[J-Man]

Quick note...Brown did not start for us at SS, Glen Earl did. The rookie brought his lunch pail and notched 7 solo stops in his 1st NFL outing. I think that's a good news story that has been lost a bit.

I think our secondary is actually the strength of the Def at the moment, I think by the end of the season we will see that Robinson and Earl are developing into quality starters and Coleman/Glenn are preforming up to expectations. Coleman is a proven ball-hawk and Glen is still in upper echelon of CBs in the AFC if not the NFL.

[powda]

Originally Posted by J-Man

Quick note...Brown did not start for us at SS, Glen Earl did.


I think our secondary is actually the strength of the Def at the moment, I think by the end of the season we will see that Robinson and Earl are developing into quality starters and Coleman/Glenn are preforming up to expectations.

thank you for the note on brown j-man...and i was aware of that. my opinion was meant in more general terms and not exclusivley limited to the kc game.

glenn is uper echelon...and i thought he played a nice game.

earl showed lots of promise...,but having watched the tony gonzo td numerous times i got the impression glenn was responsible outside and earl was responisible inside...gonzo cut in ,and earl didnt get there quite fast enough.

and i think coleman is playing up to expectations right now...early on in the season i figured he'd be only ok while making adjustments...by the end of the season i expect him to be performing much much better.

[El Tejano]

Originally Posted by powda

i think coleman is playing up to expectations right now...early on in the season i figured he'd be only ok while making adjustments...by the end of the season i expect him to be performing much much better.

I think so also. Did anyone else notice how Trent Green did not just try to heave one long on us against the rookie? I think alot of that has to do with Coleman providing decent coverage now.

[J-Man]

Originally Posted by powda

earl showed lots of promise...,but having watched the tony gonzo td numerous times i got the impression glenn was responsible outside and earl was responisible inside...gonzo cut in ,and earl didnt get there quite fast enough.

Powda...excellent original post by the way...I checked the replay and you may be right. I am willing to give him a minor pass on this based primarily on the relative strength of the Green-Gonzales tandem, whole lot of good secondary's have given up TDs to them. That being said in the 2nd half Earl looked pretty good in the few times I saw him in 1-on-1 coverage, the fact is you didn't hear his named called to many times during the passing downs which is a pretty good indicator that his man or zone responsibility was covered.
I did also notice that we rotated coverage to Tony G's side manning up Coleman on him more often or passing him off to Glen on occasion. I noted this on another thread, basically saying that it was a fundamental shift in how folks are playing D...putting your best pass defender on the best reciever, whatever his position might be. I think it is an also an example of how the 5yrd No Touch rule is making it tougher on LBs who are trying to cover the more athletic TEs in the game.
Like I said, great original post and I hope to catch you around the boards.

[Chance_C]

foreman has not been spectacular but gets the job done. wong is off to his best season as a texan

I think Foreman is off to a pretty good start also. I have seen more penetration from him this year that I can remember in the first two years here.

[powda]

"They blitzed a lot more than we thought they would. They did lots of different things that we didn't see. It disrupted us a little bit."


— Raiders quarterback
Kerry Collins


"But it's really all about (defensive coordinator) Vic Fangio, who talked about being aggressive all week. We put in a lot of blitzes, and he let us know he was going to call them."

(quote by sharper)

houston chronicle


the coaches have been sitting on plays for a couple of years now...they gave it a chance, saw the effect, and will hopefully continue the trend.

have to do something to counteract our horrible run defense...particularly now because our offense has been productive.