Its not the end

[Texanmike02]

This is a young team. I've said since the draft this team would win games they shouldn't and lose games they should. I was the board pessamist before the season and apperantly now I'm the board optimist.

On the coaching, I'm more concerned with two facets of the game. I agree with most of you on the 4th and goal call. Although, the problem wasn't a slow back.. it was a bad pitch. On top of that Dayne saw that he was going to bowl into the endzone and got antsy. That's my take on that.

Clock management is a concern however, the right call was to kick the field goal when we went for it on 4th and 1 the first time. Its simple math. With 3 minutes left and two timeouts you HAVE to kick that. You have 2 TO's plus the 2 minute warning. If you get a 3 and out you might get the ball back before the 2:00 mark. The LAST thing you do there is call a time out. And you damn sure don't let 20 seconds run off the clock and THEN call a time out.

The second thing that concerns me is the slow starts this team gets off to. I know we were up 7-3, but our first drive reminded me of the old Oilers. Except somebody forgot to tell Kubes that Dayne is #36 not #34. With the exception of the Cheifs game we haven't gotten off to a good start. And its obvious now that the Chiefs are not very strong at all. Is there some reason that this team can't start a game decently? Do we need to alter our warmups? I dont' know. But the team seems to lack any kind of fire in the first half.

As far as the offense goes. Man do we need a running back. I feel like Denny Green when I talk about Dayne. "He is who we thought he was!!..." He's just not that good. As far Ahman.. please come back soon. I'm already spotting RBs in the draft. AJ will be back.. Kevin walters needs to move to the slot permenantly. He had his man by 3 steps when the ball was in the air... but on the outside he was caught by the time the ball got to him.

On defense. CAN WE GET A SECONDARY? I know, dead horse and beatings and all of that. 3/4 of our secondary is below average at best.

On special teams. I turned to the guy next to me... after Kris hit his 3rd field goal.. and I said... "Just wait till its important... He'll miss that one". Nuf said. Get him the hell out of dodge.

Positives... when we get some playmakers... Schaub will be the real deal. I can't wait for AJ to get back. We do have a real DL. Amobi and Williams ARE making an impact... even if its not showing up in the sack column. Ryans is his usual self. D-rob is a stud.

So I'm back to thinking we're a 7-9 football team. Wondering why I bought into this whole 10 win hype. Man that bandwagon was soo inviting.

Mike

[TexansFaninNC]

Originally Posted by Texanmike

This is a young team. I've said since the draft this team would win games they shouldn't and lose games they should. I was the board pessamist before the season and apperantly now I'm the board optimist.

On the coaching, I'm more concerned with two facets of the game. I agree with most of you on the 4th and goal call. Although, the problem wasn't a slow back.. it was a bad pitch. On top of that Dayne saw that he was going to bowl into the endzone and got antsy. That's my take on that.

Clock management is a concern however, the right call was to kick the field goal when we went for it on 4th and 1 the first time. Its simple math. With 3 minutes left and two timeouts you HAVE to kick that. You have 2 TO's plus the 2 minute warning. If you get a 3 and out you might get the ball back before the 2:00 mark. The LAST thing you do there is call a time out. And you damn sure don't let 20 seconds run off the clock and THEN call a time out.

The second thing that concerns me is the slow starts this team gets off to. I know we were up 7-3, but our first drive reminded me of the old Oilers. Except somebody forgot to tell Kubes that Dayne is #36 not #34. With the exception of the Cheifs game we haven't gotten off to a good start. And its obvious now that the Chiefs are not very strong at all. Is there some reason that this team can't start a game decently? Do we need to alter our warmups? I dont' know. But the team seems to lack any kind of fire in the first half.

As far as the offense goes. Man do we need a running back. I feel like Denny Green when I talk about Dayne. "He is who we thought he was!!..." He's just not that good. As far Ahman.. please come back soon. I'm already spotting RBs in the draft. AJ will be back.. Kevin walters needs to move to the slot permenantly. He had his man by 3 steps when the ball was in the air... but on the outside he was caught by the time the ball got to him.

On defense. CAN WE GET A SECONDARY? I know, dead horse and beatings and all of that. 3/4 of our secondary is below average at best.

On special teams. I turned to the guy next to me... after Kris hit his 3rd field goal.. and I said... "Just wait till its important... He'll miss that one". Nuf said. Get him the hell out of dodge.

Positives... when we get some playmakers... Schaub will be the real deal. I can't wait for AJ to get back. We do have a real DL. Amobi and Williams ARE making an impact... even if its not showing up in the sack column. Ryans is his usual self. D-rob is a stud.

So I'm back to thinking we're a 7-9 football team. Wondering why I bought into this whole 10 win hype. Man that bandwagon was soo inviting.

Mike

Rep for you, could not agree more

[Texanmike02]

Originally Posted by TexansFaninNC

Rep for you, could not agree more

Thanks .

On thing I forgot to mention though. This 7-9 is a way better product than we've seen yet. In the past we've said "this team has a few parts to build on".

This time around "this team is missing a few parts." That's new for this team.

Mike

[Southern Lion]

I think it's still way too early to settle for a 7-9 record. No disrespect, but every team plays 16 games and we still have to play the Jags and Titans. I think (laugh and point at me if you want) that's 4 winnable games.

We made some big mistakes today. The fumbled pitch, and Leach's fumble, etc., but we did find that Andre Davis can make some plays, Owen Daniels and Kevin Walter made big catches too. The O-line is doing a good job and Schaub is head and shoulders (bad hair pun not intended) over David Carr.

The glass is half-full still. I'm not predicting 10 wins, but I'm not discounting it either.

Respectfully,

SL

[Leahmic223]

I don't think we go 7-9, I still see 8 or 9 and maybe 10.

I agree with everything else though. I just don't see us going 7 and 9 with this schedule.

I mean we still play some pretty bad teams that I still think we are better than. Also I thought we'd be 2-2 the first 4 games and we are...I just expected to lose to the Panthers and win against the Falcons. Still 2-2 though.

On top of that both of our loses doesn't represent the team playing 100% healthy. I don't know whats up with the play calling. Kubiaks time management has always sucked though when the clutch minutes come. The playcalling was bad today for some reason...the other 3 games it wasn't this bad, so maybe they didn't prepare correctly for this game...I don't know.

I don't think we go 7-9 though.

[Texanmike02]

I think we are a 7-9 win team... I think we're closer to the 7 wins than the 9 though.

Mike

[bigfan77801]

We all need to rember this is only the 2nd season of the Smithiak tenure. And how many playmakers were in street clothes? It's going to take some time.

[Texanmike02]

Originally Posted by bigfan77070

We all need to rember this is only the 2nd season of the Smithiak tenure. And how many playmakers were in street clothes? It's going to take some time.

Good call.

[ATXtexanfan]

8-8 is what i thought at first, i also bought into the playoff hype and have been humbled

[Texanmike02]

Originally Posted by ATXtexanfan

8-8 is what i thought at first, i also bought into the playoff hype and have been humbled

I don't think I've called for 10-6. I was starting to think we were a 9 win team, but I don't think we're that good yet. You don't have holes like we have and make the playoffs.

Mike

[bigfan77801]

Thank you TexanMike. I have to admit I was thinkg about breaking things around the house, but then I remembered what I wrote and I felt a tiny bit better. We just don't have the depth yet.

[ObsiWan]

Originally Posted by Texanmike

This is a young team. I've said since the draft this team would win games they shouldn't and lose games they should. I was the board pessamist before the season and apperantly now I'm the board optimist.

On the coaching, I'm more concerned with two facets of the game. I agree with most of you on the 4th and goal call. Although, the problem wasn't a slow back.. it was a bad pitch. On top of that Dayne saw that he was going to bowl into the endzone and got antsy. That's my take on that.

Clock management is a concern however, the right call was to kick the field goal when we went for it on 4th and 1 the first time. Its simple math. With 3 minutes left and two timeouts you HAVE to kick that. You have 2 TO's plus the 2 minute warning. If you get a 3 and out you might get the ball back before the 2:00 mark. The LAST thing you do there is call a time out. And you damn sure don't let 20 seconds run off the clock and THEN call a time out.

The second thing that concerns me is the slow starts this team gets off to. I know we were up 7-3, but our first drive reminded me of the old Oilers. Except somebody forgot to tell Kubes that Dayne is #36 not #34. With the exception of the Cheifs game we haven't gotten off to a good start. And its obvious now that the Chiefs are not very strong at all. Is there some reason that this team can't start a game decently? Do we need to alter our warmups? I dont' know. But the team seems to lack any kind of fire in the first half.

As far as the offense goes. Man do we need a running back. I feel like Denny Green when I talk about Dayne. "He is who we thought he was!!..." He's just not that good. As far Ahman.. please come back soon. I'm already spotting RBs in the draft. AJ will be back.. Kevin walters needs to move to the slot permenantly. He had his man by 3 steps when the ball was in the air... but on the outside he was caught by the time the ball got to him.

On defense. CAN WE GET A SECONDARY? I know, dead horse and beatings and all of that. 3/4 of our secondary is below average at best.

On special teams. I turned to the guy next to me... after Kris hit his 3rd field goal.. and I said... "Just wait till its important... He'll miss that one". Nuf said. Get him the hell out of dodge.

Positives... when we get some playmakers... Schaub will be the real deal. I can't wait for AJ to get back. We do have a real DL. Amobi and Williams ARE making an impact... even if its not showing up in the sack column. Ryans is his usual self. D-rob is a stud.

So I'm back to thinking we're a 7-9 football team. Wondering why I bought into this whole 10 win hype. Man that bandwagon was soo inviting.

Mike

Good assessment.

I said before the game started that we needed to create turnovers and/or score on defense in order to win. We didn't. We lost.

So will it be for the rest of the year.

The good news is that our QB will no longer lose games for us.

[ObsiWan]

Originally Posted by Texanmike

I don't think I've called for 10-6. I was starting to think we were a 9 win team, but I don't think we're that good yet. You don't have holes like we have and make the playoffs.

Mike

I still think we go 8-8 or 9-7. ...assuming we get healthy.

[Spled]

It could be worse. We could be The Mets.

[Yankee_In_TX]

1. Some Capers-like play calling

2. A JOKE of a secondary - they exploited it all day long

3. Special teams - COME ON KRIS

4. The refs, they really railed us but let ATL have free reign of the field

[Brando]

Originally Posted by Spled

It could be worse. We could be The Mets.

or still have David Carr as your QB.............



Hopefully the walking wounded is ready for next week.

[IlliniJen]

At least all the band-wagoning cockroaches are starting to scurry off the ship. Just reading McClain's latest "blah blah blah I give the Texans an F- blah blah blah" crap and all the "Texans suck!" comments makes me sick.

Look...you're either a fan or you're not. Good times, bad times and all times in between. The same mouthbreathers that though "Big Bad Schaub" was the height of entertainment this past week are the same ones spouting doom and gloom over on chron.com.

There are some obvious holes in this team that injuries will only super expose. Then you go into a game against a team that is desperate for a win. And to top it all off, you have a CB that will make ANY receiver look like Randy Moss, TO and Chad Johnson all rolled into one.

Take a look at which teams lost this week who were expected to win. We're not the only ones with the proverbial egg on our face. Kubes will learn from these mistakes; the previous staff seemed content to keep doing the same thing over and over again.

[Thorn]

Better to be a team on its way up, like the Texans, than to be stagnating or on your way down. I’m disappointed about today, but this team has tremendous potential. You couldn’t say that about the Texans until this year.

[thegr8fan]

Clock management is a concern however, the right call was to kick the field goal when we went for it on 4th and 1 the first time. Its simple math. With 3 minutes left and two timeouts you HAVE to kick that. You have 2 TO's plus the 2 minute warning. If you get a 3 and out you might get the ball back before the 2:00 mark. The LAST thing you do there is call a time out. And you damn sure don't let 20 seconds run off the clock and THEN call a time out.

biggest concern for me is right here, also.

I have no problem with the decision to 'go for it'. But having made that decision, you have to commit to it, win or lose, literally. You can not, later on, go for the FG with 2:00 left in the game. Even if Brown makes that FG, you have lost too much time to, realistically, 'comeback' to win the game.

only positive I can add to this though is to keep in mind, that Kubiak is learning how to be a Head Coach and make these kinds of decisions. This is ONLY his second year of being a Head Coach and it isn't like last years team gave him any hope, or even actual situations, of making a comeback in the final few minutes and WIN. So Kubiak will make some mistakes. Learn from them (hopefully). And not make that mistake again.

Poor decision here, but I think he will learn from it and we won't see this kind of mistake in the future.

[The Pencil Neck]

I've been predicting 8-8 for this team. (Except for predicting 19-0 after the 2-0 start... but I was just joking. Really.) And this game is exactly why I was predicting 8-8. I've been saying that we're going to lose some games that we should win and win some games we should lose. We should have won this one and didn't make the plays we needed to make.

We're a young team and we're still learning how to win. We missed out on several opportunities to put this away. The big part of the problem to me is what appears to be tentative play calling at times. At this point, I really think we should be a team that uses the pass to set up the run. Early in this game, we were really trying to pound the rock and we're not a team that can do that right now.

We blitzed a zillion more times in this game than we have in our previous games. But that put Petey out there on an island and he got burned for it.

I had hoped that the Panther game proved that we were further along than I expected but we aren't. We've got to get back down to business and start working.

We've started 2-2 twice before in our history. Let's hope that we can end up better than we did those years.