Mike Ditka was right

[Texas_Heat]

About this team this game shows that this is the third road game that the player just quit playing. This team has taken a major step back from last year. The team last year fought in every game this years group is a bunch of quitters.

[OzzO]

quitters.... that's a bit harsh of a word.

I'm thinking it's just that the confidence and trust is not there. The players may talk it, but it's almost like they're expecting someone else to step up to make the play that they can jump onto and ride that wave.

There doesn't appear to be a "self-improving, nether region kicking, whup the competition, nothing less than a shutout of the opposing team" attitude on this team.

It's more of a "who will save us, we have 3 playmakers only, what play are we running, oops we made a mistake - it's down hill from here" attitude.

All games do not reflect the latter mentality this year.. but it seems a majority do. Games I would think reflect the former attitude.... KC, Oak, Minn, 1st Ten, and GB. I'm just hoping the team develops the former attitude by next year on a full schedule, consistant basis.

[Grid]

I unfortunatly agree with that A4toZ. I wonder if our mature, responsible, hard work ethic recruiting techniques have come back to bite us in the ***.

We have a solid group of young players with good attitudes who arent afraid to work.. but we dont have anyone to fire them up and get them to play above their abilities.

Honestly.. it may be time that we got a loud personality on this team. A Ray Lewis or Chad Johnson or (dare I say) Terrell Owens type of player. The hard part is finding one with the loud attitude.. and none of the baggage that some of these guys bring. Ray Lewis, IMO, is what we need.. too bad he aint available, or affordable .

[Wolf]

I want to know where is the gary walker that was flexing his muscles after the quincy carter sack of a safety in the endzone.. Like yall, I don't see the guy that fires us up. We have taken a Dom Capers personality on the field.(not saying that is a bad thing)

I have yet seen ANYONE get fired up after a play.. seems we go through the motions.

[Texas_Heat]

And a team that is go through the motions is a team that does not care if it wins or loses.

[Hervoyel]

I tend to think more along the lines of Texas Heat. I believe this team has quit in the big blow-out road games this season. It's in their body language throughout the games and in the expressions on their faces when they get a close up. Once that seed of doubt appears they all have the same look on their face. They're quitting before the game is over, before they're even out of it. They look like someone staring at inevitability. The only time this doesn't happen is when enough good breaks fall into place in a row to turn it around but nobody on this team steps up to make those breaks happen. In short if the other team doesn't blow it against the Texans then the Texans are going to lose.

I can't say I disagree with them completely either. I'm down to very little "faith" in the team as well.

[edo783]

The team has taken on the Capers personality. They act like students of the game rather than players of the game. No fire.

[HJam72]

This team is just not that good yet. They are winning the few games they should win and losing the games they should lose. The one exception is the win they got against the slightly better Jaguars. I don't really see the inconsistency that everyone is talking about. They play better against bad teams and at home. They look terrible against good teams, especially on the road. The Chargers turned out to be good. The Vikings turned out to be not so great, but good. The Packers are better than us, but they only beat us by 3 points because we played in Houston and, as Philly showed today, the Packers aren't an elite team, like some people want to believe. What I'm seeing is a 5-7 team that gets blown out by real play-off contenders.

I predicted that the Jets would win this game 31-13, so a 29-7 loss is not at all a surprise to me. Sweeping the Titans only proves that this team isn't completely falling apart, like they are, and that we're not a first year team, anymore.

They've consistently shown that they deserve to be ranked about 20th in the NFL.

[CrumplerFan]

Originally Posted by Wolf

I want to know where is the gary walker that was flexing his muscles after the quincy carter sack of a safety in the endzone.. Like yall, I don't see the guy that fires us up. We have taken a Dom Capers personality on the field.(not saying that is a bad thing)

I have yet seen ANYONE get fired up after a play.. seems we go through the motions.

It looks like the fire is gone. And i don't believe that you can find someone in the draft, who can relit the passion. There's need for a FA who can be the emotional leader and playmaker on the defense.

[Marcus]

All this "fire and emotion" is sooo overrated.

HJam72 is correct. The team is just not good enough yet. It's not a deal where you're actually a good team, but have no desire to win. This is the standard copout used when expectations exceed the level that the team is actually at.

[WWJD]

2 weeks ago there were any number of posts on here about the Texans being on their way.

I think it's obvious that they are missing a few pieces to get to the next step; that the AFC is top to bottom comprised of very good football teams and that the Texans are improving but not at the level of playoff contention yet.

Patience is a virtue. I really do not see any quit in this team. Just players that need to improve.

[Wolf]

Originally Posted by Marcus

All this "fire and emotion" is sooo overrated.

HJam72 is correct. The team is just not good enough yet. It's not a deal where you're actually a good team, but have no desire to win. This is the standard copout used when expectations exceed the level that the team is actually at.

maybe so. But where is a Ray Lewis type that gets on peoples butt's when they miss an assignment or someone that makes everyone else around them better. yes i am picking on the defense.. They are the veterans of the team and we are ranked around 29 overall.. and only have 16 sacks or so. we did better with less in 2002 and 2003

*edit* I know everyteam would like a Ray Lewis and that might be an exaggeration, but when the only person that I have seen really get emotional during a game is the Quiet Soft spoken AJ.. I am wondering what these other guys are doing ..
Only time I have seen Carr REALLY get upset was with that late hit a couple of weeks ago.

[Grid]

Robinson gets fired up too. He could end up being a leader

[non natural texan]

I love the hypocracy(sp) on this board, you all were singing their praises 8 days ago because the guys weren't quitters, remember they were down by 18 and won by 10.

Maybe I'm too much of an optimist or not enough of a fan because I don't go from elated to depressed and pis.sed off after every win or loss, or maybe some of you are just bi-polar.

[El Tejano]

I really don't blame the players or COACHES for this one. I actually didn't know what to feel in this last game. I only felt real upset with the officiating which, to me, took the wind out of our sails for some reason.

[non natural texan]

Originally Posted by Wolf

Only time I have seen Carr REALLY get upset was with that late hit a couple of weeks ago.

Are you talking about that guy in the #8 jersey who acts like he just won the lotto everytime his team scores a touchdown... I guess by fired up you mean something other than being enthused and wanting his team to win.

Maybe we should send Carr a letter and tell him to take a note fro Ron Artest, because we want him to act like a moron when ge gets upset.

The guys played bad yesterday, stop reading into it so much, I gurantee if any of you call into 610 with any of this garbage they would give yau a nice dose of "ok, well, thats your opinion and you're entitled to it, thanks for the call."

[Wolf]

when Carr gets sacked. I would expect on of our Linemen to be there to pick him up off the turf.. I don't see that happen.. Carr just gets up and goes to the huddle. NONE of us is looking for a ARTEST as you mentioned. I just want someone to step up and motivate this team when the chips are down. Esp on the road..And yes the way you handle yourself when the going is good says alot of the way you handle yourself when things are bad.

Does anyone notice when things are going bad the whole team drops off? We have miscues and dropped passes ,like we aren't focused..

[non natural texan]

I think it shows more about David's emotion when he gets up buy himself not like a wimp and waithing for help to get up.

Again, things sure were going bad 8 days ago and they didn't start playing like garbage.

The Artest comment was sarcasm.

[Wolf]

I gotcha.. hard to tell what is sarcasm or not..

Yesterday upset me. esp at the end.. I saw David scrambling toward the sideline and a lineman stopped (even though he was about even with the tackle box) and was walking .. then on the last play Carr gets sacked and that is it.. The linemen just walked around.. I don't expect David to wait for someone to pick him up , but I would expect a linemen /running back to be there to pick him up if they made a mistake.
Granted of course Carr does hold onto the ball too long sometimes.

[Double Barrel]

I've been saying all along that if we finish 6-10 we are still improving over last year. This is just a realistic approach to our team.

Expecting them to make the playoffs in their third year is just setting yourself up for disappointment. They haven't showed us anything in the past two years that should lead you to believe that the playoffs were an actual possibility. They have only showed us that they are still in the building process.

They are playing like a 6-10 team, and we should expect (and appreciate) where we are at in our development cycle.

Next year is a different story...