Wolf
100% Texan
You're hearing it already.
It's the criticism being thrown Mario Williams' way because after playing 17 snaps Saturday night at San Francisco, his name didn't show up in the official stat sheet.
That's right. Seventeen snaps for our new weakside outside linebacker conversion project and he recorded (officially) no tackles, no assists, no sacks, no tackles for loss, no quarterback hurries, no interceptions, no passes defended, no forced fumbles and no fumble recoveries.
Zip. Nada. Zilch.
But before you go all crazy and cram the airwaves with 'trade Mario' talk (again), consider that there might be more going on than the what the stat sheet is telling you.
I've tried to stay out of the Mario debate, mainly because he is learning a new position that's way out of his comfort zone.
The height of my criticism has been to say that "he's struggling" (which I think he is to a large extent) and this post on my Twitter feed after the New Orleans game last weekend where I said: "Maybe its just me but I didn't see Mario take a "big step forward" last night as Kubiak says. Live or on DVR."
So while I admit that I remain skeptical of this project, I sense the criticism out there is gaining momentum, to the point where it's somewhat unfair.
Let me say this. Just because Mario's name didn't show up in the stat sheet last night doesn't mean he didn't make any plays.
This afternoon, I re-watched every Texans defensive play in the first half of their game against the 49ers and came to the conclusion that Mario's perfformance was something a little bit better than he's "not making plays" - even though his name's not in the stat sheet.
Here's what I saw on my re-watch:
http://www.examiner.com/houston-texans-in-houston/on-mario-and-stat-sheets