We dominated a team we were supposed to today!!! Thoughts?

Texans defense dominated the worst offense in the league and the offense and special teams made enough plays to give us an early lead forcing them to throw with the worst QB in the league. This is what we were supposed to do and its about time the Texans showed up and dominated a team that they were supposed to dominate instead of laying an egg and losing or barely squeaking out a win.

My positives from the game:

1) Ryan Moats looks like a solid complement to Slaton and I think he deserves to get more carries. When he got into the game and started playing well that made Slaton get his head out of his rear and make some plays while HOLDING ON TO THE FOOTBALL!!!

2) Brian Cushing is getting better with every game. He gives us a much needed attitude and an enforcer type on our defense which we've never had before. The sky is the limit for him potential wise.

3) The defense got excellent pressure on Russell, Mario is due for a multisack game soon. He is getting consistent pressure and coming a fraction of a second of getting the sack but at least he got one with a forced fumble today!

4) The OL and DL looked good today, both of Slaton's tds were due to flawless blocking by the OL getting down the field and finishing their blocks. If Cushing isn't the MVP, I think the whole OL unit should be the MVPs today. DL got consistent pressure and held the LOS to stuff the run. We won both battles in the trenches today and I cant remember the last time we did that.

5) Bernard Pollard and Glover Quinn: Its nice to see a safety get in the right gap and make the tackle. I'm happy we've got a bonafide run stopping safety on the roster. We're gonna need him to keep being that last line of defense the rest of the season to make a playoff run. Its also nice to see a CB other than Fred Bennett opposite Dunta Robinson. Quinn wasn't a liability and made some good plays today. Not bad for a rookie but I am concerned of him one on one against Fitz or Boldin next week.

Negatives:

1) Matt Schaub showed some flaws in his game he's going to need to improve to hit the next level as a QB. The Raiders have a very good secondary and are excellent about taking away the deep ball. Schaub made his OL look bad taking sacks waiting for the deep ball to come that was never there when he had plenty of time to throw the ball in the pocket. He had early success hitting AJ and Walter deep but you cant expect that to happen all the time against the Raiders. He needs to learn to check down when we play a tough secondary. Dink and dunk when necessary, the deep ball isn't always going to be there.

2) Jacoby Jones: Excellent kick return touchdown but followed it up by putting the ball on the ground. He's knocking on the door of becoming a good football player but he's gotta be more consistent, you cant put the ball on the ground.

3) Steve Slaton: He got a couple tds thanks in large part to tremendous blocking by his OL on both plays but he put the ball on the ground early in the game which could've been disastrous against any other team given the way our defense has performed the first 3 games this season. He didn't start running well until Moats came in and showed him how we expected Slaton to perform since the beginning of the season.

4) Offensive play calling: Real lack of variety in the 2nd half. Again, against any other team that would've hurt us given our defense's history this season against a real NFL offense. The Raiders crowd around the LOS knowing we're gonna run up the middle and we run up the middle. I didn't care that we ran it a lot in the 2nd half and preserved the lead but try some misdirection with WR reverses or audible out of a run and throw a quick pass to get the defense to stop putting 8 in the box.

I agree with pretty much all of the things you said.

1. Moats could be a good complement to Slaton. He seems to be a little more shifty and will take the pressure off.

2. Cushing's a beast.

4. I agree that the D-line looked better. I was more impressed with our ability to stop the run than anything else. I think Russell made our defense look better than they really were. They dropped so many balls too that helped our cause a lot.

5. I wasn't paying attention to Pollard much, but I hope to see him there, Busing just doesn't cut it.

Negatives:

2) JJ is going to lose his spot. If he's gonna drop balls we can have AD take punt returns. I'd rather he catches all of them and never returns one than lose one and return for a TD.

3. I think Slaton needs to be on a short leash. He's a good player, but he needs to know that Moats is there to take his spot at any time if he's going to fumble.

Yeah....the raiders are absolutely terrible. I feel sorry for fans who have to watch that mess every week. Russell ought to feel ashamed of himself for picking up his game check every week.

All & all, i wont put too much stock in this win. I need to see what they look like against a competent offense.

Mr teX said:

Yeah....the raiders are absolutely terrible. I feel sorry for fans who have to watch that mess every week. Russell ought to feel ashamed of himself for picking up his game check every week.

All & all, i wont put too much stock in this win. I need to see what they look like against a competent offense.

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How about thoughts on our offense vs the Raiders defense? The Raiders defense is solid. Very good secondary and above average front 7.

hradhak said:

I agree with pretty much all of the things you said.

1. Moats could be a good complement to Slaton. He seems to be a little more shifty and will take the pressure off.

2. Cushing's a beast.

4. I agree that the D-line looked better. I was more impressed with our ability to stop the run than anything else. I think Russell made our defense look better than they really were. They dropped so many balls too that helped our cause a lot.

5. I wasn't paying attention to Pollard much, but I hope to see him there, Busing just doesn't cut it.

Negatives:

2) JJ is going to lose his spot. If he's gonna drop balls we can have AD take punt returns. I'd rather he catches all of them and never returns one than lose one and return for a TD.

3. I think Slaton needs to be on a short leash. He's a good player, but he needs to know that Moats is there to take his spot at any time if he's going to fumble.

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JJ oozes potential but I think that he is a tradeable asset if he doesn't get more consistent. He's a threat to score anytime he touches the ball, but he's also a threat to fumble. We have plenty of playmakers on this team that hold on to the ball, we can trade him to a team and shore up one of our glaring weaknesses and get a DT or some safety help if he's not going to be consistent.

I hope Slaton's fumbling problem was rectified by the emergence of Moats today. It seemed he stepped his game up once he saw that Moats was running well.

TheRealJoker said:

How about thoughts on our offense vs the Raiders defense? The Raiders defense is solid. Very good secondary and above average front 7.

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329 total yards against that defense isn't something to shout home about. Slaton was terrible. We lost the football twice, once on a really bad decision by Schaub and the other being the Slaton fumble. Slaton had 21 carries and 65 yards. Not really very good at all. Now take away his 32 yard TD and look at the numbers. Steve Slaton is finished in the NFL for me. We need a RB. Schaub only completed half of his passes. 9 points were not as a result of our offense, the safety and the pooch kick TD return. Not acceptable if we're going to be a playoff contender.

We did not dominate anyone today.

TheRealJoker said:

How about thoughts on our offense vs the Raiders defense? The Raiders defense is solid. Very good secondary and above average front 7.

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Schaub didn't exactly light them up though. The 4 (5?) sacks today were mostly coverage sacks, not to mention the several scramble-run OOB or scramble for 1 yard gains. I'm surprised he didn't drop it to the check down receiver more often. I would say that Schaub managed a good game against a good defense and we got some better play out of our running game, but overall this wasn't our best offensive game.

Jacoby Jones' TD was off a pooch kick. A pooch kick is much much easier to break out on for a kick returner. The ball is not kicked as high as well as there being more ground to cover. The pooch kick allows our blockers to get in place and clear a path for Jones. He found that path. Actually, my 12 year old niece saw that opening for Jones BEFORE he ran it.

I was finished with the Jacoby Jones experiment before the season and I hate that he's still on our team.

NitroHonda said:

329 total yards against that defense isn't something to shout home about. Slaton was terrible. We lost the football twice, once on a really bad decision by Schaub and the other being the Slaton fumble. Slaton had 21 carries and 65 yards. Not really very good at all. Now take away his 32 yard TD and look at the numbers. Steve Slaton is finished in the NFL for me. We need a RB. Schaub only completed half of his passes. 9 points were not as a result of our offense, the safety and the pooch kick TD return. Not acceptable if we're going to be a playoff contender.

We did not dominate anyone today.

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That's correct. That's why Schaub's gotta improve by finding his checkdown options instead of waiting for the deep ball to open up. That's why Shanahan has to get more creative in the playcalling if we're dead set on playing not to lose and running out the clock by adding more misdirection runs getting the WRs involved to his playcalling arsenal. And that's why Steve Slaton must improve by protecting the ball and not waiting until another RB starts running hard before he steps his game up.

Turning the ball over is not acceptable!!!

hradhak said:

Schaub didn't exactly light them up though. The 4 (5?) sacks today were mostly coverage sacks, not to mention the several scramble-run OOB or scramble for 1 yard gains. I'm surprised he didn't drop it to the check down receiver more often. I would say that Schaub managed a good game against a good defense and we got some better play out of our running game, but overall this wasn't our best offensive game.

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Exactly. Schaub played okay against a very good secondary but he needs to get better. He held the ball too long waiting for the big play or just forced it when it wasn't there like the INT in the endzone and it could cost us if we play another talented secondary (that one in Arizona is pretty good) that has an offense that can score a lot of points.

NitroHonda said:

329 total yards against that defense isn't something to shout home about. Slaton was terrible. We lost the football twice, once on a really bad decision by Schaub and the other being the Slaton fumble. Slaton had 21 carries and 65 yards. Not really very good at all. Now take away his 32 yard TD and look at the numbers. Steve Slaton is finished in the NFL for me. We need a RB. Schaub only completed half of his passes. 9 points were not as a result of our offense, the safety and the pooch kick TD return. Not acceptable if we're going to be a playoff contender.

We did not dominate anyone today.

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Did you watch the game or just check the stat sheets? Not trying to be rude or anything, but we went into complete offensive prevent defense in the entire 2nd half. We had 5 pass attempts for the ENTIRE half. Its tough to get big yardage when the defense knows 100% that you're going to run it up the gut. The score and stats made it look much closer than it actually was

The Raiders were completely inept on offense today, and Kubiak knew that they had no chance of coming back on us down 20+ There was no need to air it out. This isn't college. You don't get style points. A W is a W.

Saying that our offense didn't blow anyone out is like saying David Carr compiled great stats in the 4th quarter. Its a totally different ball game when one team completely shuts it down because the game is already completey out of reach.

Slaton scored 2 TDs today. He got 10 yards on a play where he had to break 3-4 tackles to get anything. He had a long 30+ yarder. He's dead to you because he only got a few yards at the end of the game? He and Moats did an excellent job. We had 125+ yards on the ground today

gtexan02 said:

Did you watch the game or just check the stat sheets? Not trying to be rude or anything, but we went into complete offensive prevent defense in the entire 2nd half. We had 5 pass attempts for the ENTIRE half. Its tough to get big yardage when the defense knows 100% that you're going to run it up the gut. The score and stats made it look much closer than it actually was

The Raiders were completely inept on offense today, and Kubiak knew that they had no chance of coming back on us down 20+ There was no need to air it out. This isn't college. You don't get style points. A W is a W.

Saying that our offense didn't blow anyone out is like saying David Carr compiled great stats in the 4th quarter. Its a totally different ball game when one team completely shuts it down because the game is already completey out of reach

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Huh? I really don't think you read my post closely. Where was I talking about us airing it out? In fact... I only had one sentence referring to our passing attack. Very confused by your response to me here.

I specified that our problem was the rushing with the rant on Steve Slaton. The Texans as a unit averaged 2.9 yards per rushing attempt today with yet another fumble.

Our offense did n-o-t blow anyone out today. I was at the game myself and it's harder to see how we do overall so when I come home, I hit the stats. The thing is... I came home today knowing that the stats were going to suck. Slaton was terrible and has been terrible all year long. I saw it with my own eyes and the stats confirmed it.

Peace, my friend. We're both Texans fans.

I had fun watching the game, so it was a good day.

Thoughts -
Offense
Schaub - Looked alright in the first half, way too hesitant in the 2nd half. It was the Jags game all over again, except this time we were playing a horrible offense and didn't need to keep pace with anyone.
Slaton - He's still got the burst to take good blocking for big gains, he just hasn't shown the knack to run for tough yards this year like he did last year.
Duane Brown - I'm making my opinions based on what I see on TV, but this guy deserves props IMO. He's taken some big steps forward this year, looks good in pass pro, and he's getting out to the 2nd level and setting up some great blocks. Very athletic tackle, I think we have a good player here.

Everyone else on O, meh, no big revelations.

Defense -
Overall, yes we were playing the Raiders, but yes if we gave Fargas or DMac a hole like we've been giving they would've taken it for a huge gain. We didn't. Their offense is horrible, but our D made progress by not giving up the big run and putting a body on every receiver. Yes, sadly that is progress.
Cushing - Beast. Cut out the unnecessary stuff, but beast.
Mario - Beast. That strip sack wasn't a mistake, he'd been close to doing it about 5 times. Even when he doesn't show up in the sack column, he's making passers throw the ball.
Diles - Great game, loved seeing him blow up the reverse as we've had so much trouble with those.
McCain, Quin - Nothing super special, but they don't look stupid like Bennett. I want to see more of them.
Pollard - Looks promising. Much needed presence vs the run.
Barber - Was Wilson benched or hurt? Either way Barber had a decent game.

Fred Bennett - Our D looks much better when he's sitting on the sideline.

Okay, the Defense stood up today and stopped the run! I think we can improve and Pollard looks good. Cushing is an animal, awesome linebacker who will continue to improve. I think Moats should get the start for next game he looked good and gave the offense a spark that the offense needed. It also seemed to spark slaton to start moving the ball. One thing I saw from Moats is he would cut back once and got up field. Slaton seemed to dance around to much to look for that lane. OL did a great job. I think we can improve on the play calling. Other than that the team played like they should have in this game and we better play better for next weekend. Cardnals are going to be looking for a win with a couple of their loses as well.

I'm glad we won, but I can't get excited about it. We're not going to be able to put as many in the box against the Cards as we did against the Raiders. The Texans knew the Raiders had NO passing game, so of course they could do everything to stop the run with NO fear of being burned.

Next week - not the same thing at all against Kurt Warner.

An interesting stat that flashed on the screen during the game that if they took away the 4 or so big runs against our defense in the first 3 games, the defense ranks revises from last to a "respectable" high 20's.

I wasn't impressed with coverage of the Raider's WR's. If not for the bad passes and non-catches with minimal coverage around - it would've been a little more interesting for our defense.

Schaub looked off today - majority of the passes needing recievers to stretch out, up, or down to catch. Need to get it back in the breab basket or on the run so they don't need to slow up.

Lastly - the fans - half of ya clearing out with 7 minutes or so left in the game? (Fancy club level before that). Seriously? Good thing you've seen so many wins at home this year. Then the dogging of a win? Don't care how it was done, glad it was done and that the Texans could coast the 2nd half and the announcers even mentioning perhaps to take Schaub out in the 4th - when was the last time THAT was mentioned for our team? Would you have preferred a loss or closer game?

Positives
- run defense! Thank you for stepping up.
- Pollard - good first game
- the boys....pffft.... the 50's MEN
- Moats - thanks for coming in to wake up Slaton (Thanks Kubiak for a needed pull out of the game)
- A. Smith and Amobi sighting! Brief - but I saw em!

good win


- i think in the 2nd half we played not to lose

- I think Owen D today showed why he IS replaceable

-I think our red zone playcalling could use some work

-i think Matty should never scramble ever agian unless its a bootleg

- i also think running up the middle is not the best ideas since there were i Think our O line is the softest


good win but lets get rdy for the real challenge the Defending NFC champs coming off a bye

NitroHonda said:

329 total yards against that defense isn't something to shout home about. Slaton was terrible. We lost the football twice, once on a really bad decision by Schaub and the other being the Slaton fumble. Slaton had 21 carries and 65 yards. Not really very good at all. Now take away his 32 yard TD and look at the numbers. Steve Slaton is finished in the NFL for me. We need a RB. Schaub only completed half of his passes. 9 points were not as a result of our offense, the safety and the pooch kick TD return. Not acceptable if we're going to be a playoff contender.

We did not dominate anyone today.

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The offense was fine, we just went into shutdown mode after the 1st half, & rightfully so b/c Russell & the offense weren't going to come back. The raiders also have a pretty good secondary & i'll take a sack rather than have him try to force something & turn the ball over. I am concerned about the run though despite us having our best performance all year.

& schaub's int wasn't a bad decision. You've got arguably the best WR in the game against the team's #2 cb - who AJ had been abusing all half at that. Schaub just underthrew the ball a little bit & johnson made a great play on it. Did you think it was a bad decision by schaub when AJ scored his 1st TD on the same play in the Tennessee game?

Furthermore no Qb is going to play 100% all the time; Finally we didn't need him to be superman to win the game for us, he had a little help from the defense & special teams. Some of you guys i just don't understand..

Can't really make a big deal about the second half, the play calling was aimed at running the clock out from that first possession of the second half. If it mattered we might have hit the gas again, just glad that it didn't.

Congrats to Texans fans. You guys are on your way to the playoffs. Keep up the good work.

Mr teX said:

The offense was fine, we just went into shutdown mode after the 1st half, & rightfully so b/c Russell & the offense weren't going to come back. The raiders also have a pretty good secondary & i'll take a sack rather than have him try to force something & turn the ball over. I am concerned about the run though despite us having our best performance all year.

& schaub's int wasn't a bad decision. You've got arguably the best WR in the game against the team's #2 cb - who AJ had been abusing all half at that. Schaub just underthrew the ball a little bit & johnson made a great play on it. Did you think it was a bad decision by schaub when AJ scored his 1st TD on the same play in the Tennessee game?

Furthermore no Qb is going to play 100% all the time; Finally we didn't need him to be superman to win the game for us, he had a little help from the defense & special teams. Some of you guys i just don't understand..

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I understand the going into shutdown mode for the 2nd half. I can buy that. But what I can't buy is how we ended up in the red zone 4 times and only made something out of just one. For the whole game we went 1-5 in the red zone. That's just not good enough for a playoff caliber team.

The Schaub interception was definitely a bad decision. Nothing like the play that was executed last week. I mean... it was an interception to begin with. Last week, I can't state but I'm pretty sure Schaub wasn't on the run for the AJ TD. Schaub appeared to be on the run with this one and it ended up getting underthrown. Schaub should have taken the sack or thrown it out of bounds.

Mr teX said:

& schaub's int wasn't a bad decision. You've got arguably the best WR in the game against the team's #2 cb - who AJ had been abusing all half at that. Schaub just underthrew the ball a little bit & johnson made a great play on it. Did you think it was a bad decision by schaub when AJ scored his 1st TD on the same play in the Tennessee game?

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Schaub threw it into double coverage on 3rd down when we were in FG range. We were down early in Tennessee and needed a big play plus he had his man beat and Schaub put it in the corner of the endzone where only he could possibly catch it. Apples to oranges comparison.

NitroHonda said:

I understand the going into shutdown mode for the 2nd half. I can buy that. But what I can't buy is how we ended up in the red zone 4 times and only made something out of just one. For the whole game we went 1-5 in the red zone. That's just not good enough for a playoff caliber team.

The Schaub interception was definitely a bad decision. Nothing like the play that was executed last week. I mean... it was an interception to begin with. Last week, I can't state but I'm pretty sure Schaub wasn't on the run for the AJ TD. Schaub appeared to be on the run with this one and it ended up getting underthrown. Schaub should have taken the sack or thrown it out of bounds.

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eh, i disagree, we took a shot to end it in the 1st half & we lost, nothing to really be ashamed of there. If you want to be technical, we should've just let the time run down & took the FG to ensure we get points.

As someone stated, the raiders secondary is really the strength of their team & if you're not going to throw at Asomauga (sp?) which shuts down 1 side of the field, that already makes it tough. In addition to this, you can't run guys off when you're down in the red zone & that plays right into the secondary's hands. The raiders defense is no slouch & All things considered, i think schaub & the offense did a good job of working around them.

TheRealJoker said:

Schaub threw it into double coverage on 3rd down when we were in FG range. We were down early in Tennessee and needed a big play plus he had his man beat and Schaub put it in the corner of the endzone where only he could possibly catch it. Apples to oranges comparison.

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Go back & watch this play. AJ had his guy beat in this one as well, schaub just underthrew it; doesn't matter what down it was. If anything you should get upset at the play call. I would argue that him throwing that same pass in the tennessee game was the worse decision b/c if that ball is picked off & Tennessee goes down to score off that we're down 21-0 or 17-0 & we might not be able to come back from that.

There was a CB and a Safety in the area. On 3rd down with the opportunity to make it a 3 score game with a FG you dont take that shot. Bad call by Schaub.

I didn't see much today that I didn't expect to see. Matt Schaub is very, very conservative with the ball. Good thing? Bad thing? Toda it didn't hurt us.... Schaub is a rhythm QB. He's fairly accurate. & that's it. He doesn't have a rocket arm. He isn't an improvisor. He isn't a field general. Rhythm... Accuracy... If he's going to take us where we want to go, he's got to get a lot better at getting his rhythm & starting early. & he's got to get a lot better at putting that ball where our only our guy can get the ball, regardless who is covering him.

Offensive Line IMHO, isn't going to cut it. If Schaub is going to sit back there & hold the ball, they have to hold their blocks until the whistle blows.

We can't run the ball.

Defensively, this is what we needed. A poor, poor offense to let our young guys come together, and learn to play as a team. Week 1 we faced the AFC's leading rusher. Week 2, smash & dash. Week 3, little hercules. Week 4...... ahhhhhhh.

The Defensive line was able to finish on several plays, because Jamarcus took too long, & didn't know what to do with the ball. Most of his throws went incomplete, because it was a bad throw, or his receivers screwed up. our CBs & Safeties didn't do much.

Pressure by the DL had a little to do with it, don't get me wrong. But I don't believe there was any more pressure on Jamarcus, than was put on Garrard, Collins, & Sanchez. Those QBs were just better able to handle it.

Demeco did knock a ball away form a receiver. Barber knocked a ball away from a receiver.. Dunta got beat, burned, juked, and IMHO humiliated. Is he 100%, can we start critiquing his play vs his $9 million contract, or are we still giving him time to recover?

The LBs are the strength of this defense, and they're getting better every game.

gtexan02 said:

Did you watch the game or just check the stat sheets? Not trying to be rude or anything, but we went into complete offensive prevent defense in the entire 2nd half. We had 5 pass attempts for the ENTIRE half. Its tough to get big yardage when the defense knows 100% that you're going to run it up the gut. The score and stats made it look much closer than it actually was

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I couldn't take it. I left the game with 8 minutes left in the 4th. Then I heard on the radio, that Kubiak decided to take that time, and work on the running game. He says we've got 46 snaps on film, and they'll go back & look at that to hopefully improve our run game in the future.

I don't like that answer. We've got "snaps" on film going back to New Orleans in the preseason.. haven't done us much good.

But.... it was plausible. I think we need to work on putting drives together. Something we're going to need to be able to do, running the ball, throwing the ball, doesn't matter. Our offense needs to learn how to stay on the field, and get points out of every possesion, especially possesions off turnovers, when your 10 yards from field goal range.

But it's a W, & I'm happy about that. We're 2-2, losing a game to the Jags & the Jets.. no matter who you are, you thought we would win one of those, & we didn't. That means we're going to have to win a game that we didn't think we would win... Would that be Tennessee in Tennessee?

San Francisco is another game I thought we would win. But they look real. Just hung 40 on the team they were supposed to dominate against. 2 defensive scores, & a special teams score.

I was at the game. I was NOT impressed. Schaub played like he was on qualudes or something and not just in the second half.

Once again, Oakland's secondary or our "brilliant offensive braintrust" or Schaub's inability to throw on time shut down Andre Johnson. I counted two slants and a skinny post where A.J. was open but Schaub chose to (and I use the term loosely) "run".

I will say that our defense played the run the best they have all season. I'll have to look at the DVR to see if that's because of a superior effort by us or lack of effort by the Raiders. One thing is a definite, when the punt team downed the ball on the one, the defense reacted like piranhas on a wounded fish.

But if a 20+ pt win can leave you nervous about the future, this was it. Because if the Raiders had a QB or WRs would could catch we would have been in serious trouble.

Some say Kubiak called off the dogs. I say when you're trying to train your dogs to be killers, you don't call them off.

Mr teX said:

eh, i disagree, we took a shot to end it in the 1st half & we lost, nothing to really be ashamed of there. If you want to be technical, we should've just let the time run down & took the FG to ensure we get points.

As someone stated, the raiders secondary is really the strength of their team & if you're not going to throw at Asomauga (sp?) which shuts down 1 side of the field, that already makes it tough. In addition to this, you can't run guys off when you're down in the red zone & that plays right into the secondary's hands. The raiders defense is no slouch & All things considered, i think schaub & the offense did a good job of working around them.

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The Oakland Raiders on average has given up 359 yards thus far this season good for 19th best in the NFL. They shut us down if you look at how many yards our offense gained.

On the plus side... our defensive ranking jumped 8 slots. We were ranked dead last and now we're 24th. But that was with the help of JaMarcus Russell and the Oakland Raiders.

My gawd. Is JaMarcus really this bad? I remember that cannon of his back at LSU. He was horrible today and should not have been manning any sort of offense anywhere.

Nitro saw this game and thought Slaton was done in the NFL. I saw it and thought, Thank God, we have slaton back. We are just going to have to agree to disagree. Slaton is a playmaker at RB. He made 2 touchdowns that most backs wouldn't have. He's getting back into the offensive flow. Its a good thing you aren't in charge of the texans, or you'd be cutting a back coming off a 1000 yard season, and cutting him after a 2 td game.

NitroHonda said:

The Oakland Raiders on average has given up 359 yards thus far this season good for 19th best in the NFL. They shut us down if you look at how many yards our offense gained.
On the plus side... our defensive ranking jumped 8 slots. We were ranked dead last and now we're 24th. But that was with the help of JaMarcus Russell and the Oakland Raiders.

My gawd. Is JaMarcus really this bad? I remember that cannon of his back at LSU. He was horrible today and should not have been manning any sort of offense anywhere.

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We had 330 yards of offense. Thats right at their average. How did they shut us down?

TheRealJoker said:

There was a CB and a Safety in the area. On 3rd down with the opportunity to make it a 3 score game with a FG you dont take that shot. Bad call by Schaub.

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if schaub puts that ball on the money it's a TD b/c the cb was beat & the safety would've been a hair too late.

Mr teX said:

if schaub puts that ball on the money it's a TD b/c the cb was beat & the safety would've been a hair too late.

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And if Schaub wouldn't have made the throw we would've been up 23-6 at the half instead of 20-6 which would've been much more likely than him putting that ball where it needed to be under the circumstances.

We'll just have to agree to disagree. When your defense hasn't stopped anyone in the last 3 games you cant take shots like that in FG range near the end of the half imo.

We've got a well rested cardinals team next week in their house, how will our reconfigured secondary do against them? That's my first thought.

I know one thing though, rushing 4 against Warner on 3rd down won't cut it.

JDizzle said:

We've got a well rested cardinals team next week in their house, how will our reconfigured secondary do against them? That's my first thought.

I know one thing though, rushing 4 against Warner on 3rd down won't cut it.

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Warner handles the blitz extremely well, i don't know what else we can do but try to cover everyone up & hope our front 4 get to him. I'd hate to see replays of the superbowl play where fitz catches the quick slant & takes it to the house.

TheRealJoker said:

And if Schaub wouldn't have made the throw we would've been up 23-6 at the half instead of 20-6 which would've been much more likely than him putting that ball where it needed to be under the circumstances.

We'll just have to agree to disagree. When your defense hasn't stopped anyone in the last 3 games you cant take shots like that in FG range near the end of the half imo.

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Yeah we'll agree to disagree, i guess i just don't know what you guys expected him to do since #1: we know our qb isn't allowed to audible out of plays & 2, in rewatching that play, it looks like it was specifically designed to go to AJ; i.e. the coaches probably didn't mind him throwing the ball up & seeing if could make a play for him.

I mean you guys roast schaub & the offense for not targeting AJ enough in the 2nd half of the jags game & in this game you guys are upset that schaub tried to go to AJ on a play THAT WAS THERE. Can this guy ever win?

1.) Brian Cushing and DeMeco Ryans are beasts. Amazing play from our linebackers.

2.) We held their offense to 2/15 on third down. Too bad its a crappy Oakland offense. But still nice to see.

3.) JJ is baffling. Takes one to the house, and then loses focus and muffs a punt...

4.) Texans should play first half like they played 2nd half. Schaub had 205 yards in the first half and ends the game with 225 yards?

5.) Brian Cushing is a beast.

gtexan02 said:

We had 330 yards of offense. Thats right at their average. How did they shut us down?

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They held us to 30 yards less than their average? Only 30 yards is what you must be thinking. Consider this... 26 yards is the difference between the 19th best (Oakland) and the 28th best (Cowboys) in the NFL.

swtbound07 said:

Nitro saw this game and thought Slaton was done in the NFL. I saw it and thought, Thank God, we have slaton back. We are just going to have to agree to disagree. Slaton is a playmaker at RB. He made 2 touchdowns that most backs wouldn't have. He's getting back into the offensive flow. Its a good thing you aren't in charge of the texans, or you'd be cutting a back coming off a 1000 yard season, and cutting him after a 2 td game.

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Slaton got a lot of his yards in garbage time against paltry teams down the stretch after our 0-4 start. Don't get me wrong. I love Steve Slaton. I just hope he can bring back that magic he had last season. I'm not seeing it after 5 games. Preseason garbage counts. Especially since it's garbage that's running over into the season.

I'd never want to be in charge of the Texans. Or any NFL team for that matter. I'm purely a fan and only a fan. I love the game too much to taint it by making it a job.

Super Mario said:

2.) We held their offense to 2/15 on third down. Too bad its a crappy Oakland offense. But still nice to see.

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On the flip side, our offense was 3/16 on third downs. Not really too good.

Good grief, most of you guys sound like your are Russian judges grading the USA at the Olympics. "Ve unly gived 4.9 points for da shtyle, de von, but ve didn't likesh der shtyle". (probably sounds more German... oh well)

Mr teX said:

if schaub puts that ball on the money it's a TD b/c the cb was beat & the safety would've been a hair too late.

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It wasn't on the money because he was under pressure. QBs are expected to make good decisions under pressure. That was not a good decision by Schaub. He should have thrown it away.

FWIW, I have no beef with Matt Schaub. I'm fine with him as our QB of the future. I love Matt Schaub and I think he's the real deal in this system.

NitroHonda said:

Jacoby Jones' TD was off a pooch kick. A pooch kick is much much easier to break out on for a kick returner. The ball is not kicked as high as well as there being more ground to cover. The pooch kick allows our blockers to get in place and clear a path for Jones. He found that path. Actually, my 12 year old niece saw that opening for Jones BEFORE he ran it.

I was finished with the Jacoby Jones experiment before the season and I hate that he's still on our team.

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You're wrong. A pooch kick, by definition, skips along the ground so one of the non-threatening blocker types has to field the ball. If anything, the kicker out-kicked the coverage. That return was following the safety so they had to kick it from their own 20. Jacoby fielded it at our own FIVE. By my math, that's 75 yds in the air. If that had been kicked from the 30, like a normal kickoff, Jacoby would have had to bring it from 5 yds deep in the endzone.
That was hardly a "pooch kick".

edo783 said:

Good grief, most of you guys sound like your are Russian judges grading the USA at the Olympics. "Ve unly gived 4.9 points for da shtyle, de von, but ve didn't likesh der shtyle". (probably sounds more German... oh well)

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This is what happens when we win: Griping and hair-splitting with each other.

When we lose: We all unite together and bash our team the whole week.

There is no common ground among us posters when things go well. Everyone has their pet project they want to argue about. Funny stuff.

Some random thoughts that I don't think have been mentioned thus far..

Mario, as has been pointed out by others was "there" just a split second too late on many plays............just like in the other previous games. I've been struck by the fact that Mario is Hell bent to beat the tackles with the long circular outside route. He does not seem to show the quick shifty turnaround to the inside moves seen by most of the other elite DEs

Schaub seemed to be limping in the 1st half.and he was on the bicycle on the sidelines.......which is not his routine. He seemed to be throwing off his back foot. Many of his throws seemed weak and short, and lucky not to have been intercepted with a sharper defense.

Dunta made a couple of hard "tackles." But he tackles by hitting with his hands or body rather than "wrapping" the player. When you resort to this technique, you have to commit yourself sooner and completely, leaving yourself very vulnerable if you miscalculate the angle or the player has quick change of direction ability. There were quite a few plays that he was out of position and was very fortunate that the player either missed the ball or was not thrown to despite being wide open.......and would have been "gone." Dunta benefitted greatly by TJ's poor reads and throws.

ObsiWan said:

You're wrong. A pooch kick, by definition, skips along the ground so one of the non-threatening blocker types has to field the ball. If anything, the kicker out-kicked the coverage. That return was following the safety so they had to kick it from their own 20. Jacoby fielded it at our own FIVE. By my math, that's 75 yds in the air. If that had been kicked from the 30, like a normal kickoff, Jacoby would have had to bring it from 5 yds deep in the endzone.
That was hardly a "pooch kick".

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I was corrected in another thread. That was a free kick, not a pooch kick. I had the word wrong. Honest mistake.

I stand by my statement otherwise. I believe that kicking off the tee allows the kicker to kick the ball higher thus giving their team time to get to the other side and defend the PR/KR. That free kick went far but it did not go very high. It got to Jacoby very quickly and allowed our blockers to block for him. It was a bad kick.

JDizzle said:

We've got a well rested cardinals team next week in their house, how will our reconfigured secondary do against them? That's my first thought.

I know one thing though, rushing 4 against Warner on 3rd down won't cut it.

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we'll be in trouble. Warner won't miss open guys like Russell did. The Cardinal WRs won't drop passes like the Raiders' guys did today. The back 7 had better step it up if we hope to get a win out in Arizona.

NitroHonda said:

I was corrected in another thread. That was a free kick, not a pooch kick. I had the word wrong. Honest mistake.

I stand by my statement otherwise. I believe that kicking off the tee allows the kicker to kick the ball higher thus giving their team time to get to the other side and defend the PR/KR. That free kick went far but it did not go very high. It got to Jacoby very quickly and allowed our blockers to block for him.

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No worries mate. I totally agree with this assessment. The kicker went for distance instead of hang time and it cost them 6 pts.

NitroHonda said:

They held us to 30 yards less than their average? Only 30 yards is what you must be thinking. Consider this... 26 yards is the difference between the 19th best (Oakland) and the 28th best (Cowboys) in the NFL.

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Schaub had over 200 yards in the 1st half and only 20 something in the second half. We torched them in the 1st half. We were up by 20 pretty early. If we had played to kill, im sure we could have put more than 330 yards on them. But we didn't need to.
The goal of the game was to win. We did what we needed to do and nothing extra. I just dont see why people could be upset at the offense after today

ObsiWan said:

we'll be in trouble. Warner won't miss open guys like Russell did. The Cardinal WRs won't drop passes like the Raiders' guys did today. The back 7 had better step it up if we hope to get a win out in Arizona.

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Funny thing... While I was scanning the NFL.com team stats. I saw that the Texans have the 11th best passing defense. I really don't know how the stats show that but it does. I guess playing the awful Raiders will skew the numbers a bit.

NitroHonda said:

It wasn't on the money because he was under pressure. QBs are expected to make good decisions under pressure. That was not a good decision by Schaub. He should have thrown it away.

FWIW, I have no beef with Matt Schaub. I'm fine with him as our QB of the future. I love Matt Schaub and I think he's the real deal in this system.

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he wasn't under pressure it was a quick hit type play. schaub wasn't supposed to look anywhere but to AJ It was just a bad throw by him, not a bad decision. he was a little off all game actually...