Random Thoughts on the Game

I just finished watching my tape of the game, so some of this might be rehashing others' points, but I figured I'd post some of my thoughts.

1) I think the playcalling was a bit off, this game. Two calls really stood out to me. First one was the first sack by Ware. I believe it was third and 3, and we lined up with an empty backfield. I'm not saying we needed to run, but we should have at least used a lineup that we could have run from. It makes no sense to clearly give up on the run option when we have only 3 yards to go. Second one was the long interception Schaub threw. This was meant for AJ, but we knew he had a hurt ankle. Throwing a pass where you are depending on your receiver with a hurt ankle to outrun the coverage seems like a dumb idea.

2) Our red zone performance is very reminiscent of last year. Not scoring from first and goal at the 1??? That's just pitiful. The team does not deserve to win if it can't get a TD in that situation.

3) The defense just seemed to have a total breakdown. Clearly there were problems in the secondary, but it was the complete lack of a pass rush that bothered me most. Other than the intentional grounding call, it seemed we couldn't get to Romo at all - I know he got hit once or twice more, but it really felt that he had all the time in the world on most plays.

4) Our special teams have been unimpressive. Turk has not been good at placing punts (though I expect this could improve). Slaton is showing me nothing as a KR. Jacoby has been OK, but I feel like we should be able to do even better.

5) Overall, I can't say I'm even that surprised about this loss, though I am surprised at how lopsided it was in the end. I knew going in that Dallas really wanted this one, and I got the impression that the Texans didn't care that much about it. I don't know how much, if at all, the Texans were getting distracted/complacent by the positive press they've been getting, but it's clear they are not as good as the hype has been starting to build around them. While I feel that it's just one loss, and not a huge deal in the course of the season, I hope the players are hurt by it, and use it as motivation for the rest of the season. If the team ever starts getting too much positive press later in the season, the coaches need to pull out this game to remind them that they're not as good as they might think they are...

6) Believe it or not, I haven't been completely sold on Arian Foster. But, I am now (even with the fumble). He had some incredible runs today.

7) Andre Johnson is clearly a major part of our offense, but I want his ankle healed - I would rather him sit and heal than push it and get a more serious injury. And, what happened to Kevin Walter (before garbage time) today?

I pretty much saw the same thing you did.

As far as Walter goes, who knows? I was wondering the same thing. He was a key component last week and then we didn't really target him at all in this game. I'm with you on there not being much of a gameplan, or at least it seemed like it. We didn't have an identity in this game and it cost us.
Week 1: We committed to the run and we won.
Week 2: We committed to the pass and we won.
Week 3: We committed to nothing and we lost.

It's a head scratcher for sure......

All good points. I wondered why we didn't involve Walter more also. Special teams is a good point too. Turk's punts, Slaton's returns & so many penalties ruining JJ's returns.

What i wanna know is were Da F is David anderson !!!!!!!!!!


and we tried walter i thought we through to him in the red zone and he didnt catch the ball same with OD but OD did have a guy drapped all over him

I think a lot of people need to just get over this loss and move on. I wasn't to surprised about this loss at all, because the Cowboys were a very dangerous team coming into this game being 0-2 and having their season being threatened to go down the tubes with another loss. They simply have to much talent to keep struggling, and they finally hit their stride against us unfortunately. Our young secondary got exposed again, and people need to just get used to the fact that Jackson and Quinn are both still very young and that we've got one of the worst secondaries in the league.

I think we can take Oakland next week though, and be ready for Cush after that and hopefully can get focused again. This was an embarrassing loss, but we just lost to a really good team that wasn't near as bad as what many people expected. The Cowboys backs were against the wall and they simply wanted this game more. The team can hopefully get something positive from this loss.

With regards to our goal line offense, why do we never play action on the goal line? I like the fade to Kevin Walter on the first drive and I'd like to see more of it to AJ as well. I know our passing offense is predicated on good spacing, but in the red zone I would think that our strong running game would be a great asset / decoy.

I think that our offensive playcalling has been suspect. Schaub can't have games where he is getting hit 5-6 times a game. We can't allow it. We need to run more plays where we are getting receivers open earlier. And how about some screens? We had success with a bubble screen to AJ because of the Cowboys pass rush. Why not do some screens to Arian (not Slaton) and also run some draws to offset the rush?

IMO the offense lost us the game more than the defense. If the offense was scoring, the defense probably would have had more momentum going into the later game.

Nobody made a play to motivate the team. Our team looked unmotivated the entire game.

Texecutioner said:

I think a lot of people need to just get over this loss and move on. I wasn't to surprised about this loss at all, because the Cowboys were a very dangerous team coming into this game being 0-2 and having their season being threatened to go down the tubes with another loss. They simply have to much talent to keep struggling, and they finally hit their stride against us unfortunately. Our young secondary got exposed again, and people need to just get used to the fact that Jackson and Quinn are both still very young and that we've got one of the worst secondaries in the league.

I think we can take Oakland next week though, and be ready for Cush after that and hopefully can get focused again. This was an embarrassing loss, but we just lost to a really good team that wasn't near as bad as what many people expected. The Cowboys backs were against the wall and they simply wanted this game more. The team can hopefully get something positive from this loss.

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I agree totally.

The Cowboys are better than anyone thinks and they were ready to play.

Something has to be done in our secondary pronto.

Norg said:

What i wanna know is were Da F is David anderson !!!!!!!!!!


and we tried walter i thought we through to him in the red zone and he didnt catch the ball same with OD but OD did have a guy drapped all over him

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David Anderson is 4th, right were he belongs.

The secondary is becoming laughable. Wilson doesn't have it, its time to move on, either barber or Nolan. Kareem Jackson needs to play nickle back. He is over matched AT THIS POINT. Im not quitting on him, but he wasn't NFL ready. I would look into a trade. Maybe Buffalo would give up McGee. He is about the best vet CB on a team I think would trade for picks to rebuild. We also need a kick return man. Slaton is a joke out there. We also need a guy not named Mario to rush the passer. The Cowgurls wore him down with more than a few double teams and chips.

The biggest thing that has stood out to me (really since the redskins game) is that we don't know who we want to be offensively right now; Air Coryell or smashmouth pound the rock. I think we abandoned the run game a bit too early in the skins game & in the cowboys game as well when Foster has really been consistent for us. We need an identity right now & i honestly think this waffling is messing with schaub & his rhythm in the passing game too b/c he has been more off than on this year so far.

The 2nd thing is I think butler did a good job all things considered yesterday. 1 of ware's sacks came off of dressen trying to block him by himself (really kubes?), the other 2 he had were essentially coverage sacks b/c schaub held the ball too long. When duane gets back, i'd like to explore what this kid could do more. perhaps kicking winston inside & sliding butler over to RT? J/jk.

the 3rd is wilson has terrible range & hands. he's essentially dropped 2 picks over the last 2 games that could;'ve swung momentum in our favor in both these games. he had a pick 6 yesterday.

We came out flat on both sides of the ball. I don't know if its the attention of being 2-0 or the bashing we gave the Cowboys in the preseason but either way, we were not tough enough to beat anybody on Sunday.

I question the mentality of this team. For whatever reason, this team doesn't have the mental toughness to succeed.

Would replacing Wilson with Nolan at FS help our corners?

devo-x said:

Would replacing Wilson with Nolan at FS help our corners?

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It couldn't hurt to try...I wanted to do this :wadepalm: when he dropped that shoulda-been INT. It would have been huge for momentum.

Defense has to do a better job on 3rd down. We put the Cowpaddies in 3rd and long and let them off the hook too many times yesterday.

The pass protection needs to improve I know we played some good pass rushers the first 3 games but 11 sacks is too many to give up. This has to improve.