Porky said:
Harry Biped - "The difference is that so many of you obviously know little to nothing about the actual GAME of football and are more interested in the cosmetic side of it."
You mean like maybe not knowing how to spell Holmgren?
As to your last post, the problem is that the Texans are not in some vacuum. Things do not magically happen just because we want them too or we don't except failure. It takes time to build a team from scratch. They compete for talent with 31 other franchises. When building a house, you don't skimp on the foundation. If you do, your house will go up quickly, and look beautiful for a couple of years, then collapse. The foundation must be strong. Then the house is around for generations. This year they will finish higher than roughly half of the teams, some who have been in existence for decades. Since you seem to have all the answers, what in your estimation would make the Texans a SB winner next year?
First of all it, poor message board etiquette to point out spelling mistakes because the point of the process is to convey the idea or message and not to worry about the specifics of the syntax or spelling. One could spend his entire day picking out mistakes on here if he wanted to.
Secondly, you are absolutely right about needing to build a foundation before building the house. The problem is that the Texans coaching ignores the foundation. In football terms foundation refers to fundamentals. Doing the little things right so that they don't hurt the overall success of the team. But guess what, that is the thing we do the worst. the little things, especially on offense. Way, way too many penalties in key situations. Too many holding calls and false starts. Too many bad or wrong pass routes in key situations. Not a clue how to counteract a blitz and protect the QB. Carr does not handle pressure well because he does not play fundamentally sound at the QB position. He makes bad decisions under pressure, because that is what he is coached to do. When he is in the pocket and under pressure, he does not keep his feet moving and that is partially why he gets sacked so much. The other side is that the O-line runs lousy and completely ineffective blocking schemes. It is Palmer's job, and Capers to an extent, to recognize and fix all of that, but they haven't. Offense is supposed to be the easy part because you know what you are doing and the defense doesn't. That is unless they are playing a team as predicable and ineffective as Palmer's offense.
I understand that no team will likely win a Superbowl in it's 2nd or 3rd season, but we should still have high expectations. The Texans had a huge advantage over most expansion teams primarily because they were the only expansion team that year and many teams had salary cap problems and had to let good players go to the Texans at that time. The Texans have done a good job with the draft and put enough talent on the field for them to be a good playoff team, right now. They are nothing more than a mediocre team right now because of poor coaching, not the talent or lack of talent. They are being built by Casserly to be able to compete for many years, but it won't matter if the coaching can't make them into a competitive team, which they're not right now. That is unless you count beating teams with non-winning records(except possibly Jacksonville who could go 9-7). To be satisfied with knocking others, especially other bad to mediocre teams, out of the playoffs is a pretty weak way to create momentum. The team, the coaches and the fans should be nothing short of very disappointed with anything less than a playoff appearance this season. Moral victories are reserved for losers, because winners don't need them.
Now for all of you who feel that I'm out of line, I challenge you to present a case that this team has improved significantly on offense because of the coaching from last year to this. Exclude the fact that we have one of the best young WRs in the game, a good 2nd year RB and a talented QB. Remember, when Davis was hurt, the running game was lousy. Now that he has healed, it's better. Subtract what the talent brings and make a real, educated case. If all you can offer is the "love the Texans because they're ours and they are getting a little better each year" argument, then you will have failed the challenge.