You can't blame the officials, I've been as hard as anyone on the Texans all year but this was some of the worst officiating I've seen since the days of the Oilers. I don't know if I've ever even mentioned the ref's in a review and that's missing 4 games in the last 3+ years I've been writing them. So its not something I do often. But when you look at the body of work, this game was alot closer than the score indicated. Usually that tells you something, either there were a lot of turnovers, or there were some bad calls.
QB - Schaub B- There is a lot to like about this guy... ALOT. But I am starting to see areas of concern. First is his accuracy deep. He has consistently under thrown receivers deep. Today right before his fumble Davis had his man by a good step and a half and the ball was under thrown by about 4 - 6 yards. Put some loft on the ball and let your guy run under it. Its correctable but its becoming a trend. In the red zone we were pretty ineffective. We put the ball on the ground and we missed a wide open target. I thought overall he did a good job but I'm a little worried about the mistakes we're making. Davis has a TD if that ball is thrown correctly and we have another one if the throw to (daniels?) is on target. He really needs to work on giving his receiver the ball in a position to run after the catch. It is however, nice to see his touch when throwing the ball on the run. He made several nice plays on the run not including the fumble. Overall he is doing about as much as can be expected without his #1 option.
RB C- We just aren't getting much done on the ground. Green had a few nice runs, but for the most part... its not very pretty, especially in short yardage situations. We really need AJ back so we can establish the pass in order to run. I know it was Jacksonville but we might have traded a line that can run block for one that can pass. Today Green wasn't running into the pile he was just hitting holes and the running game was basically not a threat at all.
WR B- Wow, two fumbles. At least a 10 point swing. I'm never going to get onto a guy for reaching for the endzone... but you have to secure the ball. Other than that you really can't complain about the receivers. We just need to get that guy who we can get the ball to in the endzone. Walter is a stud. Other than the obvious, is anyone starting to see similarities in his game and Ed Mcaffrey's? He's not fast, but he runs good routes and man does he have a set of hands. He is much better than I anticipated and Davis seems to have gotten over his concentration issues. I also like seeing Anderson. I think when Johnson comes back you do a lot of 3wr sets and spread the defense. Then you rely on Green's ability to find soft spots in the defense in the running game.
OL C+ This OL has to be thanking the man upstairs that Vick didn't get caught 3 months earlier. Schaub makes them look alot better than they are with his ability to move AND his pocket awareness. Even on the fumble he felt the pressure, he just got caught. In the running game we are pretty inefficient. Up until this game that has been a function of our RB not hitting the hole, but this week it was more on the line.
TE B- Hey that guy OD was a steal. He catches everything, he's a solid blocker.. I don't know what more you can ask for.
DL - C- We started off the game fairly solid. Mario had a TFL, Maddox had a sack and then it all went downhill from there. Especially in the second half. The Jags had the ball for too long is basically what it boils down to. We missed tackles and we didn't get pressure on the QB. That is going to make for a long day. We had two penalties for encroachment (one was declined and the other was called unabaded) in key situations. You can't do that in this league. You can't give teams extra yardage or extra shots in the redzone. Overall what looked like a promising start degraded into an average performance.
LB - C- Ryans made a few plays, and the penalty called on him was atrocious. Clark and Greenwood had some tackles but take that first long run by Taylor, I think it was Greenwood just completely missed his tackle. We better be ready next time we meet these guys, to tackle a small body. Its even more important to wrap a guy like MJD up because there is a smaller area you can hit him at that will bring him down.
DB -B+ This was by far the best showing we've had by our DBs. I thought that even the penalty that was called on Petey was garbage. He and DR had some VERY crucial pass defenses early in the game or this would have been much worse much quicker. That's what they get paid to do. I felt like, that on the first TD they scored, that DR tried to go for the hit rather than tackle him and ended up spinning him into the endzone but other than that, for once, we can't blame the game on the defense.
Special teams B You can't blame the ST for the onside kick. If you are going to do that play, and you've practiced it, you're going to be successful more often than not and I don't know how you defend against it. Its one of those plays I'm not a big fan of. I realize its legal but it is kind of like the recent trend of "icing the kicker" by making him kick it twice. Its legal, I'm just not a fan. The TO we got on the punt was more a matter of luck than a great play. For that reason I am giving us a B-.
Coaching B- We called a decent game plan I think. We are going to be a monster when we get AJ back if Kubes decides to use the pass to set up the run. Move everybody down a corner which puts a nickel corner on Walter... and you have something deadly. Its hard to put together a game plan when nobody fears the running game. On defense, we really didn't tackle all that well. But nobody does against Jacksonville. It is also hard to call a game when the officiating is so poor. Like I said I don't usually review the ref's, but I'm 3 lines from the end of the review and I may extend it a little. The problem is that we let things snowball again. The score was 16-9 going into the 4th Qtr. Then things got ugly in a hurry. I think the killer though, more than anything else was that drive in the 3rd quarter.
What we did well: Ironically, alot more than I thought. I went back and looked and Schaub was on target a lot more than I thought he was last week. He missed a few passes, a few big passes but overall he was more than decent. Our receivers made some nice catches as well. Especially Walter. Man that guy has to be doing something illegal to hold onto that catch down the middle in the 4th. Sage even looked better than I thought he would and got us in for a score.
What killed us:
1. Missed opportunities. Davis fumble, and several opportunities to make a tackle, either for a loss or around the line of scrimmage. If you look back almost every long run was started by a solid opportunity to make a tackle in the area of the line of scrimmage.
2. Inefficiency in the red zone. Davis fumble, and that first drive were crucial. That's 10 points and changes the complexion of the game.
3. Officiating: I've waited long enough. That was by far the WORST string of calls I've seen in quite a while. The long drive in the 3rd quarter by Jacksonville where they were given 3 first downs, two in a row by the officials... I'd be mad as hell if I was Kubiak. That penalty on Ryans was just horrible, and then the holding call when their receiver has ours in a headlock? What was that? How do you miss a delay of game penalty? HOW? It reminds me of the ineptitude of the refs before the Pitt/Det game a few years ago when they got the coin toss wrong. You can't, if you are the official, extend the same drive twice by giving first downs. Even the announcers, and no not the home announcers; the ones on sunday ticket, were sure it was offensive pass interference. Then on the long pass before the TD into the redzone the holding on that play, in 3 spots was ridiculous. The TE and RD were both holding Williams. You can't give a team that many penalties on one drive and ask them to stop somebody. Throw in the fumble they called on Davis and several others I can't mention
I hate to rag on the officials. I hate to blame them in a loss. And as a rule I don't. But they changed the momentum of the game. Twice. That is unacceptable. The Texans definitely made mistakes, but its impossible to recover from them if the officials don't do their job. In the past I have defended the officials but this was sick. All of that said. You have to score TD's when in the redzone.
Mike
QB - Schaub B- There is a lot to like about this guy... ALOT. But I am starting to see areas of concern. First is his accuracy deep. He has consistently under thrown receivers deep. Today right before his fumble Davis had his man by a good step and a half and the ball was under thrown by about 4 - 6 yards. Put some loft on the ball and let your guy run under it. Its correctable but its becoming a trend. In the red zone we were pretty ineffective. We put the ball on the ground and we missed a wide open target. I thought overall he did a good job but I'm a little worried about the mistakes we're making. Davis has a TD if that ball is thrown correctly and we have another one if the throw to (daniels?) is on target. He really needs to work on giving his receiver the ball in a position to run after the catch. It is however, nice to see his touch when throwing the ball on the run. He made several nice plays on the run not including the fumble. Overall he is doing about as much as can be expected without his #1 option.
RB C- We just aren't getting much done on the ground. Green had a few nice runs, but for the most part... its not very pretty, especially in short yardage situations. We really need AJ back so we can establish the pass in order to run. I know it was Jacksonville but we might have traded a line that can run block for one that can pass. Today Green wasn't running into the pile he was just hitting holes and the running game was basically not a threat at all.
WR B- Wow, two fumbles. At least a 10 point swing. I'm never going to get onto a guy for reaching for the endzone... but you have to secure the ball. Other than that you really can't complain about the receivers. We just need to get that guy who we can get the ball to in the endzone. Walter is a stud. Other than the obvious, is anyone starting to see similarities in his game and Ed Mcaffrey's? He's not fast, but he runs good routes and man does he have a set of hands. He is much better than I anticipated and Davis seems to have gotten over his concentration issues. I also like seeing Anderson. I think when Johnson comes back you do a lot of 3wr sets and spread the defense. Then you rely on Green's ability to find soft spots in the defense in the running game.
OL C+ This OL has to be thanking the man upstairs that Vick didn't get caught 3 months earlier. Schaub makes them look alot better than they are with his ability to move AND his pocket awareness. Even on the fumble he felt the pressure, he just got caught. In the running game we are pretty inefficient. Up until this game that has been a function of our RB not hitting the hole, but this week it was more on the line.
TE B- Hey that guy OD was a steal. He catches everything, he's a solid blocker.. I don't know what more you can ask for.
DL - C- We started off the game fairly solid. Mario had a TFL, Maddox had a sack and then it all went downhill from there. Especially in the second half. The Jags had the ball for too long is basically what it boils down to. We missed tackles and we didn't get pressure on the QB. That is going to make for a long day. We had two penalties for encroachment (one was declined and the other was called unabaded) in key situations. You can't do that in this league. You can't give teams extra yardage or extra shots in the redzone. Overall what looked like a promising start degraded into an average performance.
LB - C- Ryans made a few plays, and the penalty called on him was atrocious. Clark and Greenwood had some tackles but take that first long run by Taylor, I think it was Greenwood just completely missed his tackle. We better be ready next time we meet these guys, to tackle a small body. Its even more important to wrap a guy like MJD up because there is a smaller area you can hit him at that will bring him down.
DB -B+ This was by far the best showing we've had by our DBs. I thought that even the penalty that was called on Petey was garbage. He and DR had some VERY crucial pass defenses early in the game or this would have been much worse much quicker. That's what they get paid to do. I felt like, that on the first TD they scored, that DR tried to go for the hit rather than tackle him and ended up spinning him into the endzone but other than that, for once, we can't blame the game on the defense.
Special teams B You can't blame the ST for the onside kick. If you are going to do that play, and you've practiced it, you're going to be successful more often than not and I don't know how you defend against it. Its one of those plays I'm not a big fan of. I realize its legal but it is kind of like the recent trend of "icing the kicker" by making him kick it twice. Its legal, I'm just not a fan. The TO we got on the punt was more a matter of luck than a great play. For that reason I am giving us a B-.
Coaching B- We called a decent game plan I think. We are going to be a monster when we get AJ back if Kubes decides to use the pass to set up the run. Move everybody down a corner which puts a nickel corner on Walter... and you have something deadly. Its hard to put together a game plan when nobody fears the running game. On defense, we really didn't tackle all that well. But nobody does against Jacksonville. It is also hard to call a game when the officiating is so poor. Like I said I don't usually review the ref's, but I'm 3 lines from the end of the review and I may extend it a little. The problem is that we let things snowball again. The score was 16-9 going into the 4th Qtr. Then things got ugly in a hurry. I think the killer though, more than anything else was that drive in the 3rd quarter.
What we did well: Ironically, alot more than I thought. I went back and looked and Schaub was on target a lot more than I thought he was last week. He missed a few passes, a few big passes but overall he was more than decent. Our receivers made some nice catches as well. Especially Walter. Man that guy has to be doing something illegal to hold onto that catch down the middle in the 4th. Sage even looked better than I thought he would and got us in for a score.
What killed us:
1. Missed opportunities. Davis fumble, and several opportunities to make a tackle, either for a loss or around the line of scrimmage. If you look back almost every long run was started by a solid opportunity to make a tackle in the area of the line of scrimmage.
2. Inefficiency in the red zone. Davis fumble, and that first drive were crucial. That's 10 points and changes the complexion of the game.
3. Officiating: I've waited long enough. That was by far the WORST string of calls I've seen in quite a while. The long drive in the 3rd quarter by Jacksonville where they were given 3 first downs, two in a row by the officials... I'd be mad as hell if I was Kubiak. That penalty on Ryans was just horrible, and then the holding call when their receiver has ours in a headlock? What was that? How do you miss a delay of game penalty? HOW? It reminds me of the ineptitude of the refs before the Pitt/Det game a few years ago when they got the coin toss wrong. You can't, if you are the official, extend the same drive twice by giving first downs. Even the announcers, and no not the home announcers; the ones on sunday ticket, were sure it was offensive pass interference. Then on the long pass before the TD into the redzone the holding on that play, in 3 spots was ridiculous. The TE and RD were both holding Williams. You can't give a team that many penalties on one drive and ask them to stop somebody. Throw in the fumble they called on Davis and several others I can't mention
I hate to rag on the officials. I hate to blame them in a loss. And as a rule I don't. But they changed the momentum of the game. Twice. That is unacceptable. The Texans definitely made mistakes, but its impossible to recover from them if the officials don't do their job. In the past I have defended the officials but this was sick. All of that said. You have to score TD's when in the redzone.
Mike
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