I admit, I had to skip a few parts: 1. Okoye, whom I was hyper-critical of in the preseason and early in the regular season was AWESOME today. He played in the backfield, held his ground and made plays in against the run and pass. 2. I don't ever want to see Fred Bennett on the field as a Texan again! Rewatch the Jones punt return with 13 minutes left in the 3rd quarter. Jones would've strolled in for a TD if Bennett had attempted to block Campbell. Instead, he just casually strolls right in front of him and moves out of his way and allows Campbell the angle to make the tackle. It was blatant laziness and cowardness. Rewatch it!! I can't do it justice. 3. Duane Brown was dominate again! It's too bad we were so determined to punch it inside or to the right because he owned the edge today. 4. It's very good to have Reeves back. He had good coverage all day. Made some nice plays as well. With the emergence of Quin and Pollard, and especially the Bennett benching, we're getting pretty decent in the secondary. 5. The defense has developed an attitude. Cushing, Quin, and Pollard have really added some nastiness back there. These guys hit now!! 6. Of the 35 completions, a vast majority of them were hooks and comebacks. For some reason, there were very few passes completed to players running routes upfield. Anyone know why? No posts, slants, seams, crosses, etc... 7. I really miss Chester Pitts!! 8. Schaub missed a lot of throws today. He completed 70% for almost 400 yards. So, I'm not sure if my standards/expectations are too high or what.. but I can think of at least 5 passes he had time to throw and just blew it. And, they were important situations too. 9. Kubiak has no clue how to manage the clock. calling a timeout on 1st and goal with 1:27 left in the game proves that. 10. Watching football is supposed to be entertaining. However, I've been a freakin' nervous wreck! I can only enjoy the blowouts. I think I've totally lost perspective and my priorities are clearly out of order!
first thing i thought was -'smart time out by arizona', could'nt believe we called that. how did the ball get so far away from the goal line on the final play? i thought we had a couple inches to go on third down, then a pass play and all the sudden(on the final play) we hike it from the one.
DL are creating more movement via picks, stunts etc. takes time but plays into strength of current roster talent like Amobi (speed & high motor). Think this does bode well going forward for both players & coaches. Secondary is finally together, once again moving forward more reps together they will tighten coverage & clamp down more in run support. Still see some critical whiffs on 3rd down conversions mostly @ safety position like they're guessing on running path instead of focusing on sound fundamental tackling. Duane is doing much better in pass protection but they don't run left enough. Down on the goaline they continue to plug in the middle when our strength is on the edges, makes no sense to me. Love the effort & physical play of the Texans linebackers, they get after it. This helps both the DL & DB's. Passing game is there good receivers & TE's pretty consistant. Like Deion Sanders description of Andre Johnson as "man with the ball". Running the ball is a continous struggle. Matt Schaub says running the ball is all about attitude, well then why not a direct snap to Vonta Leach down there on the goaline then, don't you think he can carry for one yard? I'm afraid the Texans just don't have the personel to run inside when teams pack the box, power football is not the Texans stength. When a game is on the line should you not play to your strength & live another day to work on your short yardage inadequacies? This leads up to my last point, its not coaching, its not game planning, its not execution, its game management. Set them up for the kill but fail to deliever the knock out punch. Schaub is not a mobile QB, that limits some options as does not having consistant ability to run the ball between the tackles. Compounded by not using timeouts wisely, playing too conservative (its obvious you want to burn clock instead of stretching the defense when you have them on their heels) there is tightness in how to handle clock management in critical situations, notice how there is actually plenty of time left on the clock @ end of games? The Texans have no confidence in their ability to close games. Despite all factors that impact outcome players, playcalling, coaching it's the inability to be effective in clock mangament, stay relaxed & have confidence in what they do best in crunch time.
Maybe it's just me, but did anyone notice we went from a ot of zone coverage in the 1st half to a lot of man in the 2nd? As most know, I can't stand zone defense, but I understand that it is needed at times. Let the DB's do their job! They either make the play or they don't. It's better than watching teams finding spots in the zone coverage all the way down the field. Our interior Oline sucks beyond suck. Myers was living in our backfield again. Brisiel was abused by Docket. Studdard seems to run around a lot without really doing anything. It still pisses me off that we supposedly have the ZBS guru, yet our running game is amongst the worst in the league. WTF
