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Can we talk about the big fat elephant in the room for a second...

dream_team said:
I share the OP's concern. Even last season, if I had to pick a weakness of the Texans D, I would say they can be ran on up the middle. Now that Demeco is gone, they have gotten even worse. I even thinking Cushing is not playing as well as he did last season.

Our best defense against the run is actually our offense. Our offense has gotten into big leads so early, it has forced teams to abandon the run. In the Titans case, they didn't abandon it and ended up rushing over 100 yards.

I'm actually quite surprised we've been winning these games so easily. We haven't been running the ball all that well, and haven't been stopping the run all that well. Does that just show how good this team is? Not everything is clicking right now, but still dominating teams.
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Very well said!
I don't think it is a HUGE problem but it could be shored up. Like some body said earlier you let Ray Rice get those lanes and it's ball game. I'm not freaking out about it but they just need to improve it. And I have confidence Son of Bum will.
 
I don't think it's a big problem, but I do think it's a lack of size at a certain nose-tackle position.

As far as our run game, I can see several issues, like that right side I'm not supposed to talk about (which is actually MUCH improved in pass-blocking), but I don't see it being a problem with Foster. Some of it seems to be run-blocking; some of it is Tate--he's good sometimes and bad at others. Maybe Tate needs to be a Vegan. :)

Maybe Tate and Cody both need to be Vegans. :stirpot:
 
Up until now we've seen the Texans do a lot of rotating on the right side. They're not happy with what they're getting and nor should they be but eventually they're going to settle into the best combination we have and the changes are going to "gel" (yes, that word we all hate to hear but know is coming). Things will get better as the year goes on. I genuinely believe that. We're 4 real games into the season and it's still a work in progress. Most teams are saying that about some aspect of their football team right now.

Stopping the run, that's a whole other can of worms
 
eriadoc said:
Well, if you take the 4th quarter out of the equation, CJ averaged 5 yards a carry. He never had a huge breakout run, like you mention, so that pretty well means he actually was getting about that per run through the first three quarters.

That said, I think worry is too strong a word for this thread. We're just considering possible problems.
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Actually he did have a few "long" runs. I'm ok with that. If a guy averages 5 ypc by carring for -2 yards and 11 yards and -2 and 9 I'm ok with that. I woudl prefer that to 5 yards, 5 yads, 5 yards, 5 yards over and over. As an offense running the ball for negative yards is disrupting. It puts you in positions that you are in 2nd and 3rd and long. On one play he lost 7 yards. Weclcome to 2nd and 17. I would actually rather he get one or two long runs and average 5 ypc than average 4 ypc on all 4 yard runs.

Mike
 
There's a couple of things I feel are wrong along with the right side of the line.

A) When Ben Jones plays, Arian Foster gets better runs. Why can't we just start th guy?

B) I think we still miss Joel Dreesen in that aspect. Graham and Casey just don't run block like he did.

C) James Casey vs. a real FB. I think James Casey is a great player. I think he's a cool H Back who can be multi demensional. Foster doesn't need that. He needs a battering Ram FB. We don't have that.
 
Porky said:
I'm concerned about the run on both sides of the ball. Right now, we've played a relatively easy schedule. Not horribly bad teams, but teams we certainly should beat sans Denver.
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Just FYI:

Miami -
Offense
5th in rush yards per game at 153 (We gave up 79 yards)
6th in rush yards per attempt at 4.6 (We held them to 4.2)

Defense
1st in rush yards per game at 57 (We put up 83)
1st in rush yards per attempt at 2.4 (We gained at 2.7)

Jacksonville -
Offense
15th in rush yards per game at 108 (We gave up 65)
9th in rush yards per attempt at 4.4 (We held them to 4.6)

Defense
30th in rush yards per game at 150 (We put up 216)
20th in rush yards per attempt at 4.3 (We gained at 4.5)

Denver -
Offense
14th in rush yards per game at 109 (We gave up 56)
17th in rush yards per attempt at 3.9 (We held them to 2.8)

Defense
9th in rush yards per game at 87 (We gained 152)
7th in rush yards per attempt at 3.4 (We gained at 4.5)



So its not like we've played an easy schedule. And we've consistently been on the right side of the averages. Miami is in the top offense/defense combos for the run game. Denver is highly respectable as well. Tennessee was a disappointment but we won that game handily, so I dont' know how much it really tells us
 
After the Texans removed Locker from the game, I believe the Titans were committed to the run to save Matt Hasselbeck from the same fate. The Texans defense was more than happy to let them run the ball with the big lead. They stopped them when it counted.
 
FirstTexansFan said:
After the Texans removed Locker from the game, I believe the Titans were committed to the run to save Matt Hasselbeck from the same fate. The Texans defense was more than happy to let them run the ball with the big lead. They stopped them when it counted.
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Thats an excellent point. Hassleback said as much during his postgame interview.

The Titans did NOT have a 3rd string QB. So he was not allowed to get injured. They had to run on certain passing downs just to have a QB at all. He said he felt stifled
 
Playoffs said:
Kubiak...

(on if he’s worried about the run defense, especially after Titans RB Chris Johnson’s breakout game today) “They had a lot of yards at the end of the game too. I don’t know statistically how it comes out. You also have to go back and look at what took place before that last drive when they were running all the draws and we were in that situation. One of the good things is we have had some leads. If we’ve got some leads and people are going to commit to running the football it’s a good thing for our team. You have to look at how the game is going, what you’re trying to do to win, and all I know is we are playing darn good defense. There are always some things you can do better, and obviously that is one of them. We could run the ball better, too. I didn’t like the way we ran today.”
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http://www.houstontexans.com/news/a...ek-4-win/2074f864-cef0-4af1-8c04-e5c071f04e92
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I was thinking pretty much the same thing. It sucks that we gave up so many yards on the ground, but they didn't get any points that counted out of it. It was pretty much garbage time all second half & they (the Titans) decided to treat it as a preseason game & not try to win.

We're most likely playing back, playing the pass. They're going to get some yards on the ground.

So in short, I don't think we can use this game to gauge our run defense. I understand the previous three games we didn't look good either, the score took away the running game.

& I really think that is more important than our run defense, the offense has to get off to a good start & build a lead. That's the best run defense any team can ask for.

By the way, we're 3rd in points allowed with teams 1 & 2 (Bears & Cowboys) playing tonight.
 
BullNation4Life said:
OK let's talk about that as well, is it me, and it could be just me, but does it seem like Foster is going down way to easy on arm tackles this year? It seems like anybody hits him in the leg or swipes at him, he is going down.

last year it seemed he ran through allot of those arm tackles.

I know I may seem nit picking, and I am because they are playing that damn good right now. It maybe the artist in me noticing these little details.

Just seems different this year, Good, very, very good, just different...
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I made a comment to the wife about this yesterday. I also noticed we weren't seeing the cutback lanes when they were there. The blocking hasn't been up to snuff, but there has been room to run on several occasions.
 
eriadoc said:
So they had 86 yards on 17 carries through 3 quarters (that's over 5YPC) and most everyone is just brushing it off like no big deal? OK, it's not a big deal, I get that. But it's a potential pitfall. How many yards total did Foster rack up, by the way?
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I kinda agree with you eriadoc, it is a concern, but only a small one. The Titans were not playing to win the game through most of the game. Not just the 4th Qtr, or the 3rd qtr. It was like they conceded early. They were running in obvious passing situations, what are we supposed to do?

It's like playing black jack & you're the only one at the table that knows how to play.

Again, we "knew" we had run defense issues before this game. I don't think this game did anything to "highlight" a weakness or uncover something for other teams to build on.

Miami is the 5th best rushing team in the league right now & we played them pretty well, warts & all. It's a problem, just not as big as what Sunday's game would make you think.
 
Lucky said:
Does it matter that the Titans preferred to get some meaningless yards on the ground once the game was in hand? They ran for over 100 yards in the 2nd half when the game was already in hand for the Texans. The Titans were afraid to pass. When Watt & Co. weren't dismantling their QBs, the Texans secondary were posing in the end zone. The run defense was and has been a non-issue.
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It looked to me like the Titans just gave up on winning the game at some point in the 4th quarter. They kept running the ball and it was obvious that this was to run the clock out and get the heck out of there. They looked defeated on the sideline, from Munchak on down to the players and other coaches.

Our D was playing the pass, and with a 3-4 line, it's easy to run the ball and gain yards. But the running game was never a true threat, so I think the Monday morning coaches looking at stats are a bit over-reactive a this point.

Even at 14-7, I never felt that the Titans had a chance.
 
Fiddler said:
... it is a concern, but only a small one.
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Well, that's all I've said, really. Personally, I would much rather talk about these small problems while enjoying the afterglow of a 20+ point win to get to 4-0 than what we all endured the first several years. You didn't point out small concerns in the early years because there were no small concerns. The entire team was a flaming pile of crap LOL. This discussion is rather refreshing. Oh woe is our team! They won by 24 and gave up 141 inconsequential yards!

LOL

Sometimes on this forum, you can't raise a concern without someone else blasting off without even considering a little perspective. (not saying you're doing that, just a general comment)
 
The Titans has a total of 13 Offensive series:

10 series netted 20 yards or less with 7 series resulted in punts, 3 in turnovers, and only two (the TD drives) that crossed the Houston 40 yard line.

Specifically speaking to CJ and the impact that he had on the game, it should be noted that in the two touchdown drives, he racked up 83 of his 146 yards.

This is bad in a way, because it shows that when he was getting the yardage, they were scoring TD's. It should be noted though that he gained 44 yards on that second "gimme" TD drive.

But it is also good in a way, because it shows that in their other 11 offensive series, he only gained 58 yards.

Outside of the TD drives, he only had 3 rushes that were greater than 5 yards.

So in 85% of their offensive attempts, we held him to an average of 6 yards PER SERIES.
 
HJam72 said:
Working on how to misquote GP... :thinking:
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It's not all that hard. Here's an example of how to do it:

"All you have ever done is slam Arian Foster. You want the guy to fail, and here's your chance. And saying that vegan diet is complete garbage? Shows how little you know."

See?

1. I have not "always" slammed Foster. I tend to roll my eyes and post my criticisms of certain 'I'm smarter than everyone else" stuff he tends to fall into, which is just his personality--The free-thinker, philosophical type.

2. I have not wanted him to fail. He needs to be the Arian Foster of old, the guy who looked toned and strong and had stamina.

3. I don't think the vegan diet is garbage. It'll be great for him when he's retired from the game and wants to live the remainder of his life that way. But right now? He needs to get back to the good stuff. Milk and honey and meat.

There. Some of you who love to misquote me, you can just copy and paste whatever you want. Edit it how you want. Knock yourselves out with it.
 
eriadoc said:
LOL

Sometimes on this forum, you can't raise a concern without someone else blasting off without even considering a little perspective. (not saying you're doing that, just a general comment)
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I know what you mean. I mentioned a concern with Jjo &... let's just say I caught some flak... even though it later came out that there was some groin concerns.
 
TPN,

Does everybody here need to know how my wife's fantasy football team is beating your team by over 50 points this weekend? You need Herculean efforts by Marshall and Ogletree tonight. :cjeremy635:

I've seen some misquoting in my day, but yours takes the cake! LOL. :challenge
 
I'm not going to lie and say that i'm not a little worried about it. When you consider he hadn't had a game where he rushed for more than 25 yds..it is a bit concerning.

But what i also believe is that Wade's still holding back a little. The only reason i say this is b/c we've done very little blitzing these 1st 4 games. & i remember by the end of last year, we were blitzing a lot.

Go back & look at that 1st Baltimore game. Ray Rice had a field day running the ball on us to the tune of 101 yds on 23 carries. By the time that playoff game rolled around, Rice had only 60 yds on 21 carries and was not a factor whatsoever. & we blitzed like a mofo in that playoff game so...
 
Simply put, we will know alot more about this team heading into our bye week. For now, we keep winning and with a mix of different ways each time. The sign of a great team.
 
there is always a week spot the trick is to be able to choose where your week spot is depending on the team your playing good job coaches
 
miter saw said:
there is always a week spot the trick is to be able to choose where your week spot is depending on the team your playing good job coaches
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what.gif
 
miter saw said:
wheres the week spot for the ravens game thats the one to be talkig about or the pats:bender:
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1. Spelling.
2. Punctuation.

"Where's the weak spot for the Ravens game? That's the one to be talking about. Or the Pats. :bender:"

And that's kinda the point. The Pats had 2 RBs go over 100 yards yesterday and the Ravens have Ray Rice.

If we have a weakness against the run, we're going to be exposed against those teams.
 
The Pencil Neck said:
1. Spelling.
2. Punctuation.

"Where's the weak spot for the Ravens game? That's the one to be talking about. Or the Pats. :bender:"

And that's kinda the point. The Pats had 2 RBs go over 100 yards yesterday and the Ravens have Ray Rice.

If we have a weakness against the run, we're going to be exposed against those teams.
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I doubt we play the same game against the Ravens or the Pats. Last year, our defense wasn't that great against the run either, still we managed to hold Ray Rice, MjD & a whole host of other RBs. Until yesterday, we went 8 consecutive games without allowing a 100 yard rusher & that included 2 play-off games.

Normally when you open a lead like we had, you'd expect them to throw the ball, that's our M.O. that's when we've got them where we want them... pin our ears back & all that jazz. That didn't happen yesterday. They found out they couldn't throw the ball against us, so they just ran & ran & ran & ran the clock out.

We put the JV team in halfway through the 4th Qtr.... for all of Chris Johnson's running, they got 1 touch down. that's it, 7 points. No field goals, no big 20 yard CJ2k runs.

I'm sure they're going to spend a lot of time in the film room & figure out how to stop the run with the front 7..... in nickel situations.
 
I think all we need to know about our run D can be learned from watching the two goal line plays against the Broncos after the ridiculous PI call on Kareem in the end zone.
When we're playing the run, we turn 1st and goal at the one into 3rd and 6.

You're not going to take everything away from an NFL offense. We've seen teams try to do it to us and it leads to AJ walking into the endzone or death of a thousand 8 yards check downs.

The Ravens and Bears will be better tests of our run D, but in this league, with this team, as long as we're decent against the run and keep up our dominance in the passing game (and our 20 point leads), we're picking the right poison.
 
The Pencil Neck said:
1. Spelling.
2. Punctuation.

"Where's the weak spot for the Ravens game? That's the one to be talking about. Or the Pats. :bender:"

And that's kinda the point. The Pats had 2 RBs go over 100 yards yesterday and the Ravens have Ray Rice.

If we have a weakness against the run, we're going to be exposed against those teams.
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miter saw tell them you "could care less" :)
 
Regarding the main subject here, I just agree with others that CJ3yearsAgo got a lot of garbage stats. Go ahead and run the whole 2nd half and burn clock when you're losing to us by too much. We're fine with that.

We do seem to have a weakness regarding the run up the middle, but we are the number 1 overall D right now and this is the time in the NFL where, if you're going to have a weakness, that's the one to put up with. We sure don't want to have any weaknesses in our pass D. So, we're not the best D ever. We don't have to be, because we do have an offense.
 
Speedy said:
Only team in the NFL that hasn't given up a rushing TD - Houston Texans.
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I didn't know that. Maybe we are just not focused on the run at times, but do just fine when we are.

I don't know, but I'm a lot more worried about this team staying healthy.
 
HJam72 said:
I didn't know that. Maybe we are just not focused on the run at times, but do just fine when we are.

I don't know, but I'm a lot more worried about this team staying healthy.
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I'm always worried about injuries. But mostly what I worry about is always the next game. I don't care if we are supposed to beat the jets by a gazallion points, I still worry.
 
Thorn said:
I'm always worried about injuries. But mostly what I worry about is always the next game. I don't care if we are supposed to beat the jets by a gazallion points, I still worry.
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We could definitely lose to the Jets on the road, but 4-1 is no nightmare. If it happens, it might teach our guys some kind of valuable lesson and be worth the 1 loss.
 
HJam72 said:
We could definitely lose to the Jets on the road, but 4-1 is no nightmare. If it happens, it might teach our guys some kind of valuable lesson and be worth the 1 loss.
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Agreed, but only if they lose focus would the loss be "worth it".

After all, they need to be at least twice as good as the "other guy"

Not for our town, not for the fans..... although God knows we in Houston need it.

But for themselves..... no matter how good they looked last season.

it was TAKEN from them due to PM being down.

in order for them to CLAIM what they have worked so hard for they have to do it twice as good as anyone else, to prove to the nation the lack PM is irrelevant to the success of these Texans.
 
HJam72 said:
We could definitely lose to the Jets on the road, but 4-1 is no nightmare. If it happens, it might teach our guys some kind of valuable lesson and be worth the 1 loss.
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Perhaps to another team but not the STINKIN' JETS and their toe suckin' lypo banded, blow hard (get my point?) coach!
 
Our D is ranked 1st in total yards and points. A few runs up the middle aren't going to kill us.

Posted using Tapatalk from my phone. May contain errors.
 
I'm still quite new to all this but these Texans rock!! I so enjoy watching them kick butts each week...I know the tough times will come but at the minute I'm just enjoying what I'm seeing :)
 
LondonTex said:
I'm still quite new to all this but these Texans rock!! I so enjoy watching them kick butts each week...I know the tough times will come but at the minute I'm just enjoying what I'm seeing :)
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The tough times have passed!

There were seasons when we didn't have this many wins.
 
I think the elephant in the room is our crappy special teams.

Our return game has looked ordinary at best, and our kicking game is plagued by noodle leg Graham and his inability to kick from distance.

The old saying is special teams win championships, does anyone really think we have championship quality special teams?
 
LondonTex said:
I'm still quite new to all this but these Texans rock!! I so enjoy watching them kick butts each week...I know the tough times will come but at the minute I'm just enjoying what I'm seeing :)
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I think the tough times are upon us. Used to be, when we punted the ball (which happened a lot) you could go get some concessions, take a bathroom break, smoke a cigarette, & make a quick pass through one of the novelty shops, then get back to your seats on time to watch the offense.

Now that the defense is just as exciting to watch, if not more... you pretty much have to get all that done before kick-off.


:wadepalm:
 
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