Texan Gal 312 said:
The one thing that will without a doubt take you to the bottom third of the league is changing coaching staffs every two to four years Consistency over 3-4 years will bring EXECUTION. EXECUTION will bring success and wins... I believe in the first series last week the first two runs to Davis netted 7 or 8 yards. The failure on third down was lack of execution.
Thank you for your post. I agree with everything you say, but I wanted to clarify the first series playcalling in the Viking Game (source: gamebook
http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/gamebook/NFL_20041010_MIN@HOU) bracketed notes are mine
1-10-HST 29 (9:56) 8-D.Carr
pass to 37-D.Davis to HST 36 for
7 yards (54-D.Thomas).
(according to Carr, every pass to Davis is a check down. Therefore this was a pass call to someone OTHER than Davis)
Successful play
2-3-HST 36 (9:22) PENALTY on HST-47-J.Baxter, False Start, 5 yards, enforced at HST 36 - No Play.
2-8-HST 31 (9:01) 8-D.Carr
pass to 37-D.Davis to 50 for 19 yards (27-B.Russell). P1
(according to Carr, every pass to Davis is a check down. therefore this was a pass call to someone OTHER than Davis)
Successful play
1-10-50 (8:20) 37-D.Davis up the middle to MIN 46 for
4 yards (57-R.Smith; 90-S.Martin).
(I believe a running play of 4 yrds is considered a success and 3 yrds or less an unsuccessful play)
Successful play
2-6-MIN 46 (7:38) 37-D.Davis up the middle to MIN 42 for 4 yards (93-K.Williams, 79-K.Mixon).
(I believe a running play of 4 yrds is considered a success and 3 yrds or less an unsuccessful play)
Successful play
I would add that the first 4 plays (2 passes and 2 runs) shows good balance. While the plays as called were 2 runs to Davis and 2 passes to others, Carrs check downs resulted in 4 plays to Davis (although all 4 would be considered successful, IMO)
3-2-MIN 42 (6:51) 37-D.Davis right end to MIN 45 for -3 yards (29-B.Williams, 93-K.Williams).
(3-2 is a good 3rd down situation. The problem is that on this play, the Texans face
9 Vikings in the box! In my opinion, this required Carr to either check to a pass (single coverage by the CBs with no help overtop by the safeties) or if he didn't have a check to a pass in the play package, he should have called a timeout. The down was that important to convert. He didn't and we ended up with our only unsuccessful play in the first quarter)
We didn't touch the ball again in the first quarter.
I don't understand why people think all the plays were called to Davis (2-2 the first 4 plays), or why we were predictable (first 4 plays were successful). I would argue that the above shows a problem only with execution on the third down play.