Postgame analysis

[beerlover]

Awesome baby! What a terrific performance by the Texans today. The Jaguars where taken out of their game plan by a swarming defensive front led by Seth Payne, Gary Walker & Robaire Smith.

The linebacking corps infiltrated the backfield numerous times causing many forced incompletions. The secondary what can I say, it has becopme the strength of the Texans defense.

The drafting of Duanta Robinson was a stroke of genius, Houston we have a shutdown corner. Glenn cowboyed up in the endzone made a great rejection over the much bigger Reggie Williams, then stayed in the game showing a lot of heart & professionalism. Recently re-signed Coleman was a bellweather of strength in support & Faggins came up big on the INT.

The offense exacuted profeicently, Palmer mixing up the play calling, Carr showing alot of poise & accuracy. The running game was not dominant but effective & the Texans overcame their turnovers.

Special teams outstanding! Stanley (fake kick) Kris Brown 2-2 & JJ Moses seemed to be even better than ever (27.5 avg.)

This to me was the most complete game to date, the Texans showed maturity, depth and killer instinct. Great coaching, game planning & exacution. Can the Texans continue playing elite NFL football rests sqaurely on the shoulders of their young QB Carr. Can he stay focused & injury free is the question but hey thats why they call em franchise QB's?

 

[beerlover]

your just saying that to make it difficult for me to rule the boards Happy Halloween eek:

yes I admit I'm a ..........Texans fan, satisfied

 

[Ibar_Harry]

We played very well and survived our mistakes. In particular the mistake by Gaffny was obviously very big. I don't think he will make that mistake again. He's a very young player who is really coming on strong. I feel, despite what Vinny thinks, that our coaching staff made a very bad mistake when we were on the 2 with 1 to go for a 1st and 2 for a touchdown. On 3rd down they called for a pass which was incomplete. If you analyze the play from a clock and every other point of view, it was a bad call. We are at the end of the game trying to score and run the clock down. It looked like it might cost us the game and I think it was close and Lefty certainly thought they had an opportunity to come back in his post game statements. There is no question that we left the door open and we can't do that against a mature football team like the Pats. Fortunately our defense made a couple of great plays and we survived. Just as the coaches say the players have to learn, I think the coaches do to. However, this was a very well conceived game plan and well executed by the players as a whole. Its amazing though how 1 or 2 plays can almost undo a great effort by everyone.

I'm worried about David's ankle. I believe he had trouble with it last year and he has been having quite a bit of trouble this year with it. Wiegert was commenting earlier in the week about how good it was to have David back and that he had his mobility back. I think its a bigger problem than we think. Other teams are certainly going to focus on the injury possibility. Notibly the team we play next week.

If we can stay injury free I think we have a shot of making the play offs. Earlier I made a statement that injuries are starting to catch up to a lot of teams. Today the Pats didn't have Ty and the Vikes are having problems with Moss. I think if you look at the league as a whole injuries are beginning to affect a number of the leaders. Therefore the name of the game is to play well and be injury free. If you are you may be well placed in January.

I don't look for us to move up much in the power rankings because the teams well above us lost and the teams just above and below us won. ESPN seems to be using the team record as a very big part of the rating. Its interesting we now have the same record as the Colts, Rams, Seahawks, Lions, and Ravens. The teams ahead of us Record wise are the Pats, Eagles, Vikes Jaguars, Jets, Steelers, Broncos, Falcons, Giants, and Chargers. We need to beat the Broncos next week just to get to their record. Those 1st two games hurt us a lot in the standings even though we are playing very well.

GO TEXANS

 

[Vinny]

I feel, despite what Vinny thinks, that our coaching staff made a very bad mistake when we were on the 2 with 1 to go for a 1st and 2 for a touchdown. On 3rd down they called for a pass which was incomplete. If you analyze the play from a clock and every other point of view, it was a bad call. We are at the end of the game trying to score and run the clock down. It looked like it might cost us the game and I think it was close and Lefty certainly thought they had an opportunity to come back in his post game statements.

Our backs (Dom and Wells) were a combined 26 carries for a grand total of 58 yards today (do the math and you don't get an impressive figure). If you watched the game you could tell we could not run on them inside. Since you didn't see the game you just assume that was a bad call. We had 6:54 to go in the game at that point and went ahead by two scores. Bleeding another 30 - 40 seconds off the clock wasn't going to do much to seal a victory. There is no way we almost lose the game on that call. It is easy to just find a play on a stat sheet and criticize it.

(6:54) D.Carr pass incomplete to C.Bradford

http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/gamebook/NFL_20041031_JAC@HOU

 

[Ibar_Harry]

Vinny we will disagree on this one and that's fair. I believe the Jags ran out of time at about the 19 second mark when they were getting close again. I'm sorry but 30 or 40 seconds in the last two minutes can be a lot of time. If I recall correctly in our last possssion, Wells was able to make 10 yards on carries for a 1st down. I agree that when you are in close its tough, because they bring the house. However, I still say if you analyze all of the things that could have happened and how you play the end game, it was a bad call. We survived and I'm happy. In my mind I called the fake and I was right. That was a good play, because we needed to keep our momentum and we needed to keep the Jags off of the field. We needed to run the clock down to win the game. we couldn't let them get their momentum back. Having successfully executed a well thought out gamble, we toss in the towel when we have the benefit of the gamble in sight. Its like bluffing in Texas Holdem and giving up in the end when you have driven all of the winning hands out of the game. I just hope they look at the film and rethink that play if they are in that position again. Vinny if it was 3rd and two or more for the 1st down, I would agree with the play. But we could have gotten a 1st down at the 1 and would have been able to take 3 running shots at the end zone. That would have eaten up a lot of time uncovering the piles. I'm sorry, but this is one of the times I believe they had to run and not pass the ball. You seldom hear me say that. Just as there are times to pass the ball there are times to run the ball.

 

[Vinny]

Vinny we will disagree on this one and that's fair. I believe the Jags ran out of time at about the 19 second mark when they were getting close again. I'm sorry but 30 or 40 seconds in the last two minutes can be a lot of time.

There were nearly 7 mins left, not 2. Big difference. You are taking the 30 seconds from that play and applying it to the end of the game. That does not compute.

 

[SESupergenius]

Wow where do I start. The game wasn't even close. You tack on the Gaffney equivalent to the Plaxico mistake a few years ago and we win by 27-6. Jaxs defense was ranked pretty high going into this game as we put up over 350 total yards and killed them on the time of possession. This was by far one the best defensive efforts I've seen out the Texans to date. Sharper was just all over the place and several players made some big plays, everybody showed up and was on the same page. Got to hand it to the Battle Red Day, it sure did pump the team up and those uniforms look a lot better than the white ones. I pegged this game as the most important for us because now we are within a stones throw on being in 1st place and defeated a rival. I was very happy to see Palmer open up the offense like he did because it sure did seem that they were passing more and completing high percentage passes than previous games. Carrs numbers were absolutely fantastic the 1st half. I'm glad that we are are finally see other players get into a game while Johnson is being blanketed. Carr read the defense with ease and the offensive line is just playing out of this world right now in pass protection. Carr did not even get touched except for roll outs. Coaches deserve all the credit for this one, it was a masterfull plan of attack to come out slinging. Game ball goes to them....or maybe to Stanley for the juke fake punt play. You gotta hate yourself knowing that you got ruled on by a punter. That's gotta hurt.

 

[phan1]

We are definitely playing up to expectations, especially on defense. No more giving up 3rd & 10 like we did in the first few games of the season. Playcalling is much better too. Way to spread the ball around!

 

[STEEL BLUE TEXANS]

the biggest difference with our defense has been the improved play of our D-Line. when they are able to control the line of scrimmage and get some penetration, it just makes everyone else's job easier.

 

[texan279]

Our defense has only allowed 2 field goals in the last 6 quarters.

 

[Hervoyel]

The defense is starting to look like the unit we had in 2002 that kept us in games we had no business being in only this year we have an offense to go along with it. If we can stay healthy and the defense continues to play at this level we're going to upset some folks over the second half of the year.

The passing game is in my mind where it needs to be. They can (along with the D) carry us when our running game isn't producing. If the run blocking gets going and Davis can start finding holes again we're going to be in the mix right up until the end. Some more TD's instead of FG's would be nice to see and I think that's coming soon.

Jacksonville does not have a bad defense and we moved the ball on them at times almost at will. I'm a happy fan today.

 

[El Tejano]

I think this was a very good defensive game for us. Our defense has been playing with momentum, inspiration, confidence, purpose, and new found life. They look like they are having fun now.

Offensively we over came alot against a real good football team. Gaffney's fumble, Andre's fumble and yes David Carr's fumble. That was a fumble and we were lucky to come away with that one. That is okay considering how we gave them away earlier this year, we deserved one of those back. David Carr's tantrum by the sideline also was something I feel we overcame thanks to the defense. That little display took us out of a possible FG or 3rd down conversion. They did show David on the sidelines after that and I gotta say it was real nice to see our man look as if to say, he wanted the ball again. It was good that we won the game because alot of heads would be rolling around here if we didn't, and it is much easier to learn from mistakes with a win. This team can now look back and correct the mistakes that could've prevented the win and as a young team learn from the now in the middle of the season instead of at the end where more will be on the line for us.

We did get quite a bit of help from the refs. The Jville first down catch that was ruled a fumble should not have been. But hey, we've been waiting 3yrs for that type of call to go our way.

Anyhow, my take on the game was that our defense has improved, our offense is steady but needs to become more mentally strong and needs to get a run game going again.

Nevertheless, a much needed win and I will take a win handed to us than a loss earned. I believe Gaffney said it best that the ability to overcome the setbacks in the game shows the character of this team.

 

[dalemurphy]

Gary Walker SIGHTING!.. He was pushing into the backfield the entire game. I think he got healthy in the bye week.

 

[El Tejano]

That has been a huge upgrade for the season, having Walker back healthy. I too believe the Payne sack was an indication that our Dline may be all go.