I said this throughout the gameday thread last night.
I will say it again.
There is an Instant Gratification Crowd (IGC) here.
The IGC are swayed by the moment-by-moment evenst that transpire on the screen. If we made it a good game, if we came back from a deficit, and if certain items looked decent, then YAY! things are fine and dandy.
The IGC get goose-bumps when we rally and start the comeback...but they forget that we already know the ending. I'm surprised that we pulled off the Redskins and Raiders games. In essence, as I have also said all season long when it became apparent we were pretenders and not contenders, this team has to have its opponent's wheels fall off in order for the Texans to win.
The Redskins and Raiders are worse than the Texans. The Redskins got away from their gameplan in the 2nd half. The Raiders had receivers dropping passes at critical moments, and their injured QB came back onto the field when he should have stayed out. We won those games because those two teams goofed up and played down to us. Down to our level.
When we face teams who are tougher (mentally) we come close to beating them but cannot beat them.
My first problem is that I truly 100% believe that this coaching staff does not gameplan for each individual opponent. I'm not saying they don't watch film. I am saying that I think we aren't seeing a coaching staff able to identify the areas of the opponent that are most vulnerable and should be exploited. I definitely do not think the defensive coaches are preparing their players appropriately, nor are they putting their guys into position to stand a fighting chance. Young secondary? (sigh) OK, that's a part of it. But good coaching can coach up anything, and this team is not THAT void of talent on both sides of the ball. Not until we are essentially out of the playoff picture do we see Pollard coming on blitzes like he has these past two games. It took THAT long to try this? Okie-dokie. 10-yard cushion on receivers? Laughable.
Secondly, there's a fundamental problem with your coach when you stick with a shanky kicker (Kris Brown) all of last season without bringing in someone to take his place. As head coach, I would have waived Chris Brown the RB and picked up a kicker...then I would keep Kris Brown the kicker ACTIVATED as well as ACTIVATE the new kicker, making Kris Brown sit and watch and attempting to give the new kicker the gameday reps. Without anybody there to help the team out, Kris Brown drowned himself AND this team's playoff hopes. And Kubiak did nothing. He enabled it all. Period. The roster decisions have been dubious. Slow to act, that's the tag I put on Kubiak. Slaton ALL year long as our kickoff returner. Seirously? Wow.
Thirdly, there is a coach out there that I believe has to be sitting and watching our game(s) and thinking to himself, "How is this team NOT 11-2 right now?" We have the tools. But the biggest "tool" of all is the guy managing this whole fiasco right now.
My thoughts on last night's game? Oh, it was splendid. Wonderful! I was ecstatic to see the same thing play out for like, what, the fourth time this season? With the same predictable ending. And the same predictable posts by the same people who are IGC around here.
More, please! (whack!) May I have another? (whack) Thank you. (whack)....