Hervoyel
BUENO!
I really thought I'd be furious if something like this happened tonight. I'm not even remotely angry though. Instead I feel like writing about the game I just watched and some things I observed. I'll hop topics throughout this post and if you're looking for one of those rants I usually fire off following a loss then I'm sorry. I don't have it in me to go crazy right now.
Like I said I'm not angry. I'm disappointed. I'm sorely disappointed in the Texans tonight. I feel like they were beaten by a team that's very much their equal. Strengths are in different places but we're very evenly matched and I would have thought that a Monday Night game would have brought out the necessary intensity in the team. I'd have been wrong.
The Texans let me down tonight in a lot of ways but probably the biggest was the way they played the game. I see posts in here year round about how "dirty" the Titans play but tonight the Texans played dirty. Antonio Smith and Tim Bullman should be fined.
We played with very little composure and less control. This is alarming as we've done this two weeks in a row now. We could not afford to be a penalty machine in either of these past two games. We're a long way from being good enough to overcome those kinds of mistakes. This is something that worries me a lot. The team should be more efficient not less at this stage of the season.
What also worries me is the mindset of Kris Brown. He's somehow become Brad Lidge and that isn't good. It might be getting close to time to part ways with Kris. He is specifically coming up short in high-stress game winning/tying kicks. A kicker who can't deal with pressure is worthless. This is very troublesome.
I feel like our coaches got cute and shot themselves in the foot. This was particularly true with that weird play down in the red zone in the third quarter where Schaub seemed to be trying to force the ball to (I think) Slaton who was just about surrounded by Titans. Vinny and I traded "WTF?" text messages about that time. It was a horrible call and we were moving the ball well for the most part. We just bogged down and that call would have accomplished nothing even if it had been complete. I think particularly on offense we were badly out coached. It's strange to me to see a supposed offensive minded guru like Kubiak trotting out Chris Brown and a four yards and a cloud of dust offense following the bye week. This was his big surprise? How in the world does Chris Brown win the lions share of the snaps on MNF? I'm at a loss to explain what he was thinking.
Protecting Schaub is getting hard and hard to do. He's getting pounded a lot, sacked a lot, and his accuracy is becoming an issue. I think it's having guys up in his face all the time and getting crushed into the ground following every passing play. There were passes thrown tonight that would have looked just fine coming from David Carr.
I want to say that I really felt like Dunta Robinson had one of the crappiest games I've ever witnessed out of him. He's just utterly useless at this point. "Dunta Robinson: The new Fred Bennett" sums up my thoughts. Beat for a touchdown by a rookie? Check. Got your pass interference call? Check. Taking Morlon Greenwood angles at Chris Johnson and ending up with your face in the turf? Check.
Where was Reeves tonight? I never saw him.
Slaton didn't fumble though. That's good. He also looked like he was interested in running the ball though a couple of times I saw him literally pick an opening that didn't exist. It was weird on this one play. He was running down the line and appeared to spot something, pause, and then run right into a pack of Titans. It's like he's wearing a blindfold out there sometimes. He averaged 4 yards a carry though so I don't know why in the world Chris Brown was being featured. What happened to Moats? Foster?
I don't get it. I doubt I ever will. I think we're too young and too undisciplined to be much a threat to get to the playoffs. We're 8-8 and not as good on offense as we were last year. We're missing Owen Daniels, Chester Pitts, and Mike Brisiel. We're missing Steve Slaton too. We have too many missing or misfiring pieces to contend for a Wild Card.
That's just what I think following this game. A win against the Colts next week will be nice if we can get it but it won't mean anything really. We're 5-5 (familiar ground back at .500) and 6-5 is nothing to get excited about when a bad day in Jacksonville the next week could land us right back at .500 again. I'm not going to get excited over a .500 record and neither will most of our fans. It's take a step time and we didn't tonight. Nothing to really say about that but that we'll try and get them next time.
Like I said I'm not angry. I'm disappointed. I'm sorely disappointed in the Texans tonight. I feel like they were beaten by a team that's very much their equal. Strengths are in different places but we're very evenly matched and I would have thought that a Monday Night game would have brought out the necessary intensity in the team. I'd have been wrong.
The Texans let me down tonight in a lot of ways but probably the biggest was the way they played the game. I see posts in here year round about how "dirty" the Titans play but tonight the Texans played dirty. Antonio Smith and Tim Bullman should be fined.
We played with very little composure and less control. This is alarming as we've done this two weeks in a row now. We could not afford to be a penalty machine in either of these past two games. We're a long way from being good enough to overcome those kinds of mistakes. This is something that worries me a lot. The team should be more efficient not less at this stage of the season.
What also worries me is the mindset of Kris Brown. He's somehow become Brad Lidge and that isn't good. It might be getting close to time to part ways with Kris. He is specifically coming up short in high-stress game winning/tying kicks. A kicker who can't deal with pressure is worthless. This is very troublesome.
I feel like our coaches got cute and shot themselves in the foot. This was particularly true with that weird play down in the red zone in the third quarter where Schaub seemed to be trying to force the ball to (I think) Slaton who was just about surrounded by Titans. Vinny and I traded "WTF?" text messages about that time. It was a horrible call and we were moving the ball well for the most part. We just bogged down and that call would have accomplished nothing even if it had been complete. I think particularly on offense we were badly out coached. It's strange to me to see a supposed offensive minded guru like Kubiak trotting out Chris Brown and a four yards and a cloud of dust offense following the bye week. This was his big surprise? How in the world does Chris Brown win the lions share of the snaps on MNF? I'm at a loss to explain what he was thinking.
Protecting Schaub is getting hard and hard to do. He's getting pounded a lot, sacked a lot, and his accuracy is becoming an issue. I think it's having guys up in his face all the time and getting crushed into the ground following every passing play. There were passes thrown tonight that would have looked just fine coming from David Carr.
I want to say that I really felt like Dunta Robinson had one of the crappiest games I've ever witnessed out of him. He's just utterly useless at this point. "Dunta Robinson: The new Fred Bennett" sums up my thoughts. Beat for a touchdown by a rookie? Check. Got your pass interference call? Check. Taking Morlon Greenwood angles at Chris Johnson and ending up with your face in the turf? Check.
Where was Reeves tonight? I never saw him.
Slaton didn't fumble though. That's good. He also looked like he was interested in running the ball though a couple of times I saw him literally pick an opening that didn't exist. It was weird on this one play. He was running down the line and appeared to spot something, pause, and then run right into a pack of Titans. It's like he's wearing a blindfold out there sometimes. He averaged 4 yards a carry though so I don't know why in the world Chris Brown was being featured. What happened to Moats? Foster?
I don't get it. I doubt I ever will. I think we're too young and too undisciplined to be much a threat to get to the playoffs. We're 8-8 and not as good on offense as we were last year. We're missing Owen Daniels, Chester Pitts, and Mike Brisiel. We're missing Steve Slaton too. We have too many missing or misfiring pieces to contend for a Wild Card.
That's just what I think following this game. A win against the Colts next week will be nice if we can get it but it won't mean anything really. We're 5-5 (familiar ground back at .500) and 6-5 is nothing to get excited about when a bad day in Jacksonville the next week could land us right back at .500 again. I'm not going to get excited over a .500 record and neither will most of our fans. It's take a step time and we didn't tonight. Nothing to really say about that but that we'll try and get them next time.