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Takeaways from the Chargers game.

steelbtexan said:
Roby has been lining up on the slot and JoJo/Johnson on the outside guys. I thought Johnson looked pretty good today considering this was his 2nd game. He played alot of snaps.
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Got to be hopeful that he develops into Joseph's role in season, Joseph looks a step short too often these days and receivers seem to have their cake against him, for all the veteran savvy he displays he doesnt have the elite athleticism any more to play tight.
 
Gritty win against a good football team. Main takeaways for me

1) we are the worst team I’ve ever seen on defense in 3rd and long situations. I cannot understand the cushions we give opposing WRs either. I understand the bend don’t break philosophy but we have got to figure out how to get off the field in 3rd and long situations. I think this will be critical to our success this year

2) the play calling seemed very disjointed in the first half. I think the lack of a run game was a combination of the Chargers emphasizing stopping the run and miscommunication by the young OL. I think the OL will get better with experience

3) someone earlier mentioned Watson having happy feet in the pocket. While the pass protection is improving and should continue to as our OL gels, it’s not like Watson has a clean pocket all the time. Watching KC play Baltimore, Mahomes has a clean pocket more often than not. I’m hoping we’ll see Watson standing tall with no one around him in the near future.
 
jshabang said:
Well ....... we better tighten up against the run..... we don’t look good in that phase on defense as I had hoped and I’m afraid it will get us at some point....... we really miss Clowney in the phase........Mercilus can probably rush like Clowney but Clowney was a monster against the run........we also have to tackle better.... RAC HAS TO GET BACK TO THE BASICS....... I seen to many plays where we read the play perfectly and just took horrible angles and over ran the play....... it’s happening WAY TO OFTEN..... so that tells me this is a coaching thing and undisciplined play...... at any rate that’s on RAC...... these bad angle arm tackling plays are killing us softly

And last but definitely not least...... it’s time to put the old dog out to pasture...... time to put him out his misery......... J Jo is NO LONGER STARTING MATERIAL AND NEEDS TO RETIRE..... he absolutely can not cover a whole game without giving up a HUGE CUSHION for fear he will get beat ...... but that’s not working AT ALL....... it’s time for J Jo to go...... I don’t care who takes his place..... the guy from New England or somebody on the practice squad but we must move on...... they can’t get any worse then he is....... he can’t cover anymore for any extended amount of time and it’s killing us......... if J Jo is still our starting corner come playoff time we won’t get out the first round because the tape is out now...... everybody is abusing him play after play.......... it was sad to see ....... last week a Rookie who looks like Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite LIT US UP IN THE LAST SECONDS OF THE GAME...... and the only reason we won is because they went for 2 instead of the extra point....... the premiere QB’s are licking there chops to get a shot at J Jo so we better do something about it and quick....... the Rookie and Roby looked better then J Jo and that’s not gonna change...... time to cut bait on him before it bites us in the ass
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Put the Clowney thing to rest, he is not killing it in Seattle and Whitney has replaced him fine and is killing him in pass pressure and big plays. 18 rushes for 73 yards is not bad run defense and I take Whit's disruption over a small increase in rushing defense. Brought the Chargers average down to 112. JJo played press a couple of times and looked fine, then I saw a play where the safety did not get under like he should, so some is the guys doing their jobs better, but indeed, seeing Lonnie and Roby in press and JJo off 10-15 yards is maddening since other plays he can get up on guys
 
Rich Schmidt said:
Put the Clowney thing to rest, he is not killing it in Seattle and Whitney has replaced him fine and is killing him in pass pressure and big plays. 18 rushes for 73 yards is not bad run defense and I take Whit's disruption over a small increase in rushing defense. Brought the Chargers average down to 112. JJo played press a couple of times and looked fine, then I saw a play where the safety did not get under like he should, so some is the guys doing their jobs better, but indeed, seeing Lonnie and Roby in press and JJo off 10-15 yards is maddening since other plays he can get up on guys
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Agree Whitney is filling Clowney’s role fine. Lose a bit of run defense but he’s a superior edge rusher. Need guys like Omenihu and Martin to continue developing to give other pass rushing options. And if Reader can push the interior consistently that’s a plus. Pass rush will be fine. Need to figure out how to play press man on 3rd and 4th down to give them time to get to the QB!
 
TheRealJoker said:
Agree Whitney is filling Clowney’s role fine. Lose a bit of run defense but he’s a superior edge rusher. Need guys like Omenihu and Martin to continue developing to give other pass rushing options. And if Reader can push the interior consistently that’s a plus. Pass rush will be fine. Need to figure out how to play press man on 3rd and 4th down to give them time to get to the QB!
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Reader is a game changer. Hes showing up more and more
 
Takeaways.. our secondary is in deep doo doo and the younger guys need to improve FAST (Lonnie Johnson and Roby were just awful) and it's painful to watch, but Jonathan Joseph is washed.. been a great career though.
 
Bill O'Brien on tight end Jordan Akins, who caught two touchdowns Sunday: 'Jordan is a very instinctive player. The play where Deshaun was carrying it and switched hands and flipped it to him for that touchdown, that was a great play by Jordan, too. It's a very instinctive play'

— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) September 23, 2019



Bill O'Brien said after yesterday's Texans win that the design of this play "probably wasn't really good." Bosa ripped through Tunsil and Scharping, blew it up right away. pic.twitter.com/bNgRtiKjHw

— Aaron Reiss (@aaronjreiss) September 23, 2019



By the way, for those of you wondering if the Texans pass rush would be screwed without Jadeveon Clowney…

Now that Whitney Mercilus has been moved back to his natural position, he's got 4 sacks and three forced fumbles in three games. One of the most underrated OLB in the NFL.

— Brett Kollmann (@BrettKollmann) September 23, 2019



Last season should be a firm reminder what happens when your depth stinks. Fuller and Coutee went down. The WR group was in shambles and had to trade for DT who didn’t make much difference. Offense really struggled late in the season. https://t.co/LZ8MHTgqxt

— patrick (@PatDStat) September 23, 2019



O'Brien indicated this offensive line might be sticking around. The #Texans had made at least one change each week so far.

Today he said "this is the way we are going to go for now I think these guys are gelling pretty well right now."

— Cody Stoots (@Cody_Stoots) September 23, 2019
 
This team goes as Watson goes. Dude is dynamic and one of the primary reasons for me to have any hope that this team can consistently win games. It feels great to finally have a franchise QB for the first time in Texans history.

That said, there seems to be a dangerous combo of inconsistent pass protection (although it did improve yesterday), Deshaun's holding on to the ball too long, and he seems to miss picking up blitzes too often. I'd love to see the All-22 on some of those plays where he was sitting on the ball too long. Are guys not getting open? Or is he just not seeing them? They showed one play yesterday where he just missed a wide open WR (maybe Fuller?).

I can only assume this combo is a result of Watson's style of play and O'Brien's schemes/coaching. I don't feel like we are seeing a steady progression of improvement (for instance, what we are seeing in KC with Mahomes/Reid), but rather the Texans offense seems to be built on big-play potential. Jab jab jab HAYMAKER. Where are the quick screens and short patterns to negate a pass rush or blitz? Does O'Brien even use those?

My main concern is the long-term health of Watson. This team goes as Watson goes.

Obviously glad for the win and 2-1 at this point, but I'm looking for signs that this team can compete with the contenders. It's a work in progress so far.
 
dream_team said:
The offense was in 2nd & long 17 times. They ran the ball ZERO times in those situations!!! Who is this crazy OC we have? Haha... loved seeing BOB was able to get out of his normal tendencies.
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Agreed, that was aspiring.

I'm no OC so as a fan I have to give BOB credit if I'm going to crap on him.....he called a pretty damn solid game yesterday, especially in the second half.

We finally saw out routes AT or PAST the 1st down marker more then once yesteraday, the return of quick slants and for gods sake we have TEs!
 
Re-watching the game (offensive anyway) now on Game Pass. Almost through Q1 and a couple of notes.

Obviously the design of that RB screen was terrible and Watson made a bad pass. As he grows he will do better. He will learn to throw it away better. The next drive was great, until 3rd and 2 near midfield. We called a terrible WR screen. It was not executed well or deigned well. Just a bad play that ruined some momentum. The Chargers go on a long sustained drive next I believe.
 
amazing80 said:
Re-watching the game (offensive anyway) now on Game Pass. Almost through Q1 and a couple of notes.

Obviously the design of that RB screen was terrible and Watson made a bad pass. As he grows he will do better. He will learn to throw it away better. The next drive was great, until 3rd and 2 near midfield. We called a terrible WR screen. It was not executed well or deigned well. Just a bad play that ruined some momentum. The Chargers go on a long sustained drive next I believe.
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We need a good screen game. We need to execute 2-3 good screens a game to help keep defenses honest. Why this team can't execute a screen is beyond me?

I re-watched that WR screen play and ALOT went wrong.
- Akins did a horrible job blocking the corner
- QB & OL did a horrible job selling the non-screen. The edge rushers didn't bite on it at all.
- Tunsil didn't block his assignment well

I'm not an expert play designer, but the play also just seemed odd to me. My untrained eye saw that it was designed to be a quick pass, since Tunsil released early. If the pass wasn't quick, then Tunsil would have been illegally down-field. But since the pass was so quick, the edge rushers diagnosed the play pretty quick. I think it would have been ok if Fuller was playing wider, but he was in the slot. I also think Fuller gets the two yards if Akins simply executed his block, so what do I know?
 
Texazan said:
Agreed, that was aspiring.

I'm no OC so as a fan I have to give BOB credit if I'm going to crap on him.....he called a pretty damn solid game yesterday, especially in the second half.

We finally saw out routes AT or PAST the 1st down marker more then once yesteraday, the return of quick slants and for gods sake we have TEs!
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I think some of it is Watson is doing a better job of finding his TEs. There have been plays in the past where they were open and he didn't throw to them.
 
ObsiWan said:
I think you're right. I've seen that play go to Fuller and Nuk for chunk yards. They just didn't execute it as well yesterday
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I think you have to give the Charger's defense some credit, also. They evidently did a good job on film study and game planning and ended up shutting down a lot of what this team has done in the past and our run game. Part of the run game issues can probably be attributed to the new lineup on the OL. BOB did a good job adjusting in the second half. The FG issues could be because of the new holder and will hopefully work itself out as they get more time working together. It was good to see the defense hold up at the end of the game and prevent the other team from stealing the win.
 
Some stats from the game.

QB
D. Watson 25-44, 73.5%, 351 YDS, 3 TD, 135.8 QBR

WR
K. Stills 4-6, 89 YDS, LNG 38
D. Hopkins 6-7, 67 YDS, LNG 34
W. Fuller 5-7, 51 YDS, LNG 30

TE
J. Akins 3-5, 73 YDS, LNG 53, 2 TD
D. Fells 5-6, 49 YDS, LNG 16, 1 TD

DL
JJ Watt 5 TKL, 3 SOLO, 2 SCK, 2 TFL
W. Mercilus 5 TKL, 5 SOLO, 1 SCK, 2 TFL, 1 FF
DJ Reader 3 TKL, 1 SOLO, 1.5 SCK, 1 TFL

Special note - W. Mercilus has caused a turnover in all 3 games this year. 2 strip sacks where Texans recovered and 1 INT.
 
ObsiWan said:
Something else I noticed, Watson is starting to trust WRs not named Hopkins. Fuller used to have the dropsies.
Seems like the addition of Stills cured Fuller's stone hands cause he made some tough, contested catches.
Let's hope this continues.
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Yeah, spreading the ball around nicely. In fairness to Fuller, I don't think he's had any drop issues since his rookie season. Dropped one last week, but it would have been a tough catch if he made it.
 
mws said:
Some stats from the game.

QB
D. Watson 25-44, 73.5%, 351 YDS, 3 TD, 135.8 QBR

WR
K. Stills 4-6, 89 YDS, LNG 38
D. Hopkins 6-7, 67 YDS, LNG 34
W. Fuller 5-7, 51 YDS, LNG 30

TE
J. Akins 3-5, 73 YDS, LNG 53, 2 TD
D. Fells 5-6, 49 YDS, LNG 16, 1 TD

DL
JJ Watt 5 TKL, 3 SOLO, 2 SCK, 2 TFL
W. Mercilus 5 TKL, 5 SOLO, 1 SCK, 2 TFL, 1 FF
DJ Reader 3 TKL, 1 SOLO, 1.5 SCK, 1 TFL

Special note - W. Mercilus has caused a turnover in all 3 games this year. 2 strip sacks where Texans recovered and 1 INT.
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I'm not real good at math but 25 of 44 completions doesn't seem like 70 anything percent. My calculator brain says 50% of 44 is 22 + 3 .... See where I'm going with this?
 
badboy said:
I'm not real good at math but 25 of 44 completions doesn't seem like 70 anything percent. My calculator brain says 50% of 44 is 22 + 3 .... See where I'm going with this?
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You are right. Just goes to show no matter how you check yourself typos slip in.
Should be 25-34 instead of 25-44.

Corrected stats.
D. Watson 25-34 73.5%, 351 YDS, 3 TD, 135.8 QBR
 
mws said:
You are right. Just goes to show no matter how you check yourself typos slip in.
Should be 25-34 instead of 25-44.

Corrected stats.
D. Watson 25-34 73.5%, 351 YDS, 3 TD, 135.8 QBR
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Pretty good stats and putting dollar bills in his Bank! I'm hoping and predicting a huge increase in cap space in the new CBA
 
Double Barrel said:
This team goes as Watson goes. Dude is dynamic and one of the primary reasons for me to have any hope that this team can consistently win games. It feels great to finally have a franchise QB for the first time in Texans history.

That said, there seems to be a dangerous combo of inconsistent pass protection (although it did improve yesterday), Deshaun's holding on to the ball too long, and he seems to miss picking up blitzes too often. I'd love to see the All-22 on some of those plays where he was sitting on the ball too long. Are guys not getting open? Or is he just not seeing them? They showed one play yesterday where he just missed a wide open WR (maybe Fuller?).

I can only assume this combo is a result of Watson's style of play and O'Brien's schemes/coaching. I don't feel like we are seeing a steady progression of improvement (for instance, what we are seeing in KC with Mahomes/Reid), but rather the Texans offense seems to be built on big-play potential. Jab jab jab HAYMAKER. Where are the quick screens and short patterns to negate a pass rush or blitz? Does O'Brien even use those?

My main concern is the long-term health of Watson. This team goes as Watson goes.

Obviously glad for the win and 2-1 at this point, but I'm looking for signs that this team can compete with the contenders. It's a work in progress so far.
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You really need to start paying attention in more detail if you aren’t seeing improvement.
 
On the road this week and watched the Chargers game from a sports bar in Helena, MT.
Hey we've got a few fans in Big Sky country. I'm not saying the bar was full of fans walking around wearing Watson & JJ jerseys but a couple were clearly pulling for the Texans, or maybe they were just giving the ole guy at the bar some support as he was yelling and screaming and cheering his azz off as Watson brought his team back in the second half.
Sundays game was certainly a very satisfying win for the Texans !
 
Late to the party, but my thoughts:

I was concerned with how the 1st half went on both sides of the ball. We were hanging in there, but I could see where it could go sideways really quickly.
2nd half adjustments were a pleasant surprise. Both sides. Not perfect by any means, but they started clicking and was nice to see.
Watt finally showed up and showed up big. If our front 7 can keep getting the pressure they did Sunday, maybe opposing offenses won't be able to key in on Watt as much.
I'd still like to see what a complete game looks like with the team. I'm tired of this 1 half good/1 half bad/okay thing we tend to have going on. It's either play well in the 1st half and make no meaningful adjustments at half, play bad/okay in the 1st and actually make quality adjustments for the 2nd half, or my least favorite....just play bad in all phases.

It was nice to see us win one of those games against a good QB that could've gone either way. Let's keep that trend going.
 
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Went back and watch the highlights and I was extremely impressed with the short game. Then hitting them over the top with the long game.

Watson was able to get into a really nice rhythm.


Good stuff
 
Man, after watching the film, Watson still has a lot of room for improvement. He doesn't seem to know where his receivers are going. Rarely throws the ball before breaks, doesn't see them making the break to open space, or he does and just doesn't pull the trigger, and when he does pull the trigger, it becomes a more contested catch and/or the possibility for YAC goes down, because the pass comes out late.

Still saw the blitz better and knew where to go with it when it came, for the most part, but a lot of throws to receivers streaking to open space, he just didn't bother delivering the ball in a timely fashion, or not at all.

One of the first games I've seen where his holding onto the ball too long was not the result of too few receivers in the pattern or those that were not being open.

O-line still has an issue of passing off rushers to someone else. As a result of that, that rusher ends up double teamed while another rusher, looping, coming on a stunt or whatever is left unblocked. Happened to Howard on a couple of occasions.

That said, a vast improvement over the 1st couple of games. At least in pass pro. I don't watch many run plays.
 
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