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Takeaways from the Chiefs game.

Texansphan

Football connoisseur
4-2! Whoda thunk it! Going in to Arrowhead and looking good for a nice W.
Texans seem to have cottoned on to the idea that the short passing game is more than capable of moving the chains and winning games. Those long drives kill opposing defenses and dominate ToP.
Once again, no sacks on Watson but the penalties were not good.
Kaimi Fairbairn has to go.
Receivers suffered from the dropsies in the middle stages of the game.
Man, that Carlos Hyde was a pickup - dude runs angry. Would have had more yards if not for those two jersey tackles.
Reader is still beasting it and the oline is starting to gel. Just hope Howard is not out for long.
Lonnie Johnson is looking like a good pick.
I'll open it up.
 

Earl34

Hall of Fame
Nice win for the Texans. Hopefully, with this win and the win against the Falcons, they have figured out they don't have to be a boom or bust offense. I like the flow, play calling and allowing Watson more flexibility at the LOS.

Also, kudos to the defense. Without their starting CBs against an explosive offense, they held their own.
 

IDEXAN

Hall of Fame
Contributor's Club
Even if the Chiefs were pretty banged up it was still a real sweet victory because it's always tough winning in KC and I know because I've attended games in person there and KC has a terrific home field advantage with that crowd @ Arrowhead.
Just hope that Tytus Howards injury is not real serious but it looked bad, we will just have to wait and see, and hope for the best.
 

kiwitexansfan

Hall of Fame
Love the commitment to the running game. Controlling time of possession is key to winning football games, something I think OB gets. Especially true to keep a high powered offense off the field and our defense fresh to bring the heat every down.

Another giant game from my man DJ Reader. Hoping he is starting to get the credit he deserves for being such an impactful player on this defense.
 

mws

Rookie
New OL, new RBs, or new offensive philosophy, whatever the hell it is we ran roughshod over the Chiefs. We almost doubled their time of possession.

Rushing Stats:
C. Hyde 26 for 116, AVG 4.5, TD 1
D. Watson 10 for 42, AVG 4.2, TD 2
D. Johnson 5 for 34, AVG 6.8, TD 0
Total 41 for 192, AVG 4.7, TD 3

Time of possession:
Texans 39:48 Chiefs 20:12
 

TheRealJoker

Hall of Fame
Big win in KC! Going to Indy next week gotta keep that momentum going!

Indy's zone D gave DW4 fits in playoffs but I think (hope) he'll make the adjustments next week.

They wont be able to run on Texans like they did Chiefs last week! But they still got TY
 

LikeMike

Veteran
Biggest takeaway is our change in playcalling these last two games. We finally take those quick short passes that guys like Brady make a living of. Watson gets the ball out quickly and can stay upright. That also opens up the field for big gains and runs. Plus our o line is turning into a strength right now. We are bullying other teams out there... let’s hope this continues against better defenses...
 

ATXtexanfan

Hall of Fame
Chiefs are deadly when mahomes on point.

Today he wasnt due to injury and DW4 went JORDAN second week in a row.

Lesson? All about the qb.

When DW4 is off and it's on OB, we in trouble.

Some coaches are earning their checks in order places

Love me some DW4

Didnt the announcers say DW4 tied for 4th for rushing tds. No more red zone woes
 

Texansballer74

The Marine
1. We showed resilience against a pretty good opponent today. The start was rough but we kept our composure and took care of business.

2. Bill O'Brien looks to have learned from his mistakes. He called another really good game and showed some aggressiveness on those 4th down plays. One in which helped sealed the game. He outcoached Reed.

3. Defense got just enough pressure at the right time on Mahomes.

4. Will Fuller brought his butterfingers to the game today.

5. Two key injuries today. Freaking injury bug.

6. We had too many penalties on both sides of the ball. Have to clean that up.

7. Solid game by Watson and Hyde. They have to clean up those turnovers.

8. Loved how we played smash a joker in the mouth football.
 

Texansballer74

The Marine
Even if the Chiefs were pretty banged up it was still a real sweet victory because it's always tough winning in KC and I know because I've attended games in person there and KC has a terrific home field advantage with that crowd @ Arrowhead.
Just hope that Tytus Howards injury is not real serious but it looked bad, we will just have to wait and see, and hope for the best.

We were pretty banged up too.
 

maverick512000

Hall of Fame
Takeaways:

Texans wanted it more, simple as that. Watson has got to be tired of hearing how great a Mahomes is and being asked if he can play on Mahomes level. First battle between them and Watson was last man standing.

Bill O’Brien out coached Andy Reid, say it again, Bill O’Brien out coached Andy Reid. Colts showed the blue print on how to beat the Chiefs and both teams could see it but only one actually paid attention to it and for once that was BoB. Reid is obsessed with the air game and refuses to create a run game and the Texans took advantage almost like they were a real NFL team.

Hell yeah that line, two games in a row no sacks. Tunsil is living up to that price tag.

Hyde is a beast and played pissed. Which considering he was traded by KC right before the season started and it was made clear that the run game has no place in the modern KC had to have pissed him off and he came in with the goal of making a statement. A goal he achieved.

Something is up with our kicking unit. KF was not good but one time the stitches were facing him, thats ball holding 101 and could be grounds for benching if not firing. I mean that’s the kind of crap you learn in high school football not to do.

Fuller was back to the up and down form that he has shown in the past and part of the reason why they brought Stills in.

Watt and the boys had Mahomes gun shy. He was still balling but you could tell every time Watt came at him he had flash backs to watching a Smith go down.

All and all room for improvement and I don’t like our chances against NE but against pretty any other team yeah we have a better than average shot if this keeps up.
 

theCATALYST

Football Messiah
Takeaways:

Texans wanted it more, simple as that. Watson has got to be tired of hearing how great a Mahomes is and being asked if he can play on Mahomes level. First battle between them and Watson was last man standing.

Bill O’Brien out coached Andy Reid, say it again, Bill O’Brien out coached Andy Reid. Colts showed the blue print on how to beat the Chiefs and both teams could see it but only one actually paid attention to it and for once that was BoB. Reid is obsessed with the air game and refuses to create a run game and the Texans took advantage almost like they were a real NFL team.

Hell yeah that line, two games in a row no sacks. Tunsil is living up to that price tag.

Hyde is a beast and played pissed. Which considering he was traded by KC right before the season started and it was made clear that the run game has no place in the modern KC had to have pissed him off and he came in with the goal of making a statement. A goal he achieved.

Something is up with our kicking unit. KF was not good but one time the stitches were facing him, thats ball holding 101 and could be grounds for benching if not firing. I mean that’s the kind of crap you learn in high school football not to do.

Fuller was back to the up and down form that he has shown in the past and part of the reason why they brought Stills in.

Watt and the boys had Mahomes gun shy. He was still balling but you could tell every time Watt came at him he had flash backs to watching a Smith go down.

All and all room for improvement and I don’t like our chances against NE but against pretty any other team yeah we have a better than average shot if this keeps up.
Actually, I do like our chances vs New England. Maybe I'm just riding the wave of a good win.....but I think we could do it.
 

Scooter

Funky
1. Still calling Hyde very similar to early Ahman Green (maybe Fred Taylor?). Not quite the "impossible to tackle" like Bettis, Beastmode or early Eddie Lacy, nor the "through and gone" like a Maurice Jones-Drew. Maybe somebody will have a better comparison as Green was damaging outside and screen, where Hyde is just "hit it" fall forward runningback for 4-8yds. Either way, I'm more fond of backs that win every down than the 'all-or-nothing' types. Hyde is just so much fun for me to watch.

2. O'Brien has his menu and is talking to somebody, but someone else is doing the work on our offense - "OC" Ryan(?), new coach from Seahawks or even Andre Johnson. The shift is way too fundamental to be "my bad, let's try my next genius plan". We're making the defense choose, a concept we haven't seen in O'Brien's tenure. It's obvious somebody new is in Watson's ear and drawing up routes during the week, you can tell he has to adjust against what he's been taught to look to targets that weren't part of the plan until a couple weeks ago. If I didn't know better I'd swear someone read the forums. TE sits, moving the pocket, RPO and option runs ... and we actually ran a coupe basic slants for first down (which is why I mentioned AJ).

3. Wasn't quoted, but last week someone mentioned a post I made about adjusting the Kicker being a bad idea. Fairbairn missed one today with the help of a "laces out Dan!", but is off. I don't see anything particularly wrong with his approach, but can definitely tell he's forcing it. His approach is too high for what I'm comfortable with and would prefer if his side-steps put him 6-12 inches further out, forcing a slightly longer/lower sweep in his kick, but everyone kicks (and throws) different and there isn't a "wrong or right". Likewise everyone goes through cold spells, my advice would be to find ways to relax. Dude is plenty accurate and has a huge leg, but he seems to me like he's trying to kill his kicks instead of making them. I'd have him spend next week working on distance. Not range, but just barely getting over the bar from 30 and 40yds ... stop focusing on left and right - find your leg and contact with the ball.
 
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417Texans

Waterboy
New OL, new RBs, or new offensive philosophy, whatever the hell it is we ran roughshod over the Chiefs. We almost doubled their time of possession.

Rushing Stats:
C. Hyde 26 for 116, AVG 4.5, TD 1
D. Watson 10 for 42, AVG 4.2, TD 2
D. Johnson 5 for 34, AVG 6.8, TD 0
Total 41 for 192, AVG 4.7, TD 3

Time of possession:
Texans 39:48 Chiefs 20:12
Loved the offense today. Great play calls
 

TheKDog

Hall of Fame
Contributor's Club
HOUSTON TEXANS
For the second straight week, wide receiver Will Fuller V was the focal point of the offense. He had the opportunity for multiple touchdowns in this one, but he had numerous drops and left yards on the table.

Deandre Hopkins was targeted early and often but was utilized in the short passing game for the most part. Hopkins also dropped a would-be touchdown in the second half that was immediately followed by an end-zone interception.

Justin Reid was inches away from a second-quarter interception of Patrick Mahomes, but a portion of his foot was out of bounds when he caught the ball. Tashaun Gipson, however, did intercept an errant Patrick Mahomes pass in his own end zone in the second quarter. Lonnie Johnson Jr. also had a nice pass breakup on a vertical route to Demarcus Robinson, topping off a solid day for the Houston secondary.

Charles Omenihu had a second-quarter strip-sack of Patrick Mahomes after beating Austin Reiter. However, that was the Texans’ only sack of Mahomes as J.J. Watt and Whitney Mercilus were both held sackless on the day.
https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-week-6-pff-refocused-houston-texans-31-kansas-city-chiefs-24
 

banned1976

sleeper mode
I wasn’t able to watch the game live, just into the 3rd quarter after the missed field goal. Fuller has had a bad game. Fairbarn (not even going to attempt spelling his name) might cost the Texans dearly at some point this season.

Game plan on both sides of the ball looks solid.

Right after the Texans scored their first TD of the game the announcers came back after the commercial and recapped both KC’s TD’s and not Houston’s scoring drive. That seemed odd.
 

TheKDog

Hall of Fame
Contributor's Club
I wasn’t able to watch the game live, just into the 3rd quarter after the missed field goal. Fuller has had a bad game. Fairbarn (not even going to attempt spelling his name) might cost the Texans dearly at some point this season.

Game plan on both sides of the ball looks solid.
Fuller had a bad game. But purely because of drops. He was getting open all over the place. Will have insane numbers if he just holds onto the ball
 

Thorn

Dirty Old Man
Another notch in OB's belt for taking a lead into the 2nd half and keeping it.

It's very difficult for me to say nice things about OB, so that's the best you're gonna get from me for now.
 

DocBar

Hall of Fame
Contributor's Club
Chiefs are deadly when mahomes on point.

Today he wasnt due to injury and DW4 went JORDAN second week in a row.

Lesson? All about the qb.

When DW4 is off and it's on OB, we in trouble.

Some coaches are earning their checks in order places

Love me some DW4

Didnt the announcers say DW4 tied for 4th for rushing tds. No more red zone woes
I think the game would've been much different if the Chiefs had ran the ball more. They were gashing the Texans pretty good when they did run it, averaging almost 5 ypc. The Chiefs reminded me of the Run & Shoot Oilers.
 

Scooter

Funky
Do we wanna keep changing things up? How important is chemistry and repetition in those spaces?
'Who' isn't important, 'how' is very. A concern that I always have is that special teams can be treated like a step-child ... "offense here, defense there - special teams go run laps". Obviously that's not the case, but it doesn't seem far off with the punter/kicker/snapper identity. If Watson also has a knack for being the best holder ... well, it sure would suck to lose a playoff game because the kicker clipped the laces on a kick that would've been successful with a better plant.

Chemistry with the people you work with is always a big deal, rarely more so than in football. For the kicker though, his is consistency (with a good sprinkling of trust). He runs those same steps and kick thousands of times expecting the exact same result every time. If he can't trust the ball to be exactly where and how it's supposed to be, trust and the ball (literally) can go sideways. These are professionals, but remember how specialized and particular the position is. 32 teams in the league (32 best kickers in the world) ... if there were better options, they'd be playing.
 

maverick512000

Hall of Fame
I think the game would've been much different if the Chiefs had ran the ball more. They were gashing the Texans pretty good when they did run it, averaging almost 5 ypc. The Chiefs reminded me of the Run & Shoot Oilers.
You’re exactly right but that was the plan all along as well. Everyone has talked about that Reid almost refuses to put a run game together and that if you can hurt their air game then they are done. They were gashing us on the run game because we didn’t expect them to do any kind of run game and for once our coaches were right.
 

DocBar

Hall of Fame
Contributor's Club
1. Still calling Hyde very similar to early Ahman Green (maybe Fred Taylor?). Not quite the "impossible to tackle" like Bettis, Beastmode or early Eddie Lacy, nor the "through and gone" like a Maurice Jones-Drew. Maybe somebody will have a better comparison as Green was damaging outside and screen, where Hyde is just "hit it" fall forward runningback for 4-8yds. Either way, I'm more fond of backs that win every down than the 'all-or-nothing' types. Hyde is just so much fun for me to watch.

2. O'Brien has his menu and is talking to somebody, but someone else is doing the work on our offense - "OC" Ryan(?), new coach from Seahawks or even Andre Johnson. The shift is way too fundamental to be "my bad, let's try my next genius plan". We're making the defense choose, a concept we haven't seen in O'Brien's tenure. It's obvious somebody new is in Watson's ear and drawing up routes during the week, you can tell he has to adjust against what he's been taught to look to targets that weren't part of the plan until a couple weeks ago. If I didn't know better I'd swear someone read the forums. TE sits, moving the pocket, RPO and option runs ... and we actually ran a coupe basic slants for first down (which is why I mentioned AJ).

3. Wasn't quoted, but last week someone mentioned a post I made about adjusting the Kicker being a bad idea. Fairbairn missed one today with the help of a "laces out Dan!", but is off. I don't see anything particularly wrong with his approach, but can definitely tell he's forcing it. His approach is too high for what I'm comfortable with and would prefer if his side-steps put him 6-12 inches further out, forcing a slightly longer/lower sweep in his kick, but everyone kicks (and throws) different and there isn't a "wrong or right". Likewise everyone goes through cold spells, my advice would be to find ways to relax. Dude is plenty accurate and has a huge leg, but he seems to me like he's trying to kill his kicks instead of making them. I'd have him spend next week working on distance. Not range, but just barely getting over the bar from 30 and 40yds ... stop focusing on left and right - find your leg and contact with the ball.
This makes no sense to me. Care Bear has plenty of leg for distance. He misses left or right. I'd have him work exclusively from 40+ with the narrow goal posts. Having a narrower window at a longer distance is how you work on accuracy. I'd also spend plenty of time letting the LS, PH and PK getting in synch.
 

Scooter

Funky
This makes no sense to me. Care Bear has plenty of leg for distance. He misses left or right. I'd have him work exclusively from 40+ with the narrow goal posts. Having a narrower window at a longer distance is how you work on accuracy. I'd also spend plenty of time letting the LS, PH and PK getting in synch.
Not a wrong approach, if there is such a thing as a wrong approach. If I were his coach, I'm less concerned about him nailing smaller targets from distance than I am slump-busting by getting his rhythm and consistency back. I avoid any changes to his motion* (he didn't get to be a 4yr pro by accident), and instead approach it as a baseball hitting coach - 1000 hits at 70mph instead of 20 at 110mph. Focus more on the pitch, get your mechanics and confidence in place, relax and get your eyes right, and let your talent do the rest. Hitting the center from 55-60 is simple pregame. I would rather him focused on the crossbar than the posts. The goalposts are liars, truth is beating the crossbar.

*Like a unique baseball swing from a Hall of Famer (Bagwell for example) ... don't fix it. I also take a step back from snap-hold-kick. I would spend a week working on snap-hold ... with kicker waiting a good several seconds as holder is back to fundamentals of catch, rotate, pressure and ANGLE. Yes, angle is a thing.

As I said earlier I would prefer him to have a little more slide to his kick, but that needs to happen naturally as part of the process, again with a baseball reference - Biggio dropping his high leg kick didn't happen overnight (would've ruined his swing if it did), it was a process as someone who was already at the highest level and able to adapt to make himself better.
 
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Texan Asylum

Hall of Fame
This was the game that had me the most worried so hats off to our boys. I really like the new focus on utilizing our RB’s and TE’s. Their success not only causes the ToP to swing the other way thus by wearing out the opponent’s defense, but I really do believe that it’s also helping in keeping the sacks down, along with the OL beginning to find it’s groove. I’m truly optimistic that things are coming together in a really dangerous way for the opposition. :)
 

maverick512000

Hall of Fame
Hey guys stop and think about something. Our biggest complaint today and what we are most unhappy about is the kicker. Not Watson, not BoB, not RAC or the defense, not the WR not making catches and certainly not the line not protecting Watson but the kicker. In a game that DID NOT come down to said kicker to win.

If that doesn’t show improvement I don’t know what does.
 

Rich Schmidt

Myopicone
Will Fuller and Nuk catching some of those balls and we destroy them. Just pounded that bad defense air and ground. All I want to see now is how the high octane O works against a quality D. As Billy says, just keep getting better, this is about January and February. We do this again next week and we should all be giddy
 

kiwitexansfan

Hall of Fame
Read an article on the Ringer site. Pointed out all the misfires and points left on the field the Texans had today.

I was/am so caught up in the big win hadn’t thought how far from a perfect game it was.
 
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