Locating the problem

[Malloy]

Ok, pretty simple question. Its easy to blame left and right, the OL sucks, the QB is gun-shy, the secondary is not producing. What I'm thinking is that, compared to last year there have ofcourse been some changes, but not THAT many. Not on the team, not in the coaching staff. So.. why are we 0-4 so far when we, with "roughly" the same people managed to pull out a 7-9 last season?

I realize that the 0-4 CAN be turned into a potential 12-4 (albeit somewhat unlikely) but as of now, WHY is the team looking worse than last season. Remember, don't just blame the coaches in general since they're the exact same ones that gave us a 7-9(IMO not a bad result at all). Blame should be specific as in "AJ has stone hands, he has not held onto a single ball" or "no turnover forced by the turnover".

Please, no rants, no rambles, try to focus on ACTUAL (as opposed to percieved) changes in players, playing style and play-calling that could be the cause of the problems this season.

Thank you.

 

[TexanFanInCC]

no sacks on defense, no forced turnovers, 7 sacks given up, couldnt stop mcnair, left recievers open, no catches for andre johnson...take ur pick....where do u think the biggest problem lies?? theres too many problems, and this team is simply not that good, and surprisingly, we were better last year with seth wand at LT. riley is an f'ing rock out there....cant move worth a beans. the only thing that has been good this year has been domanick davis.

 

[HJam72]

Here's some guestimates:

David Carr asked for and expected better pass protection by this year. He saw them do zilch to fix the problem over the off-season. The one thing they did do was bring in Riley, who Carr immediately saw was actually a downgrade. David Carr then got extremely frustrated and lost faith in the coaching staff, their philosophies, etc., etc. His play has suffered for it.

The defense exptected the offense to put up numbers like the first half of last season, but it ain't happenin'. The defense is frustrated.

The Buchannon deal was stupid.

Ya know, the players see the same stupid crap that we see happening and they know that this team is going downhill, not up. How long do you think it took the D. guys to realize that the Buchannon deal was stupid? I'd guess about 2 practices and they knew it was coming. They surely miss the safety we gave up....FOR FREAKING BUCHANNON!!! As frustrating as these things are to us, just think how the players who do belong on this team feel. They're frustrated and so freaking tired of carrying this team, which only gets heavier on their shoulders every year. Dunta is the latest hero, so to speak. Give him 2 more years and he'll be sick of it too.

 

[Malloy]

no sacks on defense, no forced turnovers, 7 sacks given up,

Why are we getting no sacks ourselves, why arn't we producing no turnovers, why are we getting sacked even more than last year?

What I'm wondering about is how we can be even less effective than last year when no "big" things have changed. At least we could hope for the same performance as last year, but we're not seeing it?

 

[TexanAggie]

our o-line sucks is the biggest problem; when the only pass play we have is dump it off to DD that is pathetic, Carr has no time to do any kind of reads its dump it to DD....

The titans are not a good o- team and they walked all over our D..

I dont have enough time to tell you how bad Pukechannon is ? OMFG!!!!!

I starting to wish we had Foreman and Sharper back...

Wong is doing a good job but Greenwood will you ever be in position to make a tackle
Shantee orr and Peek you both are half stepping, stop skipping on the rush and become reckless, lets go light a fire under those AZZeZ.....

The D come out and was the flatest I have ever seen this whole team is going through the motions. This team is not playing with no intensity, but you know what when your head coach says, ""we just want to make it close and "HOPEFULLY" in the 4th qtr we can make the plays to win

That is not a qoute from a winnning coach that is someone saying, we cant beat any team down so we are just going to hold on for the ride and hopefully win. That is terrible, How can a team actually feel like they can win when the head coach is saying this................

Why in the world would you promote your O-line coach to o-coordinator , when your o-line sucks big ones, so now our whole O sucks that is plain stupidity..............

 

[touttail]

I think we have some talent on this team. Not top notch like the Colts, but some talent!

The biggest problem from the beginning is "conservative football".

You got to come out swinging and try to knock the opponent on their butt!
Not hoping or wishing that you are still in a close game in the fourth quarter, with a chance to win.

Capers always says, hoping we are close enough in the 4th qtr. to win doesn't sound very optimistic to me.

bobby 119C :brickwall :brickwall

 

[Kaiser Toro]

Right now I say we need to become a true run oriented team. We rushded the ball 27 times at 5.8 a carry. Our passing game threw it 28 times for 4.9 yds per attempt and Davis had eight catches for 43 yds.

I think we can all agree that our passing game stinks (Oline, QB, WR's, TE's), then why don't we just become the type of team that runs it all the time?

 

[AcresHomesTexan]

When a team has this type of performance, it is a total organizational breakdown. If you want the blame the GM (you are right). if you want to blame the coaching (you are right), if you want to blame a player or players (you are right). If one of these areas is good (pick any) it can cover the backside of another area. All of ours are mediocore at best there is no covering for anyone.

 

[Malloy]

Malloy, the reason is simple. The team made changes that may not seem major, but they are turning out that way. The team no longer believes in its coach. Capers has lost the team.

1. Moving Riley to the LT spot is a disaster. He was given the job on the second day of camp. He did NOT earn the spot. The line wasn't good to begin with and now it is worse.

2. Aaron Glenn is now with the Cowboys and we gave up a 2nd and 3rd round pick for P-BURNT. That will set you back a few steps. Getting rid of a well-liked and still productive CB for one who is more interested in how he looks in his uniform and we gave up two draft picks for this guy!!!

3. Our defensive unit: See number 2. This is affecting the entire defense. We couldn't get enough pressure on a quarterback before and now the opposing teams WRs are more open faster. No turnovers. No one is throwing to Dunta, so no chance for him to pick a pass. No forced fumbles. Sharper is being missed on the field as well.

4. We drafted Travis Johnson instead of Derrick Johnson. There a few other players that are making a name in the NFL already and Travis has how many tackles? I'll answer that: 7 through 4 games.

I could go on and on, but I think it is safe to say that we are nowhere close to being the same team that went 7-8 the first 15 games last year.

I agree with points 1-3 as those are "obvious" changes from 2004. However, I'm not sure the TJ pick was such a bad choice, TJ might just be suffering from the overall lack of "heart" on the line.

Also, has anyone noticed any difference in the defencive playcalling, something that could be the cause of the problem on defense.

One thing is to point out problems in the different aspects of the game, another aspect, which I have some interest, is whether or not any changes made in the game has provoked it.

I have a feeling that the team, all aspects of the team, are playing _almost_ as they did last season (I'll get hammered for this, so consider it speculation), but that the big difference is that our opposing teams have read our book and knows exactly how to handle us in all situations.