well according to one poster i guess im officially an appologist. funny thing is i was only writting what i thought was obvious. we have lost to good teams. im not sugar coating anything when i say that. its fact. god help us had the steelers ,eagles ,and pats been on our schedule...i can see the headlines now :
" dozens dead as texans' message board cult committs mass suicide! "
and for all those doubters about a transition period should a new regime take over, go ahead and point out the exceptions like atlanta. those are few and far between. lets not forget we run a 3-4 defense wich requires a certain kind of lineman and a certain kind of linebacker. could it adapt to a 4-3? nodoubt. but its not going to be smooth or fast. not fast enough to appease many of the impatient fans here. i'd perfer to give it another season or so and let "them" work out the kinks if possible.
does that fall into the category of an appologist? i guess so. it dosent call for immediate change wich is what some of you want.
well dont let me stop now...theres more worth appologizing for. lets see...
-marcus coleman's move to free safety. i think it went pretty well. im happy about it.
-dunta robinson. defensive rookie of the year...do i have to say more?
-seth wand. while his performance hasnt been great, he hasnt been nearly as bad as i thought he would be. and he will get better.
-andre johnson. no sophmore jinx and a certified superstar about to happen.
-glenn earl. nice surprise. i didnt expect much from him till next year.
-jason babin. no hes not highlight film material and he did have a rough start but i think hes proved his worth on potential and not being on the bench. ( i just know im gonna catch hell for this one...) he is getting better.
-robaire smith. slow start but hes improved as the season has progressed. he consistently takes up 2 blockers and thats what hes expected to do.
-david carr. (remind me to take my shoe off before i put my foot in my mouth ,but here goes...) for a brief period this year we did see carr progress dramatically. he hinted at what he was capable of and was on pace for over 4,000 yards. (i dont recall a lot of "kill the coach" threads at the time.) what happened? the running game wasnt there to begin with and then the pass protection broke down. carr caught a case of "shell shock" all over again and his mechanics went to ****. why? THE LINE.
am i an appologist because last year i saw the offense only show potential in 1 or so drives every 2 or 3 games? am i an appologist because this year i saw the same team go from glimpses of offense to extended periods? (ie. 2-3 games in a row and an offense rated in the top 10 for the first half of the season)? wouldnt that be considered progress? oh and please, someone remind me how far into the season we made it with a chance to make the playoffs. a lot farther into the season then last year huh? wouldnt that be considered progress?
i think thats a pretty easy question to answer.
but im not all "butterflies and daises". my glasses arent completly fogged over. i do have concerns. in fact i have lots of them. and at no point in this post or my previous one on this thread did you see me say we dont have problems or we dont have issues. fact of the matter is, my typical post is more critical of the team then positive. im just looking for a more subtle solution then "axeing" a coordinator or a head coach.
let me share a couple of those concerns with you (i'm long winded arent i?)
-the offensive line. mckinney's got to go and im begining to feel the same about weigert.
-the "3 kings" formation. you remember the formation we used almost exclusivley for the 1st quarter of the season? we stopped useing it because defenses began to find ways to beat it. evidently palmer hasnt found a solution to whatever it is the defenses started doing...or maybe the renewed intrest in a running game has made it a liability. in either case it was effective for a time and it should be updated and reinstalled. (i got the feeling carr knew that portion of the offense better then any other).
-bill callahan and bill parcells. why should that concern me? both of those coaches lost their players (read that team) in one fell swoop. something happened in practice...something happened between a player and the coach...in some dramatic fashion for whatever reason the players lost all hope and respect in their coach. i'm begining to wonder if it hasnt happened for capers. it seems even if he hasnt lost the team he has lost a lot of fans.
-gary "freaking" walker. his performance has dropped off. his stats may or may not be about the same ,but when crunch time hits he's nowhere to be found. and yet...reporters have no problem finding him after a game rumbling on about how we have no leaders and taking subtle shots at the coaching staff. all of this and at what price against the cap? i hate to say it (and i hope im wrong) but i can very easily see him turning into a cancer for this team in a number of ways...
theres more. theres a lot more...to be negative and positive about ,but i think overall progress was made. perhaps it was at a crawl rather then the fevered pace you wanted...but it was progress nonetheless.
(pops a prozac...yes, i have a prescription

)
am i still an appologist? hmmm. and all this time i had me pegged as a realist