uhcougar08
SHSUKATS08
I am going to chat a minute on the Houston Texans. This is not my opinion, it is just fact. On the other hand, I do believe everything I am about to write is my opinion, but it is educated. So, this will be my educated opinion.
The Texans were 2-14 last season, so any hope of a great team is completely rediculous. They will get better over time. I am sick and tired of listening to the crap that comes out of the mouth of people who are ignorant when it comes to the game of football. The Texans are supose to start 0-8 this year. That is just the nature of the beast of their schedule. Any wins in that strecth is going to be really nice. Have patience, and victories will come in time.
You have to start with something and build from there. The Texans started with a new coach. Coach Gary Kubiak, "Kubes" is what they call him, is the new head coach, and you have to have faith in him and his decisions. He has two Super Bowl victories, and has been there five times, so he either is lucky, or knows what he is doing. I will go with the latter of the two. They have ridden the team of the sorry starters they had last year, and are still cleaning house. I refer to this as the cleansing of the dirty. They have five rookies starting for them, so I can say one of two is happening, either the previous players were that bad, or we have drafted five really good players that are just young and inexperienced. Only time will tell with these guys. They are molding this franchise around a winner in Kubiak, so that is something to remember down the road.
Some of the biggest changes are the coaching staff. Only one coach from last years staff is currently coaching in the NFL. They brought in former Green Bay Packers coach, Mike Sherman, to coach the O-line and work with new Offensive Coordinator Troy Calhoun. They drafted Mario Williams number one and Demeco Ryans in the second round, pick #33 overall. They needed to add some future stars to the defense, since they were dead last in almost every category in the NFL. With Coach Kubes being an offensive minded genious, he decided to stack the defense. By the way, most Super Bowl championship teams have amazing defenses. In my opinion, that was the smartest thing they could have done. You are probably thinking, but what about Reggie Bush? This is a seperate issue all together.
Just about everyone and their brother thought Reggie was going to be drafted by the Texans, but they had different plans. Coach Kubes loves smaller quicker backs, but Reggie had something that I do not think would have fit in his zone blocking, one cut offense. Reggie uses his feet as a scatter back and looks to find yardage by bouncing around the field. That is a great way to gain yardage, but not in Kubes offensive scheme. He can take a very low drafted runningback, and turn him into a superstar. He did it in Denver, and plans to do it here as well. He like guys that move toward the hole, make one cut, and get up-field, and ladies and gentleman, as good as Reggie Bush is, he just is not that type of player. We have three new runningbacks here in Houston. Wali Lundy was drafted in the sixth round this year. Samkon Gado was a un-drafted free agent who was a surprise for the Packers last season, and we aquired him through a trade. The last back is a Heisman trophy winner, Ron Dayne, and the Texans aquired him as a free agent when he was cut by Denver. So, if Kubes can do what he did up in Denver here with these three guys, then yes, the Texans did the right thing by drafting a defensive end instead of a runningback with the first pick in the draft. Oh, by the way, they will have saved around 50 million dollars in the end.
Here is the deal with the key starters on the offense. David Carr is learning a brand new offense, and finally has some help with the offensive line and a few key additions for him, so he will get better and be just fine in this offense. Wali Lundy and Samkon Gado will be the starting runningbacks, and I think Gado will win out the job within the next few weeks. Both these guys are young and quick, and fit the offense perfectly. Andre Johnson will strive in this offense, and will not be double teamed anymore due to the addition of Pro-Bowler Eric Moulds, who had a touchdown in week one. This is a darn good tandem that will be huge for this team. They have a rookie starting at left tackle by the name of Charles Spencer. We will see how good he is this season. Chester Pitts in starting at left guard, and in my opinion is one of the leagues best young offensive lineman. Mike Flanagan is a former Pro-Bowler, and is coming from the Green Bay Packers. He will be a great leader on the offensive line. They have four tightends, but two have looked better than the others. Rookie Owen Daniels, and former Denver Bronco, Jeb Putzier, will be important keys to the new offensive scheme to work. I believe that this unit will really start to show what it can do around week nine or ten, and blossom next season. It is important to understand that there was a lot of change that occured in the off-season and it will just take some time, but it will work. This will be a great offense within three years. Just have faith in Kubes and Calhoun and they will take this offense far.
As for the defense, they were horrible last season, and to put it blunt, they sucked. What do you do if your team ranked last in almost every single defensive category last season? You draft defense, period. They drafted Mario Williams to be a monster on the defensive line, and then took Demeco Ryans in the second round to be the quarterback on the defense. By the way, a defensive quarterback is actually a middle linebacker. He runs the defensive side of the ball. He has done just that, and will probably be the defensive rookie of the year. He will be amazing as time goes on, and you can quote that. Mario will not be everything people want him to be his first year, but in time, he will reck havoc on quarterbacks in the NFL for years to come. As the same goes for the offense, you just have to give Mario some time, and he will shine. The biggest thing he will do is collect double teams, giving his other defensive teammates an unabided, free shot at the opposing teams' quarterback. I say you will have to watch what others do on the defense to understand how important he will be. Put that one in writing too. They switched from a 3-4 to a 4-3, so they needed a true defensive end and a true middle linebacker, so that is another reason why they went for those two cats in the draft. It was kind of important, since they did not even have one at either position. I believe that decision to be a very simple one, and it was. They also added former Baltimore Raven, Anthony Weaver, to be another addition as a defensive tackle. He was named the defensive captain last week before game one. Jason Babin, DE, Antwan Peek, DE, Travis Johnson, DT, and Seth Payne, DT, will be the others that will try and stop other teams rushing attack, and they will try to attack opposing quarterbacks. The defensive secondary is just about the same. Dunta Robinson will get some help from the defensive line, so he should shine like he did in his rookie season. Phillip Buchanon, Lewis Sanders, and "Petey" Faggins will try their hardest to stop defenses from passing all over the Texans defense. I think this group will continue to struggle this year, which I am promising will be fixed, or tweaked, in the off-season following this year. It will come down to the defensive secondary, and how well they play, for the Texans to win this season. They need to stay injury free, and if they can, they will grow together as a unit. This defense will be better than last year, but not great just yet. Again, like the offense, it will take about three years for this defense to become good. Give them some time, and they too will flurrish together as a group. My key to stopping offenses for this defensive unit is blitzing like crazy. If the secondary is getting chewed up, then why not just blitz like it is going out of style?
The bottom line for this team is they are young and half of the team is new, so it will take some time for these guys to gel and feed off of one another. Give Coach Kubes the benefit of the doubt, and support his decisions that he makes. He makes a lot more money doing this than we do as fans. The first drive of the season looked like money. They scored with a touchdown pass to Eric Moulds, and it looked great. All the drives will look that good in time. I know it is hard to wait for a winning team, but when you start over with a new offensive scheme, a new defensive scheme, new coaches, a lot of new players, and a new attitude, it takes time. After four years of losing, it becomes more frustrating to lose, but things will get better. My season predictions is about five wins this year. Three victories is total failure, but seven is a complete success. I would not be surprised at all for this team to become good near the end of the season. Have faith, show love for the boys, lose or win, and remember I'M A TEXAN! Go Texans!
The Texans were 2-14 last season, so any hope of a great team is completely rediculous. They will get better over time. I am sick and tired of listening to the crap that comes out of the mouth of people who are ignorant when it comes to the game of football. The Texans are supose to start 0-8 this year. That is just the nature of the beast of their schedule. Any wins in that strecth is going to be really nice. Have patience, and victories will come in time.
You have to start with something and build from there. The Texans started with a new coach. Coach Gary Kubiak, "Kubes" is what they call him, is the new head coach, and you have to have faith in him and his decisions. He has two Super Bowl victories, and has been there five times, so he either is lucky, or knows what he is doing. I will go with the latter of the two. They have ridden the team of the sorry starters they had last year, and are still cleaning house. I refer to this as the cleansing of the dirty. They have five rookies starting for them, so I can say one of two is happening, either the previous players were that bad, or we have drafted five really good players that are just young and inexperienced. Only time will tell with these guys. They are molding this franchise around a winner in Kubiak, so that is something to remember down the road.
Some of the biggest changes are the coaching staff. Only one coach from last years staff is currently coaching in the NFL. They brought in former Green Bay Packers coach, Mike Sherman, to coach the O-line and work with new Offensive Coordinator Troy Calhoun. They drafted Mario Williams number one and Demeco Ryans in the second round, pick #33 overall. They needed to add some future stars to the defense, since they were dead last in almost every category in the NFL. With Coach Kubes being an offensive minded genious, he decided to stack the defense. By the way, most Super Bowl championship teams have amazing defenses. In my opinion, that was the smartest thing they could have done. You are probably thinking, but what about Reggie Bush? This is a seperate issue all together.
Just about everyone and their brother thought Reggie was going to be drafted by the Texans, but they had different plans. Coach Kubes loves smaller quicker backs, but Reggie had something that I do not think would have fit in his zone blocking, one cut offense. Reggie uses his feet as a scatter back and looks to find yardage by bouncing around the field. That is a great way to gain yardage, but not in Kubes offensive scheme. He can take a very low drafted runningback, and turn him into a superstar. He did it in Denver, and plans to do it here as well. He like guys that move toward the hole, make one cut, and get up-field, and ladies and gentleman, as good as Reggie Bush is, he just is not that type of player. We have three new runningbacks here in Houston. Wali Lundy was drafted in the sixth round this year. Samkon Gado was a un-drafted free agent who was a surprise for the Packers last season, and we aquired him through a trade. The last back is a Heisman trophy winner, Ron Dayne, and the Texans aquired him as a free agent when he was cut by Denver. So, if Kubes can do what he did up in Denver here with these three guys, then yes, the Texans did the right thing by drafting a defensive end instead of a runningback with the first pick in the draft. Oh, by the way, they will have saved around 50 million dollars in the end.
Here is the deal with the key starters on the offense. David Carr is learning a brand new offense, and finally has some help with the offensive line and a few key additions for him, so he will get better and be just fine in this offense. Wali Lundy and Samkon Gado will be the starting runningbacks, and I think Gado will win out the job within the next few weeks. Both these guys are young and quick, and fit the offense perfectly. Andre Johnson will strive in this offense, and will not be double teamed anymore due to the addition of Pro-Bowler Eric Moulds, who had a touchdown in week one. This is a darn good tandem that will be huge for this team. They have a rookie starting at left tackle by the name of Charles Spencer. We will see how good he is this season. Chester Pitts in starting at left guard, and in my opinion is one of the leagues best young offensive lineman. Mike Flanagan is a former Pro-Bowler, and is coming from the Green Bay Packers. He will be a great leader on the offensive line. They have four tightends, but two have looked better than the others. Rookie Owen Daniels, and former Denver Bronco, Jeb Putzier, will be important keys to the new offensive scheme to work. I believe that this unit will really start to show what it can do around week nine or ten, and blossom next season. It is important to understand that there was a lot of change that occured in the off-season and it will just take some time, but it will work. This will be a great offense within three years. Just have faith in Kubes and Calhoun and they will take this offense far.
As for the defense, they were horrible last season, and to put it blunt, they sucked. What do you do if your team ranked last in almost every single defensive category last season? You draft defense, period. They drafted Mario Williams to be a monster on the defensive line, and then took Demeco Ryans in the second round to be the quarterback on the defense. By the way, a defensive quarterback is actually a middle linebacker. He runs the defensive side of the ball. He has done just that, and will probably be the defensive rookie of the year. He will be amazing as time goes on, and you can quote that. Mario will not be everything people want him to be his first year, but in time, he will reck havoc on quarterbacks in the NFL for years to come. As the same goes for the offense, you just have to give Mario some time, and he will shine. The biggest thing he will do is collect double teams, giving his other defensive teammates an unabided, free shot at the opposing teams' quarterback. I say you will have to watch what others do on the defense to understand how important he will be. Put that one in writing too. They switched from a 3-4 to a 4-3, so they needed a true defensive end and a true middle linebacker, so that is another reason why they went for those two cats in the draft. It was kind of important, since they did not even have one at either position. I believe that decision to be a very simple one, and it was. They also added former Baltimore Raven, Anthony Weaver, to be another addition as a defensive tackle. He was named the defensive captain last week before game one. Jason Babin, DE, Antwan Peek, DE, Travis Johnson, DT, and Seth Payne, DT, will be the others that will try and stop other teams rushing attack, and they will try to attack opposing quarterbacks. The defensive secondary is just about the same. Dunta Robinson will get some help from the defensive line, so he should shine like he did in his rookie season. Phillip Buchanon, Lewis Sanders, and "Petey" Faggins will try their hardest to stop defenses from passing all over the Texans defense. I think this group will continue to struggle this year, which I am promising will be fixed, or tweaked, in the off-season following this year. It will come down to the defensive secondary, and how well they play, for the Texans to win this season. They need to stay injury free, and if they can, they will grow together as a unit. This defense will be better than last year, but not great just yet. Again, like the offense, it will take about three years for this defense to become good. Give them some time, and they too will flurrish together as a group. My key to stopping offenses for this defensive unit is blitzing like crazy. If the secondary is getting chewed up, then why not just blitz like it is going out of style?
The bottom line for this team is they are young and half of the team is new, so it will take some time for these guys to gel and feed off of one another. Give Coach Kubes the benefit of the doubt, and support his decisions that he makes. He makes a lot more money doing this than we do as fans. The first drive of the season looked like money. They scored with a touchdown pass to Eric Moulds, and it looked great. All the drives will look that good in time. I know it is hard to wait for a winning team, but when you start over with a new offensive scheme, a new defensive scheme, new coaches, a lot of new players, and a new attitude, it takes time. After four years of losing, it becomes more frustrating to lose, but things will get better. My season predictions is about five wins this year. Three victories is total failure, but seven is a complete success. I would not be surprised at all for this team to become good near the end of the season. Have faith, show love for the boys, lose or win, and remember I'M A TEXAN! Go Texans!
but think Kubes opens the play book up this weekend, Carr gets more roll-outs and throughs on the run more. Running game should be better in Indy. unless thay have 8 def-lineman to rotate the intire game(if so running game is toast) Sorry again Indy fans but your secondary is not as good as Philly's moulds and aj should have a good games this week. Now for my Def. we open it up aginst Indy. IMO this will be the game the Texans start to play there aggressive style Def. that Smith and Kubes talked about in the off season,OTA's and preseason. Mario stays at DE the intire game and will get his first sack sunday. DT will rotate in and out to have fresh legs in the 4th qtr. and Ryans has another BIG sunday this week he gets his first INT.