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Texans versus Buccaneers

Speedy

Former Yeller Dweller
After three preseason games, my conclusion is our defense and special teams will be better. But it won't matter because our offense will be terrible.
How did you come to the conclusion the defense will be better? Brady basically did whatever he wanted to last night. And though he's the only starting QB they've faced this PS, all of these backups they've faced have been doing pretty well against them too, save for the turnovers. Almost every QB they've faced has completed 70% of their passes or better. Brady was 78% last night, Trask was 85%. In 3 games so far, it looks to me like they've got no answers at all to anything up the seam.

And all of the turnovers that's getting everyone excited, those have come against these 2nd and 3rd string QBs.

It looks like they're swarming to the ball and stuffing the run, but again, that's mostly been against 2's and 3's. Ronald Jones, I think the only starting RB they've seen, had 6.8 YPC in his limited touches last night.

The defense may just simply be better because it was pretty bad last year, so it wouldn't take much.

I said it last week and I’ll say it again. Just start Mills. We ain’t winning anything with Taylor. We will win games but he isn’t the future. Either Mills has it or doesn’t. And we need to know before the off season.
Honestly, I don't think it matters either way, other than the Texans probably assure themselves of the #1 pick if they go to Mills. He hasn't looked good at all, and he's facing 2's and 3's playing vanilla defense.

Mills finishes the PS completing 47.7% of his passes, for 333 yards in 3 games, 5.1 Y/A, 2 TD, 4 INT and a 47.8 passer rating.

I know I'll probably hear the "it's early" and "so and so good QB looked bad in his 1st PS" blah blah, and that's fine. It is early. So why did Trask look miles ahead of him last night?
 

amazing80

Hall of Fame
How did you come to the conclusion the defense will be better? Brady basically did whatever he wanted to last night. And though he's the only starting QB they've faced this PS, all of these backups they've faced have been doing pretty well against them too, save for the turnovers. Almost every QB they've faced has completed 70% of their passes or better. Brady was 78% last night, Trask was 85%. In 3 games so far, it looks to me like they've got no answers at all to anything up the seam.

And all of the turnovers that's getting everyone excited, those have come against these 2nd and 3rd string QBs.

It looks like they're swarming to the ball and stuffing the run, but again, that's mostly been against 2's and 3's. Ronald Jones, I think the only starting RB they've seen, had 6.8 YPC in his limited touches last night.

The defense may just simply be better because it was pretty bad last year, so it wouldn't take much.



Honestly, I don't think it matters either way, other than the Texans probably assure themselves of the #1 pick if they go to Mills. He hasn't looked good at all, and he's facing 2's and 3's playing vanilla defense.

Mills finishes the PS completing 47.7% of his passes, for 333 yards in 3 games, 5.1 Y/A, 2 TD, 4 INT and a 47.8 passer rating.

I know I'll probably hear the "it's early" and "so and so good QB looked bad in his 1st PS" blah blah, and that's fine. It is early. So why did Trask look miles ahead of him last night?
I don't disagree but I think we need to see 17 games of what he can before deciding his fate. Letting him come in for the last five games isn't enough of a sample size and if he looks good, because of a fluke, we won't know until it's too late and we bomb the next draft. Either he can pony up and figure it out or he can't and in that case we move on next off-season or keep him as a backup.
 

badboy

Hall of Fame
How did you come to the conclusion the defense will be better? Brady basically did whatever he wanted to last night. And though he's the only starting QB they've faced this PS, all of these backups they've faced have been doing pretty well against them too, save for the turnovers. Almost every QB they've faced has completed 70% of their passes or better. Brady was 78% last night, Trask was 85%. In 3 games so far, it looks to me like they've got no answers at all to anything up the seam.

And all of the turnovers that's getting everyone excited, those have come against these 2nd and 3rd string QBs.

It looks like they're swarming to the ball and stuffing the run, but again, that's mostly been against 2's and 3's. Ronald Jones, I think the only starting RB they've seen, had 6.8 YPC in his limited touches last night.

The defense may just simply be better because it was pretty bad last year, so it wouldn't take much.



Honestly, I don't think it matters either way, other than the Texans probably assure themselves of the #1 pick if they go to Mills. He hasn't looked good at all, and he's facing 2's and 3's playing vanilla defense.

Mills finishes the PS completing 47.7% of his passes, for 333 yards in 3 games, 5.1 Y/A, 2 TD, 4 INT and a 47.8 passer rating.

I know I'll probably hear the "it's early" and "so and so good QB looked bad in his 1st PS" blah blah, and that's fine. It is early. So why did Trask look miles ahead of him last night?
Brady on the football field is going to be Tom Brady whether it is a regular season or a preseason game. He's just one of the best. Texans defense on the other hand should be totally different game one than we saw versus Tampa Bay.
 

Texansphan

Football connoisseur
Who cares. He’s a 3rd round draft pick.
If he doesn’t work out, it’s not a big deal.
This.
If he was a first or high second, yeah then the whiners have a real reason to gripe.
If he only turns out to be a good backup, then he is worth that 3rd round pick.
In the meantime, let him cut his teeth first - get him some experience in garbage time and learn the playbook.
 

Thorn

Dirty Old Man
If he only turns out to be a good backup, then he is worth that 3rd round pick.
Exactly. And if not, life still goes on in Texans land. The Texans aren't really the blind squirrel everyone accuses them of, they're just sort of cross eyed.
 
I don't disagree but I think we need to see 17 games of what he can before deciding his fate. Letting him come in for the last five games isn't enough of a sample size and if he looks good, because of a fluke, we won't know until it's too late and we bomb the next draft. Either he can pony up and figure it out or he can't and in that case we move on next off-season or keep him as a backup.
I don't think our players and/or our coaches are going into this season saying f it we are going to lose no matter what so lets see what Mills can do. If they are heading into this season with that mindset than we have a problem. I am not expecting that Mills himself feels ready to start.

I don't think it will take 17 games to determine whether Mills is our future Qb anyway. If all goes as we suspect it won't take long before Mills has his feet put to the fire. There should be plenty of time to asses his future with our team. Besides, if the team surpises us than we won't need to concern ourselves with Mills anyway.

I don't expect much from our team, but to come into a season with a losers mindset is not what we should be about and it is not like we can read much into what we saw from preseason anyway. Some of the teams that are supposed to be pretty good this season have suffered preseason losses and some blowouts to teams that are considered inferior to them. I realized that some of that is due to who teams chose to play but still I find it hard to determine much from preseason as a whole. We can determine some of what we may experience in the regular season based on trends, "both good ones and bad ones," but there may be some things that suprise us outside of what we suspect just the same.

Regardless, I for one want to start this season by giving ourselves the best possible chance to win and let the cards fall where they may. If things get out of hand, they should do so rather early. If that happens we will have plenty of time to determine Davis Mills future with our team.

All I can add to that is, Go Texans!
 

OptimisticTexan

2024 / Rebuilding Block 4 After Playoffs / Texans
How did you come to the conclusion the defense will be better? Brady basically did whatever he wanted to last night. And though he's the only starting QB they've faced this PS, all of these backups they've faced have been doing pretty well against them too, save for the turnovers. Almost every QB they've faced has completed 70% of their passes or better. Brady was 78% last night, Trask was 85%. In 3 games so far, it looks to me like they've got no answers at all to anything up the seam.

And all of the turnovers that's getting everyone excited, those have come against these 2nd and 3rd string QBs.

It looks like they're swarming to the ball and stuffing the run, but again, that's mostly been against 2's and 3's. Ronald Jones, I think the only starting RB they've seen, had 6.8 YPC in his limited touches last night.

The defense may just simply be better because it was pretty bad last year, so it wouldn't take much.



Honestly, I don't think it matters either way, other than the Texans probably assure themselves of the #1 pick if they go to Mills. He hasn't looked good at all, and he's facing 2's and 3's playing vanilla defense.

Mills finishes the PS completing 47.7% of his passes, for 333 yards in 3 games, 5.1 Y/A, 2 TD, 4 INT and a 47.8 passer rating.

I know I'll probably hear the "it's early" and "so and so good QB looked bad in his 1st PS" blah blah, and that's fine. It is early. So why did Trask look miles ahead of him last night?
Let’s start with Trask having 27 CFB starts versus 13 for Mills.

Mills has done some things on the field that would show most why he has been labeled as a potential RD1 pick had he chose to add another 10+ games to his CFB resume.

He has also done a lot of things to show he’s only played 13 games at the collegiate level.

Mills has his best days ahead of him if the team just takes the time to develop him…..and by that, anytime after the bye-week so he’d have enough reps with the first team to have his best chance at success.
 

Dejaview

All Pro
How did you come to the conclusion the defense will be better? Brady basically did whatever he wanted to last night. And though he's the only starting QB they've faced this PS, all of these backups they've faced have been doing pretty well against them too, save for the turnovers. Almost every QB they've faced has completed 70% of their passes or better. Brady was 78% last night, Trask was 85%. In 3 games so far, it looks to me like they've got no answers at all to anything up the seam.

And all of the turnovers that's getting everyone excited, those have come against these 2nd and 3rd string QBs.

It looks like they're swarming to the ball and stuffing the run, but again, that's mostly been against 2's and 3's. Ronald Jones, I think the only starting RB they've seen, had 6.8 YPC in his limited touches last night.

The defense may just simply be better because it was pretty bad last year, so it wouldn't take much.



Honestly, I don't think it matters either way, other than the Texans probably assure themselves of the #1 pick if they go to Mills. He hasn't looked good at all, and he's facing 2's and 3's playing vanilla defense.

Mills finishes the PS completing 47.7% of his passes, for 333 yards in 3 games, 5.1 Y/A, 2 TD, 4 INT and a 47.8 passer rating.

I know I'll probably hear the "it's early" and "so and so good QB looked bad in his 1st PS" blah blah, and that's fine. It is early. So why did Trask look miles ahead of him last night?
You are right about last year’s D. Whole team just about. But this (and OL IMO) have played four hard quarters of football all preseason with far fewer penalties and mental mistakes than any Texans teams in the preseason that I can remember. That does say something about our depth vs our opponents depth. IMO depth has been the killer for every Texans team for 20 years. A key starter goes out and any season momentum gained at that point got lost. Hopefully this is changing. Lawson would have made this team if it wasn’t. This rebuild and competition is winnowing out the chaff. I’ve been watching a lot of preseason games and depth is noticeable. Bills got it for sure. Eagles and Packers got issues.
 

Speedy

Former Yeller Dweller
Let’s start with Trask having 27 CFB starts versus 13 for Mills.

Mills has done some things on the field that would show most why he has been labeled as a potential RD1 pick had he chose to add another 10+ games to his CFB resume.

He has also done a lot of things to show he’s only played 13 games at the collegiate level.

Mills has his best days ahead of him if the team just takes the time to develop him…..and by that, anytime after the bye-week so he’d have enough reps with the first team to have his best chance at success.
Right. He’s played in just 13 collegiate games. And if the kid that transferred out hadn’t done so, how many would he have? And the 13 games he has played in he wasn’t all that.

Yet the Texans still take him in the 3rd. Not the Bucs who took Trask instead. Not the Vikings who took Mond instead.

For those who think he’s showing signs, just needs time, eh, Tom Savage showed signs. I see those same signs too, I just don’t think it translates to anything more than a journeyman backup at best. Just from what I’ve seen so far in 3 practice games against lower competition.

Look, the Texans aren’t going anywhere so if they want to give this kid every opportunity, I’m fine with that. I just haven’t been impressed with anything I’ve seen from him so far, and the numbers are horrible.
 
I didn't see them winning more than 4 games. Maybe up to 6 if they got lucky. Nothing that's happened this preseason has changed my thinking. This season is about developing a new culture and a new development program for the young players.
While NC most likely made moves with future development and current culture in mind you can't tell me the players and DC aren't thinking along the line of winning a lot of games.

At this point in time I agree with you in regards to the small amount of games we are likely to win. I think most of us will be watching games for signs that we are headed in the right direction. I still think any moves that are made at this point in time will be made with the idea of getting the most out of our talent level while getting as many wins as possible. A lot of what NC decides to do in the near future will depend on how this season plays out.
 
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beerlover

Hall of Fame
Right. He’s played in just 13 collegiate games. And if the kid that transferred out hadn’t done so, how many would he have? And the 13 games he has played in he wasn’t all that.

Yet the Texans still take him in the 3rd. Not the Bucs who took Trask instead. Not the Vikings who took Mond instead.

For those who think he’s showing signs, just needs time, eh, Tom Savage showed signs. I see those same signs too, I just don’t think it translates to anything more than a journeyman backup at best. Just from what I’ve seen so far in 3 practice games against lower competition.

Look, the Texans aren’t going anywhere so if they want to give this kid every opportunity, I’m fine with that. I just haven’t been impressed with anything I’ve seen from him so far, and the numbers are horrible.
His protection has been far worse. Pathetic in fact. Tyrod can’t push the ball down to second level anymore, but Mills can. Trask and Mond taken in 3rd right before Texans slot.
 
After rewatching the game I think the highlight was Justin Reid's kickoff.
The highlight for me was one long lasting one. It was the whole first drive of ours against the Buccs where our first string offense did pretty good against their first string defense before we stalled out deep in their territory. It shows some promise in regards to our offense. Outside of that I agree with you.
 

TexansBull

Hall of Fame
The highlight for me was one long lasting one. It was the whole first drive of ours against the Buccs where our first string offense did pretty good against their first string defense before we stalled out deep in their territory. It shows some promise in regards to our offense. Outside of that I agree with you.
That reminds me of the Kubiak and Schaub days when we could move it between the 20’s, but everything puttered once we got to the red zone.
 

Jack Burton

Veteran
It matters to me as that third round pick could have gone for a better player at another position. It is clearly known that Davis Mills was selected to be our future starter.
So if he’s the future starter, can he get more than a couple preseason games with scrubs on the Oline?
Elway looked like dogcrap his entire 1st season and was benched. Good thing Denver didn’t pull the plug after 2 preseason games.
 

thunderkyss

Just win baby!!!
Staff member
Contributor's Club
So if he’s the future starter, can he get more than a couple preseason games with scrubs on the Oline?
Elway looked like dogcrap his entire 1st season and was benched. Good thing Denver didn’t pull the plug after 2 preseason games.
John Elway played 41 games at the collegiate level.

Davis Mills played 13.
 

Speedy

Former Yeller Dweller
So if he’s the future starter, can he get more than a couple preseason games with scrubs on the Oline?
Elway looked like dogcrap his entire 1st season and was benched. Good thing Denver didn’t pull the plug after 2 preseason games.
Elway was also a 1st overall pick and not a 3rd rounder. Just because Mills was the Texans 1st pick, let’s stop acting like he was a 1st round, selected to be the future franchise QB like Elway was.

That’s not to say QBs taken anywhere but the 1st can’t make it, but there is a lot less success. So Mills definitely has the odds stack against him.

And it may be only 3 PS games, but I didn’t see a lot of progress from him. There wasn’t any, hey, this kid has a chance to be something with a little more seasoning moments. Again, not saying he won’t, but somebody once thought Tom Savage could be a starter in this league.

I see all the excuses made for him and all the he’s showing flashes stuff that people throw out there. Newsflash, they all show flashes or they wouldn’t be at this level. I don’t care if he’s got the arm and the poise or whatever until I see it manifest on the field. Thus far, I haven’t seen it.

Not saying bury him on the bench, he’s a wasted pick or anything like that. Dude just has a lot of work to do and a lot of that is because of his lack of experience having played just 13 games in college that the Texans didn’t seem too concerned about.
 

Texian

Hall of Fame
Elway was also a 1st overall pick and not a 3rd rounder. Just because Mills was the Texans 1st pick, let’s stop acting like he was a 1st round, selected to be the future franchise QB like Elway was.

That’s not to say QBs taken anywhere but the 1st can’t make it, but there is a lot less success. So Mills definitely has the odds stack against him.

And it may be only 3 PS games, but I didn’t see a lot of progress from him. There wasn’t any, hey, this kid has a chance to be something with a little more seasoning moments. Again, not saying he won’t, but somebody once thought Tom Savage could be a starter in this league.

I see all the excuses made for him and all the he’s showing flashes stuff that people throw out there. Newsflash, they all show flashes or they wouldn’t be at this level. I don’t care if he’s got the arm and the poise or whatever until I see it manifest on the field. Thus far, I haven’t seen it.

Not saying bury him on the bench, he’s a wasted pick or anything like that. Dude just has a lot of work to do and a lot of that is because of his lack of experience having played just 13 games in college that the Texans didn’t seem too concerned about.
There was also no doubt that Elway had one of the strongest arms ever to play the game of football.
 

Jack Burton

Veteran
Elway was also a 1st overall pick and not a 3rd rounder. Just because Mills was the Texans 1st pick, let’s stop acting like he was a 1st round, selected to be the future franchise QB like Elway was.

That’s not to say QBs taken anywhere but the 1st can’t make it, but there is a lot less success. So Mills definitely has the odds stack against him.

And it may be only 3 PS games, but I didn’t see a lot of progress from him. There wasn’t any, hey, this kid has a chance to be something with a little more seasoning moments. Again, not saying he won’t, but somebody once thought Tom Savage could be a starter in this league.

I see all the excuses made for him and all the he’s showing flashes stuff that people throw out there. Newsflash, they all show flashes or they wouldn’t be at this level. I don’t care if he’s got the arm and the poise or whatever until I see it manifest on the field. Thus far, I haven’t seen it.

Not saying bury him on the bench, he’s a wasted pick or anything like that. Dude just has a lot of work to do and a lot of that is because of his lack of experience having played just 13 games in college that the Texans didn’t seem too concerned about.
Right. 3rd round picks can take a bit longer.
My point is who cares? This team isn’t going anywhere anytime soon anyways so if he doesn’t pan out it’s not some big nightmare that the team can’t overcome and the fact they didn’t get another player there is really not the end of the world either.
HOU is going to be flush with picks next draft so if they decide to draft a QB high, it’s all good.
 

badboy

Hall of Fame
So if he’s the future starter, can he get more than a couple preseason games with scrubs on the Oline?
Elway looked like dogcrap his entire 1st season and was benched. Good thing Denver didn’t pull the plug after 2 preseason games.
Sure and he will be given that by the guy who drafted him in round 3. I just do not have the same evaluation. You pegged it with Elway! Now you want to list all the other quarterbacks who had comparable pre-seasons to Davis Mills with his minimal play in college that did not turn out to be John Elway?
 

Speedy

Former Yeller Dweller
Right. 3rd round picks can take a bit longer.
My point is who cares? This team isn’t going anywhere anytime soon anyways so if he doesn’t pan out it’s not some big nightmare that the team can’t overcome and the fact they didn’t get another player there is really not the end of the world either.
HOU is going to be flush with picks next draft so if they decide to draft a QB high, it’s all good.
Oh yeah, that I agree with. It really doesn't matter who the QB is this year. Taylor certainly isn't the future, Mills likely isn't. Start Taylor, start Mills, what does it really matter? If you start Mills just to find out if he can be something, you're likely to not get a good read on that anyway because it doesn't appear that he's ready. So I don't know. Odd situation to be in, but that's what happens when you're back in QB hell.
 

thunderkyss

Just win baby!!!
Staff member
Contributor's Club
Just because Mills was the Texans 1st pick, let’s stop acting like he was a 1st round, selected to be the future franchise QB like Elway was.
I look at him more like Romo. Three years on the team before he earned the backup spot.
 

Jack Burton

Veteran
Oh yeah, that I agree with. It really doesn't matter who the QB is this year. Taylor certainly isn't the future, Mills likely isn't. Start Taylor, start Mills, what does it really matter? If you start Mills just to find out if he can be something, you're likely to not get a good read on that anyway because it doesn't appear that he's ready. So I don't know. Odd situation to be in, but that's what happens when you're back in QB hell.
HOU will only be in QB hell for a year. Then they will have plenty of options to resolve the issue in the draft.
Mills shouldn’t be a huge issue yet he seems to really rub folks the wrong way, which is odd to me as he’s a 3rd round draft pick. If he was a top 10 pick yeah, I’d get the criticism. But he wasn’t. Maybe it’s because he was the 1st pick taken by HOU and there’s this association with a 1st round pick.
 

Jack Burton

Veteran
Sure and he will be given that by the guy who drafted him in round 3. I just do not have the same evaluation. You pegged it with Elway! Now you want to list all the other quarterbacks who had comparable pre-seasons to Davis Mills with his minimal play in college that did not turn out to be John Elway?
No, cause he’s a 3rd round pick. Who cares.
And I didn’t evaluate him as Elway. But nevertheless Elway struggled mightily his 1st year in the league. So just because Mills has some growing to do, it’s really par for the course with any QB coming into the league.
 
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