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Time to take the leash of Watson.

amazing80 said:
We do better spreading them out.
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We also do worse. Watson is open to get lit up running that **** all the time. The fumble he had today....spread formation...& you Can’t depend on Houdini plays from Watson every pass attempt like what happened late in the game today. That should’ve been a sack for Philly. You guys would then be asking why BoB called a spread formation in a situation when the defense knew we were going to be passing.

What the defense plays has a direct impact on how effective that spread package is.
 
mussop said:
No more of this conservative game plan crap. It’s playoff time. OB needs to let Watson do his thing from the get go. No more of this keep it close and find a way to win at the end crap.
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Lol, the turtle will never do it. Even if he did it DW4 wouldn't notice the leash is gone. OB is old school coach who wont go new school
 
mussop said:
No more of this conservative game plan crap. It’s playoff time. OB needs to let Watson do his thing from the get go. No more of this keep it close and find a way to win at the end crap.
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I don't want to completely unleash him because that will inevitably lead to a sack-fest. We definitely need to ditch conservative though. The running game is anemic. We need to build in more RPO, designed boot-legs, just generally keep him rolling out the pocket and throwing on the move. And we need to stop going conservative with a lead, this team plays best when we're going full throttle offense.
 
mussop said:
No more of this conservative game plan crap. It’s playoff time. OB needs to let Watson do his thing from the get go. No more of this keep it close and find a way to win at the end crap.
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Agreed. We are a pass first team.
My wife asked me why we always wait until the game is almost over to start playing the right way. I simply told her..........because BOb
 
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Mr teX said:
We also do worse. Watson is open to get lit up running that **** all the time. The fumble he had today....spread formation...& you Can’t depend on Houdini plays from Watson every pass attempt like what happened late in the game today. That should’ve been a sack for Philly. You guys would then be asking why BoB called a spread formation in a situation when the defense knew we were going to be passing.

What the defense plays has a direct impact on how effective that spread package is.
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While I'm in agreement that you can't drop back to pass 90% of the time as suggested by many, O'Brian's predictability is still the bane of the Texans' existance. Yes, O'Brian is seeking balance, as he should, yet a team can also set up the run with the pass, and flip what the opponent thinks you will do by mixing it up quite a bit more efficiently.

If the Texans are truly going "multiple" by game planning for each opponent, then we wouldn't see the same offensive look for each game...until it's too late.

Then again, our offensive line isn't exactly the Berlin Wall. I can see where O'Brian is in a jam. Damned if you do, and damned if you don't, right? Well, maybe. If the head coach is calling a bunch of long developing routes when you need 5 yards, the head coach isn't helping the team. He certainly isn't helping Watson.

I think what a lot of people really mean is to find a middle ground, somewhere between our-game-plan-isn't-working and our-QB-is-better-with-the-ball-in-his-hands. O'Brian doesn't appear to have contingency plans, rather he seems comfortable with butting his head against the same brick wall, expecting one day for the wall to break before his head does. The fact that this has been going on for five years doesn't help his case.

Yeah, I think Watson needs a little more leeway, but that comes with a flexible game plan. O'Brian doesn't have one of those.

Of course it's easy to armchair quarterback. I'll be the first to admit that. Yet, if I can see the play calling tendencies from my divan, how much more can the opposing team see them in their film room?
 
EVOLVIST said:
While I'm in agreement that you can't drop back to pass 90% of the time as suggested by many, O'Brian's predictability is still the bane of the Texans' existance. Yes, O'Brian is seeking balance, as he should, yet a team can also set up the run with the pass, and flip what the opponent thinks you will do by mixing it up quite a bit more efficiently.

If the Texans are truly going "multiple" by game planning for each opponent, then we wouldn't see the same offensive look for each game...until it's too late.

Then again, our offensive line isn't exactly the Berlin Wall. I can see where O'Brian is in a jam. Damned if you do, and damned if you don't, right? Well, maybe. If the head coach is calling a bunch of long developing routes when you need 5 yards, the head coach isn't helping the team. He certainly isn't helping Watson.

I think what a lot of people really mean is to find a middle ground, somewhere between our-game-plan-isn't-working and our-QB-is-better-with-the-ball-in-his-hands. O'Brian doesn't appear to have contingency plans, rather he seems comfortable with butting his head against the same brick wall, expecting one day for the wall to break before his head does. The fact that this has been going on for five years doesn't help his case.

Yeah, I think Watson needs a little more leeway, but that comes with a flexible game plan. O'Brian doesn't have one of those.

Of course it's easy to armchair quarterback. I'll be the first to admit that. Yet, if I can see the play calling tendencies from my divan, how much more can the opposing team see them in their film room?
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Good post and I Agree with a lot of this actually. Where we depart is that I think that there are no effective and permanent counters for what ails this team & BoB has done just about all he can with the front 7 he has. We are clearly limited by this o-line and We are what we are at this point. Is BoB gonna come out and say that running more off tackle and other types of outside zone stuff is pretty much impossible b/c we are limited by what our o-line can effectively do? No. But it’s pretty clear, he’s hamstrung and in between a rock and a hard place. So it’s run it up the middle 90% of the time or don’t run it at all.
 
Mr teX said:
Good post and I Agree with a lot of this actually. Where we depart is that I think that there are no effective and permanent counters for what ails this team & BoB has done just about all he can with the front 7 he has. We are clearly limited by this o-line and We are what we are at this point. Is BoB gonna come out and say that running more off tackle and other types of outside zone stuff is pretty much impossible b/c we are limited by what our o-line can effectively do? No. But it’s pretty clear, he’s hamstrung and in between a rock and a hard place. So it’s run it up the middle 90% of the time or don’t run it at all.
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^^^^
This

And now the defense is all banged up.

Somehow that's all BOB's fault.
 
steelbtexan said:
^^^^
This

And now the defense is all banged up.

Somehow that's all BOB's fault.
Click to expand...

Like it or not, this is BOB's OL.

He thought it was enough to sign Seantrel for peanuts, draft Rankin (who may be a guard) to play tackle, and bring back Lamm. At least Fulton seems decent.

He also thought it was a good idea to draft 2 non-blocking TEs to go along with that line.
 
Mr teX said:
Good post and I Agree with a lot of this actually. Where we depart is that I think that there are no effective and permanent counters for what ails this team & BoB has done just about all he can with the front 7 he has.
Click to expand...

There was one play, 4th down. Eagles put three receivers on the wide side of the field. They identified man coverage. The two outside receivers cross inside, the inside receiver breaks outside. The guy covering him is washed out of the play by the receivers & defenders cutting inside.

Simple concept. Reciever opened up quick.

This is the kind of thing we need to run to help our QB. Don't have to do it often. Just every now & again.

Instead we'd call a bubble screen on 3rd & 8.

Yeah, offensive line is an issue. We can't keep a full complement of receivers past 3 weeks. & our offense managed to score 30 points today.

I just think more can be done to help/protect our QB.
 
TheKDog said:
Like it or not, this is BOB's OL.

He thought it was enough to sign Seantrel for peanuts, draft Rankin (who may be a guard) to play tackle, and bring back Lamm. At least Fulton seems decent.

He also thought it was a good idea to draft 2 non-blocking TEs to go along with that line.
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I didn't realize BOB was the GM>

Cant fix everything in one yr.

It's really very simple.
 
Thing is, had BoB “ taken the leash off Watson” in the regular season, Watson’s probably on IR or banged up so much he would be of little use to this team by the time the playoffs rolled around.....if we’re even in position to make it....think Andrew Luck a few years ago right before the shoulder problems or Cam Newton right now.

Folks get so caught up in trying to win right now, they lose sight of the big picture. Securing A 1st round bye would be useless without our best offensive weapon.
 
Mr teX said:
Thing is, had BoB “ taken the leash off Watson” in the regular season, Watson’s probably on IR or banged up so much he would be of little use to this team by the time the playoffs rolled around.....if we’re even in position to make it....think Andrew Luck a few years ago right before the shoulder problems or Cam Newton right now.

Folks get so caught up in trying to win right now, they lose sight of the big picture. Securing A 1st round bye would be useless without our best offensive weapon.
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Yep,

This seems to be a disease on this MB.
 
steelbtexan said:
I didn't realize BOB was the GM>

Cant fix everything in one yr.

It's really very simple.
Click to expand...

Because apparently OBrien wasn't doing anything until gaine got here. Just give him a pass for half a decade of offensive ineptitude.

And yes, improvements can be made in 1 off-season. The OL hasn't improved at all.
 
TheKDog said:
Because apparently OBrien wasn't doing anything until gaine got here. Just give him a pass for half a decade of offensive ineptitude
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We will see how much he had to do with personnel decisions.

The 1st draft under Gaine was quite promising wouldn't you agree?

Unlike all of the blown 3rd rd picks in the past.
 
steelbtexan said:
We will see how much he had to do with personnel decisions.

The 1st draft under Gaine was quite promising wouldn't you agree?

Unlike all of the blown 3rd rd picks in the past.
Click to expand...

Reid and Ejiafor look like great picks. The rest is pretty meh so far.
 
TheKDog said:
Reid and Ejiafor look like great picks. The rest is pretty meh so far.
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You dont like Daniel and you do know the TE position is one of the hardest for a rookie to learn.

Getting an almost pro bowl S in the 3rd rd was simply great.

I also like the Coutee pick if he can get healthy. Very dynamic guy.

Remind me who have the Texans been picking in the 3rd rd in the last decade?
 
steelbtexan said:
You dont like Daniel and you do know the TE position is one of the hardest for a rookie to learn.

Getting an almost pro bowl S in the 3rd rd was simply great.

I also like the Coutee pick if he can get healthy. Very dynamic guy.

Remind me who have the Texans been picking in the 3rd rd in the last decade?
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My issue with TEs is they aren't blockers. They are good receivers but as long as they can't block they are gadget players
 
amazing80 said:
I’m going to do a breakdown of qb hits when we spread them out. Because I don’t believe he gets hit any more or less when we spread them 5 wide vs trying to run a “normal” offense. He has a much quicker release when we spread them.
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How many times did he get sack anyways? Felt like the pass pro was really well today.
 
Mr teX said:
Good post and I Agree with a lot of this actually. Where we depart is that I think that there are no effective and permanent counters for what ails this team & BoB has done just about all he can with the front 7 he has. We are clearly limited by this o-line and We are what we are at this point. Is BoB gonna come out and say that running more off tackle and other types of outside zone stuff is pretty much impossible b/c we are limited by what our o-line can effectively do? No. But it’s pretty clear, he’s hamstrung and in between a rock and a hard place. So it’s run it up the middle 90% of the time or don’t run it at all.
Click to expand...

Yes. O'Brian is hamstrung by the O-line, which means, yes, again, he's limited by what he can do in the running game. Moreoever, one can't put the blame entirely on O'Brian for the state of the O-line. We musn't forget, even in this quagmire, Lamar Miller is averaging 4.8 yards a touch. That's good.

I simply feel that being handicapped as he is, he should put a little more thought into being creative within his confines. I mean, Ray Charles was blind as hell, but that didn't stop him from singing like a god. Even Ronnie Milsap can see what the Texans will playcall next.
 
Mr teX said:
Thing is, had BoB “ taken the leash off Watson” in the regular season, Watson’s probably on IR or banged up so much he would be of little use to this team by the time the playoffs rolled around.....if we’re even in position to make it....think Andrew Luck a few years ago right before the shoulder problems or Cam Newton right now.

Folks get so caught up in trying to win right now, they lose sight of the big picture. Securing A 1st round bye would be useless without our best offensive weapon.
Click to expand...

I think they're thinking like you were a couple hours ago. We put two TEs in the game to protect Watson, they put two extra defenders in the Box & rush 8.

If we put five wide, they can't rush more than 4, or Watson would beat their blitz since it would be easier to see.
 
EVOLVIST said:
Yes. O'Brian is hamstrung by the O-line, which means, yes, again, he's limited by what he can do in the running game. Moreoever, one can't put the blame entirely on O'Brian for the state of the O-line. We musn't forget, even in this quagmire, Lamar Miller is averaging 4.8 yards a touch. That's good.

I simply feel that being handicapped as he is, he should put a little more thought into being creative within his confines. I mean, Ray Charles was blind as hell, but that didn't stop him from singing like a god. Even Ronnie Milsap can see what the Texans will playcall next.
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Ray Charles also didn't have another singer actively trying to figure out how to mess up his song. I agree with you that I wish the plays were more creative but this thread cracks me up. Putting aside the BoB factor, people are saying let Watson off the leash, as if anybody knows if he is on a leash, but then the next thing is don't let him get killed. Ok if Watson is going to be "off the leash" that means he has to have blockers that can keep up with him and keep him safe where ever he goes, does anybody really believe this O line can do that?

At this point my biggest worry is that Hopkins and/or Watson are going to get very seriously injured and be out next season if not have their career ended. We waited this long to have a franchise QB and now some on here want to risk that on a SB pipe dream for this year? This isn't a Hollywood movie and there isn't going to be some miracle that lets the plucky underdogs win it all. These are real people with real injuries and they can only heal so much week to week.
 
maverick512000 said:
Ray Charles also didn't have another singer actively trying to figure out how to mess up his song. I agree with you that I wish the plays were more creative but this thread cracks me up. Putting aside the BoB factor, people are saying let Watson off the leash, as if anybody knows if he is on a leash, but then the next thing is don't let him get killed. Ok if Watson is going to be "off the leash" that means he has to have blockers that can keep up with him and keep him safe where ever he goes, does anybody really believe this O line can do that?

At this point my biggest worry is that Hopkins and/or Watson are going to get very seriously injured and be out next season if not have their career ended. We waited this long to have a franchise QB and now some on here want to risk that on a SB pipe dream for this year? This isn't a Hollywood movie and there isn't going to be some miracle that lets the plucky underdogs win it all. These are real people with real injuries and they can only heal so much week to week.
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Please don’t put that in the air at all about Watson and Nuk....but yes, otherwise I agree with your post.
 
maverick512000 said:
Ray Charles also didn't have another singer actively trying to figure out how to mess up his song. I agree with you that I wish the plays were more creative but this thread cracks me up. Putting aside the BoB factor, people are saying let Watson off the leash, as if anybody knows if he is on a leash, but then the next thing is don't let him get killed. Ok if Watson is going to be "off the leash" that means he has to have blockers that can keep up with him and keep him safe where ever he goes, does anybody really believe this O line can do that?

At this point my biggest worry is that Hopkins and/or Watson are going to get very seriously injured and be out next season if not have their career ended. We waited this long to have a franchise QB and now some on here want to risk that on a SB pipe dream for this year? This isn't a Hollywood movie and there isn't going to be some miracle that lets the plucky underdogs win it all. These are real people with real injuries and they can only heal so much week to week.
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Why live in Fear? Anyone can get hurt at any moment. You could put the best o-line ever and all it would take is one hit to end it all. It's just football. can't be scared to get hurt just go out there and BALL.
 
I don't really see this as Watson being on a leash. We practically abandoned the run after it wasn't working (19 rushes with Watson having 8 of them) and throwing 40 times which wasn't very 'conservative'. I think it's more of an issue of the protection scheme when we're passing. The guys saying that max protect isn't working are on to something but we've been doing less and less of that the last few games. We did a much better job of rb's chipping and getting open as they release this game but we're still asking this OL to protect for longer than they've proven they can. Pass pro was as good as it's going to get in the 1st half of this game because we kept the D guessing w/ designed Watson runs and rollouts and almost no max protect. We came back to the same pass pro issues we've had all year when the rollouts stopped.
 
Mr teX said:
Please don’t put that in the air at all about Watson and Nuk....but yes, otherwise I agree with your post.
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I don't need to put it in the air, go check out the injury threads over the last 5 games or so and its already in the air. Watson does seem to be in better shape but he can't keep taking those sacks. It's almost to the point every time I see him sacked I think that's another game down the line he won't be able to play. Hopkins foot and ankle scare the hell out of me, I'm not a doctor by any means, see CnD for that, but even I know when a player takes time after a touchdown to grab their ankle that's a bad sign.
 
In my opinion, taking an imaginary leash off of Watson isn't going to help this defense stop opposing teams. The offense did enough to win, the defense couldn't man up when they needed to the most. No matter the o-line, play calling or lack of offensive weapons, Watson gave us that last TD to win the game. Defense let him and the team down.
 
I don’t know what this “leash” is. Dang sure didn’t see one yesterday. The only problem I have with Watson is that he thinks he’s invulnerable. Other than that, he’s fun to watch.
 
Honestly I think Watson is still not seeing & communicating clearly. The offense seems to be out of sync, from the blocking, routes, blitz pick-up... all which start at the QB.

I'm hoping that's the case because that's the one guy I have confidence in to correct something.

We're running out of time.... But we've got time.
 
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Marcus said:
I don’t know what this “leash” is. Dang sure didn’t see one yesterday. The only problem I have with Watson is that he thinks he’s invulnerable. Other than that, he’s fun to watch.
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I haven't really seen too many plays of late where he's taking defenders on. Unless I've just missed some, of course. Seems like he's become pretty aware and adept at stepping out of bounds and sliding top avoid unnecessary contact.

Or I've just missed your point altogether.
 
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