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Where is our Def Coordinator?

T

TERROR DOME

Practice Squad
I find it strange that no one has heard anything from our Def Coordinator.He seem so quick to jump to the defense of drafting Mario Williams but after a couple of games into the season we don't here anything from him on what he thinks the problem is with our defense. What do you guy's think about that?
 
Lots of coaches don't let their assistants do interviews. I haven't seen anything from Troy Calhoun either.
 
I don't know where he is, but I'd like to ask him about this:

http://www.nfl.com/stats/teamsort/NFL/DEF-TOTAL/2006/regular?sort_col_1=4 (scroll to the bottom)

In all my years, I don't think I've ever seen a 478 yards per game allowed by any team anywhere --- maybe the old AFL. It's so much worse than the rest of the teams that a statistician would call the Texans an "outlier," or beyond 3-sigma bad. Of course the same statistician would say that two data points does not constitute a rational sample, or a trend.

It could be worse. The Texans are even in turnover ratio. Just think what it would look like if we were turning it over more. To Carr's credit, he has yet to throw a pick - knocking on wood.
 
TERROR DOME said:
I find it strange that no one has heard anything from our Def Coordinator.He seem so quick to jump to the defense of drafting Mario Williams but after a couple of games into the season we don't here anything from him on what he thinks the problem is with our defense. What do you guy's think about that?
Click to expand...


He shouldn't have to speak...everybody here knows that all the defensive problems are David's fault. :spy:
 
aj. said:
I don't know where he is, but I'd like to ask him about this:

http://www.nfl.com/stats/teamsort/NFL/DEF-TOTAL/2006/regular?sort_col_1=4 (scroll to the bottom)

In all my years, I don't think I've ever seen a 478 yards per game allowed by any team anywhere --- maybe the old AFL. It's so much worse than the rest of the teams that a statistician would call the Texans an "outlier," or beyond 3-sigma bad. Of course the same statistician would say that two data points does not constitute a rational sample, or a trend.

It could be worse. The Texans are even in turnover ratio. Just think what it would look like if we were turning it over more. To Carr's credit, he has yet to throw a pick - knocking on wood.
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Nice post.

To me, this is the most worrisome thing and hopefully is not a rational sample.

The stat that jumps out is how bad they are getting off the field on third down.

OTOH, at least for the last game, the defense was on the field too much early in the game. It reminded me of the bad start in last year's Pittsburgh game.

Your defense will look better when your offense can chew clock, well, and not fumble the dang ball. Our run offense has been atrocious given the fat stats a Denver style offense is supposed to do. But then again, how fun is it to run the ball when you are down 14-0 before the beer wench has brought your pitcher over?

My biggest hope for the team before the season started was that the defense might be able to hold the fort down until the offense figured itself out, as usually defense is easier to learn than offense.

That scenario, at least at this point, doesn't look like it is happening.
 
Texans_Chick said:
The stat that jumps out is how bad they are getting off the field on third down.
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I heard on the radio that Indy averaged over 10 yards on third down plays. That is really, really bad.
 
aj. said:
I don't know where he is, but I'd like to ask him about this:

http://www.nfl.com/stats/teamsort/NFL/DEF-TOTAL/2006/regular?sort_col_1=4 (scroll to the bottom)

In all my years, I don't think I've ever seen a 478 yards per game allowed by any team anywhere --- maybe the old AFL. It's so much worse than the rest of the teams that a statistician would call the Texans an "outlier," or beyond 3-sigma bad. Of course the same statistician would say that two data points does not constitute a rational sample, or a trend.
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Dude. We're not an outlier even on that list. The Browns and Titans are also in the over 400/game club so far. It's only 2 games, we'll get better.

I hope.
 
Texans_Chick said:
Your defense will look better when your offense can chew clock, well, and not fumble the dang ball.
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Defense will look better when every wide receiver is covered and not wide open.
 
I have a hard time understanding our lack of blitzing. Our front 4 are not getting any pressure on the QB. I am a firm beliver that you must rush enough players to get pressure on the QB. Right now that number is definatly more than 4 players and probably closer to 6 or 7. Until we can pressure the QB's we will not be able to cover anyone with our secondary I know that the more players you commit to blitzing the more man coverage you are playing and risk giving up big plays but so what. We need to hit the QB's.
 
ojthecat said:
I have a hard time understanding our lack of blitzing. Our front 4 are not getting any pressure on the QB. I am a firm beliver that you must rush enough players to get pressure on the QB. Right now that number is definatly more than 4 players and probably closer to 6 or 7. Until we can pressure the QB's we will not be able to cover anyone with our secondary I know that the more players you commit to blitzing the more man coverage you are playing and risk giving up big plays but so what. We need to hit the QB's.
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Well, the sad thing is.... we were blitzing. I went back and looked at most of the first half again, and I saw instances of LB's and CB's blitzing. I saw them trying to disguise things by going 3-4, and then lining up 3-4 but then dropping down one of the LB's to the line, having corners come, etc.

The problem was we just weren't getting to Manning before he let the ball go and we weren't covering his receivers long enough so that he couldn't find a place to throw. We need to get there faster AND we need to actually cover someone.
 
Vinny said:
holy cripes those are ugly stats
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Now that is an honest statement from you Vinny and that's what has me upset about what is going on. It is ugly whether you want to talk about offense or defense. Vinny, we do have some talent on this ball club and there is no reason we should be playing this bad. At least in his presser Kubiak mentioned the coaches too. If he truely feels that way then I can live with the fact that he realizes this team is unraveling from many directions at the same time. Its like a house of cards and it is truely amazing what we are seeing. The funny part is perhaps the area we might have had a lot of concern with at the beginning of the season has been reasonably consistant and that is the kicking game. Go figure based on preseason and last year how that would be. Is that the only part of the team the new coaching staff hasn't touched?

Looks like we have to start back at ground zero and try to work our way up. Its hard for a coach to have to deal with all aspects of the game at the same time. Has Kubiak in reality panicked? I wonder how McNair is feeling right now?

Again, what has upset me is how they have looked in the losses, not that they lost. The defense is a total bust right now. From an offensive point of view I don't think we are that bad off. Daniels, AJ and Moulds are doing a fine job. The problem is prehapes they do their job too well. We do have the ability to score quickly, but that puts pressure back on our defense.

After watching TC and the preseason there is no way I would believe this team could look this bad at the start of the season. It's beyound comprehension. Yes, we knew the team had some weaknesses going in, but nobody was figuring the whole team would colapse.
 
ojthecat said:
I have a hard time understanding our lack of blitzing. Our front 4 are not getting any pressure on the QB. I am a firm beliver that you must rush enough players to get pressure on the QB. Right now that number is definatly more than 4 players and probably closer to 6 or 7. Until we can pressure the QB's we will not be able to cover anyone with our secondary I know that the more players you commit to blitzing the more man coverage you are playing and risk giving up big plays but so what. We need to hit the QB's.
Click to expand...

We can only carry 53 men on the roster, but I recommend sending all of them. It is worth noting that in the preseason when we had 70+ on the roster, & we got a lot better pressure.

We definitely ought to safety blitz C.C. Brown on every play because (1) he is never in the right position anyhow, and (2) he lets every other player run past him, why not he qb?. I know this will lead to "giving up big plays" but don't we have the get beat with the big play down pretty well already?
:sarcasm:

To be serious, I think that this whole season is a maturing process for Mario, who will get better with time, he was markedly better in teh 2nd half and showing improvement in getting penetration ( and as my wife says, "ha ha, he said 'penetration'" )

I liked Kalu's play and wouldn't mind him lining up at end with Weaver and Mario on the field as well. Weaver, Kalu, Payne and Mario could create a good blend of size and speed. Never been a Peek fan, although I appreciate his intensity.

CB's where do you start... oh yeah, that is right, only one of them is worthy of starting - D-Rob.
 
Ibar_Harry said:
Now that is an honest statement from you Vinny and that's what has me upset about what is going on. It is ugly whether you want to talk about offense or defense. Vinny, we do have some talent on this ball club and there is no reason we should be playing this bad. At least in his presser Kubiak mentioned the coaches too. If he truely feels that way then I can live with the fact that he realizes this team is unraveling from many directions at the same time. Its like a house of cards and it is truely amazing what we are seeing. The funny part is perhaps the area we might have had a lot of concern with at the beginning of the season has been reasonably consistant and that is the kicking game. Go figure based on preseason and last year how that would be. Is that the only part of the team the new coaching staff hasn't touched?

Looks like we have to start back at ground zero and try to work our way up. Its hard for a coach to have to deal with all aspects of the game at the same time. Has Kubiak in reality panicked? I wonder how McNair is feeling right now?

Again, what has upset me is how they have looked in the losses, not that they lost. The defense is a total bust right now. From an offensive point of view I don't think we are that bad off. Daniels, AJ and Moulds are doing a fine job. The problem is prehapes they do their job too well. We do have the ability to score quickly, but that puts pressure back on our defense.

After watching TC and the preseason there is no way I would believe this team could look this bad at the start of the season. It's beyound comprehension. Yes, we knew the team had some weaknesses going in, but nobody was figuring the whole team would colapse.
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I consider this a true rebuilding type season so I don't have high win expectations. We will have a better idea as we play more 'average' NFL teams and get a real feel for where we are in relation to everyone else this season. I just want them to be better at evaluating their own talent and getting everyone on one page and improve each week. So far we haven't even been competitive, so it's been chaos around here but I don't see how this team can't get better as the season goes forward and gather a little mo going into next season.
 
I think that when we saw our D-Line getting such good pressure on our O-Line, it gave us a false sense of security.
A. Our O-Line is so bad that they get pressure from our D-Line
B. Our D-Line can only get pressure on our horrendous O-Line
 
OH MY GOD! WE HAVE A DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR? You're kidding right? Cool! I didn't know that. I thought they just went out there and tried to make reads on their own. I got six words that can save us...

HEY! BUDDY RYAN WHERE ARE YOU?!?!?!

(To the tune of Scooby-Doo)

Buddy Buddy Ryan...
Where are you...
We got a job for you now.

We don't have a "D"
That we can see...
We're wondrin' what to do now.


Buddy why don't you
come to our rescue?
We need you down in
Houston.


DH :chicken:
 
I was worried for a second, there, Vinny. I thought you said you didn't see how we could get better. We have to get better. The only alternative is setting another NFL record for futility.

Personally, I think this team will get better, starting with next week. Either that or they'll be so tired from all the bag-runs Smith will be putting them through that they'll have nothing left for the game.

I hear that the Texans are looking for more secondary help. That's nice, but what happened to the statement, "Safety is a strong point of our team"? I seem to remember Kubiak saying that Michael Stone was a real bright spot and he's not even on the team.

Offensively, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I just don't see where the defense has given us any cause for hope, aside from the goal-line turnover caused by Jeff Saturday and Glenn Earl.

I still think we're better than the Raiders, though.
 
Dread-Head-001 said:
OH MY GOD! WE HAVE A DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR? You're kidding right? Cool! I didn't know that. I thought they just went out there and tried to make reads on their own. I got six words that can save us...

HEY! BUDDY RYAN WHERE ARE YOU?!?!?!
Click to expand...

All silliness aside, I would LOVE to see what Bud Ryan could do with Peek and Williams. That would be a SCARY defense. Until he punched out Calhoun, anyway.
 
I wouldn't be surprised if Richard Smith is a one-year coach for us if there is a coordinator with more experience available at the end of this season. Dude appears to be in over his head, IMO.

While both the Eagles and Colts have great offenses that can make a lot of teams look bad, we went above and beyond in providing assistance to make sure we looked pathetic. There seems to be a lack of discipline on the field and I wonder about motivation, as well.
 
I am going to defend Mr. Smith.

He inherited a system that has Pbuc in the secondary and Faggins as a starting corner. No safeties to mention. Having to start Sanders b/c that is your only option, McCleaon who was, I thought, retired. Lost another CB on a punt return, working out FA's in the third week of the season (Might as well be street FA's)

No 43 linebackers. Starting a Rookie at MLB, getting saddled with Greenwood, Orr is a 34 not a 43. No depth

No 43 DE's. Having to start a rookie at DE. Weaver is more of a tackle and less of an End. Kalu has been disappointing so far.

No 43 tackles. Payne? No. TJ hasn't come close to living up to his potential. Walker either couldn't or wouldn't work out. Still not depth.

There are more holes in our D than two rounds of Golf.

I had such high hopes for this D this year.

Sad really.
 
TEXANRED said:
I am going to defend Mr. Smith.

He inherited a system that has Pbuc in the secondary and Faggins as a starting corner. No safeties to mention. Having to start Sanders b/c that is your only option, McCleaon who was, I thought, retired. Lost another CB on a punt return, working out FA's in the third week of the season (Might as well be street FA's)
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Pbuc and Faggins would be welcome additions at this point. This coaching staff decided the safeties were not a problem--so far that decision has not looked good.

No 43 linebackers. Starting a Rookie at MLB, getting saddled with Greenwood, Orr is a 34 not a 43. No depth
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Huh? Hard to complain about Ryans so far so that isn't an excuse. Greenwood is a 4-3 guy except for one season. Orr has never had a shot as anything in the NFL other than LB on either a 4-3 or 3-4 team. He is no more a 3-4 specific guy than Kailee Wong another college DE.

No 43 DE's. Having to start a rookie at DE. Weaver is more of a tackle and less of an End. Kalu has been disappointing so far.
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Having to start? They have plenty of folks who could start in front of Mario at this point. There is nothing inherently 3-4 about either Babin or Peek. All you have to do is look at the team we just faced with Mathis and Freeney to see size is not the determinant. They just aren't as talented. IMO Kalu has actually played well with good penetration and several stops in the backfield.

No 43 tackles. Payne? No. TJ hasn't come close to living up to his potential. Walker either couldn't or wouldn't work out. Still not depth.
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And how is Payne not a 4-3 DT? It's only the position he played in college and in Jax. While folks are looking for double teams on Mario they should note that Payne is frequently double teamed and holds position or pushes the pocket anyway. TJ is much better suited to a 4-3 and has shown improvement over last year.

There are more holes in our D than two rounds of Golf.

I had such high hopes for this D this year.

Sad really.
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The performance has been sad so far and part of it is the players (particularly the DB's) and part of it is the scheme. Watching around the league you see matchup problems opportunities created which the Texans don't seem to find. Look at Peppers' first sack last weekend--lined up and ran straight at the QB unimpeded for a sack. Cory Chavous sack in the Rams preseason game, etc. The Texans not getting those kind of opportunities is on the coaching staff.
 
hadaad said:
I was worried for a second, there, Vinny. I thought you said you didn't see how we could get better. We have to get better. The only alternative is setting another NFL record for futility.

Personally, I think this team will get better, starting with next week. Either that or they'll be so tired from all the bag-runs Smith will be putting them through that they'll have nothing left for the game.

I hear that the Texans are looking for more secondary help. That's nice, but what happened to the statement, "Safety is a strong point of our team"? I seem to remember Kubiak saying that Michael Stone was a real bright spot and he's not even on the team.

Offensively, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I just don't see where the defense has given us any cause for hope, aside from the goal-line turnover caused by Jeff Saturday and Glenn Earl.

I still think we're better than the Raiders, though.
Click to expand...


That light at the end of the tunnel appears to be a train!!!
 
Where is Smith? Well must not be doin much cause we look worse than last year on defense (yes i know we played the colts and eagles but thats the only film to look at this year)
 
I still can't figure out if it's the defensive scheme or the guys trying to play it.

It seems like the receivers are jogging into the secondary and finding huge open spaces. I am just hoping it is the scheme or a lack of cummunication, that's a lot easier to fix than the personel.
 
The Pencil Neck said:
Well, the sad thing is.... we were blitzing. I went back and looked at most of the first half again, and I saw instances of LB's and CB's blitzing. I saw them trying to disguise things by going 3-4, and then lining up 3-4 but then dropping down one of the LB's to the line, having corners come, etc.

The problem was we just weren't getting to Manning before he let the ball go and we weren't covering his receivers long enough so that he couldn't find a place to throw. We need to get there faster AND we need to actually cover someone.
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Let's see what happens vs. Brunnell - it's hard to pin down McNabb or Manning
 
It just appears to me that we are not dictating tempo with our defense. I remeber the Raiders game a couple of years ago when we came out and attacked on defense. I would really like to see more agressive play I know we did run some blitz's against Indy but they were really only 1 extra rusher. I would love to see more than just the front 4 plus 1 lets bring 6,7 or even 8. It seems that Kubiak is sticking with his plan of getting pressure with the front 4. Well from where I am sitting it is not working. Dont get me wrong if we could get pressure with 4 that would be great but we are not so if we are going to loose lets go down attacking.
 
I've seen us send blitzes of 6+. Somehow or another we never get it to work where someone runs in untouched and levels the QB. We've sent some big blitzes, they're just not doing it, whether it's because of the opposing team's OL or our own lack of competence. You could argue that they complete passes against us no matter how many people we leave in coverage, so why not just blitz 8 every down....
 
aj. said:
I don't know where he is, but I'd like to ask him about this:

http://www.nfl.com/stats/teamsort/NFL/DEF-TOTAL/2006/regular?sort_col_1=4 (scroll to the bottom)

In all my years, I don't think I've ever seen a 478 yards per game allowed by any team anywhere --- maybe the old AFL. It's so much worse than the rest of the teams that a statistician would call the Texans an "outlier," or beyond 3-sigma bad. Of course the same statistician would say that two data points does not constitute a rational sample, or a trend.

It could be worse. The Texans are even in turnover ratio. Just think what it would look like if we were turning it over more. To Carr's credit, he has yet to throw a pick - knocking on wood.
Click to expand...

Well in all fairness, look at the Giants rank. They have played the same two teams us as these first two games. Some thought that the Giants defense was going to be a force this year.
 
TERROR DOME said:
I find it strange that no one has heard anything from our Def Coordinator.He seem so quick to jump to the defense of drafting Mario Williams but after a couple of games into the season we don't here anything from him on what he thinks the problem is with our defense. What do you guy's think about that?
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Look he can't tackle for them. He can't cover in a two deep zone for them. We have a young team that is ...struggeling. We thought in camp that the pass rush would be much better. That, a better pass rush, would put lip stick on the pig. We have too many piglets and not enough nfl tallent. Unless you want him to strap up, there's not a lot he can do but try to put the piglets in a position to make plays. But it should be obvious after two games, we come up a gainst a decent o-line and a QB who can half way chunk the rock...we're going to get creamed. Richard Smith is doing what the rest of us are doing...riding the storm out.
 
TexansSeminole said:
Well in all fairness, look at the Giants rank. They have played the same two teams us as these first two games. Some thought that the Giants defense was going to be a force this year.
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They were definitely a force in the second half and in the overtime against Philly. They made several big stops, had good coverage in the secondary, and put pressure on McNabb. The Eagles last six drives of the game consisted of four punts, one turnover on downs, a forced fumble and only 3 first downs. The Giants D rallied after being down 24-7 and helped them win a tough one on the road. Our D has yet to show up, aside from the first quarter of the first game.
 
Today's Chronic Fanblog post is mostly about the defense, though I do poke fun a little bit at those who have bunched up panties about Carr. (my view is that there are enough legit concerns about DC's play without making stuff up or obsessing on DC without looking at other areas of the team).

"President of the He-Man David Carr Haters Club"

Check out the defensive stats on www.nfl.com, and you can see why the Redskins and Dolphins see the Texans as a way to fix their beleagered offenses.

The Texans defense is dead last on the stats of:

Total Yards Per Game (478, next worse is Titans with 434.5)
Scoring Defense (33.5, next worse is Titans with 31.5)
Third Down Percentage Allowed (68%, next worse is Giants with 56.7%)
Passing Yards Allowed (350.5, next worse is Giants with 308)

I knew things were bad on D, but those numbers are just amazingly horrible. Almost yearning-for-Fangio bad, though that is painful to contemplate.
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Note: I do not want Fangio back. I was merely using a rhetorical device to suggest how bad the defense has looked so far.
 
Just to put things in perspective:

The Texans defense in 2005 for the first 2 games on the stats of:

Total Yards Per Game (478, next worse is Titans with 434.5) 352- 2005
Scoring Defense (33.5, next worse is Titans with 31.5) 24.5-2005
Third Down Percentage Allowed (68%, next worse is Giants with 56.7%) 37.9%-2005
Passing Yards Allowed (350.5, next worse is Giants with 308) 208.5-2005

I hope I pulled the numbers right. But they are doing "amazingly horrible" compaired to last year. Now, those first two game were against Buffalo and Pit. (not really known for High scoring offenses). But what can you say.... Lets see what happens the next two games.
 
aj. said:
They were definitely a force in the second half and in the overtime against Philly. They made several big stops, had good coverage in the secondary, and put pressure on McNabb. The Eagles last six drives of the game consisted of four punts, one turnover on downs, a forced fumble and only 3 first downs. The Giants D rallied after being down 24-7 and helped them win a tough one on the road. Our D has yet to show up, aside from the first quarter of the first game.
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Oh yea we do not compare at all to the Giants D, but they have given up similiar yards in comparison to us. I am just saying that we might not have the worst defense in the league. While the Giants defense has made some big plays, they have given up similiar yards. It is a combination of playing two great offenses and a bad defense that has us at the bottom. Another excuse could be used in that we are only 2 games of experience into our 4-3 defense.
 
Texans Front Row Crew said:
Just to put things in perspective:

The Texans defense in 2005 for the first 2 games on the stats of:

Total Yards Per Game (478, next worse is Titans with 434.5) 352- 2005
Scoring Defense (33.5, next worse is Titans with 31.5) 24.5-2005
Third Down Percentage Allowed (68%, next worse is Giants with 56.7%) 37.9%-2005
Passing Yards Allowed (350.5, next worse is Giants with 308) 208.5-2005

I hope I pulled the numbers right. But they are doing "amazingly horrible" compaired to last year. Now, those first two game were against Buffalo and Pit. (not really known for High scoring offenses). But what can you say.... Lets see what happens the next two games.
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Those two teams don't compare on the same tier as the two teams we have played so far this year.
 
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