Correction: I defended their playcalling in the Denver game because circumstances were so dire, they were essentially reduced to having one viable offensive weapon. I did not, for instance, defend the playcalling in the Miami game, because I didn't have to since Watson threw the ball all over the field, a game that continues to seemingly not exist in your world.
@deb4rockets To be fair, you're both right. Yes, the Denver game was with limited passing options and it affected the game plan. But even the Miami game was a run-first game plan. For instance, there were 33 rushing attempts by Miller/Blue compared to 20 pass attempts by Watson. And the pass attack was very effective because the rush attack was very effective. Miller average 7.4 yards per carry for 133 rushing yards. And the run on first down trend was evident early in that game. For instance Lamar ran on 4 of their 5 first 1st down plays. The next four 1st down plays were also run plays. The difference between the Miami game and the Broncos game is that the run game was working against Miami. And that is why we saw Deshaun throw "all over the field". O'Brien is going to try to establish the run game, when it works, it opens up the pass game. When it doesn't, it is very frustrating to watch.
Bye week came at an perfect time. Allows Thomas to learn his routes, secondary to become healthy and maybe even the return of Foreman?
Saints all my life. About 40 years. Dad went to college with a player that got drafted by the Saints, I was young and the rest is history. As I said though I pull for the Texans as my BIL is a huge fan, season ticket holder. So I go with him a lot.
Nice, I like the saints, my mother in law is from NO so she kinda pushes them on Sundays. As long as they arent playing the Texans, I root for them.
12 of those rushes came after the Texans built a 35-20 4Q lead. Prior to that, the split was 21/17 - and I do believe one of those 21 rushes was Watson kneeling at the end of the first half. Watson averaged 13 YPA through the first 3Qs- there was nothing "conservative" about the Dolphin game.
Yes but that's why I brought up all the rushes to begin the game. Once the run is working, it opens up the playbook for more pass plays. Miami actually scored first and the Texans were still almost always running on first down. I think if the run game was working for the Denver game, you would have seen more aggressive pass plays then too.
That doesn't equal conservative, though. There was absolutely nothing conservative about the passing attack in the Dolphins game.
But do you agree it all started with "establishing the run"? The Texans had a 19 yard run, 15 yard run, and a 58 yard run before the first real long completion by Watson in the 3rd. That's 3 run plays to 1 pass play (a short pass that Fuller turned into a big play) of 15 yards or more till late in the 3rd quarter. They had a few more big pass plays after that but like I said it started with the run. Because of the run game, play action became more effective. I think this is the ideal way O'Brien's offense works. They need to get the running backs going early and then the big pass plays will come. If you take the first 2 to 3 quarters, you could argue that the play-calling was "conservative" (if you consider run-first as conservative).
I guess we will see what happens for the rest of the season. I hope to see us start mixing it up more, and passing more like in the Miami game, especially with Thomas to tandem Hopkins. Hopefully we continue to start making our tight ends more of our game plan like we started to lately, and keep it a little more unpredictable. If Miller runs on first down too many more times I will throw my hands in the air and give up.
Too cool! Who Dat and Go Texans! And yes same here, and being out of conference from each other almost never meet or have any type of influence on the other team’s season. Good luck to y’all Sunday!
