5-3, HillBoy. and i did say "on pace" but misspoke - i meant, 5-3 was still a possibility, whereas a loss yesterday probably kills it. and yeah, 6-2 is on the table. most definitely. HillBoy, nowhere have i marked those wins down in ink. i think you're missing my point: i'm talking about what the team *needs* to do, not what it's *going* to do. if they want to play meaningful games in december, they have to be at least 5-3 at the break. and their schedule affords them that opportunity. it is not an appreciably hard schedule and i think you're underrating the texans and overrating their opponents. the only thing worrisome about all 4 is that they have backs that can hurt us. BUT... the texans should - **SHOULD** - win all 4. if they can't beat those 4, this is not the team we think they are; they're a middling, 8-win team. what are you even arguing? i know that; i've said throughout that i'm discussing what they *need* to do. i have *no idea* if they'll beat jacksonville and oakland. (or the 49ers and bills.) but they *should*. if they don't, we've got a problem. i can't remember a single time he's done "pretty well," other than a few screen plays. kubiak said after the jets game that slaton left a lot of yards on the field. i paid attention to that this week, and sure enough: he seems to be making a lot of incorrect reads and running into linemen when other lanes look more open. hard to tell from TV; we'll see what kubiak says tonight on his show.
Why? Late hits, cheap shots, brawling after the play doesn't make a team tough during the play. The offensive line still had trouble opening holes. The defensive line philosophy is more about penetrating through gaps than overpowering the Oline. The defense gave up 240 yards on the ground and 449 yards overall. Cushing, Demeco, and Mario looked tough on defense. The TEs, Anderson, and Johnson made some tough catches. The Texans are a very finesse offense outside the toughness at the WR and TE positions.
If you can't open holes it means you're soft? Maybe you just aren't talented or you aren't running your scheme correctly?
I'm not sure if you can shed that label because of just one game, but yes, I REALLY liked seeing guys like AJ, Winston, Studdard, Cushing, and Bentley play with such a mean streak. Man, I almost got an erection watching Winston get all up in Vandenbosh's face. I saw him yell the words "me and you right now!" or something to that effect on the way back to the sideline. GOD, that kind of attitude we should have every Sunday from these guys. It was so much fun to watch. So nice to actually get an adrenaline rush while watching a Texans game. That’s the way it’s supposed to be while watching your team on Sundays. EDIT: Joe Joe, I think it's more about a mentality that's been missing from this team since....well, forever. I'll take a few penalties any day to have this team not get pushed around like a bunch of school boys for a change.
Whether a team is being manhandled upfront because it is physically weak, untalented, or have a bad scheme, it is soft. I do like that we have some players that are playing tougher and I should have added Winston. Overall, the Texans are soft on both sides of the interior line. I liked how when Cushing tackles a player, they go down. Edit: That mentality of late hits will ge the Texans in more trouble than it is worth. I'd rather they be physically tougher during the play. Not that the team has to be a bruiser squad, but the team does need enough toughness to execute their scheme. Hopefully against weaker run defenses, the Oline will look tougher.
No, you are not the only one. I usually only come here for Rockets info. but I'll be frequenting here to discuss the Texans from now on. There are many Texans haters at the Chron. I have been dealing with this Cowboy crap since the Oiler days. About yesterday's game. This is the team I expected to see last week. The Jets have a good team but we played terrible. We still had too many mistakes yesterday but I saw a lot of improvement. We should be favored next week so lets see how we do. Hopefully we learned from week one and the first part of yesterday's game how to come out ready.
Really liking the play on special teams right now. Glen Martinez(sp?) is all over the field & Bentley with the supplex Molden was a playmaker too, and once he's back, they can really give us a shot of energy.
not being good enough doesn't make one "soft". That's like calling chuck hayes soft. That's not to say the texans Oline isnt a finesse one, it is by design. Their DTs are somewhat undersized...but that doesn't make them "soft"...just smaller. But ultimately, the leaders of this team are tough. You said it yourself...Demeco, Winston, AJ, Owen, Cushings, even Dunta (although he's tackling been a little sloppy). You are who your leaders are.
I agree that 6-2 is possible but they can just as easily go 5-3 or 4-4. With this franchise I have learned that it's best to expect nothing and go week to week and see what happens. I see your point here. IF they are the team, that you believe them to be this year, then they have to post a 5-3 or better record at the turn in order to have a shot at making the playoffs. Gotcha. No argument here - it's just that given the Texans' history, I just cannot look at Jax, Oakland, Buffalo & San Fran and chalk them up as easy wins. Drinking too much of that battle red koolaid blurs your objectivity and will leave you with a bad hangover. I want to see the Texans step up and take care of business in those games like they did yesterday on a weekly basis. They do that, then they really would be the team that you expect (and want) them to be. But even if they stumble in one or more of these games, we won't have a problem but Kubiak most definitely will. Honestly, I watched the line play as well and I really don't know where Kubiak wanted him to go. The line got very little push on the Titans so he was almost immediately getting hit after getting the football. You know about my negative feelings about the ZBS so we'll simply have to disagree here but Kubiak's "the system is fine" stance troubles me. Even Mike Shannahan recognized the system's limitations and adapted his use of the ZBS accordingly rather than to keep blaming the running backs.
Yeah but run WHERE? This is why I thing he's being misused. I feel that he should be used in much the same way as Felix Jones and that they have a bigger, more powerful back in there as the primary ball carrier but that's just my humble opinion. Again, I just haven't bought into the ZBS at all so we'll have to disagree on this point.
I went back and looked at all the boxscores for West Virginia in 2006 and 2007. In 2006 Slaton fumbled seven times and lost it three times. In 2007 Slaton fumbled four times and lost it three times. As a note, Slaton did not have more than two fumbles in a single game in 2006 or 2007. Last season Slaton fumbled three times and lost it once. This season he has fumbled it three times already but no losses yet.
I should have said whether you are being pushed around because you aren't good enough makes one soft. I don't care if a guy is strong in the weight room if he's not talented enough to utilize that strength on the field to execute the scheme. Chuck Hayes does not get pushed around. The Texans interior lines are getting dominated physically to the point where they can't even execute finesse schemes. While being smaller doesn't make a person soft, it can make a team soft. Toughness of a team is determined by the team effort. random acts of toughness by the leaders only make a team tough if the rest of the team follows or those individuals happen to provide enough toughness by themselves to carry the team. The Texans try to run. They can't. The Texans try to stop the run first. They can't. The Texans are lucky they have enough skilled players to win games as they are not tough enough to dictate the way the game is played.
Wow; great research. dude. He had a *horrible*, game-changing lost fumble that killed our only decent drive in week1 against the Jets.
I noticed something to help alleviate the worry about slaton syndrome... 1. 2 out of the 3 rookie phenom RB's are starting slow: Both Slaton and Forte are avg. 2.01 yards per game (approx.)...CJ is either getting stuffed in the backfield or taking advantage of GREAT blocking (along with decent speed ) to break out a couple bomb runs.... Forte according to "fantasy" pre-season figuring was rated as the best running back in the NFL not named Adrian Peterson. Somehow Forte creeping out the same YPC after only 2 games as Slaton is comforting, but the question on why appears to be these two got involved in change, while CJ had no change..., For Forte it was a new QB and everything that involves...For Slaton it was unneeded weight gain to help move piles rather than rely on the quick cuts and agility that made him have an insane rookie year...But let's remember it has been only 2 games. These 2 RB's are too good to not get better and I truly feel Slaton's #'s will get progressively better each game. 2. Kubiak himself stated they now have a beat on why the running game was unsatisfactory...I venture to think this equates to blocking technique...If anything the Titans game will be analyzed and if the Texans will learn anything from them it is their O-line blocking technique to be refined. I fully expect that as well... 3. Slaton did have one +10 yard run, and improvement on long runs is going to continue. Now teams have seen the Texans pass like crazy, they might not be so keen to fill 8 in the box, this will continue to alleviate things... Hindsight: In hindsight we played a crazy 21st century 46 defense from the Jets that we were not prepared for...Completely stuffing 8 in the box is not what the Titans did all game, but they did act "Jets-like" in that regard alot...Guess what they got beat and looked like idiots. We were so good, we made their 3 pro-bowlers in the secondary look like juinor high...We were so good, we didn't even need to cover CJ...Okay, getting carried away, the point is we have confidence in the deep ball...Our receivers/tight ends are among the best if not top 2 or 3 in the league...Holes will develop better for the Running game. P.S. Did I say I loved the play-action passes! Go Texans!
we can agree on that. And the Texans put forth a great deal of effort. Maybe not always with good results, but the effort was there.
For another take on what happened on Sunday take a look at what's being written about the Titans' defense in the Nashville Tennessean: Titans Defensive Mistakes Titans Made Mistakes Everywhere Looks Like Trouble In TitanLand
the texans did very nearly the same thing to tennessee last year - they just failed to put points on the board. they gained 317 and 375 yards of total offense last year against the titans; tennessee held the rest of the league to 286/game. (the did very nearly the same in 2007 - 333 & 315; tennessee was 286 against the rest of the league.) for all the harping on kubiak, it's may be time to embrace the fact he seems to have tennessee's # to some degree - 4 times in two years can't simply be dumb luck. this is why i thought the texans had a chance this past weekend; they've proven they can move the football on virtually anybody and especially tennessee. if they've actually learned to finish those drives... this is going to be a dangerous team. see? these are the things i look at when i watch a game. when i embraced the enormity of kubiak's task (the he was basically starting from scratch), i adopted the expansion perspective: forget Ws and Ls - look for the positives; what are they doing right? what can they build on? are they a better team this week than they were last week? that's why these past two years have been so rewarding for me; i can see the progress this team has made and the foundation they've built. maybe it all crumbles but i don't think so. it's a competitive team with good players up and down its roster. hell, do you realize we started our 3rd string WR and lost our starting RG and *still* moved the ball at will sunday? i've never believed more that this thing is headed in the right direction.
I agree with this, but as a lifelong (or franchise long) Texans fan, the pessimist in me is praying that there won’t be a letdown against the jags. Remember how excited we were after the Carolina game a few years ago? We were 2-0 and the world was our oyster. Things were going to be DIFFERENT from then on! Then we went on to lose 5 of the next 6 games... One thing I was encouraged by was watching Kubiak’s post game interview with Bob “Himbo” Allen. He wasn’t celebrating at all. He kept talking about the main challenge being consistency. Allen finally asked him if he would smile and celebrate the win at all and he reluctantly said they would celebrate that night only. I hope that attitude carries over to the team. I hope they don’t spend all week reading about how great they are and how horrible the jags are….
