Watching the game this am for the first time. Was not as bad as I thought. Our D-line blew up there running plays plenty of times making Bush create on his own and our defense had plenty of chances to stop him with no gain, but MISSING TACKLES was our biggest problem. Our offense is ELITE. Adrian Foster put the ball on the ground once while trying to evade a defender, but he was running the ball well with almost 5 yards a carry. Kareem Jackson went unnoticed throughout the game, that is a good sign. Covered well IMO. Brian Cushing is looking like he will be having another great year. Troy Nolan looks like he will be making a push for the starting spot this year. We were down 14-0 and our defense stepped up and we brought it back to 14-7 and were driving down the field until the fumble. I dont think the game went as bad as many would like to call it.
my concern is the domination up front. i don't care about the score. i don't care who wins or loses. i care about the fact we were man-handled up front...and that there is no evidence that the recurring problems are going away, yet.
I don't believe we really got manhandled. It had more to do with miss tackles. We were getting close to the quarterback, and getting in to some running lanes.
seriously? you watched the same game i did? reggie bush was running between the tackles like butter. the holes were ginormous. we gave up nearly 200 yards on the ground. that happens when you're getting handled up front. meanwhile, we had about 50 yards on the ground. the QB wasn't pressured. Daniels had all the time in the world to pick us apart.
It looked to me like "manhandled" was a good descriptor of many aspects of that game. Beyond just up front, the Saints were playing with more intensity on both sides of the ball, regardless of which unit was on the field. Then again, it was in front of their home crowd so that probably had them pumped up. Still, I remember Kubiak laughing and chatting it up with the official before the game. That was pretty much the lone moment where he looked like a confident coach.
Some positives: -Nobody got hurt although I cringed when AJ got hit in the knee. -Slaton didn't fumble the ball and made a couple of nice plays. -Foster looked good other than that ridiculous fumble. -Anderson played with a purpose and made a few nice plays. -Schaub looked as accurate as ever for the most part.
Positives: K-Jax had several solid open field tackles and our secondary which was supposed to be our biggest weakness looked pretty solid. We have the best receiving corp WRs and TEs in the league. We are so deep here it's rediculous. Starting OL looks good other than LG, especially Caldwell. The LG looked terrible no matter who was in there. Negatives: Turnovers, you had to just feel sorry for Holliday when he muffed the second one. We basically just watched his career die. The D line was pushed around like rag dolls. One play all I remember was Antonio Smith flying backwards through the air. I know the Wilforks and Ngata players are not a dime a dozen but geez we really really need that anchor. Piss poor tackling, worse I've seen in a long time.
Whimpy defense, ridiculously hard schedule, questionable coaching equals no playoffs for you. Just more of the same. Instead of an extension for Kube, McNair should have cleaned house. This is not going to work out. I discounted crummy performances in last year's pre season, and, guess what, they came out in the regular season and started out the same way.
If, after all this team has gone through and all the expectations...they say that they didnt have enough intensity after a regular season game, I will throw a brick through my TV. How do you not come out with intensity? ****, as a fan, 5 minutes before kick off Im running around the house, slamming my head into the wall because Im so excited.
I'm with you man, I never liked Kubiak and I couldn't believe they extended him. And why is Kris Brown still on the team? I don't understand this open tryout business, a 35 yarder in a preseason game does not show us whether Brown be able to nail a game ending kick. Rackers is proven, we signed him, he is the kicker.
My biggest disappointment was the Basic lack of tackling skill, and the concern that the Texans have the built in excuse of Cushing being out the first four games.
It's a preseason game. Grow the F up guys. The Texans will do just fine this year and will make the playoffs, Cushing or no Cushing. Kubiak is a great offensive coach, and hopefully our D steps it up with all the talent we have. I can't believe y'all are complaining about a "lack of intensity" in a pre-season game.. Seriously? missed tackles? what did you expect Pollard to go out there and knock the piss out of someone? Let's save the intensity and knocking people's helmets off until the actual season, ya know, when it matters what you do. Last thing we want is for someone important to get injured because he went all out in a preseason game.
I was disappointed in the D-line in this game more than anything else. I didn't see any serious pressure on the QB, and our guys got pushed around a lot on run plays. And the Saints did something that I am afraid we will see more and more from other teams as it becomes obvious that it is a weakness of our front four, and that's the delayed handoff. All of our D-line seems to be the type to run past their gaps trying to get in the backfield. For a team that is doing a lot of passing, that could be great because we will pressure. And for a team that employs a normal run game it might work because the handoff will happen fast enough after the snap that our guys can maintain their run lanes and not let too many holes open up. But for the delayed handoff, the O-line can just let our guys get upfield, but direct them away from where they want to run the ball. Bam, huge holes in the line for a delayed hand off to sprint through. I saw it at least 3 or 4 times by the Saints in the first quarter, and it seemed to work well each time. I know Kollar doesn't share the philosophy of previous regimes that seemed to instruct our Defensive tackles to kind of hold back and react rather than try to create by getting upfield. Hopefully this change in philosophy doesn't get exploited by smart teams (and make no mistake, Sean Payton is a smart coach). Or perhaps it just all comes back to talent. I mean, despite all the high round draft picks and focus on improving the defensive line, I still feel like we don't have much there outside of Mario.
I wouldnt be too sure about that...Ive seen plenty of games where there is a lack of intensity. Last night was one of them. I can let it slide for a preseason game, but we'll see how they approach the regular season games.
