The big difference was turnovers, this squad isn't forcing any. It's how you go from under-performing like last season to flat out terrible this season. The Texans led the league in takeaways last season and are the worst in the league in takeaways this year.
Scheme is a part, yes but I think that the LB corps taken as a whole is simply slow. They don't react well at all. As for RAC, it does not track because he has a record of building good defenses so something else is at play here. I mean WTF has changed with this defense since last year? The only thing I can see is that JJ got a few more TV commercials and that can't be it which is why I think it's attitude. They look like a team that started reading its press clippings. They gave up a ton of yards last year too but were able to force turnovers. Where did that go? Did these players and this coaching staff actually believe that other teams wouldn't come up with counter-strategies and raise the stakes? Were they that arrogant? Has this team suddenly tuned out the coaches (I know your answer on that one)? All I know is that this is an absolute mess and fair or not, the responsibility for the trainwreck we are seeing falls on BoB's head. If you want to sit in the big chair, you gotta take what comes with the job.
Forced turnovers are inherently "luck of the draw" type occurrences. Very few teams routinely force turnovers... as I'd guess the vast majority of turnovers are bone-head mistakes by the opponents.
I agree, and we had A LOT of them last year which made the defense look better than they were playing overall and we've had almost none this year which exposes the defense for what they are.
Does he? Here's where his teams have ranked in yard and points since he left New England. Cleveland 2005: 16, 11 2006: 27, 22 2007: 30, 21 2008: 26, 16 KC 2010: 14, 11 2011: 11, 12 2012: 20, 25 Nothing spectacular there. A couple of decent seasons, but there were 3 where his defense was in the middle 3rd of the league and 3 or 4 where he was in the bottom 3rd. Going by his record, he's mediocre at best.
Hell, double Watt, Clowney, and Wilfork if you want, throw 6 guys at 3 and the D line still won't force any pressure or be able to stop the run.
I think one big reason he was hired, besides the Belichick connection, was that he had NFL head coaching experience while OB only had 2 years HC experience in college. Of course, Crennel was 28-55 as a HC and only had one winning season, so maybe that wasn't such a good idea.
http://www.battleredblog.com/2015/10/21/9547135/the-film-room-heres-why-the-houston-texans-defense-has-been-so-bad-in
I don't know the reasoning. Turnovers appears to be the big reason. They're just not coming. The Belicheck defenses have always been "bend-don't-break". Someone not named Watt needs to step up more consistently.
It seems we've invested a significant amount of resources in the defense...and this is what we have to show for it.
Vince was a terrible FA signing. He's been useless here because he doesn't fit the system. His skill -set when he was younger would've fit.
To damn the defense, one must also damn the offense. Last year the offense had a balance attack and was able to control the clock. The defense played fewer minutes per game and stayed fresh. Also last year for whatever reason, JJ Watt was able to have more impact. The offense this year has struggled. The big reason is Arian Foster, who missed games and has yet to be fully his old self. Without Foster, the running game has not done much, exposing the mediocre talent on the OL.
seattle is going through something similar. they're not running the ball and controlling momentum putting their D in more short field situations. It's all one big domino effect. and there are a couple of things being done differently by romeo from the previous year.
The secondary needs to play more zone than man-to-man. They seem to play zone when their starting CBs go down and it worked better against the Jags. Same thing happened last year, players like Morris and Rolle were getting turnovers. I hope they play more zone with Kareem out but I doubt it.
I would say Vince has actually been decent. He's basically doing his job. Problem is that our MLBs are not doing their jobs.
