Offense was bad but defense doesn't get a pass. Aside from 3 of the first 4 possessions turning into touchdowns; there is also the long passes to Watkins, penalty that wiped out Watt's sack, and the last touchdown to Clay. They got one sack and no turnovers. This was a team loss. Offense, defense, and special teams.
Personally, the offense was fairly weak today - too many failed attempts at first downs forfeiting scoring opportunities and handing the defense the responsibility of trying to hold up the O. Hoyer was very inaccurate today - two of his short deep balls if thrown 3 yards deeper would have resulted in TD's.
We have 8 first round picks on defense and we got gashed over and over by a mediocre Bills offense. We know the Texans offense sucks and they have to keep teams in the teens for a legit chance to win. The defensive performance today sucked and I expect more of the same the next two weeks.
This is why it's hard for me to be a big believer in O'Brien yet. His handling and judgement of the QB position since he's been here has been suspect. He was suppose to be a "QB guru". Guess that was an exaggeration.
The fact that he started Mallet two separate years over adequate NFL QBs (Fitz and Hoyer) makes me really question the guy's ability to evaluate talent. Or maybe he just thinks he can polish a turd
Interesting take by the OP. He puts forth that the QB position for the Texans is still unsettled. I can't believe no one has brought this up until now.
Seriously? We all called for his head when he named Hoyer the starter over Mallet. Then he gave in, played him, and we all yelled about how bad Mallet was. You get mad because you think he cant tell if a QB is good or not. But his evaluation skills were pretty good. He knew Hoyer was better than Mallet, we did NOT. He doesnt have much else to work with. TBH I liked Savage the best.
For the most part, I don't care how we start the game off. It's how we finish. Rex and the Bills had a good gameplan to start this game. Our coaches are excellent at making adjustments, especially during halftimes. In the end, our defense did their job and gave the offense several oppourtunities to take the game. After tying the game, we had 2 or 3 series within the 9-minute mark. Our offense completely pissed away every series, while our defense continued to makes stops and gave the ball back to the offense. Ideally, like in Kubiak offense, we would be able to move the ball and take time off the clock, then set up the game winning TD or FG with almost no time left. But our offense couldn't even get a first down in any of those series. We kept the Bills in the game because of offense was attrocious. I get we don't have foster or schaub to dominate T.O.P to close games out like we had back when Kubiak was around. But he put us in that position by not giving us chit for offense in the last 2 years. Defense can do its job by making stops and giving the offense oppourtunities, but i feel like he expects them to be all worldly and make game winning interceptions/fumble recoveries for TDs. Not realistic at all. Offense fuked up, plain and simple. That in turn made our defense *** up at the end, by giving their offense oppourtunies after oppourtunities. So sick of the BS offense, no QB no running game. Wtf is BoB thinking
The turning point, frankly, was the Fiedorowicz hold; it came after we had tied the score and stopped them and I thought it drastically flipped field position. That backed us up to our own 10, with a 1st and 20. Buffalo's next two drives started at their 45 and 35 (would have been 45; Buffalo was flagged on the return); Houston's next drive started at their 6. I wonder if, given a do-over, BOB would think about punting with 1:37 remaining and all 3 TOs? Also, it drives me crazy when teams mis-manage long downs late in the game. It's 3rd and 10 - you need to approach it as two plays to make 10 yards; I disliked the long pass on third down - puts all the marbles on a remarkably more difficult fourth down play. But... I mostly thought it was an admirable effort. It unfortunately turns the NE game into a much more important game and likely kills any playoff chances, at least fro ma wild card perspective.
Exactly. He makes the receivers works extremely hard for every catch Even the announcers were pointing it out, that our receivers were getting open and that the passes were behind them or w/e. There was several replays of Washington or Shorts getting their separation deep down the field and having ton of room to run after. Pretty sure some of those could've gone for long TDs. Hoyer is just not helping them out at all.
Bottom line if the QB position doesn't have any real direction by the end of next year, O'Brien doesn't need to be here after next year. No need in wasting anymore time if he can't do any better then at least drafting and grooming a legit prospect and giving hope to the franchise. Playing it safe with all of these retread QBs has not lead to anything and doesn't really set the franchise up for the future. Not taking Bridgewater, Carr or Garappolo will probably be the biggest indictment on O'Brien tenure here if the QB position doesn't pan out. Having superstars like Watt and Hopkins, you just hate to waste talent like that by neglecting the most important position on the field. I could see Hopkins looking to go elsewhere after his initial contract is up instead of waiting around and wasting his career like AJ did and like Watt is currently doing.
