<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Texans?src=hash">#Texans</a> had 13 drives. 10 drives were 6 plays or less. Had five three and outs. Had four drives of negative yards.</p>— PDS (@PatDStat) <a href="https://twitter.com/PatDStat/status/676433862470189056">December 14, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Hoodie's schemes/gameplans are tailor-made for teams like us. They take away your best players like no one else can - we are so dependent on JJ and Hopkins yet they were both absent in large part to the Pats devoting so much attention to them. Clowney and Mercilus more than picked up the slack on defense, but the offense and field positioning killed us.
PFF grades: Houston Texans Spoiler – An emerging star for the Texans this season has been fourth-year edge defender Whitney Mercilus (+3.1), who actually did a lot of his damage last night rushing from inside in sub-packages. The threat of Jadeveon Clowney (+1.0) and J.J. Watt off the edge left Mercilus with favorable one-on-one matchups against New England center Bryan Stork (-2.6), and Mercilus did not let his opportunities go to waste. Mercilus lived up to his name with a trio of quick pressures, including his first sack since Week 8, working off a spin move on Stork. – A game of “nearly, but not quite” for Brian Hoyer (-1.9) as a passer, with a number of targets to Ryan Griffin (-1.0) in particular, hitting the deck on what could have been big plays to help bring the Texans back into this game. The blame can be evenly spread between Hoyer’s not-quite-perfect ball placement, Griffin’s inability to secure the pass, and good recoveries in coverage by the Patriots’ secondary. With these opportunities missed, Hoyer’s two fumbles when sacked saw the Texans’ lead in the AFC South prove short-lived. – It turns out that J.J. Watt is in fact human; playing with broken hand, against an offense keen to getting the ball out of the quarterback’s hand quickly (2.17s average time to throw) and get bodies on him, he turned in his lowest overall grade (-1.3) since his rookie season. Not helped by ill discipline (roughing the passer, neutral zone infraction), Watt posted his third negative overall grade of the season, having recorded only one in each of the last three seasons. Top performers: OLB Whitney Mercilus (+3.1) CB Kareem Jackson (+1.4) LT Duane Brown (+1.4) OLB Jadeveon Clowney (+1.0) CB Johnathan Joseph (+0.7) New England Patriots Spoiler – Another week, another accomplished display of quarterbacking from Tom Brady (+3.3), who earned his 10th grade of +2.0 or higher in 12 starts this season. Hooking up with the returning Rob Gronkowski (+1.7) on a fade just before the half all but put the game beyond the Texans’ reach, and Brady’s rapid release was able to cover for all but the most catastrophic losses losses of his offensive line, as he took a sack on three of the eight dropbacks he was pressured on last night. – For the third time this season, Jabaal Sheard earned a pass rush grade of +2.0 or above, racking up five pressures as he got to Brian Hoyer for a pair of sacks and a hit. Sheard has earned a positive grade in every game he has played this season, with his consistent performances ensuring that Chandler Jones and Rob Ninkovich no longer have to wear down playing every single snap of the game with Sheard, allowing for rest and variety in the Patriots’ edge presence. – The Patriots’ secondary continues to play beyond its name power, with Logan Ryan (+3.2), Malcolm Butler (+2.1), and Leonard Johnson (+1.9) combining to allow only three receptions on 11 targets. Now, two of those completions did go for 89 yards over Ryan and Butler, but for the majority of the game, the New England secondary pooled resources to shutdown DeAndre Hopkins (-0.5), who had a season low in targets, catches, and PFF receiving grade. What was a question mark heading into the season has become an undoubted strength for the Patriots’ defense. Top performers: DE Jabaal Sheard (+5.6) LG Shaquille Mason (+4.1) DT Akiem Hicks (+4.0) QB Tom Brady (+3.3) CB Logan Ryan (+3.2)
Agreed Going into the 4th the Texans were closer than they should have been The way the Patriots defense was killing out offences and the offense killing themselves . .. . . . should have been like the Jags Indy game WILDCAT!!! Rocket River
They were out prepared, out coached and out played. Simple as that. While I did not expect them to actually win, I was totally unprepared for such a feeble showing on offense. The OL blocked like **** - Derek Newton should be cut today. In fact, the ENTIRE offense should be running wind sprints right now for that putrid effort last night. The play calling was **** (THE WILDCAT ? AGAINST NE? REALLY?). QB play was pathetic but then it was Hoyer so that was to be expected as he is incapable of making the kinds of plays needed to beat a team of this caliber. The defense was outschemed mercilessly as JJ found himself double and triple teamed while the rest of the DL was unable to take advantage of this and generate any consistent pressure on Brady until the 4th Qtr when it was far too late. Clowney finally started making some plays but also blew a number of tackles due to over pursuit and poor technique. The linebackers looked slow (again). Even being optimistic this team is at least TWO years away from being a legitimate contender and that's assuming they find a franchise QB and better OLinemen in those drafts.
I have tried to refrain from replying to bobby in these threads but it is difficult. His vendetta against Hoyer is laughable. I don't think anyone here is standing on a table shouting that Hoyer is anything more than a mediocre QB at best. Rooting against him is like rooting against The School of the Blind & Deaf Football team. We all know they aren't up to par with the highest level of competition, but neither are any of the other QBs on this roster. And save it on Yates. He's in the same boat. Neither of these guys are going to give you more than maybe 1 extra win than the other, and neither are going to get you deep into the playoffs without a lot of luck.
When it helps the team? Absolutely. If not for the previous Hoyer concussion, the Texans would already be out of the playoff hunt at 4-9
Tell me about it. I'm sick and tired of seeing his dread locks going backward all the time. Meaning he has to chase his man down because they broke free from his block
RECEIVERS: There were some drops. There were some DIFFICULT BUT catchable balls out there. I was so mad at Griffen and Fedorawitzjbfedkjfb I could spit. There were some difficult ill placed ball but they have to catch them Nate Washington reminded me of Orlando Jones in The Replacements fast Fast Fast but his hands sometimes. . . . he can catch but we needed him to go the extra mile a couple of times and he could not reel it in. DeAndre is going to have to DEMAND the ball . . .be an ASS about it if necessary I think we might need to look for a pass catching back too A better scheme would help Rocket River
The offense is just plain depressing at this point. Making it really hard to watch/cheer/care..........ugh.
Now you know O'Brien won't stand for this. He wants all of his robots....I mean players to be good teammates and yada, yada, yada....
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Though J. Irsay suggested Andrew Luck could return from lacerated kidney this week, uncertainty exists about when/if he'll return this year.</p>— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) <a href="https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/676485675089305600">December 14, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
that's like saying there is no evidence of aliens existing but if they did exist their would be proof.
No. Those balls from Hoyer were underthrown or overthrown on plenty of occasions. Hoyer showed the good ole Hoyer we all know. Let's hope he recovers, but Yates is the destined starter. This man might be the only guy to come in and take us to the playoffs twice... win a few playoff games then get released the subsequent offseason. Thanks Rick Smith! Appreciate it.
