Sorry, you misunderstood me. The defense is ELITE, I wasn't criticizing them at all. I don't like the strategy this team seems to take of just not caring at all about points and feeling confident the defense will hold. That is unfair to the defense.
absolutely agreed. No defensive unit will survive for the whole game when the offense can't sustain drives. That being said, regardless of how these games are going... the defense somehow continues to get "better" in the 4th quarter of these games, while most other defenses (including the other elite ones) tend to get tired. That has also improved from earlier this year. They are susceptible to the QB scramble still but that's about it.
The Chiefs had plenty of breaks, too. A fourth down conversion deep in Chief territory was wiped out by a fairly dubious offsides penalty, as was a Schultz touchdown on an illegal procedure penalty that was so egregious, Collinsworth went silent when he discovered, while breaking the penalty down during the replay, that there wasn't actually a penalty. And let's not pretend the drops happened in a vacuum. You think Rice wasn't hearing Pitre footsteps on the 4th down play? The Kelce drop/interception (and to a degree, the Rice play, too) was a product of an effective pass rush disrupting the timing. Kelce should've caught the ball - but that was an awful, Anderson-induced throw from Mahomes. The Texans' D was, very often, causing the breaks. This is a violent, well-coached, very smart defense. They make life miserable for offenses.
They deserve a TON of praise. The effort level and the determination to step up is absolutely impressive. The coach shouldn't waste that by so easily squandering points. Kareem Hunt catches that little screen pass and suddenly the amazing defensive effort was meaningless. They seem to get comfortable with their points way too early for my liking.
No doubt about it. This isn't an argument about the defense. All teams get breaks, even the team that loses.
I agree Spags emptied the tank, but that’s what he does most games. I could see/saw the all out blitz coming on the regular. Seems as though the offense didn’t prepare for that enough. I am not as down on Caley as what most are. I don’t think this offense has been built properly. I think they piece it together and hope it comes together. There was a clear blueprint for building the defense, the offense needs the same. I am not sure what DeMeco knows about the offense in general but I feel like he needs to know more and be a little more involved. I want to see the offense punch people in the mouth like the defense does; impose its will. I don’t see that kind of confidence on that side of the ball.
I think... prep or not, they don't have an OL good enough to counter it. Generally, teams don't look *that* overwhelmed with all-out blitzes. This is precisely why you hire experienced coordinators who know exactly what they need. I keep going back to the Wade Phillips hire... in one offseason - before he had coached a single day of practice - the Texans signed Joseph, Manning and drafted Watt. Phillips knew what he needed and, more importantly, how to effectively deploy them. Caley may get there - I think he is - generally - a smart guy with a bright future. But on a team where he could take a year+ to figure some things out. Urgency to win here was too great and needed someone who knew what they were doing from day 1.
Clutchfans: “Coaching sucks, offense sucks, front office sucks, fire this guy, trade this guy, don’t pay this guy”, etc. Texans: W, W, W, W, W, … etc. Are the Texans the best team ever that sucked at so many things?
CJ has not proved he's elite or even a top QB. If we're going to pay him what he wants for the record (for think the 49ers are insane to what they paid Purdy) he needs to be better. Blame the coordinator, the OL but they aren't responsible for missing wide open guys. Lookat Hutchinson wide open on the on the overthrow. Nico having to dig balls out of the dirt
Again, you don’t think running for your life 50-80% of the time, beyond what the average QB has to go through, will influence some of those internal clock tendencies and mechanics? Rookie QB Stroud hit every throw and was pretty seamless in his MVP-like performances…. That goes away when you don’t have the foundations in place to help you. Even Mahomes and Burrow get rattled with continued pressure. I’m not saying Stroud is blameless…. But if the comparison is always going to be how “good” the rookie version of him was, and we also know how bad the coaching got after that (leading to a firing) and how bad the line got going into this year (leading to 6 games of reshuffling/retooling before finally settling), and how bad the new OC has been in his learning curve/adjustm,ents…. Then it doesn’t take any sort of PHD to realize it’s probably more the environment than the individual (even if the individual can always improve certain tendencies/aspects).
Took years before Belichick became immersed on that side of the ball… and even then he would still be more hands on with his bread/butter (Defense/special teams) and leave the offensive details to his coordinators. Likewise, do you think Andy Reid is pulling the defense aside and telling them what to do in quarter 4 vs quarter 2? If you really want a HC that is neutral to both sides, promote special teams or line coaches to the head gig… but the current NFL model is to promote/elevated the best coordinator of the best unit out there. Matt Burke is going to probably get all the HC interviews this off-season that everybody thought Slowick was going to get after year one of Stroud.
Last season BDN's comment was, "We're going to build around Cj." the usuals got upset. He said something similar last week. "CJ has been playing some solid football. He is too hard on himself sometimes. My job is to make things easier." I think we would average 3 more points per game if they would cut the Redzone tomfoolery by their own doing. we're at 21.8 per game. (20th) We'd easily be inside the top 10 and that's without a consistent running game. The best red zone offenses can punish you with the ground game. The threat of it, even better . https://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/red-zone-scoring-attempts-per-game Some sure scoring drives inside the 20 or near the 20 that would have qualified us for those extra 3 pts per game, just from memory. Game 2: Nico not barrelling into the end zone like he always does, stopped at the 2. Then, everyone knows what happened. Game 2: Watson held in the endzone, no flag, settle for a FG. Game 3: Nico fumble, FGA wiped out. When does Nico fumble? Stroud pick, clear path to his arm by Allen. game 6: 2 more trips to the lovely 2 yard line. It got so dark with not getting ONE yard that the game plan turned to f' it, chunk it deep someone is back there. Game 8: Another 2 more trips to the 2 yard line where they decide to run in Zachery's space. FGs Game 12: Stewart is no Deforest that he got blocked easily but got his paws up to deny a sure Dalton TD. Yesterday: The negated Dalton td. It's not that they called it. They let worse go all the time. This is not counting the drives with offensive holding calls.
Literally, 3/5 of their opening day OL has either been traded (Robinson), released (Tomlinson) or benched (Scruggs/Patterson) - but people on here want to complain because CJ sailed one pass one time in a game... I think Caley and Popovich are going to be OK. It looks like they may have 3/5 of their OL figured out. Marks and Higgins look like they're going to be big draft hits. I keep thinking they're going to be *very* good next year. For this year, assuming health, I think their offense is going to get better each week and be good, come postseason. I'm very optimistic.
You’re the head coach, when it’s not going well for years, you better damn well do something to help get it right.
Demeco brought in Slowick from SF. There was universal consensus that Slowick had to go. Casserio made the suggestion for Caley. Since the HC picked one didn’t work, they go with the GM picked one. And here we are again. Kubiak was forced to accept Wade Phillips (and ended up winning a SB with Denver because of him). Once this fails and Stroud and this offense gets their third play-caller/offensive coordniator in 3-4 years, then maybe they’ll be ready to go?? Of course by then, this team could be very expensive with Stroud, WAJ, Lassiter, Pitre, etc…. But at least you’ll have actual experience to determine what may or may not be needed in key positions (O-line, RB, etc.).
I'm not saying the Texans have ever addressed or fixed the OL situation. CJ doesn't help himself. He gets happy feet and panicks when he doesn't need too. He's not Mahomes. I dobsee some Burrow in him but he's blessed with Chase and Higgins. Nico is there and Schultz is dependable but they aren't there. Coaching is bad now. Demeco should be a defensive coordinator We'll see but we have the best defense in the league. CJ needs to hit open receivers. It's that simple
