From Rotoworld: Coach Gary Kubiak? Typo or does that mean that Kubiak did his due diligence on Avery? Wouldn't mind him as our new slot receiver. And blocking the Colts would be fun.
Should they go for another Jacoby-esque WR like Avery or try and pick up a decent blocking WR like Walter? Or just resign David Anderson?
I don't know what to make of this game. On one hand blowout is blowout. You can't complain about a blowout. And I guess being handed a 1-0 freebie is huge in the NFL given there are only 16 games. But... The Colts are horrible talent-wise without Peyton. So it's hard to get fired up about the win. And our secondary still looks questionable. Imagine if we had faced a not-recently-out-of-NFL QB, a QB that has good decision-making and good release, with a decent O-Line... I'm still not sure we can stop such a team. Still... Our division is finally sucking so really we can just get into the playoffs by being the best of the worst. Kubiak's master plan perhaps? Basically keep McNair happy until everyone else sucks so he wins by default?
I don't like TO, but give me an old-man version of him (if he's healthy) over Jacoby please. Especially because he is a run blocker out there more than Jacoby
No more David Andersen please. This guy isn't that any good and offers limited upside at best. Doesn't help on special teams at all either. I would be all over Donnie Avery. He offers upside as a deep threat and I think Bryant Johnson is a decent slot receiver based on the little I have seen of him.
Randy "Alligator Arms" Moss will never, ever, ever drop a big pass because he will hear a DB coming, and won't extend his arms to try to make a play on the ball. If you don't try to catch the ball, you can't drop it.
Jones lead the Houston receivers in catch percentage last season, albeit against weaker CBs and less attempts. He still drops some passes, but he has improved in last two years. Not that I would want Jones as a number 1 (or even full-time No. 2) receiver, but he will be fine at getting AJ, Daniels, Foster, and Casey's scraps.
How about both? Most teams have 6 or 7 receivers on the active roster. Some have 8, 5 seems to be the minimum. So if Walter really is going to be out for an extended period of time, we need 2 more.
I certainly wouldn't mind seeing Donnie Avery signed and perhaps Bryant Johnson promoted from practice squad. The good thing for the Texans is that the running game is so ridiculously good at this point that they don't have to rely so much on the passing game. And you can hardly underestimate the impact that James Casey brings at the FB position. It is so much fun to watch them line up in an I-formation, and then surprise the defense making him run a WR route from the back field. They can put 3 receivers on the field, play-action and turn it into 5 wideouts against a base defense with no nickel back. Or you do a two tight-end package with Dreessen and Daniels, Casey at FB, AJ wide and ... uh oh, 5 WRs on the play-action. Fun. Anybody signed right now is just for insurance, really.
My thoughts on the game... That first half of football was probably ever Texans fan's wet dream, as far as football goes. That's the best half I've ever seen this team play. We were dominant. The offensive line was in beast mode, and they just mauled the Colts defense on run plays. Our running backs were running fairly well, but like others said, I think Foster could have had a few more yards. I'm not complaining about the job Tate/Ward did, though. Great to see Mario start the game with a sack. The defensive line got tons of pressure, and the secondary looked great. Cushing was flying all over the field. I still expect a big year from him. I hate to say this, but I think Schaub was probably our weakest link in the first half. He overthrew a few receivers, but to be honest, he still played well. In the second half, my first reaction was to wonder why we weren't trying to hang a 60-0 score on the Colts. Thinking about it as the half went on, I like what we did. Phillips didn't show anything that he didn't have to in this game. He sent a vanilla blitz package basically the whole second half. I'm all for putting as little on tape as possible at this point in the season. As far as the offense goes, I would have liked to see a heavy dose of Slaton in the second half. If we're going to run the ball that much in the second half, put Slaton in. We already saw Tate for the majority of the first half, so I would have liked to see if Slaton has got his rookie form back. I'm just being nit-picky though. Why didn't I really see Vickers lead blocking when we were pretty much in a run-only package? Is he in Kubiak's dog house? If Walter is out, I would prefer Donnie Avery, but apparently Amendola is out for the year, so I wouldn't be surprised to see Avery back with the Rams. I think Anderson is the most likely option, which I don't necessarily agree with. Jeff Maehl has more upside than David Anderson, as much as I like the guy. I still love our defense. I don't love the fact that they kind of mailed it in in the second half. Part of it was scheme I think. Part of me wants to say that that's why we're not a playoff team, but the other part of me tells me that that would be wrong to say. I do agree with the person that said that this felt like a fifth preseason game. I can't wait to see some real football from this team. I still don't think the Colts have the worst record in the league. We just caught them during the right time of the year. They'll give us a lot more of a game the second time around, and I think that game already carries the feel of a trap game, even though it's probably too early to say that. Overall, I hope I didn't sound like a complainer in this post, because that's not what I came here to do. I am pumped for this year, and that was a great game to watch. I just can't get too excited until I see us play some real contenders, like the Steelers(maybe?) and Ravens.
<!-- http://twitter.com/#!/TheCousinSal/status/112953824993484800 --> <style type='text/css'>.bbpBox112953824993484800 {background:url(http://a3.twimg.com/profile_background_images/59383363/TwitterBG.jpg) #C0DEED;padding:20px;} p.bbpTweet{background:#fff;padding:10px 12px 10px 12px;margin:0;min-height:48px;color:#000;font-size:18px !important;line-height:22px;-moz-border-radius:5px;-webkit-border-radius:5px} p.bbpTweet span.metadata{display:block;width:100%;clear:both;margin-top:8px;padding-top:12px;height:40px;border-top:1px solid #fff;border-top:1px solid #e6e6e6} p.bbpTweet span.metadata span.author{line-height:19px} p.bbpTweet span.metadata span.author img{float:left;margin:0 7px 0 0px;width:38px;height:38px} p.bbpTweet a:hover{text-decoration:underline}p.bbpTweet span.timestamp{font-size:12px;display:block}</style> <div class='bbpBox112953824993484800'><p class='bbpTweet'>Watching the Texans go up and down the field from the sidelines can not be good for Peyton Manning's neck.<span class='timestamp'><a title='Sun Sep 11 18:21:05 +0000 2011' href='http://twitter.com/#!/TheCousinSal/status/112953824993484800'>less than a minute ago</a> via <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/download/ipad" rel="nofollow">Twitter for iPad</a> <a href='http://twitter.com/intent/favorite?tweet_id=112953824993484800'><img src='http://si0.twimg.com/images/dev/cms/intents/icons/favorite.png' /> Favorite</a> <a href='http://twitter.com/intent/retweet?tweet_id=112953824993484800'><img src='http://si0.twimg.com/images/dev/cms/intents/icons/retweet.png' /> Retweet</a> <a href='http://twitter.com/intent/tweet?in_reply_to=112953824993484800'><img src='http://si0.twimg.com/images/dev/cms/intents/icons/reply.png' /> Reply</a></span><span class='metadata'><span class='author'><a href='http://twitter.com/TheCousinSal'><img src='http://a3.twimg.com/profile_images/571660998/sal_normal.jpg' /></a><strong><a href='http://twitter.com/TheCousinSal'>Cousin Sal</a></strong><br/>TheCousinSal</span></span></p></div> <!-- end of tweet -->
Thoughts... 1) I loved James Casey, dude can do everything. I get the feeling he will become an invaluable tool. 2) Watt is as good as advertised. 100% NFL ready. Great pick. 3) Our secondary is night and day better. Manning and Quin were always in the right spots. Even saw a few impressive pass breakups. 4) I lol'd everytime AJ80 went over the middle. You could see the DBs giving him space. They were afraid of hitting him. He gets incredible respect. 5) We're going to give up yards, particularly against the run, but we're going to get turnovers and field position that will ultimately allow us to outscore our opponents. Something we sorely lacked last year. 6) If Walter is out, I'm fine with David Anderson coming back on the cheap. He knows the system and has good hands. Bryant Johnson is solid too. So we'll be ok.
