You're exaggerating what happened. Watt was moving towards the QB while being blocked. He wasn't just blocked straight into the QB.
Of course he was moving towards the QB... He was going to hit him straight up, and only went low when he was pushed. No exaggeration... just facts. It wasn't a late hit by any means... it was only a flag because of the rule in place protecting QB's from low hits. But that rule does not apply when the o-line's contact caused him to go low.
Wrong. When the game clock is running out and your team leads, all defensive players are coached to kneel on an interception. You don't run the risk of fumbling the ball, you don't run the risk of allowing the opponent to get the ball back. There is a ZERO percent chance of the opponent outscoring you when you can kneel the ball. On the other hand, if you score, the opponent gets the ball back. The opponent can get a kickoff return for a TD, or broken coverage can give the opponent a TD. Either of those can take 10 seconds. The opponent could recover the onside kick, then have a short field for another possible TD. Given it's highly unlikely, the smarter play is to control the clock with your offense. Kneeling IS the smarter play.
There are a whole lot of penalties these days that just exist to protect the league from litigation or protect the brand. All of the helmet-to-helmet stuff and defenseless receiver stuff, specifically. If you go to tackle someone 100% to form - helmet to chest wrapping up the ball carrier - and at the last second he flinches/ducks and you ping him in the head, defenders just have to live with the fact that they are going to get a penalty and get fined. They hate it, and they feel like the cards are stacked against them, but they understand that it is going to happen. It's like there is just some random act of nature penalty that occurs every once in awhile. If you play the game perfectly, there will still just happen to be a couple of random penalties that occur on the defense each game. The only positive is that over time it happens equally randomly to both sides. The Watt to me is a good example of this. It looked to me like he was going hard and basically got tripped or fell into the QB. No blame to Watt or what he was doing, but still the call that the league wants the refs to make.
So over the course of like one step and half a millisecond, he was supposed to turn around, check to make sure that the ball that was still in the air wasn't possibly going to be intercepted before continuing on? Do you honestly believe that Watt had the slightest inkling that the ball was about to be intercepted?
That's all well and good... but they dont make that call consistently. Schaub got a low blow last year that was waived off because the defender was blocked into him by a Texans lineman.
He's talking about JJOseph, not Watt. He is criticizing him for returning the INT for a TD... he should have taken a knee once intercepting the ball. One thing you should ask of him is what if Schaub fumbles the snap on the attempted QB kneel, and the Steelers get the ball back. Now instead of being up two scores, you're right back where you were.
Roethlisberger gets x-rays, leaves in walking boot Roethlisberger, Mendenhall, Harrison, Smith--Texans beat those guys up pretty good. Of course suffered a huge injury of our own.
My bad. I can't remember the last time I saw someone take a knee in the NFL after an interception unless there was only one or two seconds left on the game clock. So I have no real direct experience, but if that is what they are teaching these days, I think there are a whole lot of players who aren't listening to their coaches. And really, ultimately, the interception didn't happen thanks to the Watt penalty, so is is a hypothetical argument about something that didn't actually happen in the game record. It seems like there are things that did actually happen that would be more worth directing our attention to, at least in my opinion.
Yeah, I'd much rather be talking about 14 points taken away from us, along with possible bone-headed plays by us... when we actually WIN a game. The Steelers are a good team... when they were shoving it down our throats, we weren't playing any less stout defense... they were just better. When they were stopping us at the start of the second half, that was their league leading defense... not our "p***y ass" play calling coach. The Texans got a win against a quality opponent, without their best player for half the game, yet the prevailing theme this week will be that "we should have won by more, we can't put games away!", and "this team isn't well coached, and isn't disciplined enough". Perhaps this team is just that good... not good enough to be considered a Super Bowl contender, but also has grown beyond the struggles that plagued them the last three years with medicore results.
unsung hero and game ball goes to Nfl star kareem jaxxon Hopefully someone posts it, I even felt that hit.
I remember a defensive player seeing it happen a couple of seasons ago. The offense was set up 30 yds from the goalline to take the lead at the end of the game and the defensive player had a pick-6. Nobody close to tackling him but he ran it all the way to the 2 yd line and took a knee so his offense could run the clock out. All the commentators and NFL desk guys commended him for making the smart play. Smart plays separate the talented teams from the playoff teams. The Dallas Cowboys have always been stacked with talent but they make the most boneheaded plays. That's why they are never serious contenders. Our team still makes boneheaded plays. Fortunately today, we still ended up with the W.
Great win... I'm really worried about how good our offense will look without Andre. Unless we get some players stepping up big-time, no team will be a cakewalk. Obviously the best thing to do is sit him until he's good to go though.
Props to the offense line today. No sacks on Schaub and 155 yards for Foster against the Steelers? That's pretty outstanding.
I remember AJ being out for a good stretch one year and then Walter and Jones picking up the slack. I don't see why they couldn't do it again.
