The last 2 games, 5 possessions in the 4th quarter with the lead. 15 plays. 12 yards. I dont think its coincidence. Ive seen it before with Kubiak. You cant beat good teams with the "lets just try not to lose" approach. If we werent facing a Pittsburgh OLine that replaced a couple of its starters with swiss cheese, then we'd be sitting at 2-2 right now.
This. Moreover, the long Foster TD was set up by back-to-back completions of 9 and 30 yards to Owen Daniels. In other words, once Schaub loosened the defense, a hole opened up in the running game that hadn't been there. I think the biggest difference between last week's approach (with the lead) and yesterday's is that against New Orleans, Foster was out. That led to a greater emphasis on the pass. Against Pittsburgh, Johnson was out and Foster was back, so Kubiak's trust was in the running game. I'm not in love with that philosophy, and wish Kubiak would trust his other players enough to be more creative with his playcalling. The results - 5 possessions, 0 first downs - speak for themselves. That said, I can somewhat understand why he did it, and hopefully it'll lead to more playcalling balance when both Arian and Andre are healthy.
you guys who actually were arguing this are out of your freakin minds. dude hit a guy in the back. the rule is there for player safety, it doesn't matter if it didn't affect the outcome of the play.
i think blame is being misplaced then. kubiak calls the plays, yes. but how is it on him if they don't execute? the main thing that matters is getting first downs, whether by run or pass. kubiak can't make Schaub throw accurately or make the Oline block better.
I agree and understand that the steelers were focused on the run but it was the texans best option. You keep pounding the ball until you break one, which they did. To be fair, they only had touched the ball once in the 3rd and only one possession ended in an incomplete pass in the 4th...the deep ball to JJ, which I didn't mind so much. It was a gutsy call, which i didn't mind too much.
NO! The blame is on Kubiak. The BUCK STOPS THERE. He is suppose to put his players in position to be successful Rocket River
You really need to watch a full NFL game from a wide angle - not the close-up TV spots. Incidental shoves in the back happen on almost every play. I'd wager 80% or more on regular plays, and about 95% on special teams. It's just like holding. You could call it virtually every time if you wanted to. Good officials understand context. Moreover, you can STILL discipline the player without affecting the unrelated play, if you feel you need to. Call a dead ball personal foul, AFTER the play. Or speak to him privately. But don't take away a fabulous play on the field because of an arbitrary violation that has nothing to do with it. It's like the unspoken rule in basketball to wait on calling a technical if there's a breakaway. There are other ways to discipline players, if you feel you need to, than to punish an entire team over something that had nothing to do with the play.
Agreed. When I saw the play . . . I felt like it was called . . so the Steelers could remain close. That play would have blown the whole game wide open I know it can be called. . . .but It is like the Pass Interference call when the ball sails 15 feet over the receiver's head and out of bounds. . . . The contact did not effect the play Rocket River
So he gets credit for every win but none of the blame in the losses I got ya . . and I understand your position Rocket River
I'm not sure how loose they were, on that play the LB, troy and a CB were up on the line of scrimmage. That was a great cut back and a great block on the LB who was there. I guess this is just a case where fans are complaining to complain. Someday texans fans will be able to just take a win and be happy. I can understand how unsexy it is to run the ball and be conservative but in the 4th the texans spent almost 8 minutes with the offense on the field, which isn't too bad...and that did include forcing the steelers to use a timeout. I don't think we are also used to actually relying on the defense to close out games, which is that they did sunday.
It was great watching the Steelers D get manhandled. Harrison got knocked out of the game, Farrior, Hampton, and Timmons were total non-factors. Polamalu spent 3 quarters of the game pouting. Pure pwnage.
It's not about running vs throwing, or being sexy, or being conservative vs aggressive. It's about sustaining drives and getting first downs. I honestly don't care how we get the first down just so long as we get them. We weren't getting them with our run, run, screen, punt offense so I just would've liked to see something different. Something that would've moved the ball instead of being content to run the clock for 3 plays before punting it back. We're lucky in that while we were struggling on offense, the defense was making the Steelers struggle as well. That's why the time of possession was even in the 4th, not because the offense was doing such a great job of keeping the Pittsburgh offense off the field. We had more offensive possessions in the 4th quarter than we did in the first 3 combined.
In this forum, he doesn't get credit for a win, he gets blamed for almost losing. Sometimes he get blamed for things he didn't even do using the rationalization of "well, what if he did????" Seriously, let's wait until we suck to b**** about the coach.
I'm with those that are happy we won, but concerned with the continued habit of leaving points on the field and struggling with a killer instinct. We've put all 4 opponents on the ropes and slacked off - only the Saints had the firepower to make us pay for it. It's important we resolve this, because we can't continue to d**k around when we face the Raiders, Ravens, Titans, or Falcons. Hell even the Bengals are starting to look feisty, and Cam Newton is throwing all over people. I would love to see Schaub elevate his game. I need him to prove me wrong when I say he's more a product of Johnson & Co than the other way around. Game ball, for sure, to the defense (and Foster). I won't crucify Manning - one, he made the play to start with, two, as he stated, he thought (wrongly, but barely) that he got to the kicker before Watt had possession three, it was barely a block in the back and mostly a hit from the side. Stinks, but he still affected the score +3 on the play. No need to tear him apart as if he blew coverage and gave the Steelers a TD. Because that's a huge chunk of the head coach's responsibility? The league is riddled with wash out coaches that were X-O geniuses that couldn't get their guys on board and executing.
