americans had a pretty good point differential going into yesterday's ryder cup matches. i seem to remember oilers bills kc phi slamma valvano etc. vomit. if you are ready to quit playing then you should forfeit. **** sportsmanship, that doesn't win championships. playing HARD from beginning to the bitter end is what it's all about.
Quit playing?..... (rolls eyes….) In 3 of their 4 wins this year, 17, 17 and 21-point leads at the end of the third quarter *increased* in the 4Q. Denver (a 20-point lead) is the only neck they didn’t snap – and they were en route to doing just that when Tate fumbled. In fact, if you extend it back to Schaub’s last 4 starts of 2011, six of their last 8 leads at the end of three quarters increased in the 4Q: @ TEN: 20-point margin at the end of 3 became a 34-point margin JAX: 7 > 10 CLE: 21 < 18* @TB: 27 > 28 MIA: 17 > 20 @JAX 17 > 20 DEN: 20 < 6* TEN: 21 > 24 This is independent of how rare and unbelievable it is that they’ve built seven consecutive 17+-point leads at the end of 3 Qs. Neck-snapping is not a weakness of this team and let’s not sleep on how consistently building 17+ point leads after 3 is every bit as neck-snapping as meaninglessly increasing that in an apathetic 4th quarter.
i am happy, i love this team, however, i carry a lot of pain in my soul. we have few weaknesses. i agree that special teams haven't been that special and that we CAN'T run right. i hope kubiak is just in practice mode with the running right. do you know where i can get stats on yards gained running right versus left? anywho, the only thing that scares me with the defense is up the middle run defense and slant routes. i worry about a team like brady picking at us just enough. i hate the bradys. i think we can go to the superbowl but not sure if we can win. i think it is san fran versus the bradys or us. i guess san fran wins. just what i'm thinking but hope to be wrong. edit: oh, the quit playing thing is on the coaches, not the players. i've not seen anyone on our team take a play off. i just prefer not to see prevent mode on either side of the ball.
The Texans have yet to be up by less than 17 at the beginning of the 4th quarter so far this season. Up 27-10 against Miami Up 24-7 against J-ville Up 31-11 against Denver Up 28-7 against moonshine runnin' toothless in-breeders (titans) That means every Texan opponent this season has gone into the 4th quarter knowing they have to score 3 times (while keeping the Texans from scoring any more) just to get back in the game.
And against the single good QB in that mix the team was shutout and did give up 2 TDs... It's not a knock against the players...it's against the Coaches... Remember @Indy last year where the team got a gift TD early and coasted to an embarrassing loss?
Ben Tate, not Gary Kubiak, fumbled away what would have likely been a neck-snapping 4Q drive against Denver. If you have the best rushing attack in football, there is absolutely, positively nothing wrong with utilizing it in the 4Q to suck the air out of a double-digit lead. Trust me, the opponent on the sideline, watching Foster/Tate collect first dwons while the clock ticks away, would LOVE for you to be coaching the team, chucking it the air like you're playing a 14-year old online in Madden. Indy? When the team had clinched a playoff spot, their defensive coordinator was in the hospital, and their iffy 3rd string rookie QB had coughed it 3 times 4 days earlier - that Indy?
It's not just prevent offense. When the plays are all safe and predictable(on both sides of the ball) it makes it easier for GOOD opponents to take advantage of that.... And my issue with the Indy game was that Schaub was not coming back, so why turn to a conservative game plan? That's the time to get Yates live reps running the offense you will use in the playoffs.... Not the 4 minute offense from the midpoint of the first quarter... Also if your 4q runs are getting completely stiffed because they have 9 in the box, then yes you need to do a play action and throw down the field once in a while. The defense has zero respect for a pass play from Kubiak in that situation...
Running the ball when ahead by 20 in the 4th quarter is Football 101. If Tate doesn't fumble that ball, that game is over. It took that fumble plus a fluke TD catch by Dressen to even make it interesting. The game wasn't nearly as close as the final score. The Texans dominated. EDIT: In the spirit of the thread, I will give you that our defense seems to struggle against really good QB's running the 2-minute offense. (see New Orleans last year)
you're confusing plays that didn't work out with conservativeness. the first series after the first Denver 4th QT TD went 1st down, long incomplete pass to the middle of the field, 2nd down was a run that went nowhere, 3rd down was a screen that was stuffed. 3 and out. you can hardly call that conservative. more like the players didn't execute. and i'll go a back to the Saints game last year and argue Kubiak's aggressiveness in the 4th cost us the game. Up by two scores and he came out passing on 3 straight downs, all incompletions. that gave NO plenty of time to come back.
The Giants showed that you can win a SB with a major weakness (run game). The Colts and Saints did the same thing.
I think it was the screen that got me. That's a giveup 3rd down play. I know sometimes screen passes work (even rarely on third down), but it just struck me as a low risk low reward type of play. Very Kubiak. ** I hold last year's play-off loss at Baltimore on Kubiak for not aggressively trying to win the last few games.... Maybe it was just trickle down from Indy(lost that game so didn't wanna risk injury the next couple).... Shoulda been playing here instead of Maryland....
The Texans carried 5 times for 27 yards on their opening drive of the 4Q in Denver, collecting 3 1st downs. Tate fumbled at the Broncos' 48. Prior to, they had held the ball for 3.5 minutes, moved 32 yards and were roughly 11 yards away from a viable FG, which would have made it 34-11.
Perhaps it's the ghost of Jacoby Jones returning kicks but Holiday has at least made positive gains on most of his returns.... Valid point. All I am saying is it seems to me when the Texans get to 28-30 points with a lead, they ain't scoring again unless it's on defense, special teams, or a Foster/Tate homerun.....This goes back basically since the Foster era began(what I consider the current Texans offense). I will give them that they have been more consistent this year and last vs 2010 where they would do nothing the first half and put up 24 pts in the 2nd half..
almost every team would be like that, if teams are winning by 20 points or more, they tend to run the ball more and short passes, to take off time of the clock, they dont care about scoring. check the broncos-raiders game the score was: 34-6 broncos with 11 mins left, in the 4th qtr they started in their own 24 yard. then first two plays runs, then a 5 yards pass, then 4 run plays, then a 8-yard pass, thena 3 run plays, and then a 53 yard FG. so of 12 plays, only two were passes (short passes), and they took 7:17 off the clock. the runs were only 3, 4 or 5 yards, only one run for 12 yards. another example the 49ers were winning 24-0 in the 4th qtr, 13:21 left, started in their own 32 then they went 8 running plays (longest was 13 yards, but most of them were 4 or 5 yards) and 2 incomplete passes, to end it with a long FG, they took 4:58 mins.
being down in the 4th quarter hasn't happened. i wish to never see it all year but realistically that isn't going to happen so it will be interesting to see the team respond when it does.
I don't know. That has not been their MO. Outside of left tackle, I don't think any O-linemen under the Smithiak regime has been drafted higher then the 3rd round.
true, and I think Newton is going to stay at RT, assuming that he continues to show improvement. That being said, another guard and/or backup tackle will be on the list. The only clear cut early picks would be Dline and another LB. Everything else is purely best player available, imo.
