Observations: Fitzpatrick was……..solid. Not spectacular or even impressive over all, but blue collar effective. The Raiders had more total yards. Without the turnovers, this could have been a close game. Loved the Watt TD catch. That was special. Our run defense largely sucks. Carr had excellent protection; that is not good. Our receivers have sticky hands; several outstanding catches. Bullock has risen above "Fat Randy" status; he is really kicking the rock. OBrien channeled a little Kubiak by getting conservative in the second half, sitting on the lead. We won, and that is good. Great start. Unfortunately, same as last season. Hopefully they keep it going. Still looking for that "lock down" defense.
I feel like we'd have looked a lot better if Fiedorowicz would have been healthy. Griffin has upside as a receiver but he's brutal as a blocker. Also, there's no question that we missed Clowney out there, thankfully 6 of our first 7 games are against really awful teams....arguably 7 of our first 8 really.
That was the one glaring deficiency I kept noticing... Very little pressure. Unless it was by design I really expected us to put a lot more pressure on Carr.
Well Carr was getting the ball out pretty quickly so I wouldn't worry that much, but it is nice to know we have Clowney coming back in about a month.
It's great we'll get Clowney back but man I was really shocked about the pressure. Carr did have some really solid passes.
Same here, I would have liked more pressure, but it ended up causing a few picks and really no deep passes because of how quickly he was getting rid of it. He very rarely let a play properly develop because if he had, he'd have been sacked half a dozen times.
Secondary has been very impressive as well. They weren't perfect but they're playing a lot better than before.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>DJ Swearinger said he hyperextended his left elbow but he'll be fine for next Sunday.</p>— Mark Berman (@MarkBermanFox26) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkBermanFox26/status/511309251785269248">September 15, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Yeah, having JJo in there makes a pretty big difference, also Swearinger has made great strides lately. When we get Clowney back to boost our pass rush and Nix gets up to speed and takes over the NT role, I could see the Texans having a top 5 defense.
Waiting until there is actually pressure from being on a playoff contender or actually in the playoffs. He is Kris Brown to me right now. Good when there isn't pressure and the team is suppose to suck versus when the team has deep playoff hopes.
THIS. Brooks Reed was a total non-factor (like last year) despite several blitz attempts. Cushing was bringing nothing up the middle as well. Maybe the Raiders have a really good line that pick up blitzes with the best of them, but I doubt it. The Texans just couldn't get a great rhythm/timing on their rushes... but the fact that they were still able to pretty much withstand whatever the Raiders had (bend but don't break) is something positive. Pass rush will only improve with more reps in this system, and with clowney coming back.
Not worried about the lack of sacks today. Figured it was going to be like that since Clowney is out. Had to hear this guy at the bar today kept banging on about Mack today. Annoyed with him but I know Clowney is the right pick despite his setback.
it looked like they were game planning for quick throws to protect carr. All they had to do was double watt. The one time they didnt have hats on watt, interception.
Is it just me or does anyone else want to see Mallet play for at least a quarter to give the man some reps for future references? I really think he's going to be a star for us.
