Only if you have zero confidence that the defense can get a stop. It took that tremendous catch by Dez to keep the Cowboys drive alive... they had the right call on with the safety blitz... and Romo just reflexively chucked it up there.
It doesn't... but the Cowboys were inventing ways to lose this game. The Murray fumble and Romo INT were both drives they should have score on... the ST punt return fumble was awful as well. They capped it off by running a very Kubiak-like 29 second drive when their main goals should have been run the clock as much as possible, as there's nothing "big play" about the Texans offense. Granted, good teams take advantage of those opportunities... and mediocre teams find ways to lose these games.
time of possession was 31 vs 36. Cowboys were 8/14 on third down. Cowboys had 24 first downs. The defense is supposed to be the strength of this team.
That many first downs and that many yards against how much they scored is actually pretty pathetic if you want to look at it that way. The defense gave up some big plays ok but when it came down to not allowing the cowboys to come away with points in alot of those posessions you have to give the defense credit. Its just like they have been saying all year bend but dont break thats what they did, Jjo had his hand in there and did everything he could to stop it. Good offense just beats good D sometimes.
Yeah great defense when Williams dropped the ball at the 1 yard line. That was a sure fire TD that they traded for 3 points by dumb luck. When you don't get off the field on third and long you can't blame your offense for TOP. The offense ran the ball like a bauce.
This game was pretty predictable from before kickoff. I thought we could win, but anyone who went in thinking Dallas sucks or Romo sucks or Murray sucks...doesn't have a clue.
Dumb luck goes both ways, hell it was dumb luck that the Dez pass bounced off his hands but managed to fall back into them that set up the final FG, it was dumb luck that Watt missed the sack on Romo and that the DB got tripped up on the Williams TD.
Only an idiot would base the texans defense on a play like this, a reciever dropping a ball is not that rare. Would you be saying the same about that played if it happened at the 50 and they were looking for a first? These plays happen but hindsight is 20/20 of course.
but you don't use those plays in the final analysis of a defense. Overwhelmingly the facts point to the defense had a poor showing. Blaming the offense, saying the D was gassed etc.
The texans are not great but they will be competitive and may even end up above .500 this year. To me that would be a big improvement and a reason to be excited as a fan, they are not going to commit long term to fitzpatrick and the way this season has gone we may be in the running to aqcuire a really good QB from a declining team *cough (patriots)
I disagree, when you hold a team averaging 28.8 points per game to 17 in regulation, your defense did their job. They weren't completely lockdown, but they were missing secondary depth and their second playmaker on the D line so that's to be expected. For whatever reason, the offense couldn't get going in the first half, and that doomed them. They failed to take advantage of too many opportunities. IMO the main culprit this game was the O line.
What I'm amazed about is that people still seem to think Dallas is a great team. This game played out exactly like I thought it would. These are 2 mediocre teams that played what amounted to a toss up game. If either one of these teams win more than 10 games or advance far in the playoffs I will be shocked. These are both 8 win teams, I only say 10 wins because a few games could go either way due to parity
Not that I was saying Dallas sucked, (well Dallas does suck, but speaking of the football team here) I think the Texans beat themselves more than anything. They had their chances but missed on most of them. Most fans weren't giving the Texans a chance so I'm glad the team came to fight.
Who? Texans were +2 in turnovers and DAL had more dropped passes. I know it's hard for your stubborn self to believe, but I take zero pleasure in DAL winning anything. You think I'm a DAL fan because I said their defense was below average and not "trash". What a homer thought that was. Turns out HOU couldn't move "up and down the field" like you suggested.
Overtime loss on the road against a good team is not the end of the world. Out of conference road loss is the least costly loss possible. On to the next, Thursday night is huge!!!!
Texans had a couple of huge holding penalties that either stopped drives or negated yardage gained on the ground.
