See, I'm not convinced of this. Obviously Kubiak is great offensive mind, and I think you're right to place most of the credit for their offensive success on Manning. But hasn't that OC been there a really, really long time, too? (drawing a blank; I honestly don't remember) And I think Kubiak's "greatness" offensively is seriously compromised by his consistently bad game plans. See, I'd really like to see what Schaub could do. I'm tired of Kubiak giving this guy--a veteran now in every sense--so little room to be a field general. Especially in light of how spectacularly bad his game plans have been every week since week 1.
I think you mean Tom Moore, IIRC, but didn't he retire? It's weird because you almost NEVER see their OC because it's all about Manning.
Wait, are you actually suggesting we stop running the play-action bootleg every 3 downs, no questions asked??
Proud of my fellow BBSers for their analysis of this loss. Seems like most people get it, and the few knee-jerkers are slowly coming around to the realization that the defense, coaching, and special teams are really what doomed this game, and ultimately, our season.
You can't look at it that way, each game is different. Once they were tied, at 28, they should have realized that they did not have to throw the ball to get back in the game. THEY WERE ALREADY IN IT !!!! Kubiak kept the pedal to the metal on the 8 yard line and he was playing with fire....well, guess what? He got burned. It is bad enough that the team makes stupid mistakes, it is a whole other level of bad, when the coach is ALSO making mistakes costing the team. DD
I'll drink to that. Ready to be "shocked"? Texans to date have tallied up only three TDs in the 1st quarter of games. 14 at Oak, 10 at SD, two FGs week 1, and two other games was a lone FG. 14 games, 36 points total in the first quarters. 8 games with a goose egg first quarter. Three times we ended the first half with only a FG. This was a problem last year too, and a big reason why I didn't jump on the 10-win bandwagon over the summer. Kubiak's scripts and his ability to prep and fire up the team SUCK. Make you drink trivia: The 2010 Texans are the first team in NFL history to come back from 14+ points down to lead or tie......only to lose the game four times. Three of the last four Texans’ losses have come with 10 seconds or less left or in OT.
If the Texans could have leads in games Foster could be running every down in the second half like the Colts game.
Not to excuse the lack of poor starts and questionable game planning at times, but often times a coaches scripts are used as a way to simple see what the defense does against a certain situation. So, one could easily make the point that Kubes scripts do well in that regard since the texans usually start moving the ball well later in games. IT would just be nice if he could see the defense AND move the ball early in the game.
I think the oppositions DCs have realized that they can play to stop the pass because they can see that Kubiak will not keep running the ball even if it is working. "Keep playing the pass, they may run a bit on ya, but eventually they will pass it too much and we make em punt." When Schaub and the boys are working it up with the pass there is nothing for the defense to do but gamble on a pick. And they can gamble with it before midfield because even if they get burned Schaub won't be able to hit his receiver in stride for a score.
I'm not sure. A very telling comment from kubiak after the colts game, "they were telling me let's run the ball coach. We can run on them." I'm paraphrasing a little, but basically the players were the ones that wanted to run it. Another comment, last night from coach Gruden, "you don't try to run the same route on the Ravens twice without them picking up on it." That comment was somewhere around the 3rd quarter. After the game kubiak said something like, " That was a route that worked earlier in the game." In overtime it's a new game. He should have ran, ran so far away. =) Ughh, I hope the curse of the Texans does not strike and makes arian a one hit wonder running back. (knocking on desk)
when your offense score 28 on one of the league toughest defense in the league, you should be able to win even although offense did make mistakes in the game.
As charlie points out in 8 games this year. . . in the 1st half the VAUNTED Offense scored less that 7 pts Is that the defense's fault? The matador defense manages to stop teams to allow the offense to make their 'comebacks'. Do they get any credit for that? Rocket River
Partly, yeah. When opponents are moving up and down the field, it's difficult for the offense to score standing on the sideline. Not really because they're still giving up 12.4 pts in the second half, which translates to bottom 10 pace for points allowed. They slight uptick in "success" is likely tied to our offense keeping the defense off the field more. Case in point, last night: the Ravens ran 39 offensive plays in the first half, 16 after the intermission. Meanwhile, the Texans enjoyed scoring drives of 16, 15, 12 and 10 plays (IIRC) in the second half.
But how many possessions did the Ravens have in the 2nd half vs the first half?? Count possessions not plays. how many long drives did the ravens have in the first half vs second?? Defense got off the field in the 2nd half. They didn't in the first half. You can argue rest if you like, but you don't give up 10 play drives if you stop them on the first three plays from scrimmage.
Why? It's virtually the same thing: 39 plays v. 16; 7 possessions v. 3 - a near identical 2.5-to-1 ratio.
The Ravens had 7 possessions in the 1st half? They scored on 3 with a short field . . . .what exactly was the offense doing cause they had have at least 6 possessions . . right? Rocket River
I mentioned in the game thread the Texans give up a 103 pass rating a game, worst in the league by a lot. Only Tom Brady and Michael Vick have ratings over that, which means Schaub has to beat a 103 rating just to compete. 103 rating is third worst in league history behind the previous 2 years Detroit Lions, one the team that went WINLESS! Though I am buying into the idea of 1st half sputtering offense helping fail the defense early even more. Defense is woeful, but early offense isnt helping them out. I do not know the stats of average opponent starting field position, but if the Texans give up a shorter field after their own 3 and outs, then it'll make it that much EASIER and FASTER for a QB to put a pass into the endzone for a score. Maybe if the Texans add 10-15 more yards for the opponent then they'll maybe they'll give up more field goals instead of TDs. Still, the Texans D is 3rd WORST in opponent red zone scores and for a while it was the worst, they're not really stopping anybody in the short field. And their pass D is basically bottom in completion % given up, yards per pass attempt, forcing turnovers. So its not like they get many exceptions either. Add in special teams woes, and it looks like some shared blame.
