x 500 , this has been my complaint for a while about Schaub/Kubiak. We have AJ and Hopkins who can go get the ball, but we dont put them in positions to GO GRAB IT! Instead the defenses sit on our dinky passes. The threat of a deep pass can help the run etc etc This reminds me of how much i enjoyed watching Keenum, and even Yates, during Preseason.
They have receivers that run deep routes but when they do, you know in 90% of the time they won't be the targets. Just the other game, I saw they had Hopkins and DeVier Posey on the field at the same time, my immediate thought was screen or run play, low and behold it was a screen to Tate. The way Kubiak calls a game, the QB has one or two options and despite guys being out there, Schaub or whoever is out there is only supposed to seriously try throwing to either target 1 or 2 or getting rid of it. This is pretty apparent with how often guys will be open but Schaub will be focused on getting one or two guys and if they aren't open throw it away rather then even look in different people's directions.
Kubes and his QBs would tell you deep 2 safety look took away the deep ball. We must be the only team in the league that has deep option taken away right Kubes?!?!
Yup, you gotta take what the defense gives you. And even if that was the case, then you should be taking what the defense is giving you...and we cant even do that...so basically, the other team has taken away the deep ball, intermediate ball, and short ball. We must be playing some all time great defenses.
I don't care as much about the deep balls, I'd just like to see a 10 yard pass on 3rd and 8 every once in a while. Even if the defense isn't giving it to us. Crazy concept, I know.
I'd hire Morey to join my NFL management team if I had the money. And a team. Not sure he can help with talent evaluation but he might be able to help with gameplans and I'm almost certain he'd find a way to revolutionize the way contracts were written. He'd find some kind of loophole that would help with cap money management.
Sure, there are certainly plays in which the deep routes are merely a decoys. But if your QB never looks downfield, teams can sit on the underneath and the deep routes are rendered irrelevant. Jake Tower is correct: they used to feature a deeper ball because their QB was confident enough the throw it with enough regularity that it opened the field up. Not any more. His eyes rarely go beyond the line of scrimmage and the clock in his head is accelerating – watch him drop back and how anxious he is to unload the ball. They have hot reads, sure; ie *this* guy is your first option and, based on the way we expect the defense to play, should be open. But they send 3-4 eligible receivers out on every single pass play. This idea that Schaub is mandated to only throw it to one or two guys is silly. Now, part of the problem is the pass protection is regressing with him (though not as quickly) so he's not having enough time to go thorugh his progressions - but the deep ball is there; he’s just not throwing it.
That’s a product of hyper-focusing on your team, though. Peyton Manning led all QBs in converting third downs last year with passes – care to guess how often he did it? Less than 50% of the time (specifically, 49.1%). And that’s on *all* third down pass plays, so he’s getting credit for 3rd-and-2s…. There’s a reason teams loathe third-and-long situations: they’re nearly impossible to convert with any regularity (…unless, apparently, you’re playing against the Texans’ defense, sigh….). If you know a team needs 8 yards, you can sit 8 yards off the line, keep everything in front of you, fire off the line of scrimmage and basically choke the play off. It’s why run plays convert third-and-longs at nearly the same rate as pass plays – it’s unexpected and you can catch a team bull rushing/backpedaling.
My issue isn't with how often we convert them, it's that we aren't even trying. Kubiak has said in the past when asked about this that the plan is to throw short of the sticks and hope the receiver makes a play. Is there another team that routinely does this as opposed to just throwing beyond the sticks? I'm not even talking about 3rd and 10+ situations, I'm talking about throwing a 4 yard out on 3rd and 8 which we seem to do at almost every opportunity.
To me, it seems like we don't have any quick vertical routes. Every thing is so slow developing and Schaub takes 7 steps or more before looking downfield. Just not quick enough to get back there and set his feet like Rodgers and Brees. Flacco is just a statue back there waiting for his receivers routes to break but they also have quick developing routes unlike the Texans. I think the slow developing routes are half the problem. The other half is Schaub and the line not doing their part all at once.
That's overstating it a bit,, don't you think? They're trying... it's just a hard thing to do. They were right about league average last year on third down conversions. Third-and-long is one of the few plays in which a defense can dictate what you're able to do. And the issue is being compounded right now by the fact no one fears the Texans beyond 10 yards because Schaub hasn't looked that far upfield in nearly a year. Here are your options; there are basically three: 1) throw at or near the sticks, where the vast majority of defenders are going to be camped; 2) throw beyond the sticks, which is a 10+-yard route that takes time to develop against a defense with their ears pinned back because they know you're going to pass; 3) take the open field given to you and try and make a play out of it. Again, the Texans were about league average last year in converting third downs, and every team last year did it less than 50% of the time. If you have a QB that can thread a pass through the head of a pin, sure - go for it. The Texans don't.
Take a shot or two per quarter.... Schaub needs to work on back shoulder throws since he obviously cant hit a deep ball in stride ... There's ways to be effective with a noodle armed QB... Im not sure how many deep ball PI's we've caused over the years but I'm sure it's embarassingly low...
I know, I know...take what the defense gives you. It's Kubiak's credo. He said so several times on his coaches show this week. Of course it's going to be option 3. How about a quick slant like the TD Bradford threw on Sunday? Seems like all of our pass plays take forever to develop. Our offense piles up stats between the 30 yard lines, but the bottom line is we haven't scored a meaningful TD in 10 quarters now. 5 pick-6's in 5 games with 2 different QBs leads me to believe that the problem is less about the QB and more about the offensive gameplan....
I'm firmly rooted in the, "It's the QB" camp. We saw the team take a nose dive in 2011 when Schaub went down. And the collapse of our promising 2012 season coincided precisely with Schaub gagging on the moment. Now we're dealing with a QB bereft of confidence who's turning what has historically - for years and years and years - been an effective offense into a clunky, misshapen, unrecognizable shell of its former self. I just don’t see the system failing Schaub; I see him repeatedly failing the system with poor, cowardly decisions.
