#2 seed is all in the hands of San Diego and Cincinnati.

Oh absolutely. We're talking about whether it would be easier to beat the Patriots or Ravens in either the divisional round or AFC championship. Even with a rookie QB, this isn't so bad.

 

Hear, hear. It's an exciting time to be a football fan in Houston. The only downside is the off-season, whenever that comes around.

 

We still have a while before we have to worry about that, my man.

With that being said....SEVEN HOURS!!

 

Anquan Boldin will have knee surgery and miss the last 2 games.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/7380143/anquan-boldin-baltimore-ravens-surgery-miss-2-games

 

Sweet news for the Cincy game!

 

So goodbye to #2 seed.

 

I had a bad feeling the second I saw this post.....

 

I'm sorry, The Cat - you were saying?..........

 

#2 seed? Don't talk about #2 seed!

 

Adam Wexler posted an interesting comparison chart on his show blog detailing the difference pre and post-Schaub injury:


If we're going to ride or die with Yates, we'd better start cutting him loose and seeing what he can handle. He's been very reticent to look down field and has been feeling a bigger rush than has been present in the past two games (Winston getting his handed to him yesterday not withstanding). The strategy of winning with defense and a running game hasn't been able to play out because we've been without our only legit deep threat that can stretch the field and then our defensive coordinator. Hoping that the return of AJ and Coach Wade can solve what ails the Texans in the post season is almost too hard to believe. It's going to come down to the play at QB, and right now, we're in a tough spot.

 

I'd still much rather play New England, even though it seems next to impossible now.

I see Yates as far, far down the list of problems yesterday on offense. I'm right there with you re: blaming him for the Carolina game. But the issue yesterday was the lack of protection and the lack of Andre. Mathis treated Winston like a rag doll, and on most occasions, any third down longer than five yards was hopeless because of the pass rush combined with lack of downfield separation from any receiver. While I'm not one of the idiots that wants Matt Schaub replaced, I don't think the Texans put up many more points yesterday if he were healthy and playing.

To me, my biggest concern is how the pass defense gave up far too many cushions and had the ball moved on them with relative ease by Dan f'n Orlovsky. They couldn't deliver in the red zone until officials stepped in, but the Colts' ability to consistently move the ball between the 20s was shocking. It reminded me again that run blocking and Arian Foster remains the single greatest strength of this team (not the fraudulent defense), and that's where I want to take my chances.

 

Dre better get Balls thrown to him.....and be hamstring healthy. Because he gonna b going looooooong early an often to open up run attack

 

I was in a restaurant for the fist half and off radar for much of today; from what I did see (entire second half at home + watching 1st half from our table), I continued to observe SOP from the Texans, in terms of their playcalling, with Yates continually checking down. One play in particular he threw to Dressen for a (granted) nice gain underneath but had Jacoby downfield with 1-on-1 coverage against a safety.

Yet the chorus today seems it's all on Kubiak. Was something said? Am I way off here? Or is it simply fans retreating to the comfort zone of "FIRE KUBIAK!"? Even usually even-minded Zierlein and Kaplan seemed on Kubiak this morning.

 

yea now we're like the 4th seed cause of the lost to the colts

 

c'mon texans we need to be atleast a top 2 seed in the afc so we can get the bye week

 

BTW... I still disagree. This team is going to struggle to score 20 - even against a poor defense. Your only hope is that our defense is lights out and/or the opposing QB is playing terribly. Bring on Sanchez, Tebow and/or Hasselback, Palmer, Dalton or, yes, Joe Flacco.

 

no we are still 3rd

 

I think the Kubiak chorus comes mostly from the last two minutes. He had a chance to go for the kill on that final 3rd down with 2:30 left and didn't, and on defense, they left Jackson on Wayne for most of the final drive. While I understand why you'd have Joseph on Garcon for much of the game, I do think they should've switched down the stretch.

On the whole, I didn't have much to complain with on Kubiak. I thought he had them ready to play. I'm sure there were one or two plays where Yates had someone downfield in 1-on-1 coverage, but by and large, most checkdowns happened because he had about two seconds to let plays develop. It wasn't like the Carolina game where he had room to move in the pocket and scan the field. Even the bootlegs didn't have good protection with the exception of first downs. Both Gary and TJ tried to go downfield, imo, but there just wasn't time to let routes develop on passing downs. Winston was abused in pass protection - as bad as I've seen a Texan lineman play in a long time.

The one thing that I will criticize TJ for - you could tell that he was shellshocked by the first-quarter fumble. He was David Carr jittery in the pocket for long stretches of the game, going down on minimal contact while holding onto the ball for dear life. I'm not sure if there are any specific plays to point to that TJ clearly should have made to avoid pressure - as I mentioned, the right side of the Texan OL had a brutal night against the pass rush. But I'd like to see him at least make an effort to use his mobility and slide in the pocket. He didn't do it for much of last night.

 

i noticed this too, his eye level came down and feet were shuffling a few times when there was no immediate danger. he and arian (the fumbles) are thinking too much right now.

 

I thought the same thing of Ben Tate; when initially contacted last night, he stopped driving and started holding onto the ball for dear life.

I think fans needs to recognize two dynamics at play here: 1) I think the injuries are starting to catch up to them; we likely all drank a little too much of the Kool-Aid and started to believe they could overcome them. But it's becoming clearer each week that they're currently talent-deficient. They have two rookies subbing in for top 5 guys on the team; no talent/depth at WR; and I really think they miss Wade Phillips. 2) this is a young, inexperienced team - they've absolutely lost their momentum but they might also be playing a wee bit tight right now.