After a couple days did the tie seem more understandable?

Yeah I want Bryce

 

The Texans have never had a soul crushing loss, Rosencopter is the only one that comes close. That was before they had really established their identity.

To be crushed you have to have your heart in it. The Texans disappointing or collapsing mid game is so predictable I'm not even the slightest bit flustered by it. The Astros and Rockets have soul crushing losses, the Texans just have losses.

 

Football is different that basketball. Bengals were supposed to be a last place team in 2021.

 

He is 5'10 and doesn't have the speed or quickness of Murray or Russell Wilson (or Wilson's size). Pass.

 

Just like the Rockets picking after all the lottery picks.....good ol' #14.

 

Way better arm and IQ and intangibles and poise and demeanor.

 

Once it became 4th and 3 I was ok with it - defense became a sieve in the 4th quarter and Indy had timeouts in hand.

What I am not ok with is the absolutely terrible, predictable, unimaginative play call on 3rd and 1 out of the timeout. I cannot stand anymore post-mortem "we shouldve ran this, need to coach better, make better decisions, mea culpa" bs that we got for years with O'Brien. With new people in charge is it too much to ask to just expect the right calls to be made at the right time, in real time??? If the defense makes a play, so be it, but to run out crappy plays that don't have a chance is not acceptable.

 

This is exactly how I feel about the situation. Anticipating what they might do on 3rd and 1 my first thought was "you definitely don't run Burkhead!"...then they set up in run formation with Burkhead the lone back in the backfield. At that point I was thinking this must be a disguise and surely they won't run it. After that I was fine with them punting knowing they had little chance of making it on 4th down. Personally I still would have gone for it.

 

No. If that tie costs them a higher draft pick position going to annoy me to no end.

 

Lovie saying we need to do a better job of incorporation our RB1 into the offense was face palm worthy.

 

A competitive loss is arguably more valuable for this team than either the win or a tie. We’ll see.

The mindset was poor and that’s more bothersome than the actual result.

 

No, that was called loserball

puh thetic

 

I think Texans win the division. Matt Ryan looked his age out there.

 

Did he? He sure moved alot better than Mills, and he actually scrambled for a first down. Lol

 

You mention morale. What do you think the morale of the team was when your coach told your offense that we don't trust you can get 3 yards and told the defense we don't trust you can hold them up for 20 seconds if the offense doesn't?

He told everyone he literally only trusted the punter in that moment.

If they go for it and don't get it, fine. They tried to win. If that happens and the Colts immediately went down the field and kicked a fg to win the game...fine. The team isn't good anyway, what's 1 more loss? Who knows, they get it and win the game, they're 1-0 and things can go from there.

But they played for a f***ing tie. There's no moral victory in that.

 

There's no moral victory and I'm not sure anyone is arguing there is a moral victory. Moral and morale are different things. But it IS basically a half a victory, and that's better than nothing.

I don't know how the players felt in that moment. It's possible the offense was pissed they didn't get the chance to redeem themselves for the 3rd and 1 failure. It's also possible they were gassed and grateful their coach didn't put them out there to fail again. It's possible the defense took it as an afront that they weren't trusted to hold for 20 seconds. It's also possible they had played a LOT of minutes because the offense wasn't looking great in the 2nd half and OT and had been giving up yards by the handful for 25 minutes or so and appreciated not being put in the position where the best they could do for their team is get a tie, and at worst blow the game AGAIN after they had done so the prior possession only to have the other team's kicker gift wrap them another chance.

The biggest likliehood is each side is a mixture of those things, but those groups are made up of people with various different personalities and motivations. But you don't know how they reacted in the moment or after, and neither do I. It's all speculation. I'm just saying I could see the coach reaching the decision he did based on the info he had. I'm okay with it if he really thinks that was the best they could achieve. And I certainly don't think him a coward for it.

 

Up until the 4th qtr I agree with our guys making this list. But just like clockwork, when your offense begins to play to not lose and your D goes into prevent mode, the wheels will certainly fall off. I wonder if coaches can feel the aura too. Maybe if I run Burkhead just one more time up the gut with 20 defenders it will be different. Even the great coaches fall victim to it. It's quite the phenomenon.

 

I think I'm older than you. I have had soul crushing losses with the Texans. I'm older so I have the experience of years to make them softer than when I cancelled a date with my girlfriend after the Oilers loss in Denver in the playoffs when Richard Johnson came up and Elway lofted it over him. But it still sucks. I think I feel that way about this team because my son was born in 2000 and we have done Texans games together since he was a toddler. I'm all ****ing in, and when they finally win (and they will) I'll be glad I was. But I don't know if I would feel this way but for my older son who is just an insane Houston sports fan. Also, when they finally do it, I would really like to be with my son when that happens

 

Pretty easy to do when there's absolutely zero pressure...which is what happened in the 2nd half. In the first half, Ryan looked awful.

 

If the Texans were in the thick of a playoff race and had realistic chances and aspirations of actually accomplishing something this year I'd say yes, it was the right call.

However, the Texans are:

-Clearly dogshit with absolute basement expectations
-Starting the season with nothing to lose
-Playing a clearly better team

What Lovie Smith did was classic "live to fight another day" self preservation. Zero self-awareness or forward thinking. He was living purely in the moment and in obvious denial about what his team actually is. A more stable, well-run franchise probably understands the value proposition better and would go for it. But this is the Texans and nobody seems to really care all that much or be competent enough to understand the difference.

If this tie ends up being a positive difference-maker for the Texans I will happily eat my words, but I get the feeling that in the end it will only serve to f*** the Colts rather than actually help the Texans.