Busing flat out over played on this one. Bennett was attempting to get over to the receiver who was heading out into the flat. FB had a horrible game, but you can't blame him for this play, it is mostly on Busing.
Again I repeat: UNTIL they prove otherwise ON THE FIELD, you simply cannot make a statement like: "there's not a definite loss on their schedule through the season's first 8 games." Remember, before yesterday, you were also counting the Jacksonville game as a likely win and now... And BTW: If IFs and BUTs were candy and nuts, we'd all have a Merry Christmas. You have to start believing what your eyes are telling you Ric and not what your heart wants to believe.
i have to agree. i think we've all come to understand the jets are better than we thought they'd be. i get that. but losing to the Jags at home?? continuing to struggle establishing a running game...continuing to struggle MIGHTILY on the defensive side of the ball?? those i didn't factor in when I started making my own preseason projections. but i've seen them enough now, including in the preseason, to know that they're real concerns. i don't know that there's a sure-win on the schedule at this point. i'd say this week vs. Oakland is as close as it gets.
We established a running game yesterday. Slaton had 76 yards on only 12 carries. We actually needed to feed him the ball more. As a Texans fan and Slaton fantasy owner, I would have loved to seen him in the game in crunch time yesterday. Not the guy who hasn't dont jack in over 2-3 years.
OK, nowhere did I intend to give the refs a bye on that. That call was pure horsecrap. And I don't understand why no one's as angry as I am about the foul on Walter? How is grabbing a guy who's in the endzone who's already caught the ball and the whistle has already blown by the back of the helmet and throwing him head-first to the turf not a foul/unnecessary roughness after the play???? I saw the flag and I was like, "Good. 15 yards on the kickoff. Serves them right." I was screaming at the television when he called it on Walter instead. Inexcusable. But the Texans' play the rest of that game was such a freaking joke. You want to win an NFL game? How about stopping a lower-tier offense? I mean seriously. We were in a "shootout." Against the Jags. Man, oh man...
UNTIL they *play* ON THE FIELD... all we can do is speculate. they should beat a team like jacksonville; same for oakland, buffalo, san francisco and cincinnati. they should play a team like arizona close. they should be closing the gap between themselves and indianapolis. once again, i'm not making any predictions, i'm setting standards, HillBoy. this team *should* be, with their schedule, no worse than 5-3 at the turn. if not, that's a problem and we're going to have to step back and figure out what's wrong and what needs to change. on paper, they have better talent than those teams they should be beating. if they're not beating them... we've either REALLY missed on how good their personnel is or we have a coaching/scheme/something issue. my eyes tell me we have a virtually unstoppable offense. my eyes tell me the defense has a glaring hole that's being properly exploited on a weekly basis and needs to be fixed. at the same time, there have been stretches where the defense has played well enough to win. can the hole be fixed on the fly?... i've stated already that yesterday was arguably my most disappointing day as a fan of this franchise. at the same time, it's week 3. there's *a lot* of football left. i'm not giving up yet.
that's a little harsh, imo. the jags have played two division games on the road this year: they lost to the colts, 14-12, and beat us in a close game that could have gone either way. meanwhile, we beat tennessee on the road by 3. so road teams in the afc south are 2-1 so far this year in intra-division games, and the lone loss was by 2 freaking points and no margin of victory has been more than 7. i know its easy and lazy - but there's a lot of truth to throwing out the records when it comes to division games. that's not in ANY way excusing the texans losing. it's to temper this idea that win or lose, yesterday was a disappointment because the texans didn't throttle jacksonville. they should have beaten them, yes. but no shame in having to really work to do it.
The point wasn't that we should have "throttled" them, and yes anything can happen in a division game--the point was how are you in a SHOOTOUT (ie a high-scoring game) against THAT offense? Holy crap.
Umm, no, Brady threw a pick in that game. Brady: 23/47, 216 yards, 4.6 ypa, 0 TD, 1 INT, 53.1 Rating Schaub: 18/33, 166 yards, 5.0 ypa, 0 TD, 1 INT, 55.9 Rating As you can clearly see...the only statistic that Brady "wins" in is passing yards, which is only the result of having 14 more attempts. Schaub threw for more yards per attempt. Therefore, Matt Schaub threw for a higher percentage, had more yards per attempt, and had a higher QB rating. Brady also had the luxury of a game tape that Matt did not have. Still want to make a case that Brady had the better game against the Jets?
"Should be" and what's actually happening are two vastly different things and what's actually happening on the field indicates that to say they should beat ANYBODY is a stretch right now - even the sad sack Raiders. You are settings standards for a football team that does not exist. The team on the field Sunday simply does not look like a 5-3 team but rather more like a 4-4. Where is this paper? I fail to see all of this so-called "superior" talent overflowing from the Texans. Their offensive line is average at best. Matt Schaub is OK but I'm just not all that enamored with him. And you know my thoughts on their runnings backs. They do have good to very good (to superior in Johnson's case) receivers & tight ends but that's about the only area save for the QB position (especially in the upcoming game). Unstoppable? Not quite. There are certain things that you can do to shut it down (like play a 3-4 defense). They can pass but cannot run the ball so they are extremely one-dimensional. But the defense's major failing is that it lacks the personnel to properly execute Bush's defense. I'm not sure how that can be fixed on the fly.
Cincinnati and especially San Francisco are going to give us trouble. I'm actually more confident against Arizona than against those two. Frank Gore is going to go off like never before if he's healthy for that one.
I went to the game and man, what can I say that hasn't already been said...Defense sucked, at times, poor play calling and there seemed to be no sense of urgency... on a side note, it's cheaper for me to go to a Texans game than a Cowboys one...I'll be paying 3 - 4 times more for same level of seats/parking at the new Cowboy stadium in December..
Nothing comes easy in the NFL but these are games are definitely winnable. Frank Gore is expected to return the week we play them. He should be a little rusty. We were unlucky Sunday. Let's move on to Oakland and take it from there. We need one solid performance by our D and that'll hopefully give us the confidence that we're surely lacking presently.
Gore is most likely out for more than 3 weeks, but even if he's still a longshot, there's still a good chance glen coffee runs us a new one.
Unlucky? Wow. Thats some optimism. I guess we've been unlucky since the preseason. Given the outlook, we'll be unlucky again Sun when McFadden runs for 200 yds and 4 TDs. Damn, this is frustrating. I won't ever quit on this $#!++y team cause I don't have a choice, but I will temper my enthusiasm. We're not making the playoffs. Thats the way it seems at this point. I'm not the knee jerk or sky is falling type, but you can't compete with the D that we've had for five or six weeks. Schaub and co can only score so many points. I agree with other posters and don't want Kubiak fired, but if this continues Bush needs to be shown the door. It can't get any worse. I didn't think it was likely that we would've dropped defensively from last year. Boy was I wrong.
Ya I consider it unlucky for Walter to run into a linebacker and a ref and getting a penalty called for it. It was a crap call. I also consider it unlucky that the refs ruled the Brown play a fumble. If they ruled that his knee was down, I guarantee that the play doesn't get overturned.. We've seen some great backs so far. Thomas Jones was a pro-bowler last season. Chris Johnson and MJD are the future. There still isn't an excuse for them running all over us but Mcfadden isn't going ape-ish on the Texans this Sunday.
Don't underestimate our defense's ability to give up the big play. In all seriousness, it would sure help if we don't have any MASSIVE defensive breakdowns. I think almost any back in the league can do what MJD did on that one big play. I think he made one small cut behind a block... and he was gone. No Texan in sight.
What a change from last week. I watched so much ESPN and sports shows after the Texans win. Now, I'm avoiding it at all costs. *sigh*
Man if any RB is going to break the record for most yards in a game it's going to be Gore against us. Too bad for Adrian Peterson that he doesn't play us in a real game. Gore is the type of guy who can and will tear up our defense. He's too strong and we know unless our guys learn how to tackle, he's going to run through a lot of arm tackles and the 9ers won't be shy about giving the rock to him. Well...Freeney might miss some time...so maybe the Colts lose a game soon. I look at it this way, last year we started the season 0-4. I expected 2-2 honestly, so we better get that. I didn't expect us to beat the Titans though, and I expected us to beat the Jets and lose to the Jags or Raiders...because well this team isn't consistent and hasn't consistently beat the teams it should beat. So i'll be just fine with 2-2 personally. Also last year we only won 2 of our 6 division game...so we have started out well in this division being 1-1. Our next division game is against the Colts...so we'll see. So that's how i'm going to look at the next game against the Raiders. Need to go 2-2. Raiders present a lot of challenges for this team on defense also. Aso has shut down Andre before, they have a great DT, they have a lot of talent on defense so I hope this team is prepared for that. Yeah Russell sucks, but the defense they have can win games for them.
i don't understand why this concept is continually lost on you. i - me: ric - i think the texans *should be* a playoff-contending team. i recognize they don't *look* like a playoff-contending team and i'm not arguing they do. and if they don't win 5 or 6 of their first 8 games, they *won't* be a playoff-contending team. i'm setting a standard - my standard - by which to judge them. they should beat those teams. if they're not beating them, then we've got a problem that needs to be addressed. if you want to contend for a playoff spot, you beat jacksonville, oakland, buffalo and san fran. if you want to be 8-8, you split. if you want to get your coaching staff fired, you drop 3 or more of them. and if that happens, i'll be disappointed. i think, on paper and with this schedule, that they should be better than 4-4. so you think the jaguars, raiders, bills & 49ers, on paper, have better talent than the texans? really? i'm not going to pretned to know anything about their offensive lines. but what skill position players would you deal from the texans for any skill players from those teams? slaton for MJD, obviously, possibly gore (possibly only because gore is hurt all the time). who else? those teams won a combined 24 games last year; we're not talking about the steelers or giants here. they were a top 3 offense last year, HillBoy; they will be again this year by season's end (barring injury). matt schaub is establishing himself as one of the NFL's better QBs. as mentioned, their receiving corp, including TEs, is among the league's best. their OL and RBs are built for a specific scheme, and last year, they executed the scheme perfectly. they're obviously struggling this year - but 4,000 consecutive years of productive RBs in denver suggests its likely they'll get it fixed. i think you're grossly underestimating the offense. i'm not going to excuse the defense but... the issue is very clearly 3rd down. they've forced 22 3rd and 7s or longer this year, and teams have converted 16 of them (73%). and teams have scored 9 times on drives in which they've faced at least one 3rd and 7 or longer. that right there is the issue. period. the silver lining, and this is a legitimate "something to grow on," is that they're containing teams on 1st and 2nd down and forcing them into 3rd and long - that's the goal of every single defense on the planet. if they can figure out why they're so very vulnerable to the big play on 3rd down... this defense might be OK. i'm not suggesting they can. i'm also not suggesting it's an easy fix. BUT... it's not like the defense is just a complete train wreck. they're doing some things very well. but what they do badly, they do very, very badly.
