I'm looking forward to a new year of pissing matches with mrdave356 or whatever the hell he calls himself
That's great news about Dunta looking better than expected. Especially since it was following the news that Reeves is apparently not taking instruction well. How can an athlete get all the way to the NFL and still pout when yelled at by a coach?
One would think that hanging out with anna megan, on a daily basis, John would have picked up a couple of fashion tips. I would rather endorse the douchebag look than the " to catch a predator" look. When you are known to the people as the general, you can't be dressing like that.
Training Camp Day 3 Highlights <iframe id="multimedia_player" name="multimedia_player" marginWidth="0" marginHeight="0" src="http://www.houstontexans.com/includes/iframes/multimedia_video.asp?mm_file_id=2437" frameBorder="0" width="366" height="278" scrolling="no"></iframe><br /> I can't wait until the 1st preseason game!!!!
Chris Brown has already missed 3 days of camp with a sore back. I was pretty excited when we picked him up but I'm not so sure he'll make the final roster. Kubiak also mentioned that Darius Walker has looked really good and that he is very well conditioned. He played well in limited PT last year and I wouldn't be all that suprised if he sees more time on the field than expected.
Texans made the front page of the NFL section of ESPN. Camp Confidential: Texans not satisfied with status quo By Paul Kuharsky ESPN.com Matt Schaub's ability to stay healthy is key to Houston's chances of having a breakout season. HOUSTON -- Never mind, for the time being, the three teams ahead of them. The Houston Texans have a positive buzz at training camp, the sort that's never existed before for a seven-year team. Some players have tiptoed around it and stopped just short of saying the follow-up to an 8-8 season is playoffs or bust. But the Texans' expect to be a breakout team that the rest of the league will have no choice but to talk about. In his third year as coach, Gary Kubiak's plan is moving along. This team is deeper, understands that plan better and, after a year of key players getting injured, anticipates better health. "The expectations aren't just to survive or get by," said offensive lineman Chester Pitts, one of the four remaining original members of the team. "The expectations are to play well and do well. I kind of like the vibe, the added pressure. Good players, when the pressure is on, the cream rises to the top, right?" Backup quarterback Sage Rosenfels arrived in 2006 as Kubiak and GM Rick Smith were in the early stages of building their team. "It's a whole different world from two years ago to now -- players-wise, coaching-wise and absolutely expectations-wise," he said. "The attitudes of players are so much better as far as guys just want to win and do the right things and go to work every day and play like a champion." Should they lose key people to injuries again, middle linebacker DeMeco Ryans said the Texans are better equipped to handle it. "When I first got here, you had 'OK guy here, OK guy here,'" he said. "You come out to practice now, you've got to step up and compete, you've got to bring it every day." To improve on 2007, the Texans need to do better at forging their identity. They are in a division where Tony Dungy has led the Colts to five straight titles and a Super Bowl win, where Jeff Fisher is the league's longest-tenured coach with his team and where Jack Del Rio has led his team to a road playoff win. "I speak for everybody, I think, when I say we all trust Kubiak," tight end Owen Daniels said. "With what he's done in the past [as an assistant] in Denver, he knows how to win and he's obviously improved this team a great deal." Key questions Can Matt Schaub stay healthy and establish himself as a consistent quarterback? He brings great leadership qualities to the job and he's got the complete backing of the team. Now he needs to avoid the kind of shots he took last season right after letting the ball go, perhaps bailing on a few of those plays for the greater good. When they were both healthy at the start of 2007, Schaub and receiver Andre Johnson worked magic, and the team is confident that connection can rival any in the league. Although Kubiak is unlikely to waver, if Schaub doesn't play well early, there could be sentiment in Houston for a change to Rosenfels. Can they get out of the basement? At 8-8 last season, the Texans could have finished in second place or tied for it in five other divisions. Instead, they finished fourth in the AFC South and watched the Colts, Jaguars and Titans make the playoffs. Vaulting any of those teams will be tough, as the Texans were 1-5 in the division. That's where their success this season will be determined, and it needs to start with better results against third-place Tennessee. The Texans are 2-10 against the former Houston Oilers and dropped two they could have won last year. Houston came back from 25-point deficit to take a late lead, then watched Rob Bironas kick an NFL-record eighth field goal to win a 38-36 game in Houston. In Nashville, a muffed punt by Jacoby Jones undid another comeback attempt. Can they run it? With assistant coach Alex Gibbs coordinating the running game with a zone-blocking scheme, the Texans should be a better run team than the one that averaged 3.8 yards a carry last year. Behind all those cut blocks that topple defenders, one of their backs should emerge and put up numbers in the system, and they have several options better than Ron Dayne, last year's leading rusher. Speaking of the offensive line -- although people can't get the images of former Texans quarterback David Carr getting creamed in the pocket over and over, Houston allowed only 22 sacks last season, the seventh-best mark in the league. The Texans are counting on Mario Williams to make life difficult for AFC South QBs. How much impact can Mario Williams have? The Texans' vision when they drafted the defensive end No. 1 overall in 2006 was that he'd harass Peyton Manning and other quarterbacks the Texans need to beat in order to move up in the standings. Last season, Williams had a breakout year with 14 sacks. This year, teams will have to game plan for Williams, meaning he'll create opportunities for others as well. He's not yet close to maxing out his potential, and other young defenders, most notably defensive tackle Amobi Okoye, are going to get better, too. Market watch Owen Daniels quietly caught 63 passes last year, more than any tight end in the AFC not named Gonzalez, Gates or Winslow. If the zone-blocking run game is working and teams are devoting resources to slowing down Johnson, Daniels could be in line for an even bigger season. Newcomer to watch Antwaun Molden may have a big impact on the secondary. The third-round pick out of Eastern Kentucky was working as the nickelback early in camp and drawing raves for his athletic play and the way he's catching on to things. With Dunta Robinson expected to miss the first month or more of the season, Molden has a chance to establish himself as a guy who must play. Observation deck While Ahman Green and Chris Brown are at the head of the line of running backs, many are expecting Chris Taylor and/or Steve Slaton to emerge as key players in the new scheme. … WR Johnson is lined up to have a big, bounce-back year. … Rosevelt Colvin is a situational defensive end now and could prove to be a nice addition. … We'll know an awful lot about the Texans after a brutal five-game opening run that includes three division games in a row. At camp, however, most players were already into one-game-at-a-time cliché mode. http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/trainingcamp08/columns/story?columnist=kuharsky_paul&id=3512379
Kubiak: Walter reminds me of McCaffrey July 30, 2008 4:25 PM Posted by ESPN.com's Paul Kuharsky It's no secret that Gary Kubiak loves Kevin Walter. After a Texans practice Wednesday, the coach paid Walter a major compliment. According to the transcript the team sent out, when Kubiak was asked about Walter being quick and having good hands, the coach expanded the list of the receiver's qualities. "Well, you know he's a tough player, too, and it's what we want to do offensively. We got to have guys that go out there and dig out safeties and stuff in the run game. He reminds me of a kid who played for me a long time, Ed McCaffrey. He reminds me of him a great deal. What happens to guys like that, who people say is like this or like that, they find a way to make up for it. Kevin, in his career, has become such a technician at what he does, that if he's like a tenth of a second here or there speed-wise, he'll find a way to make it up." The versatile McCaffrey was a key cog on Denver teams when Kubiak was an assistant there and he's a player most Broncos fans remember with great fondness. Walter stepped it up last year when Andre Johnson got hurt, leading the Texans with 65 receptions. With Johnson back in the lineup and drawing the heavier coverage, Walter could be in line for big things. He was a Giants seventh-round pick out of Eastern Michigan in 2003, but didn't make the team and played in Cincinnati from 2003-05 before the Texans signed him. Andre Davis ranks third in Houston's receiving corps, with Jacoby Jones fourth. Jones has missed the last few days with a foot injury. http://myespn.go.com/blogs/afcsouth/0-2-117/Kubiak--Walter-reminds-me-of-McCaffrey.html
Texans ready to cut block, take flack Posted by ESPN.com's Paul Kuharsky The run-blocking scheme is new, and the Houston Texans need to work on it. The run-blocking scheme involves a lot of cut blocking that topples defensive linemen. So, how exactly do they do that without risking injuring their own players. After all, they're not going to ask Duane Brown to cut Mario Williams in practice. "Obviously we can't do that to our own players on a daily basis. That would be a recipe for bad things," offensive line coach John Benton said. "We try to get the angles down. We have a lot of coaching points we use to get us in position to do it when it is live and it's time to go." "It is an absolute unknown until you get into games and are able to do it. Who's going to do it well? Who's not going to do well? Of course you have a feeling, 'this guy's a good athlete, this guy can get it done.' But you are surprised occasionally. It makes the preseason very important." Guard Chester Pitts said it's actually not difficult in practice to assess whether a lineman would have been able to successfully cut an opponent. "If I can get my head in front and I can wrap him up around his waist, I can cut him," said Pitts, an original member of the Texans. "So that's what we do, that's how we take care of our guys. I shoot my head the same, and I just wrap him up around his waist. Once I wrap him up he basically stops and that signifies that we cut." The Texans won't likely tick off the Denver Broncos in the preseason opener, since the scheme assistant coach Alex Gibbs, essentially the run game coordinator, brought to Houston was the same one he installed and ran in Denver years ago. But New Orleans, Dallas and Tampa Bay may not be very happy that their top defensive linemen are susceptible to cut blocks in the preseason. Never mind the technicalities of the legalities. Mention a cut block to most defensive linemen and they bristle. The general thinking seems to be: if they have to cut me to beat me, they couldn't block me man-up. A quick sampling I got from defensive linemen over the last few days on the general subject of cut-blocking. Albert Haynesworth, Titans defensive tackle: "They always talk about us being dirty, maybe they need to look at that, trying to hurt people and stuff. If they aren't man enough to stay up, shoot, they shouldn't be in the league then. The coach, either." Mario Williams, Texans defensive end: "It's more of a man-up to me. Personally, I don't like cut blocking. I'd rather they just hit people in the mouth. It's just a different type of thing people are going to have to deal with." Tony Brown, Titans defensive tackle: "I dislike it. I feel like that's the offensive lineman's cheap way out of it. We're all out there trying to fight and compete. If you want to be a man about it, try to block someone one-on-one, don't cut him. We're not going to like it, but at the same time that's what they are being coached to do. So we know they are not trying to be personal about it. That's their scheme. It's up to us as a defensive line to keep them from doing us like that. What you want to do is make sure you get your hands on them as much as you can, because if you come off the ball and don't have any hands, they're going to go at your feet quicker than you imagine. One mistake from you, you know you're going to be down, and there goes the ball cut into your gap." Both Pitts and tight end Owen Daniels emphasized the right way to cut block and said their intention is to look players in the eye as the beat them to a spot, then take them down from in front. They understand why defensive linemen are so fearful of getting cut on their back leg. "It's all in how you cut someone. If you make eye contact, if your head is in front, then it's a legitimate cut," Gibbs said. "If you do something cheap, if you take the back of a guy's legs out, that's not nearly as cool. I don't operate that way. I don't do things like that." Said Daniels: "Say you beat me across the face and then I am cutting your back leg. I don't know if that's a penalty, but that's definitely something guys will get more mad about. I feel like you shouldn't complain if I've got you beat anyway. I've got you cut off, this is what I am doing to get you out of the play, I'm putting you on the ground." There is also a mind-game element in Gibbs' method. "I think it just makes guys more tentative, makes guys a little softer," Daniels said. "If they are getting cut they are going to back up a little bit when they think they are going to get cut again. And maybe that's not what we're doing this time." Middle linebacker DeMeco Ryans is ready already for the complaints. "I don't care about what the other guys think," he said. "I'd tell them to shut up and deal with it. With that new system, it's going to work well for our running game." ESPN's Mark Schlereth demonstrates the blocking technique in the following video. <object width="440" height="361"> <param name="movie" value="http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/player.swf?mediaId=3513741"/> <param name="wmode" value="transparent"/> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/> <embed src="http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/player.swf?mediaId=3513741" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" allowScriptAccess="always" width="440" height="361"></embed> </object> http://myespn.go.com/blogs/afcsouth/0-3-1/Texans-ready-to-cut-block--take-flack.html
Why don't more teams utilize the Gibbs' system if it is so effective? The way Schlereth describes it, it almost seems impossible to stop. Are teams just afraid of being labeled as dirty because they cut block?
Cut blocking is an excellent technique. It is usually employed only on the backside of the play (i.e. the side that the run is NOT going to), because you can't have toppled defenders in your running lane. You have to be quick off the ball in order to cut, mainly because the guy you're usually cutting is closer to the ball than you, and you have to somehow get at least an arm in front of him. My guess is that most offensive lineman these days are just built to drive block, and are simply not quick enough to cut block on most plays. There is also somewhat of a risk of being labeled "dirty" (who cares though, cutting is legal inside the tackle box). In high school, I was a 190 lb. guard. I consistently blocked 300 pound offensive lineman. I did this by cut blocking, and was even named 2nd team all-section.
If it's relatively easy and efficient it has to be cheap, right? Why waste my energy going one on one when I easily neutralize you with less effort? That's not being a p***y, that's being smart.
