Wade was in a really tough spot yesterday with the personnel but you raise good points about his defense against elite QBs. I think with the right personnel though the defense can hold up well enough and keep us within striking distance against anyone. Ruud and Bradie James are complete garbage. Neither should be NFL starters, yet yesterday they were being asked to cover a speedy RB and a top 5 NFL tight end. Our backups were Mister Alexander and Jessie Rading, neither of whom belong on the field defensively. If you take out one of them for an extra DB, you are just asking to get carved up on the ground. In hindsight it was a no-win situation and the only way we were going to win that game was to force a couple of turnovers, something that I felt going in and turned out to be right.
Defense did its share in the first half, the fact is the offense messed them over. The defensive players expend a tremendous amount of energy early on to keep it close so the offense can do something, they did nothing and the defense was gassed. They gave up a TD at the beginning of the 3rd but held Brady for a drive or two until Schaub gave up that poorly thrown INT. Short field, Patriots TD in less then a minute at the end of the 3rd. Offense gets back out there, does nothing and the defense was once again left to be abused by the Patriots offense. All these games they have lost, the offense collapses and fails to do anything bring it close when they have chances. The defense gave them chances early on but the offense didn't step up until the game was way out of control. The defense isn't blameless but the problem these last few weeks has been easy to track, it starts with offense not doing their share of the work to win games since the Tennessee win.
I agree with Rocket River on this one. The Defense can only be asked to hold a high-powered offense like the patriots at bay for so long. They kept the game close at 17-13 in the first half. Imagine if the offense scored a TD on the opening drive after the Manning run? That changes the tone of the game. And also, if on the next drive, when the Texans were rolling up until the 50 yrd line if they could've punched it in the endzone (they suddenly stalled and punted)? They had a LEGIT shot at goin 14-0 to start the game (it was there for the taking). Even if they are up 10-0, the patriots are suddenly in "oh shyt" mode and maybe that forces Brady into making more mistakes. Having a sizable lead, or shutting down the opposing teams offense on a consistent basis gives the other team a lot of confidence. The Texans OFFENSE did nothing to break the spirit of the patriots. How many times did the Offense punt (and some were awful punts) in the first half? (I think it was 4 or 5!!) Yes, should've could've, what ifs..I get it that we can't go 20/20 on the game and say, "see I told you so" but that is ultimately the difference: the offense underperformed, and left the D to hang out to dry for too long. Could the D have performed better? Of Course. 41 pts is inexcusable (7 of those belong to Schaub though due to his interception), but momentum is a big part of the game and especially in an away game, they needed a moral boost and not much was going the texans way. But where was the O in the 3rd quarter as Brady was slinging 3 consecutive TDs? there was NEVER a response (interception, 2 punts). That is demoralizing to any team. I'm not making excuses for the D, but the best way to beat the patriots is to keep Brady off the field and Schaub and Kubiak failed miserably at doing that.
That would be Barrett Ruud, who I feel did about as good a job as possible. But yes, that was frustrating to watch. They sent him wide every single time, and we did nothing to counter that. They had that mismatch literally every single time they wanted it. The problem I had yesterday was the fact that we played same old Texans football. There were no wrinkles, nothing that suggested that we even TRIED to fool the Patriots with a different look. Basically, we went in there with the mindset that our game plan will work.....we just have to execute. The Patriots took that game plan and shoved it down our throats. The Texans had the ball more than them, and it still looked as if the Pats could score 50 if they wanted to. I agree that personnel issues hindered Wade, but it's not as if he hasn't had time to adjust. Heck, even if it didn't work, I wanted to see SOMETHING out there that told me that we were trying to mess with the Patriots game plan. Sending Brooks Reed wide in coverage was cute at the beginning, but I was hoping for a lot more. Wade is still the best Defensive Coordinator this team has ever had, but there has to be more weapons in his scheming arsenal than just "BLITZ BLITZ BLITZ". I will say that I think the players LOVE playing for him, and that on the whole, this defense is fantastic.....but it's frustrating to watch how elite QBs can take our aggression, and basically turn it into a weakness. I think you give Wade this draft, and tell him "I want a defense that will stop ANYBODY. Get yourself the ILB you want, get yourself the Safety you want, and get yourself an interior lineman, and get to work." We have the tools, and we have the mentality to become San Francisco South.....I want to see that happen.
For any other team , I would agree that a 14-0 lead would have been a big time game changer. But I don't see it against the patriots. Afterall, they came back against a better defense after being down 31-3..in the 2nd half.
I agree that the Patriots would probably not had a big problem coming back. But the point is, they would've had to come back, which always opens up the offense to more risks. Also, it changes the dynamic in terms of possessions, strategy (do I go for the field goal, or try for the TD?) and of course the obvious--we wouldn't be down by 4 scores, trying to come back (even though our hurry up offense was about as fast as my grandma trying to figure out how to work a VCR) I just WISH the game could've been close like the Ravens-Broncos, or Falcons-Seahawks. Those teams at least gave themselves a chance. Going up with a 14-0 lead (which we had for the taking) keeps us in the game. Matt Schaub throwing behind the sticks kepts us out of it. Thats all i'm saying and hindsighting.
what does elite qbs do good against us mean? In contrast to bad qbs doing good against us? I can't believe Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers, and Drew Bees had good games against a depleted defense. Its not like they have 5 MVPS split amongst them.
I'm not going so far as to blame the defense for this loss. I'm just saying it's hard to only blame Schaub and Kubiak for a loss in which the defense gives up 41 points. You can talk all you want about the offense putting the defense in bad spots, but that's not the reason it gave up 41 points. Look at the 1st drive of the 2nd half. We go into halftime with some momentum after the offense scores 10 points in under 2 minutes to cut the lead to 4 points. How does the defense respond? By giving up a TD drive to take away any momentum we had in the 1st half. How did the offense set the defense in a bad place for that drive? There is plenty of blame to go around for this loss. It's not all on Schaub and Kubiak. Wade and the defense don't get a free pass.
I'm talking about elite quarterbacks consistently picking apart our defense EVERY time we play one of them. I'm talking about giving up an average of about 35 points against elite quarterbacks. You're not going to win games where you give up 35 points, no matter what offense you have. It's different if an elite quarterback has a great game against you 50% or maybe even 60% of the games you play them. 100% is unacceptable, though. You cannot expect to advance anywhere in the playoffs when that is the case. Like Ima said, I'm not trying to place the blame solely on the defense, because that's not the case. To say that it's solely the offense's fault is a farce, though. To say that the defense gave up so many points because the offense couldn't score is an even bigger farce. Defensive players get paid to shut down offenses. They don't get paid to thrive on what their own offense does. Yeah, our defense had a decent first half. Decent. 17 points in a half isn't great. It's okay. Don't say that they "ran out of gas" because our offense couldn't do anything. We ran more plays than them, thus our defense was more rested. It's simply a matter of them being outcoached and outschemed.
Great point. We also need to realize that the Pats are probably the most difficult team to slow down in the NFL (they averaged 35 ppg at home). They were also damn close to winning the Super Bowl last year with a much worse defense and lesser running game. Just look at the threats on offense: - WR-esque tight end (not even counting Gronk who will be back) - Dynamic possession WR and solid downfield threat - Speedy, between-the-tackles RB with some pop and 2 good receiving backs Not to mention an all time great QB and damn good o-line. That's a team that will find a way to put up points no matter what. To beat that, we need a better playmaker at Safety. Manning fell off tremendously this season. And obviously depth at LB to cover the backs - Cushing by himself would have saved at least one TD yesterday IMO.
It's totally Kubiak and Schaub's fault the Texans were playing in Foxboro and not at Reliant. Not too mention playing NE instead of Baltimore.
That's besides the point I'm making. Who's fault would it had been if we had beat Baltimore only to get slaughtered by Denver or New England next week due to Wade's crappy scheme?
Yeah, Schaub had a really bad angle on that kickoff return he gave up against the colts. And don't even get me started on that 70-yard TD he gave up to Luck just a few minutes later.
EXACTLY! I've never seen someone get a "get out of jail free card" as quickly as Wade Philipps has. Under 0 circumstances can we give up 41 points and expect to win. This has nothing to do with the offense yes the defense may have played differently if they were up 14-0, but who cares. Is JJ Watt supposed to say that "well if we would've been up 14-0, we would've played a lot harder" OF COURSE NOT! Everyone blaming the offense should ask themselves these questions, and be honest: If Matt Schaub would've finished the game with 343 yards, 2 TD's 1 INT, and we would've won 28-17, would we be talking about how poorly the offense played? Or if Matt Schaub would've finished the game with 443 yards, 3 TD's 0 INT's, and we would've lost 40-41, would we be talking about how poorly the offense played? At the end of the day some people are already sold on Matt Schaub not being the guy, but it's not fair at all to put all the blame on him. He didn't put every pass on the money, but he also didn't drop a single pass, he didnt' get run down on a KO return, and he also didn't get torched over and over again for 41 yards.
When our team dictates what it wants...the opponents never score that many points...our goal was to control the clock and the ground game...and when neither happened...our defense got tired...and we go belted by another 40 spot... Stalled offense leads to a tired defense...When you stall Brady...your next offensive series better command the ball and get points... You cant stop Brady every time...we dont have the personel for that...but you have to slow him down and keep him off the field...and we didnt do either... We couldn't stop the run because our LB were so worried about the short crossing routes... That third quarter was a disaster...and it also helped that on that first pats drive...Hernandez got away with a shove which set them up in the red zone...he just trucked over Quin...They got him later once the score was out of reach on Daniel Manning
We win 10-7 . . . .would you be talking about the Defense? The point is . . . .We have a T-Mac like offense They will get you the numbers/stats but you still bounced in the 1st round [or second round for the Texans] Rocket River
