In order: 1. Injuries - They've gotten bigger and bigger as we've went along. Johnson, McKinney, and now Schaub. 2. Lack of talent at O-Line and Safety. 3. Coaching - in particular, predictable play-calling.
toughness could be Carr's greatest strength. I think people are/were saying Carr was one piece of the offense sucking problem (and a big one). that was hopefully fixed and hopefully they will move on the the OL, RB next
If you listen to players after the game and look at the play on the field, you can see this team has not been ready to play for the past 5 weeks. Gameplans that don't work, starting players who should be sitting and have capable backups on the bench, starting injured QBs, etc. Flannagan and Faggins should not be playing, but they are. The back-up center came in yesterday and suddenly we weren't getting manhandled up front anymore. Faggins started and gives up the big play to Gates. The first one when he was wide open. The defensive plan was to give help to Chambers' side, even though Gates is the Chargers #1 receiving threat. Let's go back to the Titans game, Kubiak himself said he didn't expect the Titans to blitz as much as they did. WHAT?!?! That is what the Titans have done all season and you didn't expect it? To make it worse, after you see what they are doing, you don't make any changes until the 3rd quarter? Talent is a problem, no doubt. But our coaching has been the worst I have seen since the 2-14 season.
i thought he could succeed with a better team around him, but i never thought he was the source of our problems, and cautioned those who were convinced he was. i wiped everyone's slate clean after the purge in 05. new GM, new coach, new system - new outlook. i think schaub will be a better QB (if we don't ruin him, too), but would i rather have carr and those two #2s.......................? the picks kill me. it was/is a big gamble.
When Mckinney and AJ were healthy we had a balanced offense. Now the strength of the offense is a large group of indistinguishable #3 type recievers, not an ideal situation.
Well said. This is the reason why I blame coaching as much as the injuries for the Texans' problems. How many more huge plays does Demarcus Faggins have to give up before Rick Smith finally realizes he's not starting material? That first Gates touchdown was so bad ... you expect to see that kind of defensive gaffe on a bad college football team, not in the NFL. Faggins covering Gates? What were they smoking? And I'm pretty sure after yesterday, they're 1st in the NFL in penalties. White has proven himself now on multiple occasions that he is a better player than Flanagan. Why can't they let him start?
He was, still is, and will still be bringing up Carr when the Texans have a 3-game losing streak in 2012. It's awfully difficult to argue that this franchise is worse off without Carr, if not impossible. As far as the two #2s, look at it as we would have spent a pick drafting a QB this year, and consider the second as a premium to get that drafted QB ready to play immediately instead of needing a standard 3-yr curve. Carr is in Carolina still whipping the ball to backfield receivers for minimum game and is icing out a Pro-Bowler in Steve Smith. He's garbage, and will be lucky to be a third-stringer the rest of his career. He wasn't the one and only problem the Texans had the last few years, but no one said that. But he was a glaring and major problem at one of the most critical skill positions you have in football. Very few teams can overcome that without an all-time great cast on the other side of the ball (SB Ravens, Bears). Returning to the real topic - We had a team finally come together, click, and gear up for a probable 9- win season. We lost too many critical guys on one side of the ball all at once, lost a couple of games including one that should have been a lock for a win, and moral plummeted. With McKinney and AJ not coming back soon or at all, it's hard for guys to see the end of the tunnel, and all of a sudden we're back to playing to keep it close instead of to win. I fully believe a losing mentality has creeped back into many starters, and they are playing at a lower level than they were in the first two weeks. Downward Spiral. I don't know how much I put on Kubiak. He's got a team with no more talent than Miami at this point. Even when he's healthy, Ahman Green is no more than the line he runs behind. Schaub and Rosenfels are good decision makers, but need time and receivers that can create space. We absolutely do not have playmakers right now. Maybe Jones can develop into one, but right now he's only making miracles happen on ST. Andre Davis needs a little more consistency but has potential. Tough to expect more from this offense. On defense, it's a flawed roster. We've got a nice run-stopping line and a playmaking MIC, but the secondary aside from Dunta are below average, the OLBs are below average, and that makes us especially vulnerable. Richard Smith is a passable at best D-coord, and he just tries to mask our limitations as best he can. He can't send blitzes because we're already stretched to prevent big plays and depend on help coverage. He just tries to contain as a game plan, and that's about all you can do when you're below par in so many positions. We need to draft or trade for addition secondary help. We need AJ back on the field. We need better play from the line, which may require getting Pitts replaced. We need to get a real LT. We aren't turning this around immediately, and it was wrong to think that we should be a 10-win team on the basis of 2 wins to open the year. We still have a shot at 8 wins, but that will necessitate Johnson returning at full speed in week 11, and we need to steal a win or two to make up for the two losses against teams we should have taken out (Falcons, Titans at home). @ OAK bye NO @ CLE @ TEN TB DEN @ IND JAX That's going to be a tough run. Evan
If the Oilers had passed on Earl Campbell there never would have been a Luv Ya Blue era. If the Rockets had passed on Hakeem Olajuwon there would never have been ClutchCity era. One big mistake can send a franchise the wrong direction. We passed and it will be awhile before we recover. We lost 2- 2nd round draft picks because we passed. It's going to take patience because we need alot more talent.
coaching has had its question marks, but it really all went downhill with the injuries. Not only was it some of your best players but it is also that this team isnt deep. Flanagan has really fell off alot, and I'm not sure about his backup..afterall its a 3rd string guy. Faggins isnt good, but sadly he may be the best option I've liked bennett but he is a rookie and has been hurt. I understand sticking with faggins a while but now it seems to be a good time to throw bennett out there and get baptism by fire. He will get beat too, but he has to learn and texans need to know all of his abilities. Its hard to get a great feel for the offense b/c of the injuries and lack of up front blocking, but early i liked what i saw for the most part. However they havent been able to run effectively all year. I'm actually more concerned with the defense from a play calling/scheme standpoint. Blitz never seem to free anyone up. Then again, someone's got to make a play up front and just whoop his man.
Posts like this really get the anti-vyofs up in arms. And you know, based on the individual performance I've heard and read about, VY is more Sam Bowie than he is MJ or Dream. (ducking tomatoes and daggers!)
i'm NOT defending him. i just never thought he was among our biggest problems; that he could either be covered up or improved with a better team around him. so to focus so much ire on him exclusively was, imo, misdirected. there're two teams in our own division right now overcoming major problems at the QB position. you have to build a TEAM, and that, above all else, is all i've ever said. from, like, day 1. since 2004, the texans have dealt 4 #2s and 2 #3s (i believe that's right). can you imagine adding 6 of the 100 best college players from their respective drafts to this team? meanwhile, they haven't used a #1 on an offensive player since 2003. in fact, off the top of my head, they haven't used a day 1 pick on a skill player since... well, jacoby this year, but prior to... 2003 as well, iirc. that, for starters, is a MUCH bigger problem than david carr ever was, and a terrific example of how the team ruined him. we'll never know how good (or bad) carr was because he was never given a foundation to succeed. he's brought up because if they're not careful, history is going to repeat itself. schaub hasn't finished a game in nearly a month...
no depth and i think i'm the only one in the universe who thinks they over paid for schaub, i'm sick of quarterbacks wearing number 8 who get handed the starting job, neither one of the number 8 quarterbacks have ever had to win the job texans only depth is at widereceiver and they barely pass the ball when schaub is in ahman green was overpaid but other than that i think they have made good moves oh wait how in the hell is mike flannigan still on this team?
Before the season, i thought if healthy, the team could win 8games. After the 2-0 start, i thought they could win 8 games. This team needs upgrades but i like what they are doing. They have established the d-line a bit, the o-line is solid. the qb is pretty good,the te is good and johnson is very good.In the salary cap era, you cant have great players everywhere until the foundation is built. Thats why New England can get a Moss for nothing and he adds to what was a very good team. The texans are still building. Everyone except Robinson needs to be upgraded in the secondary. I like bennett and i think he's good enough to man the other corner, but the safety spot and faggins are terrible. On the 1st td pass to gates, why was the safety cheating to dunte side? He's one of the top corners covering a avg receiver. I like Weaver, but for the money they gave him, he's not what they need. I mean down after down protection slides to williams and okoye, yet he gets no pressure. I even like the way Johnson is playing finally, but weaver is the veteran of this group and his pressure and sacks dont add up. I know everyone will look at the running back position as a sore spot and i'm not going to deny that. personally, i would have preferred to keep Lundy over Dayne and Gado. At least he had room to get better and had some burst. I'm still looking for 12-1400 out of my starter and 7 out of my backup. I think in the offseason they wil address this. I dont think they'll spend the money and get a Turner type of guy, but i do see a guy to start and green be the backup and 3rd down back. I once thought Receiver was a weakness, now i think its a strength. I think whenever johnson comes back alone with davis,Jones,walter and daniels, the group can be explosive. Johnson forces rolled coverages and we have seen the other guys beat single coverages. Many people want to jump of the cliff in the microwave society of the nfl, but if you dont build in from the ground up, it will collapse on you. People think the texans are one of the worse teams, but look at cincy,mia,jets,bills,the entire nfc west,the entire nfc south,minny,chicago. Hell, the chargers just got over .500 and look at denver too. Its not as bad as it seems.
AJ being out is huge, and them hoping to get by on a beat up running back from GB was a bad move as well. They are only a healthy AJ and a GOOD RB from seriously competing IMO. What is his record as a starter? Weren't the Titans supposed to have less talent, what is their record now? I like the Texans, and still like VY........there is no way the Texans made the right choice.......and they have to make their own course... I would take an ugly 5-2 over an improving 3-5 any day of the week. DD
No doubt about it, That REALLY hurt as well. He was a good RB with pass catching skills, they would probably be 5-3 with a healthy DD/W on the team. DD
His team's record since he has begun starting is nothing short of superb. Last year, he was a huge part of that. Him, and all the lucky breaks thay got. This year, he's not. So many of us thought. We were wrong. That RB they got behind LenDale is a nice surprise, and LenDale is playing pretty solidly as well. The defense has been the real surprise. Without that awesome D play they've had to date, they'd be like 3-5 or something. They certainly wouldn't have beaten the Texans. Me, too! That makes me wish we had their coaches, however, not their QB.
He is 4-2 as a starter this year.....and 8-5 last year to be 12-7 overall, that is NOT a bad start to a career. DD
