because, as we saw last year with carr, problems (plural) often devolve into *a* problem, and discourse because lazy and tiresome. texans lose; blame carr. texans lose; blame carr. texans lose; blame carr. texans lose; blame carr. texans lose; blame carr. texans lose; blame carr. texans lose; blame carr. yet, here we are: carr's gone and, gosh darn it, things don't look appreciably better. so now let's focus on the OTHER top overall pick... why does any one player have to carry the burden of a team not performing well? if mario williams was reggie white incarnate... what difference does it make in the grand scheme? is this a 4-3 team? 5-2? does he solve the pass protection? the run blocking? the injuries? does he figure out how the team can score more in the red zone? again, that's very simplistic. in a perfect world, the rest of the team does its job so guys like carr and williams can thrive. but when the rest of the team isn't living up to its end of the bargain, it's silly to exclsuively zero in on carr and williams. they're A part of the problem. they just replaced david carr; it's ain't that hard. the cap is not as suffocating as you make it out to be. they're paying carr, schaub AND williams and i blieve they're still under the cap.
no, i didn't. i argued they were fortuituous and that their defense, special teams and offense all made timely plays throughout last year. my god, what is the point anyway? is this all you have to offer? calling me an ******* repeatedly and bringing up some loosely-related tangent? no; the titans have a good defensive unit. everyone on it is making plays and doing their job effectively. their coaches are better, too. and their offense is quite good at controlling the ball and chewing up the clock, keeping the defense off the field. in short, tennessee is a better team than the texans.
if you didn't want to talk titans, next time read the first post before you come in and attack. you still haven't referenced the game that started this thread.
Reasons for the Texans tailspin, IMO, ranked: 1. Andre Johnson out with injury. 2. Steve McKinney out with injury (year). 3. Chester Pitts and Ephraim Salaam 4. Team as a whole losing a step with the loses (downward spiral effect) 5. Overmatched secondary 6. Inability of OLBs to contain runs to the outside 7. Ahman Green missing time with injury 8. D-Coord Richard Smith 9. Jacoby Jones and Jerome Mathis missing time 10. D-Line stuffing run gaps but unable to get to QB Our inability to generate sacks is big, bigger than reason #10. But why I didn't list it as number 10 is because it's not because Mario, Okoye, Kalu, Weaver, and Johnson aren't earning their money. We can't get to the QB because we are completely unable to blitz and our line is filled with run stuffers, not speed guys. We can't blitz because our secondary is overmatched week in and week out, and we can't afford to send a LB let alone a back on a blitz. Faggins is getting targeted, Robinson is often left on an island, and the safeties are unreliable. The LBs are almost worthless in coverage. Richard Smith doesn't like to mix schemes up. He doesn't like to shift Robinson over to lock down receivers going wild on us, he doesn't like to use stunts up front, and he doesn't pull the trigger on many blitzes. His concern is limiting big plays and that makes him conservative. Ryans and Robinson are highly effective when they get the greenlight. Our line occupies 5 blockers routinely, and R&R are fast and hit hard. Ryans' sack for a TD this week is good evidence of that. The major problem is - you send one of them into the backfield and you are rolling the dice with a severely handicapped defense past the line. Maybe they should risk blitzes a little more often. Maybe they're playing it right. But I don't think you can expect this front 4 to pile up sack numbers. They're aren't designed for it. They do what they are built to do - stuff the inside run game. I'm okay with that. It's pressing for us to add a playmaking safety and at least one capable cover guy this next offseason. Hopefully Bennett emerges as a good option. Evan
People put plenty of blame on the O-Line, running game, secondary, Mario Williams, etc too. You just chose to focus on the complaints about Carr, which were more than the others for a variety of reasons: it was so obvious, he was the single biggest problem, he was the face of the team, etc. Totally untrue. The offense is currently #8 in scoring and #11 in yardage after being 28th in both categories last year. Before the injuries, this offense looked pretty good, and it has continued to at least be functional despite the lack of healthy talent. All the excuses made for Carr last year have been blown up - that you can't throw without a running game, that the receivers were so terrible, that you can't throw with this O-Line, etc. What we have learned is that when the offense made ONE major change - at QB - the entire look/feel/success of the offense dramatically improved. If anything, it simply shows how important that change at QB was - and why people griped so much about Carr. Except this thread specifically mentioned an entire unit - the DL - not Mario Williams. Are you arguing that the defensive line *doesn't* have to earn it's money? If not, I have no idea what your problem with discussion of this issue is. Carr's extension wasn't cap-destructive though. If they had released him a few years ago, it would have been more complicated. Same with Mario Williams now. He needs to perform to expectations because the team can't just go get another $30MM defensive end. If Faggins doesn't perform, you can go get another Faggins type much more easily.
pgabriel, the games are interchangeable; that's what made my mistake so funny - this COULD have been a jaguar or titan postgame thread. the problems were universal,namely that the offense was completely and totally ineffective and left the defense on the field to rot. and that you'd want to b**** about the DL after EITHER game is silly, lazy and predictable.
Ric -- I just wanna make sure I'm understanding you...are you saying you don't think the offense looks better this season than it did last season? I realize they played awful yesterday...but they sure look better overall to me this season than last.
Nice list. I put #2 at the top of the list and #5 at #2. Ahh, for the fun of it:<ol><li>Steve McKinney out with injury (year).</li><li>Andre Johnson out with injury.</li><li>Overmatched secondary</li><li>Chester Pitts and Ephraim Salaam</li><li>Inability of OLBs to contain runs to the outside</li><li>Ahman Green missing time with injury</li><li>Team as a whole losing a step with the losses (downward spiral effect)</li><li>D-Coord Richard Smith</li><li>Jacoby Jones and Jerome Mathis missing time</li><li>D-Line stuffing run gaps but unable to get to QB</li></ol>
so what was their to b**** about last game. oh and my bad, you continually call me lazy but yet you want to keep the conversation civil.
In the Jacksonville game (I didn't see it, so I'm only going by stats) the Texans ran more plays and won the time of possession (barely) despite being outrushed so badly. The offense gained 390 yards in that game - only 3 teams average more than that per game.
That's because we were letting the clock run between all those 1/2 yard gains, while J-ville was breaking off 70 yard runs that barely used any clock at all.
No pressure on Collins in the winning drive. Result, the greatest comeback in Houston Pro Football history down the drain. And it could have been against the "Old Oilers" who suffered one of the worst comebacks in NFL history in the Buffalo playoff game. It was also a backup QB. That would have been so sweet. Instead, the "Old Oilers" set a record against us.
revisionist history; major. i didn't *choose* to focus on carr; him being THE problem was shoved down my throat. repeatedly. every week. unreal you would try and spin that as being MY deficit… i don’t honestly know how to respond to this except to sincerely ask if you’re watching any of the games. they played effectively – at best - against kansas city and carolina; the common theme being a decent running game. (it was also the common theme during their much-better second half last year.) otherwise, this offense has been, by and large, dismal; the ridiculous 4Q yesterday notwithstanding. in their 3 games against the afc south, they’ve trailed after the 3rd quarter by a combined score of 75-26, and 14 of those 26 points were provided by jerome mathis and demeco ryans; so the schaub-led offense has trailed by a combined 75-12. in fact, of the texans’ 169 points scored this year, schaub has been the QB for just 106 of them; or roughly 15 points a game. they managed 22 points against a winless team allowing 35 in their 6 other games (miami); and 16 against a one-win team allowing 23 in their other 6 games (Atlanta). overall, since starting 2-0, the texans have scored three offensive TDs under schaub in their last five games. THREE. that is carr-like. his qb rating has gone from 102 and 119 in weeks 1-2, to 81, 102, 75, 75, 61 – 4 of 5 games, he’s posted a rating below league average. sorry; carr is gone but MANY of the same problems still very much exist. and matt schaub is starting to find that out the hard way - here's hoping he's a tough as carr was; so far, not encouraging. so, honestly: are you watching games? and none of us are naïve enough to think an out front friend of vince has any other texan in mind when he rips the “unit.” what? where did I say that? EVERYONE has to do their part; the DL has been fine. they've been blasted the past two weeks by the nfl's 3rd and 5th-best rushing attacks, but otherwise, they've been better than they were last year. why would you want another faggins? i could easily argue you could get a faggins-level DE cheap, too - so? who would want to do that? williams does not preclude you from improving other areas of the team. hell, since taking travis johnson in the first round in '05, they’ve signed anthony weaver and added two top 10 picks to the DL… and they’re still under the cap.
they played very well agains carolina, and against kc, a team that everyone in the league knew would start off slowly and they haven't played good defense again this thread was started a week ago. if you want us to mention weaver and johnson we have. the defensive line has extra responsibilty because that's where the majority of the money is spent on defense. if you truly want to keep being an ******* and mentioning vince. go back and see where I supporte the williams pick because from day one I said a defensive end is more valuable then an over hyped reggie bush. if mario plays better along with the rest of the line, that will pan out, if he doesn't than it won't. they were also blasted by a thrity five year old qb who hadn't played in over a season, and a qb who was just replaced by byron leftwitch. talk about revisionist history. apparently you missed that point but spending three first round draft picks in the area does require them to be at least above average. any logic otherwise is intellectually dishonest
first two games; yes. since? more of the same. they've had sporadic spurts of looking competent, but overall, not so much. no ****? seriously? btw, one of the reasons they didn't have the ball as much as jacksonville is because of back-to-back possessions in the 2nd half in which schaub fumbled (returned for a TD) and then threw an INT (which led to a TD). rosenfels led a 15-play drive to end the game... after it was 37-9. THAT'S why watching the games in conjunction with stats is far more effective than coming in here and quoting stats with no context. because lazy is on par with ******* (twice), jerk (twice) and dumbass - is that your point, pgabriel? btw, if one didn't know any better, one might think your vitriol was a product of me hitting a little too close to home... nah, i'm sure you watched the game. hell, you probably went to it, wearing a titan jersey.
how could you hit close to home when you had to come back into the thread and admit you were the dumbass because you're to cheap to contribute so you can edit again you attacked me first and had to admit you were wrong
if i've admitted i was wrong, which i did beforte anyone even called me out on it, why have you followed it up with three assholes, two jerks and two dumbasses? and now, i'm also apparently cheap. but, damnit, you're lazy! and you still haven't confirmed you watched the game. just more insults. but seriously, i'm sure you did. ok, you DIDN'T watch the game. seven of their 16 possessions started in houston territory; an eighth started on the tennessee 49. the texans turned the ball over 6 times and totaled 34 yards of offense in the first half.
so i didn't see collins have a good game under no pressure from the defensive line. what does the offense's ineptitude have to do with that.
