CBs [Faggins, Reeves to Start, Bennett to Nickel]
 

Faggins starts, Bennett gets the bench.

Meanwhile, Reeves is entrenched as a starter.

I am certainly relieved that the Texans coaching staff led by Gary Kubiak knows more than the average fan who foolishly believes that Reeves is terrible. Kubiak has the strength of vision to discount what fans in revolt and opposing offensive coordinators plainly believe - that Reeves is the weak link in the defensive secondary. Kubiak brilliantly realizes that Reeves would not be nearly the liability that he has proven to be if the opposing teams did not throw at him as often, so he is going to tempt the other teams with Petey Faggins who will surely prove irresistible to attacking quarterbacks.

Outstanding!

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/6052303.html

1st pick in the 2009 draft the Texans will take a CB.

Dunta Robinson, where art thou?

According to channel 2, he is set to practice this tuesday and play next week. He says he felt he could have played in game 2,

Glad to see Petey finally getting the recognition he deserves, he had a great preseason and has carried that into the opportunities he's gotten in the regular season.

What's curious to me is that Bennett had a great game against Indy, yet is relegated to the bench. When Dunta comes back Reeves will be the 4th best CB on the team - it should be interesting to see if they can justify starting our 4th best CB.

From what i have seen of Reeves he is exactly what the team paid for. A great cover guy that can rotate his hips and run and has a good burst to make up ground. His ball skills are lacking, but that can be taught and improved the others are harder to get. He does get beat some like any corner.

Faggins is decent corner and playing lights out, for him, right now. He has been good in run support and good in coverage.

Its hard to see on TV what Bennet has been doing on the other side, especially when he only gets thrown at when he is beat most of the time. Maybe they were rolling coverage to him over the top also to help, i dunno.

If Faggins is playing better than Bennet right now give it to him. It isnt going to hurt the team at all, and this move could be because the Fins have been so good at running the ball this season that they want that run support that Faggins is bringing.

Kubes has been rotating the CB's anyway. I don't think there's a big difference in how many snaps Faggins or Bennet sees. I think that Kubiak might just be making Faggins the "starter" to get Bennet's attention. Other than last week he hasn't been playing anywhere near the same level as his rookie year.

reeveshas played well. He was bad in the preseason, but he has played as well as any texans corner especially lately.

I'd like to see all our DB's tackle a little better and perhaps not get pulled out of position as easily as seems they do. but I agree Reeves has improved from preseason. I think Bennett got out of position and missed a few tackles, maybe he was gambling too much. and Petey played good, did he get hurt today? Molden made a good play near end of game.

Getting pulled out of position too much still smacks to me, of inadequate coaching, assuming the CB's have the ability and they supposedly do.

There's only so much a coach can do if the players don't execute. It could be bad coaching, but without being on the inside it's hard to say who's really to blame. I've heard numerous times what a great DB coach Hoke is, which was why Kubiak kept him around, but if you ask me we don't see long term development. Without knowing what the coaches are doing in practice and in meetings there's no real way to know.

The coaching staff deserves some heat this year, but I think all of us Texans fans had convinced ourselves that we were going to pretty damn good. Coaches are easier to replace so they catch the blame first, but we all knew that there were still holes in this roster going into this season.

the problem is that the coaches don't seem to be learining from their mistakes. the staff has been in place (for the most part) for three years. if we have good coaches the players shouldnt be still making the same boneheaded mistakes week after week. i still like kubiak and most of the coaches, but they are going to start wearing out their welcome if they can't fix some of the glaring problems.

It happens every game to even the best of CB's, or any player for that matter. Usually it is how they play afterwards, and how the rest of the team picks up the slack for it that really counts.

Look at the Denver\Oakland game, Hall got blown up all day and he is one of the better CB's in the leauge.

Hoke has done a great job IMO. He has taken mostly lesser talent, coached it up, replaced it with even lesser talent, coached it up and is putting his guys in to play the scheme and calls Smith makes. Last season we ended with 1 starter out of 4 in the secondary, and this season we have had a few injuries in the secondary to boot. DRob, CC Brown, Demps..

Well, let's DRob at least, is coming back. And I agree totally with you about coach Hoke. However I still think we are reacting a bit late. On another matter, Eugene Wilson got the int. in the Miami game, then proceeded to hold it in the wrong arm instead of covering with both, and ended up giving it right back to Miami. Stuff like that just makes me want to pull my hair out, what's left of it.

I'll say this - the secondary would look a lot better if the team had another pass rusher. Amobi might yet grow into what we all want but the team desperately needs some sort of push from the side opposite Mario, who, by the way, will, if healthy, in a year or two be the best defensive player in the NFL.

I certainly hope the Texans feel like they can take a CB or a psychopathic S with their first pick next draft, and I hope they end up in the right area where they have a decent range of choice.

If hard work and determination will get it done, Tim Bullman will eventually be a stud at RDE.

After Calvin Johnson undressed Petey on that 96 yard pass and reception for a TD, do you still stand by your post? Petey does not belong in the NFL. You leave him on an island like they did last Sunday on Johnson, and he will get beat 99% of the time.

dunta will need to be on the field a lot more this week with the receivers cinci has

Oh, and he's got some crazy inside of him as well. Throw in the term relentless and eventually his "Rudy" syndrom will pay off for us.

I agree with your accessment of Faggins. I can't believe he made the team in his third year. The first year I chalked up his coverage skills to being a rookie. The second year I just said to myself that we didn't have anyone in camp for third down and he was the extra body. We're still here with this guy and I'm certain that when we finally cut him he will begin bouncing from one team after another until he's out.

But yesterday's highlihght reel of him covering Johnson was showing just how poor our D coordinator is doing his job. It was perfect for us as fans. No safety behind Faggins showed that either Smith isn't properly preparing his defense (which would account for most of the high points this year against us) or he actually felt that Faggins could cover Johnson...which makes him an idiot.

Either way, we win because he exposed himself...and in a good way.

I agree. It is more than a talent issue. It is either scheme or preparation/coaching, and both fall first on Kubiak and then on Richard Smith. About being exposed, hopefully Kubiak sees that and cuts him loose before Smith gets him fired.

As for the excitement about Dunta, I would hold off. He looked very bad (understandably) in yesterday's game. I honestly don't see him being a big factor for us in the next few games. Hopefully I am wrong and Sunday was just rust, but I am not expecting last year's Dunta any time soon.