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Originally Posted by Roy P
There were some positives from this game. For instance, Steve Slaton did not get hurt and showed that he could be a RB in the Brian Westbrook mold. Duane Brown didn't make me believe that he was Orlando Pace, but he wasn't totally abused by KVDB in only his second game. Frank Okam actually played in the 2nd half and the Titans running game was not as effective.
I'm not saying that Matt Schaub was Peyton Manning, but there were some things out there that should be clarified. Andre Johnson dropped a TD pass in the EndZone that hit his hands. Two of Schaub's interceptions came on 4th down when he was trying to make a play instead of turning the ball over on downs. Granted one was returned the length of the football field for a TD, but the game was in desperation mode at that point. The other INT was essentially a passing Punt, the Titan DB would have been better off dropping the pass.
It's my opinion that Kubiak was not confident in this team winning unless everything went right. Perhaps he was looking to create some momentum and get the team out of a funk after the hurricane. They looked rusty as hell at the beginning of the game. I'm not convinced that Schaub isn't having some concussion issues, because his 1st INT was just unforgivable. Anyway, Kubes would have looked like a Mad Genius if the Texans had been able to convert some of those 4th downs. We often hear laments of how predictable and stupid it is to run into the teeth of the defense on 4th down when the defense expects a running play. Kubiak was definitely not following "the book" in this game. Maybe he'll learn from this and realize that running the ball on 4 straight plays isn't a bad idea when you have only 5 inches to go. Of course the other side of the story is, if you can't gain a yard on the 1st 3 running plays, why try it again?
Anyway, the bottom line is that we were outplayed and outcoached. We may not make 8-8 this season. I've projected 6 - 10 based upon the schedule, but 5 - 11 isn't out of the question based upon what I've seen so far.
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I can agree about the INTs, but... what about the rest of the game? The turnovers glare, but more concerning is the inability to throw the ball all game long. One drop by Andre Johnson does not explain an entire game of poor play (the other two to Johnson were clearly overthrown and he had no chance of getting two feet down on either). Schaub looked outright bad for the 2nd week in a row. I was a big fan of his last year, but he has looked awful so far. And this week he looked awful even with good field position and a running game.
You can do everything else right in the NFL, but if you get your QB wrong you are still no good. I won't say Schaub is not the guy, but is anyone confident at this point that he IS the guy to lead this team to great things. If he's not we are just spinning our wheels.