Official Texans @ Colts Game Thread, 11/1/2010

[TheMatrix31]

Originally Posted by chuck

True. They'll lose to the Chargers, they'll lose twice to the Titans and they will be very lucky to beat the Jags at all.

Glad to know you know the results. So what will you be doing with your Sundays from here on out?

[popanot]

This team has been outscored 197-170, has the worst D in the league, had to play from behind in almost all of their games, barely managed to outscore the opposition in at least 2 (if not 3) of their 4 wins, has been absolutely spanked in all of their 3 losses, and just got manhandled on national TV (after a bye!!) by a team playing mostly 3rd and 4th stringers in key positions.

Yes, 4-2 sure beats 2-4, but I don't know how anybody watching can feel good with how this team is playing. The D is a sieve and the O seems lost and is getting whipped by physical teams. Throw in Kubiak's total lack of preparation and game planning and you've got a recipe for disaster. Sorry, but it's terribly difficult to be optimistic right now.

[nunusguy]

FWIW according to the stats Diles had 10 solos while Cushing had a total of 2 last night, so that's where we are on the Brian Cushing at MLB experiement
after the first game. I can't get over how ordinary Cushing looks compared to last season ? Just sayin.
Like the season opener last year vs the Jets, Kubiak & Co had xtra time to prepare for last nights game and they fell flat on their face so I'm thinkin maybe their best game this season maybe will be the Thursday night game with the short week to get ready ? But still I didn't expect a victory in Indy, it's just the way we lost.
About KJ - he made a couple plays last night, but for the second week in a row I found myself wondering how much thought the Texans gave to drafting the Pats rookie from Rutgers, Devin McCourtney, instead of Kareem who made another big play in their game vs the Vikings. And whoever said Smith was talked into drafting KJ by Saban has got the story wrong because had Smith paid attention to the 'Bama coach he would know he was saying Kareem
should remain in school another year. But I'm not for burying Kareem yet, because like Gruden said last night, even 2nd and 3rd string DBs can look OK when
they're on a defense that's got pass-rushers like Freeney up front (where the hell were you Mario ?).

[NBT]

Originally Posted by TheMatrix31

Glad to know you know the results. So what will you be doing with your Sundays from here on out?

This is a nice time of year to be playing golf. Or take the kids and the wife to the beach. Hell, anything but watch that horribly inept excuse for a pro football team, coached by Rubiack's Cube, and called an address (Texans), for cryin' out loud!!!!!!!!! And after more than 50 years of this same crap, I know I have the right to complain. I've been been through it all.

[Keith]

I'm just going to quietly pat myself on the back for not deleting this week's game thread....

[painekiller]

Originally Posted by Keith

I'm just going to quietly pat myself on the back for not deleting this week's game thread....

pat pat pat... But on second thought maybe you should have...

[chuck]

Originally Posted by Keith

I'm just going to quietly pat myself on the back for not deleting this week's game thread....

It's only going to get worse.

[Arky]

I watched Gary Kubiak's press conference and I noticed he kept repeating how the Texans 3rd down conversions were terrible - especially in the first half (0/6). He seemed to blame a lot of the lack of offensive rhythm and pass-happy possessions on this. The Texans finished 3/11 in 3rd down conversions. Here's how they break down:

First half:

1. On 3rd and 10, Schaub sacked.
2. On 3rd and 6, pass inc.
3. On 3rd and 2, pass inc.
4. On 3rd and 5, Schaub sacked.
5. On 3rd and 10, pass complete to AJ for 9 yards. (Texans punt on 4th down)
6. On 3rd and 4, pass inc.

Second half:

7. On 3rd and 1, Schaub sneaks for the 1st down.
8. On 3rd and 3, pass complete to AJ for 28 yard TD.
9. On 3rd and 10, short pass to Foster complete for -1.
10. On 3rd and 3, Foster runs for 10.
11. On 3rd and 10, Schaub sacked/stripped for turnover.

Totals: 3 sacks (1 fumble), 3 incompletions, 2 completed passes that come up short, 2 successful runs, 1 passing TD

Not sure what all this means other than Schaub didn't have his best day on 3rd downs. Of course, his protection is partly to blame here.... The only 2 runs were both successful.....

[HPF Bob]

To beat the Colts, you have to get the lead early and play keep-away from Manning. I felt the Texans knew this and tried to cross them up with passes but Schaub just wasn't making completions. Their DBs were jumping the slant-ins.

They should have gone to the running game much sooner and made them commit to stopping the run. They had success in the second half by pounding the rock and then passing off play-action but it took them far too long to figure this out.

What upset me more was the poor tackling by the defense. Somebody needs to figure out what tackling drills the Steelers do and then teach the same thing. Everytime I watch Pittsburgh, their people wrap up and put the man on the ground. The Texans would rather hit them with a shoulder and hope they fall down. IMO, that's what is keeping us from being a better team - all the extra yards our opponents get because we don't tackle them.

[Joshua]

Speaking of Kube's press conference, did you catch where he said he wasn't thinking about whether he would go for it on 4th down when he called a pass play on 3rd and 2, even though we ended up going for it and not converting with yet another incompletion? To me, this is a very damning admission. How can he not be thinking even one play ahead? Particularly for someone who likes to go for it on 4th down as much as he does. If there is any chance you will go for it on 4th, your 3rd down playcall has to consider this. Considering that his offensive X's and O's are the only thing that Kubiak can realistically claim to be better than average at, his acknowledgement that his playcalling is this off the cuff bothers me.

Plus, IMO, this is the 2nd time he's done this. Remember OT of the Redskins game when they threw it on 3rd and 4 and from the Redskins 35 or so and then decided not to try a 53 yard FG? I got the distinct impression then that he was making decisions on the fly and was not thinking ahead whatsoever then as well.

[nunusguy]

Originally Posted by Joshua

Speaking of Kube's press conference, did you catch where he said he wasn't thinking about whether he would go for it on 4th down when he called a pass play on 3rd and 2, even though we ended up going for it and not converting with yet another incompletion? To me, this is a very damning admission. How can he not be thinking even one play ahead?

Excellent point and yea, it's troubling to hear Kubiak say (based on his own words here) he's basically playing it by the "seat of his pants" with no apparent thought to the subsequent play(s) let alone the subsequent series of plays.

[Nconroe]

Well, could be, but the players on Colts offense and defense whipped our players on offense and defense, whatever the calls were. We didn't execute those calls very well. A quick two yard pass ought to be fairly safe. I likely would have preferred runs by Arain as well, knowing the pass didn't work.

[cadams]

Originally Posted by Nconroe

Well, could be, but the players on Colts offense and defense whipped our players on offense and defense, whatever the calls were. We didn't execute those calls very well. A quick two yard pass ought to be fairly safe. I likely would have preferred runs by Arain as well, knowing the pass didn't work.

even without knowing that the pass play wasn't going to work i would have preferred a run call there. at that point they hadn't held the texans to less than two yards on a rushing play. kubiak was trying to outsmart the colts by calling a pass when everyone knew he should have run the ball. unfortunately he only outsmarts himself in those situation.

also, heard on the radio this morning that when he was asked about why the offense was so pass heavy, and given the stats on it, in the first half of games this season (and particularly on the first series of the first half) kubiak responded by saying he didn't realize that they had been that unbalanced. i am sincerely hoping he was not being serious, becuase if he was they are in more trouble from a coaching perspective than i could have imagined.

[TheMatrix31]

Originally Posted by Arky

I watched Gary Kubiak's press conference and I noticed he kept repeating how the Texans 3rd down conversions were terrible - especially in the first half (0/6). He seemed to blame a lot of the lack of offensive rhythm and pass-happy possessions on this. The Texans finished 3/11 in 3rd down conversions. Here's how they break down:

First half:

1. On 3rd and 10, Schaub sacked.
2. On 3rd and 6, pass inc.
3. On 3rd and 2, pass inc.
4. On 3rd and 5, Schaub sacked.
5. On 3rd and 10, pass complete to AJ for 9 yards. (Texans punt on 4th down)
6. On 3rd and 4, pass inc.

Second half:

7. On 3rd and 1, Schaub sneaks for the 1st down.
8. On 3rd and 3, pass complete to AJ for 28 yard TD.
9. On 3rd and 10, short pass to Foster complete for -1.
10. On 3rd and 3, Foster runs for 10.
11. On 3rd and 10, Schaub sacked/stripped for turnover.

Totals: 3 sacks (1 fumble), 3 incompletions, 2 completed passes that come up short, 2 successful runs, 1 passing TD

Not sure what all this means other than Schaub didn't have his best day on 3rd downs. Of course, his protection is partly to blame here.... The only 2 runs were both successful.....

The third and 2 pass incomplete sticks out like a sore thumb.

[superbowlbound]

I waited till today to post, because this is typically the day when the emotion fades, I take a truly objective look at the game again, and then start gearing up for next week, and I was livid after the game. So much so, in fact, that when I came home and my girl asked me about the game, I got so worked up that I had to go sit in the back yard for half an hour with the dog before I could go to bed.

That said, nothing's changed. I'm every bit as hot today as I was Monday night. Our coaching staff is a joke. Bottom line. We can't tackle for shit (though I was pleased that the defense only gave up 23. baby steps.), Kubes still has absolutely no idea how to manage a clock, and he can't gameplan is way out of a bag made of fruit rollups. (I just thought of that right now. How different life would have been if those existed in elementary school)

We have the blueprint for beating the peyton mannings: run the goddammed ball. Eat the clock, keep captain short arms off the field, and our backs are good enough to move the chains. What do we do? We start the game with 4 straight passes. NOT running the ball right off the bat makes zero sense to me anyway, especially with Arian being as good as he is. Schaub is at his best with a lead. He's more comfortable, he makes better reads, he gets rid of the ball quicker. If it's tied, or god forbid, we're behind, he looks like he presses a lot more, as if he feels like he HAS to score THIS DRIVE, which forces him into bad decisions in the name of "making a play." Cush was a total non-factor in the middle, and he looked completely lost doing it.

With this game, I, an admitted Kubiak apologist, have jumped ship on him. The guy has not learned one damn thing since he got here. He can't gameplan, he can't manage a clock, and if you can't think ONE PLAY ahead, especially on a 3rd and 2 when you're in 4 down territory, you don't have any business running a football team. Period. If I can think 3 plays ahead on madden, you, as a professional, ought to be thinking AT LEAST 1 play ahead. I almost hope we end up at like 6-10, just to be sure we get rid of this guy. Gruden's sounding REALLY good right about now.

Also, what the hell happened to that bootleg pass across the field to jacoby that we ran in preseason? it worked twice for 40 yard touchdowns then, and we haven't run it not once this whole regular season.

[chuck]

Excellent post, SBB. It's funny, I'm not nearly as angry as maybe I should be, just sort of resigned to another disappointing season of underachievement. The sad thing is once they do shitcan that idiot and hire someone who knows how to run a football team we'll be all dressed up with nowhere to go.

I have a hard time getting my head around the fact that Gary Kubiak has spent years in the NFL as an OC and cannot or will not think two plays ahead at a critical juncture. And we all know that the sequence to which he admitted being an idiot is not an isolated incident by any stretch.

[Blitzwood]

Well said SBB.

I was thinking after the game- It sure would be nice if Bill Cowers came out of retirement and came here, I've had it with Kubes.

After that shalacking we took on a Monday night game, that he had two weeks to prepare for, I just don't understand how the team he's supposedly coaching, just comes out so flat footed and simply looks like they're just going through the motions. You'd think they'd be amped up for a nationally televised game.

After watching Sunday Nights Pitt vs N.O. game(probably the best pro game I've seen in some time) I realized the difference in coaching abilities and styles. We simply just don't have it on the Texans. The speed of those two defenses and the urgency and desire to win just isn't found on our local product.