Official Texans vs. Saints Game Thread, 8/22/2009

[barrett]

Negatives first.
Orlovsky is no good. He may be a serviceable backup for us, but we payed way too much for a guy who has no chance of becoming a good starter. He is clumsy. He struggles with his back pedal, with rolling out, with handoffs, etc... His arm is fine, and he can be coached about throws like the pick he threw, but he is just plain clumsy.

And yes our Safeties suck in all facets and we are soft against the run right now. Hopefully TJ and Cushing can help in that area. Right now we are very small at LB. And Fred Bennett has a Jekyl and Hyde thing going.

As for positives, the offense looked very good besides penalties. I am not too concerned about that in the preseason. Jacoby looked very good. Barwin has fantastic hands and seems to have learned more pass rush moves in one year at DE then most guys do in a career. Okoye was active. Really the whole DL looked good if we can get a LB to fill. And all of our WRs looked good. And we appear to have finally learned how to run a screen.

Next week will tell far more. I hope we see Molden.

[painekiller]

Originally Posted by barrett

And yes our Safeties suck in all facets and we are soft against the run right now. Hopefully TJ and Cushing can help in that area. Right now we are very small at LB. And Fred Bennett has a Jekyl and Hyde thing going.

.... Okoye was active. Really the whole DL looked good if we can get a LB to fill. And all of our WRs looked good. And we appear to have finally learned how to run a screen.

Next week will tell far more. I hope we see Molden.

That is how I see it also. Our LBs and Safeties are not filling in. When the DL is penetrating you have to fill in. We did not. Plus we are not a good tackling team right now.

[Keith]

http://www.inthebullseye.com/archive/2009/20090822.html

Wow, a chuck sighting. Were you there tonight?

And Arky, thanks as always for the comms.

[chuck]

Originally Posted by Keith

[URL]Wow, a chuck sighting. Were you there tonight?

No, I'm not in town at the moment. I'll be at the regular season opener. Do you still tailgate at the old place? If so I'll come find you. It would be good to see you again.

[Keith]

Originally Posted by chuck

No, I'm not in town at the moment. I'll be at the regular season opener. Do you still tailgate at the old place? If so I'll come find you. It would be good to see you again.

I haven't been to a tailgate in a long time. Wife and kids usually want to make a bee-line into the stadium when we arrive.

I wouldn't mind crashing someone else's tailgate to meet up though if another ItB'er has one going (Mike - did you know someone?). I'm also in the middle of the last row of sec 137, usually an hour or so before kickoff even, if you want to stop by on the way to your seats (you still in the mezz above me?).

[chuck]

Originally Posted by Keith

I haven't been to a tailgate in a long time. Wife and kids usually want to make a bee-line into the stadium when we arrive.

I wouldn't mind crashing someone else's tailgate to meet up though if another ItB'er has one going (Mike - did you know someone?). I'm also in the middle of the last row of sec 137, usually an hour or so before kickoff even, if you want to stop by on the way to your seats (you still in the mezz above me?).

Exactly, 354. I'll come find you before a game. If you end up crashing a tailgate let me know.

[Mike]

Originally Posted by Keith

I wouldn't mind crashing someone else's tailgate to meet up though if another ItB'er has one going (Mike - did you know someone?). I'm also in the middle of the last row of sec 137, usually an hour or so before kickoff even, if you want to stop by on the way to your seats (you still in the mezz above me?).

My tailgate activities are hit and miss. I have a few that I host, otherwise it is just a few of my friends who might be attending that particular game. Activity depends on how much my wife has been widowed the previous week. I am in section 349 always in my seat for the warm-ups and player introductions.

[Arky]

Originally Posted by barrett

.......I hope we see Molden.

The announcers mentioned Molden during action at least a couple of times last night.... I never saw him. I think they were mistaking Glover Quin (#29) for Molden (#28)...

[nunusguy]

How worried should we be by last nights performance given its just a preseason game and not even the semi-meaningfull 3rd preseason game at that ?
Well what is really worrisome to me is the play of the interior Dline. I saw
one running play up the middle by the Saints where Okoye was tossed aside like a rag-doll, and Okam (who made some plays last week in KC), was hardly a factor.
And here's my question: unless they were thinking about trading OD, why would the Texans use their 5th round pick on yet another TE instead of drafting a DT, even if they didn't feel he was worth a 5th round pick ? Maybe
they still didn't realize the problems they had at DT ? Well I'm thinking they realize that this morning. That 3rd preseaon game is a week from Monday,
and it's looking like it will be a truly meaningful preseaon game this year, one way or the other.

[Joshua]

paine and barrett,

I'm curious why you both thought the D line played well last night. I saw a line that was getting gashed right up the middle for 6-8 yards on first down virtually every play. I agree that the linebackers and DBs need to come up and play the run better but your D line needs to make some of those plays themselves and at least, not get pushed around like they did. While I get your comment about the second levels filling in, were both of you envisioning a defense where the primary run stopping would be provided by Demeco and Eugene Wilson? That seems like a recipe for disaster.

[NBT]

It was a Preseason game for NOLA too, yet they operated on all cylinders, and seemingly executed to perfection. The fact that we gave up a big play in all 4 quarters is just not acceptable anytime.

The other thing about being at the game was all the gleeful Saints fans in my section having such a good time at our expense. I'll be some time getting over that. You don't like to be humiliated in your own stadium.

[barrett]

Originally Posted by Joshua

paine and barrett,

I'm curious why you both thought the D line played well last night. I saw a line that was getting gashed right up the middle for 6-8 yards on first down virtually every play. I agree that the linebackers and DBs need to come up and play the run better but your D line needs to make some of those plays themselves and at least, not get pushed around like they did. While I get your comment about the second levels filling in, were both of you envisioning a defense where the primary run stopping would be provided by Demeco and Eugene Wilson? That seems like a recipe for disaster.

Almost everyone on this board wanted the DL playing forward, penetrating, and aggressive. They did this last night. The problem is that when you shoot gaps you are shooting yourself out of the play as often as not. That's why not many DL play to shoot the gaps. At least not with both DTs. Yet everyone was excited that Bush promised this style. And from what I saw last night, the DL was in the backfield often against both the run and the pass.

The problem is that the LBs MUST play downhill against the run if your DL is going to penetrate. Specifically they must fill the gaps. They must take on and shed blocks from the FB or pulling OL. Our LBs are not made for this. They are all small and they all struggle when blocked by OL. Especially Demeco. He will struggle if we play like this. He is too small to deal with OL.

We must hope that Travis Johnson is back soon. He is not a great DT, but he is our best in terms of standing his ground in the run game. We must also hope Cushing can get healthy and provide good size at the point of attack. Without both of these things happening we will be in trouble on defense even before teams start exploiting our secondary. Honestly, with our personnel we may be worse off in this scheme than the one we played last year. Our only hope is to play from ahead and pressure the QB in a big way.

So I think for what is being asked of our DL (penetration), they did a fine job last night. I just don't think we have the back 7 to support that kind of defense.

[HPF Bob]

What this told me is how badly the Chiefs must suck. Our defense really got chewed up. Back to the drawing board.

[Big Texas]

here was a passing team that completely abandoned their normal style of play and ran all over us with a sub par running back. I don't care how good a game Bell had, he is not as good as the game he had on us. I know right now that might seem like the words of a sore loser, but I will just sit back and let time tell on that one.

With that said, I do believe that our Dline got some good penetration, however Peyton counter planned for our game plan. It seemed as if he knew we would be aggressive at getting to the QB, so he just punched it right up the gut on us. The intriguing thing to me is that we never counter his counter. We just continued to get punched in kidney.

P.S. There were a few of those running plays where Okam got walked backwards several yards. Hard to believe for a guy his size. The only thing I could think is that he had become worried about the RB getting past him that he started to second guess his bull rush.

[painekiller]

Originally Posted by barrett

Almost everyone on this board wanted the DL playing forward, penetrating, and aggressive. They did this last night. The problem is that when you shoot gaps you are shooting yourself out of the play as often as not. That's why not many DL play to shoot the gaps. At least not with both DTs. Yet everyone was excited that Bush promised this style. And from what I saw last night, the DL was in the backfield often against both the run and the pass.

The problem is that the LBs MUST play downhill against the run if your DL is going to penetrate. Specifically they must fill the gaps. They must take on and shed blocks from the FB or pulling OL. Our LBs are not made for this. They are all small and they all struggle when blocked by OL. Especially Demeco. He will struggle if we play like this. He is too small to deal with OL.

I think that sums it up pretty well. How big a miss is Okoye now, especially when you could have had Willis. I liked Okoye in college and I thought he would be better then he is playing so far, but I had Willis higher.

[nunusguy]

I remember Rick Smith saying how happy, even surprised he was that Okoye was still on the Board when the Texans were picking in the #10 slot
back in 2007, and his remarks seemed genuinely sincere. And I dunno, but there was very strong rumors of opportunites to trade the pick.
I doubt that Smith would have drafted Willis even if Okoye wasn't available, given that he played the same position that DeMeco, who had just been named NFL Defensive rookie of the year in 2006, played though with benefit of hindsight today we know we'd much rather have DeMeco at WIL and Willis at MIKE than what we have now, DeMeco & Okoye. Other interesting picks back then would have been Marshawn Lynch & Darrel Revis, just to name a couple.
But along with taking Jacobey with the next pick, that first Draft for Rick Smith is lookin more & more like a real stinker.