Official Texans @ Dolphins Game Thread, 10/25/2015

[sinnister]

Another thing would be to tighten the coverage. Give Watt and Clowney a chance to make a play and eliminate all the quick throws. Also, always rush at least 5 players. Mercilus isn't much use, so at least let him use his speed to get after the qb, and maybe get a few cleanup sacks. I would line Clowney on Watts side, Mercilus on the other, and do a lot of praying. Maybe hire a full time chaplain.

[Arky]

Pertinent to earlier discussion, article from Jason LaCanfora....

Inside Football: Time for heads to roll in Houston, but not Bill O'Brien's

Status quo won't cut it for the Houston Texans. Something has to give.

This team has been pounded into submission far too frequently. It has reached epidemic proportions on both sides of the ball.

Sunday's dumpster fire of a loss to the Dolphins -- punctuated by Arian Foster tearing his Achilles -- was just the latest embarrassment in a season full of them. Where to start? From Ryan Mallett sleeping through his workday after losing his starting job to the quick hook for Brian Hoyer not even three-full quarters into Week 1, to the bizarre in-game quarterback shuffling, to Mallett missing the team charter to Miami, to the defense that can neither pressure nor cover nor tackle, to the offense that can do nothing consistently other then throw balls up for grabs for DeAndre Hopkins, nothing has gone right in Houston.

This franchise is broken right now. And I can't imagine change is not on the horizon. Some smaller changes now, perhaps, and certainly greater ones yet after the season.

This was a mini-playoff game at Miami, a chance for Houston to salvage a horrible start to the season by finding a way to get to 3-4. What the Texans conspired to do instead can not really be quantified as football.

It was horrific, really. Like if Alabama played a mediocre high school team. Miami -- a middling outfit at best -- led 41-0 at the half and racked up like 450 yards in the process. The Dolphins had a yardage advantage of 275-4 at one point. Miami -- ridiculed for the past three years or so for having zero big-play pop in its offense -- was ripping off 50-yard chunk plays at will.

This was a collective failure of spirit, discipline, effort, pride, the degree of which is rarely seen in the NFL. This was one team playing its guts out and the other gassing up the bus to the plane. Hopefully someone managed to escort Mallett from the locker room on to the right flight and all, although cutting him in South Beach may have actually be more apropos.

Drastic changes this soon in the season rarely elicit much response, though these same Dolphins would offer a contrarian view on that at this point. And Bill O'Brien, as much as he's made a meal of this season, isn't going anywhere. He's the most influential figure in this organization and he's got a ton of money still due to him.

More at link...

[Arky]

A "local" outlook:

Houston Texans Are Failing At All Levels of the Organization

Patrick Starr

Fire Rick Smith?

Fire Romeo Crennel?

Fire Bill O’Brien?

At this point the Houston Texans are bad for the city of Houston and, for the second time in seven weeks, they were outclassed on the field. Looking at those two games, they were completely manhandled by the Atlanta Falcons and Miami Dolphins. The Texans put up a big zero while being outscored 69-0 combined in the first halves of those games.

The bigger concern is how things have spiraled downward for the Texans on the field. Missed tackles, zero production from he offense (when it counts), and a team that sometimes appears disinterested are the red flags that continue to get bigger week to week.

The Texans beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers due to a kicker missing multiple field goals and beat a Jacksonville Jaguars team who could possibly be worse than the Texans. No film review will help the Texans correct this; the only thing that will help change what is going on is someone being made an example of, but "who?" is the real question.

At this point it doesn’t matter who because the structure of the Texans is the issue. Rick Smith is required to find the players who Bill O’Brien wants to on his team. The 53-man roster is constructed by O’Brien with input from his coaches. If the Texans should have moved on from Smith, the time to do so was when the Gary Kubiak regime was scrapped. It wasn’t done then and now Smith is attached to the O’Brien era more than ever.

O’Brien chose to attach himself to Brian Hoyer when free agency started, then decided to keep the quarterback competition a day to day question mark all the way through the 3rd week of the preseason. Then, after deciding Hoyer was the guy, O'Brien pulled the plug on him three quarters later in week one, switching to Ryan Mallett. Mallett's awful last three starts along with today's missing of the team flight to Miami more than likely have left him positioned with no way out of the O’Brien doghouse.

The reality is that until the structure of the Texans changes, it will not improve. Let the coaches coach and have a general manager help construct the team and ultimately have the final say in personnel. O’Brien has complete control of the 53-man roster and these are his guys on his roster but the production is not there. The Texans continue to be out-coached and outclassed between the white lines.

More at link.....