Toughness

[Nconroe]

Texans - and we hope all problems solved, but for last year - have a good/excellent offense, but seem to have a variety of getting started problems last year. Defense, probably solid, some good players, but give up big plays at just the wrong time.

If you have leading rusher and top 5 passer no one should call your offense soft. But... And if your defense is near the bottom of all stats speaks for itself, got to fix that and maybe they have.

I hope the players and coaches figure out a few things for this year and no one will call them soft anymore -

1. on offense - 3rd and 1 or 4th and one - run it and make ( seems we were not confident and tried gadget pass plays too often and when did run, didn't make it)

2. on defense - facing 3rd and one or 4th and one - stop the other team ( did great on first and second down, but somehow third down didn't do so well)

there might be more to changing the image, but that would help.

of course if you win, get in playoffs, so on, no one calls you soft no matter what style you play .

[barrett]

Originally Posted by Nconroe

Texans - and we hope all problems solved, but for last year - have a good/excellent offense, but seem to have a variety of getting started problems last year. Defense, probably solid, some good players, but give up big plays at just the wrong time.

If you have leading rusher and top 5 passer no one should call your offense soft. But... And if your defense is near the bottom of all stats speaks for itself, got to fix that and maybe they have.

I hope the players and coaches figure out a few things for this year and no one will call them soft anymore -

1. on offense - 3rd and 1 or 4th and one - run it and make ( seems we were not confident and tried gadget pass plays too often and when did run, didn't make it)

2. on defense - facing 3rd and one or 4th and one - stop the other team ( did great on first and second down, but somehow third down didn't do so well)

there might be more to changing the image, but that would help.

of course if you win, get in playoffs, so on, no one calls you soft no matter what style you play .

weren't we like the best in the NFL on 3rd and short last year?

And toughness is hugely overrated. Those Baltimore Ravens may be the toughest, but they get knocked out of the playoffs every year. The superbowl champs of the last 10 years do not read like a who's who of tough guys. I'd call maybe 4 of the 10 "tough" teams while I would call 10 of the 10 great teams.

So I am more worried about the texans being good/great than some unmeasureable tough guy tag loved by armchair fans/talking heads/loud former players with no analysis to offer.

[nunusguy]

I think "toughness" is more code for a team which has an inabiltiy to "finish" a game, i. e., consistanly win the close ones in the 4th quarter.
Nobody ever labeled NE a physical team but neither are they said to lack toughness, but they have been the most winning NFL francise in the 21st century. Texans just need to win baby, win, and Lombardi and others will stop saying they lack toughness.

[NBT]

Well it seemed last year that either the offense started off slow in the first half, or the defense broke down in the last quarter to lose several games.