Don't Look Now

by texanphil on Oct 19, 2008 11:18 PM CDT Comment 7 comments

But we're 1 game out of the wildcard hunt.

Our playoffs don't really start now, but we are potentially in control of our own destiny.

We have 0-7 Cincy next, so we should knock off a few of those (9) who are one game ahead or tied. The flipside of that is only 2 teams are worse, and can't say the same thing. So that puts us 3-4, nearly halfway through the season.

Look at our November schedule, and look at the last two weeks of the year. Possibly 6-7 wins there. 1/3 in the first three weeks of December, and we win 9. Is that possible?

Even if 9 wins is a stretch, looking at the standings, 8 may do it this year. Problem is, we're 0-3 in the division... AGAIN. That needs to be a focus during the offseason. Just like turnovers was the focus this offseason. How's that workin' out for us?

I'm optimistic, but I really would have liked an easy game this week against an obviously inferior team. We lack the knockout punch, obviously, but I hope we're holding back that loser attitude that permeated into the first 4 weeks, especially weeks 3 and 4.

So let's not look past Cincy, we can't lose to them. Lets just go through our reps, get a good lead at the half, then shut it down. Knowing that you're primed for an upset never works, so lets reverse the psychology and just say they don't belong on the field with us, even if it's their field.

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Massive changes needed on Defense

I’m trying to stay optimistic, but even in victory we look bad. I’m sorry this team has no business talking about the playoffs. Our defense is HORRENDOUS. Just plain awful. We aren’t going anywhere with Richard Smith, ever. Kind of like how the Cowboys will never win another Super Bowl as long as Jerry Jones is alive =)

I appreciate that Diles, and Bullman have worked their ass off and gotten some playing time, but when those two guys are you two best defenders on the field for any given game? Come on.

Greenwood , terrible
Petey, terrible
Demps, terrible
Reeves, terrible

On the bright side our Offense is top 10 and can hang with any team in the league. That is a truly awesome statement. But Schaub has got to hang on to the football. If he wouldn’t of fumbled the game wouldn’t have even been close.

In the end, a win is a win, no matter how ugly and I am extremely happy about it. But if you’re trying to predict the future, we need to only look at what our defense has done the first six games. The play calling is beyond bad, see Calvin single covered by Petey, and the personnel is just as atrocious. You take that into account and given the fact we are LAST in the league in turnovers, we are not a playoff team.

Can we play good defense with the players we have? Yes I think we can, but it’s on the coaching staff to put the right players in the best position to succeed. So far they haven’t done that.

- tyler

by bullpen116 on Oct 20, 2008 9:47 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

At first

I was kind of on the “well, we have no talent outside of DeMeco and Mario” bandwagon. But it kinda dawned on me that we probably have more talent on D than quite a few teams whose defenses are ranked higher than ours. And the fact of the matter is that, while our offense has improved over the last three years, our defense has not.

This is no longer a question of talent. You’re never as talented as you want in today’s NFL. This is purely a question of finding the best way to use the available talent.

Petey one-on-one with the Lions’ ONLY offensive threat? What the fuck.

In short: fire Richard Smith.

by tehGrindCrusher on Oct 20, 2008 10:29 AM CDT reply actions 1 recs

I agree with this.

It seems like we absolutely refuse to put the best players on the field on defense and/or see if some of the younger guys (read: Okam) can outplay some of the stiffs. With the guys we have, it should not be hard to assemble a quality front seven. And with Dunta back, our CBs should eventually become solid (so long as Bennett is playing and Molden is being developed).

Yay, sports.

by MDC on Oct 20, 2008 12:59 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I still don't see

What Bennett did to get benched. As I recall, he played pretty well against Indy, and then got supplanted by Petey in the starting lineup.

As bad as Jacques reeves is at turning his head to find the ball, he could well have succesfully defended Johnson on the play when Petey got burned. And if he didn’t, he at least has the speed to catch up to the guy.

Petey just got left in the dirt. I mean: we possessed the ball 40:00 minutes of that game, and we only won by 7? That means we either got beat by turnovers or big plays, and since we gave up exactly zero points on turnovers…

I repeat: what the fuck.

by tehGrindCrusher on Oct 20, 2008 2:00 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

yes and

the frustrating thing about it is we’ve played well a LOT lately. Look at our last four games, and I don’t think there’s two cumulative quarters where we played badly. We’re 2-2 in those games. The two losses, one in OT and one the worst 4 mins ever played on a football field.

Almost as frustrating is the two wins. Bad teams, we dominate, then play to lose… and almost succeed. So we’ve played to lose the last 4 games, but were unsuccessful twice. The other two games the opponents actually took our gifts.

I guess we have had a bad 6 games, so as much as I want to loathe the disaster of the two near miss losses, I have to be optimistic that the team we’ve seen during MOST of the last four games is capable of stringing together a complete, dominating game, and then do that at least 9 out of the next 10 games.

Im in Kubiak’s camp, always have been. But that doesn’t mean we can’t be critical of the man, and I have to point the finger at him. We didn’t look well coached during the last four games. We are a talented team that has enough experience to win all four of those games, but I think we were out coached for all 4.

Healthy and Turnover free 2008-09, and we win 11!

by texanphil on Oct 20, 2008 3:49 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Playoffs? Hold on there.

Jim Mora said it best, “Playoffs? Don’t talk about playoffs.
Are you kidding me? I hope we can just win a game”.

That Jim Mora sound bite will live forever. I loved his up-front, in-your-face way of dealing with the press. We should all be so free to speak our mind.

After the ugly win yesterday, the last thing the Texans need to be thinking about is how good they are. Mack Brown has that challenge in Austin. Kubiak has to find a way to get all of his guys on the same page, so we can become the team that we should be. If we do not bring our A game on Sunday, then we will not beat the Bengals.

Keep focused and GO TEXANS!!!!!!!!

by oiler-texan diehard on Oct 20, 2008 3:48 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

There is absolutely ZERO reason to be optimistic...

…unless we beat Cincy AND Minnesota.

We should beat Cincy. Beating the Vikes in Minnesota would be an upset. The truth is – we have shown no signs of becoming a better road team. The Jacksonville game did nothing to prove otherwise to me, because as happens every time – our defense had a chance to win the game on the road, and did not.

After 4 straight road games, I’ll be shocked if they are able to adjust and get a win in Minnesota.

Gloomy, I know – but that’s how I’m seeing it right now.

by HoustonDiehards on Oct 20, 2008 7:25 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs