The only potential upside is that this happened now as opposed to later.

Remember that last year, we had a good pre-season then walked into Pittsburgh who shellackec (sp?) us for 587,000 yards and 296 points….or something like that.

So maybe this is the obligatory, embaressing wake up call for the season.

OR…

Maybe the special olympics team could put 120 yards on our D by driving their wheelchairs through the gaping holes.

Time will tell.

But I’m hoping that a good ol’ fashioned mud hole stomping, might be just what is needed to avoid the Ofer at the begining of the season. I like the think that if the 1st teamers stayed out adjustments would have been made and our 2nd and 3rd recievers would have had big games.

After fighting with the Saints during practice this week, this game got a little more personal than a preseason game. Sadly, this is what I expect come the regular season: the Texans unable to hang with other teams on defense. The Texans didn’t belong on the same field as the Saints, a team considered to be soft. Richard Smith to Frank Bush thus far does not look like a sufficient change. Gary Kubiak made all of his usual errors. The expensive defensive front four continues to fail miserably as a unit. After getting their butts kicked, the players said they had to watch film just to make sure. So, they need to watch film to see the wide open receivers and Mike Bell running at will??? Wait until they see All Day on Monday Night! If the defensive tackles play like Saturday, it’ll be All Day in one play. Then I guess they will need to view the film. No matter what happens in the next two games, this was as close to regular season as we’ll see until the season actually starts. I’d love to hear arguments as to how this game between two emotionally charged teams doesn’t count as a precursor to the season. Please let me know.

The Saints moved the ball, but what else would you expect from a top 5 offense a year ago? I’m not too concerned about the run defense yet because we’re missing about 1/4 of our starting defensive unit at the moment and our LB unit, which will play a critical role in our run defense this year, has been especially hit hard. In the big picture most players are expected to be healthy for the start of the season, but since we’re playing 2nd and even 3rd stringers with the starting unit right now, we’re not going to look all that impressive.

I am actually a little impressed with the improvements we’ve made up front in getting pressure on the QB… It’s easy to overlook good pressure when it doesn’t result in a big play, but the difference in our lineplay between this year and last during the preseason has been huge so far.

As I was mowing the grass yesterday, I tried to mentally digest the carnage that I had witnessed the night before. I asked myself “Who was missing from the Texans front seven (hoping to rationalize what had happened)?”. Brian Cushing and (maybe) Travis Johnson, not that any of us really expect TJ to play any better than what we saw from Fran Okam or DelJuan. I then asked myself "If we added the greatest OLB in the history of the league, for argument’s sake Lawrence Taylor, to our defense Saturday night how much better would we have been? Would we have been good enough to contain the Saints offense, and more specifically their vanilla rushing game that shredded our woeful defense? The most positive (and realistic) answer I could come up with was “Probably not”. So even if Brain Cushing is all that, we are in serious trouble if we don’t step it up a couple of notches a week from tonight. The Vikings have one of the best teams in the league. They have the best running back, and excellent lines on both side of the ball. If I am Gary Kubiak, I have to approach this game as if it were a regular season game. We were so bad defensively against the Saints, that we need to prove to ourselves, and oh by the way a national freakin TV audience, that we are at least some close approximation of what we have been talked up to be this season; and not by just the local pundits, many in the the national media too have rated us as a playoff contender. We looked weak and soft Saturday night. I was ashamed for us. If the players had to look at film to realize how bad they were, then they’re not as embarassed as I am for them. Seems ridiculous, even absurd, to call a preseason game pivotal, but that’s how I feel right now about the Texans. The starters have 2.5 – 3 quarters next Monday to prove that we are contenders and not just pretenders.

GO TEXANS!!!!!

We used to have a rule in Denver, the worse they did in Preseason the better they did in the regular season. Coaches do things in preseason they would never do in the regular. They run experiments, put guys on islands, test gap filling strategies. It is a giant experiment, and has nothing to do with reality. That said I bet Koobs ripped them an new one anyway just, to make sure they are still motivated.
no worries yet guys

The NY Jets will sport a three-headed rushing monster in Thomas Jones, Leon Washington and rookie Shonn Greene; a blueprint that Rex Ryan is stealing from the Ravens attack that carried them to the AFC Championship Game last season as the NFL’s 4th best rushing offense at 148.5 yards per game. So, the immediacy of addressing the Texans’ rush defense is there, NOW, as much as it was last year against the Steelers in the opener. So, if Bush has something up his sleeve, it better be a in the shape of a bulldozer…

Just pointing that out…

…but, not taking my finger off of it either.

It’s just preseason. And what he said about the coaches doing experiments on play calling makes a ton of sense to me. It’s Frank Bush’s second game calling the defense. Although he has been an assistant and coached different positions, it’s his SECOND game being in charge of the defense. Maybe he’s just sizing up the players that we have. That is what the pre-season is for right? To evaluate which plays work and which players fit the scheme. I understand the concern about our DT’s not being able to collapse the pocket but those concerns can always be addressed with better play-calling. From what I saw, our first team defense was being shredded by the saints’ all of sudden effective running game but we didn’t give up huge plays for massive gain. And Mike Bell was the unknown factor for the saints. Nobody knew how he was gonna perform. If this was regular season, our coaches wouldve done some film study on him and would’ve had a game plan ready to contain him. We obviously dont know Frank Bush’s tendencies but im pretty damn sure Kubiak would be all over him if he doesn’t have a game plan set against the opponents best offensive players.
The concerns are understandable but once you factor in a lot of elements, those concerns should go away before the season starts.

Last year we sucked against Dallas in the third game and the hangover really stayed with us until the third game, coming back briefly at the end of the Indy game. After we shook that off, we played fine.

I’m not necessarily hoping that we contain that running back guy they have over there, but I’m hoping we at least show some fucking balls and play like a football team ought to. Maybe we can stop the run a little bit (which would be an awesome result considering their personnel there) and consistently get after the quarterback. That’s what I’m looking for.

My final thought is that both Amobi and Frank are still young. I think it’s pretty normal to expect some inconsistency in young players. We’ve seen both guys play well (granted in the case of Amobi it wasn’t recently) and we know what they’re capable of. They just need to bring it at that level with consistency. Hopefully some of Bulman, Barwin and Mario’s motor can rub off on them.

so lets get OVER it. we didnt spend this much time talking about the win, and we shouldnt on the loss either. just let it go, move on. now we gotta focus on Minnesota. Favre looked like SHIT last time out, so if we can get some pressure on him, he wont last long. Sage concerns me tho. having went up against the first team D every day in practice (#2 QB always does usually) he, better than ANYONE, will know where to attack. could be a long night for our d…. rushing and passing wise. im really hoping (and praying) that we show up this week.