Official Texans @ Ravens Divisional Playoff Game Thread, 1/15/2012

[barrett]

Originally Posted by chuck

I know, I went back and looked at the play by play in the second half. Still, I stand firmly by my point. I don't see how anyone could argue otherwise.

That is why I said chicken and egg. I would agree on your statement on the grounds that asking anything from Yates was too much. I wish we would have been more stubborn with the run game because I had no confidence we get it done with Yates throwing it.

But to me the bottom line is we don't have enough to win that game with Yates at QB. Even though Joe Flacco and Cam Cameron tried to yak that game away, Ray Lewis and Ed Reed did not let them.

[barrett]

But I will say, the Ravens have pro bowlers on both lines, while we have none. That is a joke after watching this game.

[Big Texas]

Kubiak confirmed that his thinking was for TJ to take the shots downfield because Reed was playing the middle of the field. He said that TJ was not doing enough to look the coverage off.

With that said I still think those were bad calls. There was too much time left. Yes TJ had a bad game; however, bad game and all we still could've won this game with better last minute play calling.

[painekiller]

The outcome of the game sucked, but what a ride this season has been. Thank you Wade Phillips for bringing a real defense back to Houston.

[HPF Bob]

Originally Posted by Big Texas

Kubiak confirmed that his thinking was for TJ to take the shots downfield because Reed was playing the middle of the field. He said that TJ was not doing enough to look the coverage off.

I noticed that on the replay of the AJ interception. Yates "tried" to look Reed off but he gave it only a minor glance before going back to AJ. That wouldn't be enough to fool an aging veteran like Ed Reed.

[Nconroe]

Originally Posted by painekiller

The outcome of the game sucked, but what a ride this season has been. Thank you Wade Phillips for bringing a real defense back to Houston.

Agreed. Thanks to all the Texans. We have a very good team going forward.

Gotta be a good year next year.

We have a lot of young players that learned a lot this year.

OL really did good today as well.

[popanot]

Well, Yates definitely hurt us today, but it's glaringly apparent this team needs another weapon at WR and PR. Jones sucks at, well, everything...and Walter doesn't scare anyone and is not the answer. And once again KJ shows how much he's the paperclip weak link in this awesome chain of a D.

[NBT]

Originally Posted by painekiller

The outcome of the game sucked, but what a ride this season has been. Thank you Wade Phillips for bringing a real defense back to Houston.

Oh Well.....on to the Draft and hopes for an upgrade in the receiver corp.

[painekiller]

Originally Posted by NBT

Oh Well.....on to the Draft and hopes for an upgrade in the receiver corp.

Free Agency first and then the draft.

[popanot]

That last pass hit Walter right in the arms. No one even touched it but him. And it looked like he was looking back at the ball. Ugh...!!!

[chuck]

Originally Posted by popanot

That last pass hit Walter right in the arms. No one even touched it but him. And it looked like he was looking back at the ball. Ugh...!!!

Exactly. I think the pass hit him on the shoulder but the point is it f&cking hit him and he wasn't even looking for the ball. Which is astounding because we discovered after the game that he was in fact the intended receiver.

Walter and Kareem make a hell of a pair.

[itssharif]

I am still pissed about the game today and have to say a few things:

1) What the hell is it going to take for Houston management to realize we can't have this fool Jacoby Jones on this roster anymore?

2) TJ Yates was the one most affected by Jacoby Jones's putrid attempt of a punt return. Playing with the lead (I don't even care if it's as small as 3-0) and the dominating style is so much more different than when we are down in a hole against a damn good football team. The first INT is on AJ and Yates. The 2nd and 3rd are solely because TJ was trying to give his team a chance. I really found his play quite admirable.

3) Is a 50 yard field goal a gimme in the NFL? No! BUT YOU ARE IN THE FREAKING NFL. You are suppose to be a professional at your job and in what you do. Go out there and make it for your team.

4) Andre Johnson has to catch that catch on 3rd down when TJ was getting all out blitzed and he decisively through it to him only to see it go through his hands to end up as an incompletion. He probably would have either taken it to the house or at least to the redzone with all that room.

5) What I don't freaking understand about the unnecessary bomb to AJ that got picked off by Ed Reed was the timing of it. Particularly because IT CAME AFTER THE 2 MINUTE WARNING. Would you as a coach if you're Kubiak talk to Yates about game time decision making. EVEN IF IT WAS COMPLETED FOR A TD you're leaving time on the clock for the Ravens to go down and score. That was the time for a just like an in-Cincinnati to clinch the AFC South like drive to take us down and score the game winning TD, not throw it away and give the game away.

6) WHY WASN'T FOSTER UTILIZED IN SOME SHAPE OR FASHION AT THE END? Run or Pass, ANYTHING. WHYYYYYY?

7) The Texans direly need a YAC receiver. So don't just get me a #2 this offseason but get me someone who can get me yards after the catch PLEASE!

Man that was a lot to get off my chest!

[Arky]

Ok, I've rewatched the KW no-catch (4th and 2, 20 seconds left in the game) about 15 times now on DVR. CBS had 2 angles of it in slow-mo. One angle shows what clearly looks like Reed tipping the ball away and bouncing off of Walter. Announcer Gumbel says at the time he thinks Reed got a hand on it ("he's the one that got the hand on it"). The next angle is the one that is really weird.. it looks like the ball falls straight out of the air and hits Walter on the arm and it looks like he's not even looking for the ball. After watching this angle a few times, I could see Reed's fingers "flap" as he deflects the ball - the ball then bounces off Walter's left shoulder pad. Watching the play develop, Walter had a bead on the pass all the way until that last second or two when I think he goes into self-preservation mode as he was expecting a big collision (that really wasn't really there). However, Walter, JJ, Smith (of the Ravens) and Reed all end up on the ground. Only Pollard remained standing. So, my conclusion is that I'm not sure KW could have caught the ball even if he was fully looking for the ball as it was deflected....

[TheMatrix31]

I'm more upset we threw the bomb to Andre that was picked by Reed than I was about taking the final shot to Walter.

You had two very nice passes to Andre to set up the position for that. You have two timeouts. Just take your time, man.

Actually. I'm pissed at both. If you're going to take a shot to Walter, do it on first down instead of spiking. Catch them off guard. Don't do it on fourth though.

Ultimately this loss came down to Jacoby Jones. I knew it would come down to some stupidity, and it did. I dare anyone to tell me "games aren't won or lost in the first quarter", because that changed everything about the game.

The thing that pisses me off the most was that we LOST. They didn't WIN. We thoroughly outplayed them. We demolished Flacco, kept Rice in check, had Foster and Andre go off, and our defense absolutely rocked all game. The Ravens scored SIX points off their own volition. SIX. I mean, score the ball for God's sake. Can't believe we couldn't capitalize on all the opportunities we had.

[popanot]

Originally Posted by itssharif

3) Is a 50 yard field goal a gimme in the NFL? No! BUT YOU ARE IN THE FREAKING NFL. You are suppose to be a professional at your job and in what you do. Go out there and make it for your team.

I think is one of the most understated and questionable decisions of the game. We were losing the field position battle up to that point and it was a great opportunity to back up the Ravens and let our D take control. Of course you want points whenever you can get them, but 3 wouldn't have given us the lead and it was just too high risk field position-wise to attempt it with the score the way it was at the time. Of course, our D stopped the Ravens and they didn't capitalize from it with a score (I think that may have been the goal line stuff drive), but it allowed the Ravens to continue having good field position, which I think ultimately ended with a Ravens FG. It was an extremely poor decision at the time, IMO.

[Fonz the Boss]

Questioning play calls is the biggest cop out for a fan... If it works it's a great call by the coach to catch them off guard and if it doesn't work then the call was terrible. This game came down to JJ's muffed punt and the decision making of TJ... I can't blame TJ too much because without JJ's muffed punt we would have the lead and TJ wouldn't have been asked to do too much. After all he's still a rookie playing on a road playoff game against a very solid defense.... This loss hurts but I'm still very proud of the team's effort.

[popanot]

Originally Posted by Fonz the Boss

Questioning play calls is the biggest cop out for a fan... If it works it's a great call by the coach to catch them off guard and if it doesn't work then the call was terrible.

Cop out or not it's a fans perogative to have an opinion, and IMO, that was a high-risk attempt in that situation with the game going how it was at the time. This fan would have preferred they punted there. Did it lose the game? No. But giving Ravens that field position could've very well backfired and put the game that way out of reach had they not stuffed them on goal line. I would have preferred we try to back them up there and with the hope our D could force them into a mistake deep in their zone.

[TheMatrix31]

If a bad playcall is a bad playcall, its a bad playcall regardless if it's successful or if it's a failure. Launching to Andre with a minute and change to go and 2 timeouts would have been a bad playcall even if he caught it instead of Reed.

[Fonz the Boss]

oh yea no doubt every fan will have an opinion, heck even I do. But I'll say it again that it's always the easy way out to blame the play calls. Now I would understand if Kubiak called the play and told TJ to chunk it to Andre no matter what, but I know that wasn't the case. I know this because Kubs himself said that TJ made some throws he shouldn't have thrown. To make it even more clear let's say the ball would have been handed off to Foster then he fumbles and it's game over. Fans would have been like," Kubiak you idiot! Andre just made 2 big catches to put us in Ravens territory!! Typical Kubiak with his bullshit play calls!".... So yeah, I'm ok with the play calls just not ok with TJ's decision making. He could have done a whole lot better but I'm not gonna crush the rookie. I think he's got a good chance at being Schaub's successor.

[HPF Bob]

Originally Posted by Fonz the Boss

To make it even more clear let's say the ball would have been handed off to Foster then he fumbles and it's game over. Fans would have been like," Kubiak you idiot! Andre just made 2 big catches to put us in Ravens territory!! Typical Kubiak with his bullshit play calls!".... So yeah, I'm ok with the play calls just not ok with TJ's decision making. He could have done a whole lot better but I'm not gonna crush the rookie. I think he's got a good chance at being Schaub's successor.

I wanted the Texans to make some safer calls because they had two timeouts and needed to burn some clock before scoring the touchdown plus a draw or a screen would have probably crossed up the Ravens after the two passes to AJ got them inside the 50.

Now if Foster had fumbled the ball away, I would have said "same old Texans" but I wouldn't have blamed the play call.