Reality Check

[painekiller]

Originally Posted by gunn

I'm looking for a little more smashmouth, so I'm going with Rey Maualuga instead.

I think Mualuga is a top 10 maybe top 5 pick, so that is one reason I am not projecting him. Then comes the #59 homers that don't think you can move Ryans for anyone.

I say Willis was good enough to move Ryans, and Mauluga is that same kind of guy. I want the 3 best LBs on the field and a huge fast, hit hard player next Ryans is a huge upgrade for this team.

[painekiller]

Originally Posted by NBT

I simply don't agree that safety is our biggest concern, or even that big a priority. To me it has to be DE #1, and CB #2.

Never said it was the top need. I am one of those guys that says take best player at a position of need.

That said, I think I want to see where Duanta is week 17, and how much Molden progresses, before saying CB#2 is a huge need. But as Al Davis used to say, you can never have enough CBs.

I want play makers, and I think you can get a play making DE in the top 3 rounds, but time will tell.

BTW DE, Safety, RB, seem to be the top needs. Every where else I will let guys mature thru this season to make decisions on them.

[Keith]

Originally Posted by Big Texas

Good note:
Everyone in our division lost except the Titans and Vince got hurt.

Yep, the Colts lost at home, the Jags looked pretty bad in Nashville. The Jags also lost both of their starting OG's too.

The Texans really need to have a short-term memory about this, pray their run defense learns how to contain speed rushers, and move on to Week 2.

[KJ3]

Originally Posted by NBT

I simply don't agree that safety is our biggest concern, or even that big a priority. To me it has to be DE #1, and CB #2.

biggest probably not but i think you have to give the CB's we already have some help over-the-top before we draft another one.

Originally Posted by Joshua

Although I'm not convinced VY getting hurt isn't bad for us.

yup. they seem to win in spite of vy, not because of him.

Originally Posted by painekiller

I think Mualuga is a top 10 maybe top 5 pick, so that is one reason I am not projecting him. Then comes the #59 homers that don't think you can move Ryans for anyone.

I say Willis was good enough to move Ryans, and Mauluga is that same kind of guy. I want the 3 best LBs on the field and a huge fast, hit hard player next Ryans is a huge upgrade for this team.

if he (or the texans) slip though....mmm mmm damn that would be sweet. 59 would know his place and we'd have a hell of a LB group. diles, mauluga, ryans. mmmmmmmm.....

[papabear]

Just wanted to put my thoughts in on last weeks game. We all know it sucked. I think the thing that upset me the most was that when we got punched in the mouth we didn't punch back. We knew that our line would have trouble with the steelers, we just didn't know, or hoped, we would have that much trouble. We knew that it would be hard to stop their running game. I felt to have a chance in this game we had to have a good start and get ahead early so that the Steelers couldn't just grind it out on the ground. That was the exact opposite of what happened.

-I thoiught Brown was OK in pass protection early on. He was getting beat to the inside, but seemed to be able to recover enough to let the ball get out. More pressure than I would like, but acceptable for a rookie on oppening day. That didn't last, and he was beaten like a rented mule the rest of the day.

-It seemed in the run game that a lot of the tackles were coming from the pressure created up the middle by Hampton. He was just a terrible matchup for us so it was disappointing, but not that surprising. There also seemed to be a lot of plays being made by the backside defenders....which in my elementary understanding of the zone system is where the cut blocking should be. I guess if you drink the kool aid this could be a positive because it means that as the lineman get more time cut-blocking this should be something that will be cleaned up.

-Schaub was terrible. He pulled a Carr move and just went to the ground once. He didn't throw the ball away when he was under pressure and out of the tackle box. He made two just absolutely ridiculous throws. He missed some open receivers that you could even see on TV. I wish I could see the coaches tape to see how many times guys were covered up when he dumped off for no gain, but either way he appeared to be way to locked in on AJ. I still think that Schaub is better than Rosey, but I was even wondering if it was time for a switch. It's not, but it has to be in Kubiaks head at least.

-The pass blocking was bad. At least one of the sacks was leach's fault, and maybe more were on the backs. I'm sure one or two could be put on Schaub for being late with his reads and getting the ball out. That being said there was still too much pressure to expect much out of any quarterback.

-the linebackers as a group were terrible...and yes I include Demeco in that. I really expected much more out of this group. Diles seemed to be playing all out and seemed to be around the ball a lot but never really made an impact. Demeco was in on a lot of plays, but seemed late to react and the tackles came too far downfield. Greenwood was atrocious, by far the worse of the three. I think it was Parkers last touchdown that went outisde. All three of the LB's were standing flat footed not even leaning in the direction of the run to pursue before the lineman got blocks on them and Bennet missed another tackle. It was just one play, but it's the best example of their play from that day that I can remember.

-The secondary was bad. Fred has to do a better job when forced to step up in run support. He and Reeves got beat, but I thought most of the damage was done to the safeties and in the LB's zone.

-Mario was good. He got caught on a draw play or two, but even without the sacks he was disruptive and was doing a good job against the run...at least early on.

-Slaton ran hard. I'm sure he had his mistakes, but I like his willingness to put his head down and fight for an extra yard. Combine that with his speed and he might be more than I expected if the line gets together on the blocking scheme.

Most of this has already been said, but as bad as it was I'm not ready to start preparing for next years draft either. This was a damn good team. I think we are more than capable of playing them much closer than what we did last week, but we just didn't respond well to the early problems. Before the season started everyone was saying how if we can get through the first five weeks at 2-3 we did OK. After one loss everyones in panic mode. Nobody expected one of the losses to be this bad. If we can win this week (and Baltimore looks tougher than I thought they would be) then we are right back to being on schedule. Jacksonville looked worse than people expected too. Tenn's defense was fantastic, but the VY drama could self destruct that team at any moment. I think the Colts struggles are only temporary, and as soon as Manning gets back in the swing they will be as dangerous as ever. Even so we're tied with the two teams who are favored to win the division. We can't play like we did against Pittsburgh, but there's still hope.

I didn't re-watch the game so this is just from memory. I know most of it has been said....but I think I needed to get it out, like therapy. It's all good now, and my mind has switched to Baltimore and the tailgate menu.

[Bigtinylittle]

Great post.

The thing is, this game has to be kept in perspective as just one game. We may be this bad, or we may not. Way too soon to tell.

As far as Schaub, this game exposed his one true weakenss: Lack of mobility. A scrambler would have bailed out on almost every pass play and bought himself some time. Schaub can't do that very well.

I was really surprised we didn't go to three step drops, if for no other reason than to keep Schaub from getting injured. There were a couple of times I was surprised he got up.

[HPF Bob]

The Jags are so desperate for line help that they just signed MILFord Brown.

[Mike]

Originally Posted by papabear

Even so we're tied with the two teams who are favored to win the division. We can't play like we did against Pittsburgh, but there's still hope.

I didn't re-watch the game so this is just from memory. I know most of it has been said....but I think I needed to get it out, like therapy. It's all good now, and my mind has switched to Baltimore and the tailgate menu.

Nice post. Long but nice. That really sums everything up and puts it all in perspective. I am done looking back at last weeks game. I could not re-watch it. I could not open the wounds and grind salt into them. It was like waiting for Christmas and then when it got here, there were no presents under the tree. That is what hurt the most, even if they did not win, I was hoping to see them compete.

The key is how they respond this week. If they can win this week and look like the team we think can be , then all is OK again. We'd be at 1-1, right where we expected them to be. This is a big week for the staff and team. How they prepare and play will speak volumes for the remaining 14 games. I am not mentally prepared for another 2-14. I can't deal with that again.

[papabear]

Originally Posted by Mike

Nice post. Long but nice. That really sums everything up and puts it all in perspective. I am done looking back at last weeks game. I could not re-watch it. I could not open the wounds and grind salt into them. It was like waiting for Christmas and then when it got here, there were no presents under the tree. That is what hurt the most, even if they did not win, I was hoping to see them compete.

The key is how they respond this week. If they can win this week and look like the team we think can be , then all is OK again. We'd be at 1-1, right where we expected them to be. This is a big week for the staff and team. How they prepare and play will speak volumes for the remaining 14 games. I am not mentally prepared for another 2-14. I can't deal with that again.

The crazy thing is despite my rambling bitch fest, I really don't think any less of this teams chances than I did a few weeks ago. Baltimore scares me now. Huge NT in the middle. Blitzes like crazy and can run it down your throat. I thought the key to beating Pittsburgh would be to get a good start, hopefully an early lead, and have a ball controll offense...whether that was with the running game or with short passes, Andy Reid Style. The one thing we couldn't do was to get down big and be forced to pass to catch up. That holds true for this week as well. Hopefully the execution is better this week.

[cadams]

Originally Posted by papabear

The crazy thing is despite my rambling bitch fest, I really don't think any less of this teams chances than I did a few weeks ago. Baltimore scares me now. Huge NT in the middle. Blitzes like crazy and can run it down your throat. I thought the key to beating Pittsburgh would be to get a good start, hopefully an early lead, and have a ball controll offense...whether that was with the running game or with short passes, Andy Reid Style. The one thing we couldn't do was to get down big and be forced to pass to catch up. That holds true for this week as well. Hopefully the execution is better this week.

agreed. our defense needs to be playing with a lead.

[sinnister]

Originally Posted by cadams

agreed. our defense needs to be playing with a lead.

If they play like they did against the steelers, they need to be playing with a 40 point lead.

[papabear]

Originally Posted by papabear

-It seemed in the run game that a lot of the tackles were coming from the pressure created up the middle by Hampton. He was just a terrible matchup for us so it was disappointing, but not that surprising. There also seemed to be a lot of plays being made by the backside defenders....which in my elementary understanding of the zone system is where the cut blocking should be. I guess if you drink the kool aid this could be a positive because it means that as the lineman get more time cut-blocking this should be something that will be cleaned up.

I know a lot of you have already seen this, but I thought it was a great preview of this weeks game at Thoma Hilton's fanblog...better than anything written by those on the payroll. I thought the section about the Zone scheme was interesting.

http://blogs.chron.com/fanblogtexans...view_stay.html