Titans Game Thoughts

[barrett]

Great back against the wall win. We may have lost the season with an 0-2 start.

I still think a 4-3 SLB is not worth a 1st round pick on principal, but perhaps if your team is extremely soft and can't stand up physically at the point of attack like we are, then I can see it. We finally stood up to a team physically today after getting bullied for years.

Either way Cushing played very well and added a lot to our run defense. Now if our 2nd level could make a tackle on occasion when a runner gets through the 1st line of defense.

Cushing and the rest of the team also played the screen passes very well.

In general I think we will kept getting burned by big plays defensively. We don't have the talent to take chances unless we are willing to give up big ones.

Mario can be a top DE by simply lining up and pushing the OT into the QB's lap. His physical tools are amazing.


Our play calling was finally aggressive and we went down field like we should. We have too many talented skill guys to throw all underneath routes. And I love the first down PA on the goal line to OD.

It was great to see Jacoby Jones used in the passing game. He still has no hands, but he is a weapon. He needs to be given a chance to make a big play on offense a handful of times per game. He is especially dangerous opposite of AJ.

Slaton now has 3 fumbles in two games. I think he is simply trying to hard to make plays. He has more pressure this year and a contract issue hanging in the future. I hope he gets off and settles down next week.

All I can think of right now.

[NBT]

You can't blame Slaton for anything except the fumbles (bad enough). The Oline are not getting him any running room.

[TexanJedi]

Great win, not perfect by any means but they showed heart and won.

Does anyone think the league will be looking at the tape of the side line brawl? It looked like Jacoby and Mario were throwing punches, I hope the Texans don't wind up with any suspensions.

[cadams]

the defense was horrible. they did get the job done at the end, but bush is looking like he is overmatched and out of his league as the dc. consistenetly giving up 3rd and longs and the breakdowns on the big plays are unacceptable.

glad they got the win, and it was one of the best games i have ever seen, but this game was won by the offense, and in spite of the defense.

[nero THE zero]

Originally Posted by NBT

You can't blame Slaton for anything except the fumbles (bad enough). The Oline are not getting him any running room.

Chris Brown has put up a considerably higher YPC than Slaton has in both games so far. We have been going against tough run defenses thus far, and our o-line has struggled to create running room, but that's not to say Slaton hasn't had his own struggles as well; he's been considerably outperformed by his counterpart in both games this season.

[Dennis2112]

Originally Posted by cadams

the defense was horrible. they did get the job done at the end, but bush is looking like he is overmatched and out of his league as the dc. consistenetly giving up 3rd and longs and the breakdowns on the big plays are unacceptable.

glad they got the win, and it was one of the best games i have ever seen, but this game was won by the offense, and in spite of the defense.

I don't think anyone said we won because of the defense but they DID contribute to the win.

All those third and long plays that the Titans were converting were all in the first half if I believe. The defense did a number on the Titans in the 2nd half. Now that blown play for Chris Johnson was the only trip to the endzone for the titans after halftime.
So, that was not a good thing but its part of the game. the other guy is trying to his job too and if you have one player out of position, big plays like that happen. The had 3 total plays over 20 yards, we had 6.

Did the defense blow up on a couple of plays, you bet they did.

Did they adjust and remove some of the players causing the breakdowns in the 2nd half? Yes they did.

We still have a long way to go but I like the more aggressive nature of our defense. Although I do not like the big plays we give up occasionally but that has to be expected as a by product of our newer, aggressive style of play.

All that being said, the defense has plenty to work on.

This win is primarily due to the offense and a great win it was.

A must win IMO.

[cadams]

Originally Posted by Dennis2112

I don't think anyone said we won because of the defense but they DID contribute to the win.

All those third and long plays that the Titans were converting were all in the first half if I believe. The defense did a number on the Titans in the 2nd half. Now that blown play for Chris Johnson was the only trip to the endzone for the titans after halftime.
So, that was not a good thing but its part of the game. the other guy is trying to his job too and if you have one player out of position, big plays like that happen. The had 3 total plays over 20 yards, we had 6.

Did the defense blow up on a couple of plays, you bet they did.

Did they adjust and remove some of the players causing the breakdowns in the 2nd half? Yes they did.

We still have a long way to go but I like the more aggressive nature of our defense. Although I do not like the big plays we give up occasionally but that has to be expected as a by product of our newer, aggressive style of play.

All that being said, the defense has plenty to work on.

This win is primarily due to the offense and a great win it was.

A must win IMO.

I am all for a more agressive playing style, and yes, you will give up some big plays when you take risks, but to give up 3 like they did in one game is too many, especially the 91 yarder in the second half. I agree they did adjust and play much better in the second half after the one breakdown, which is why i said they got the job done in the end, but you can't give up 31 points and expect to win consistently. Agree on it being a must win.

[Joe Joe]

Originally Posted by barrett

I still think a 4-3 SLB is not worth a 1st round pick on principal, but perhaps if your team is extremely soft and can't stand up physically at the point of attack like we are, then I can see it. We finally stood up to a team physically today after getting bullied for years.

Either way Cushing played very well and added a lot to our run defense. Now if our 2nd level could make a tackle on occasion when a runner gets through the 1st line of defense.

Cushing and the rest of the team also played the screen passes very well.

Very impressed with Cushing. I saw him take a bad angle on Johnson once, but besides that he was definitely a player in the game.

[popanot]

Kudos to JJ as well. He had a few bad moments, but overall, he played a very good game. If he stays outside and uses his speed instead cutting back inside on that catch down the sideline, it's a score. He had juked the S beyond the point of recovery and probably would have walked in had he taken it down the sideline. Oh well, chalk it up to inexperience. At minimal he showed he deserves some more PT at WR. He's pretty scary if he gets the ball in space.

[barrett]

Originally Posted by popanot

Kudos to JJ as well. He had a few bad moments, but overall, he played a very good game. If he stays outside and uses his speed instead cutting back inside on that catch down the sideline, it's a score. He had juked the S beyond the point of recovery and probably would have walked in had he taken it down the sideline. Oh well, chalk it up to inexperience. At minimal he showed he deserves some more PT at WR. He's pretty scary if he gets the ball in space.

I agree with all of this. We need to use him where he can make big plays. He may never be a great possession guy, but we don't need him to be. If we throw him the ball twice on 8 yard passes he catches one for 8 yards and drops one because he is unreliable. It's not worth going to him in those situations and it's why he hasn't seen the field as a WR.

But if you go to him deep twice and he blows one play but makes the other, then its worth it. So give the guy 3-4 chances at big plays each week, especially since everyone but AJ gets one one one deep coverage.

I hope that seeing JJ yesterday means we are even better when Walter does come back.

[NBT]

Originally Posted by nero THE zero

Chris Brown has put up a considerably higher YPC than Slaton has in both games so far. We have been going against tough run defenses thus far, and our o-line has struggled to create running room, but that's not to say Slaton hasn't had his own struggles as well; he's been considerably outperformed by his counterpart in both games this season.

No argument there. We have faced two very good run stuffing defenses, but other opponents will see that and start gameplanning harder against the run. I'm just saying the Oline has not jelled yet.

[NBT]

We are playing with two rooks on defense, Cushing and Glover Quin. At least Kubiak is honest when he says we have not reached the level of consistancy that he would like to see. All of us hope we continue to become more consistant.

[Roy P]

I will say this one more time about our offense, we need to Pass to set up the run. Utilizing Slaton on screens and check downs is more effective than handing the ball off to him because of our O-Line. Having Chester Pitts out of action is going to make a bad running attack worse. I know we love to use play-action to buy time and get deep, and we can still do that from time to time. However, if we want to keep the chains moving - the I-Formation hasn't been doin much to that end.

[Fonz the Boss]

Well I hope they get off their high horses quick because the defense stunk. We got another one of the top RBs in the league next week in Maurice Jones Drew to worry about. I know I dont want him slashing and dashing through our defense like a JV game.

[popanot]

I'm holding out hope the defense we saw in the second half is a sign of things to come. Except for that ridiculous TD run by Johnson to start the half, where inexplicably no one was within 10 yards of the middle of the field, they played pretty well and shut the Titans down that half. The pass play to Johnson in the first half was clearly a busted assignment. However, there's no excuse for it and I agree the D and Bush need to show improvement. The O - and the usual Collins bonehead play of the day - saved their ass yesterday.

[Nconroe]

Whew, 1-1, that was one exciting game, hi's, low's , and a win in the end. We won the turnover battle. We had AJ, OD, JJ receiving big passes from MS, nice to see. Our guys definitely played their heart out, played tough, were motivated, and were not about to give in to Titans attemped intimidation, they played the whole 60 minutes. MW and BC looked good on defense and the last 5 defensive series our D looked very good. While Schaub got hit, he was never sacked, so improvements seen. Sure, plenty improvements still to be made, but its coming, I think we do have the depth to get better. And perhaps coaching is getting flexible in its thinking so it can make adjustmets during the game, all nice things to see. And its the kind of win that makes a team start to believe they are a team and help each other, trust each other, know each other.

[barrett]

Originally Posted by Fonz the Boss

Well I hope they get off their high horses quick because the defense stunk. We got another one of the top RBs in the league next week in Maurice Jones Drew to worry about. I know I dont want him slashing and dashing through our defense like a JV game.

High Horse? Everything I heard said that nobody on the team was celebrating this win. Kubiak supposedly wouldn't even break a smile with the media after.

Definitely no high horse here. Just a win in a league that doesn't care about syle points either way.

[WMH]

Originally Posted by barrett

High Horse? Everything I heard said that nobody on the team was celebrating this win. Kubiak supposedly wouldn't even break a smile with the media after.

Definitely no high horse here. Just a win in a league that doesn't care about syle points either way.

I 2nd that, huh, what are you talking about?

After the game, Kubiak didn't sound a whole lot different than he did last week. "Very concerned" was the key point of his interview response. Hell, from what I heard on the radio, they didn't even get the day off today.

Regarding the game, save for a couple of bonehead plays, I thought the defense actually faired decent. I think that Britt kid could give us some fits in the years to come, and there is really not too much else to say about C Johnson. Man, that dude is quick. We have GOT to get the 3rd down thing fixed, that is madening.
Offense - A+++, nice air job, + they should them enough in the running game to give them something to think about. It wasn't working, but they kept plugging at it, and it opened up the play action. As Roy said earlier, throwing to set up the pass may not be a bad direction, especially since we are now 1 starting guard down for the next 4-6 weeks.

Games like this make me look forward to Sunday! 6 days to go!

[HPF Bob]

You guys called for a more aggressive defense and that's what happens - more big plays in both directions. Too bad we don't have a Polamalu or Dawkins to clean up the garbage at the back end. That's why we had 60-yd, 70-yd TDs scored against us rather than 20-yd gains given up.

What I liked best was that the Texans were down 21-7 and could have easily wimped out like last week but, when they got punched in the mouth, they hit back for once.

As for Jacoby Jones, he's never dull. He's either a big play or epic fail on every touch. The refs bailed him out on that punt muff but, under normal circumstances, it would have been Titans' ball and could have swung the game.

[Roy P]

Thinking creatively is something that I liked seeing on both sides of the ball. On offense, putting Slaton out wide and leaving an empty backfield was nice. Having AJ, JJ, DA, and both TE's on the field was a nice look. Some of the best ways to run the ball is by spreading out the defense and having numerous targets to unload the ball to if they blitz.

On defense, we were dropping Barwin and blitzing Cushing. Zac Diles got a hit on Collins when he blitzed. If we can keep the offense guessing where the pressure is coming from, the Secondary will benefit. Eugene Wilson's INT was because Collins was getting people in his face. Moving Mario from Right to Left also kept them guessing. Now, if we want an attacking defense, we have to be better at gap responsibility and tackling. Too many times, over pursuit allowed huge gaps for the RB to take advantage of.

Still not sure about some of the calls. The Jacoby Jones TD was an incomplete pass since he went to the ground and lost the ball on the ground. Will be waiting to hear what Mike Pereira has to say about that one. I was scared about the muff/fumble but Steve Tasker did a good job of convincing me that was the right call.