For the first time ever (not counting pre-season) the wife and I attended a Texans game last Sunday. Luther, the co-owner of Black Jack's Bar & Grill in Cypress (our "local" bar of choice) had two tickets that he couldn't use and offered them to us since he knew that we were fans of football in general and that we both followed the team because they were local. If you're up that way I suggest you check out Black Jack's, not only for a decent beer selection (including many Texas beers) but also for some pretty good food. (Try the fried pickles and they have great steak specials from time to time). One word of caution however, this bar is outside the City limits so people can, and do, smoke. If you sit on the restaurant side however you will avoid most of that.
Having said that (Thanks again Luther!) on to the Texans. But first, a word of caution about the day-after media coverage. it's bad. In some cases, mind-numbingly bad, bordering on historically bad in some places and just obviously bad in others. Considering what you saw on the field Sunday there's really just no excuse for stuff like this.
That said, we did learn a few things about the team on Sunday, let's start with the good.
Keenum is improving Sitting in (very good) field level seats it was very evident that Keenum has made progress sitting back in the pocket and identifying blitzes sooner rather than after he has been knocked on his keister. Yes, he made one VERY bad throw for an interception, but overall he stood in the pocket much more confidently and made plays, until the last drive.
DeAndre Hopkins is getting better as well Besides his one long catch (the subject of an entire "doing well article") there were several occasions where Hopkins was streaking down the sideline wide open, only to be missed by Case (more on that later)
The O-line ran-block well They really did. A couple of the holes Tate ran through were massive. They also did a good job, on a couple of occasions, blocking on the edge for Dennis Johnson, the pass blocking was improved as well.
The bad.....
Case is still locking onto, and staring down, receivers. Earlier I stated that Nuk was flashing open down the sideline on a few occasions. Unfortunately Case never looked his way. This was a problem with Schaub as well so I'm assuming this is a lack of coaching that's inherent with Kubiak's staff.
Nuk is still running bad routes Or, the wrong routes, I'm not sure which. There were several occasions where he was running into the exact same area as another Texans receiver rendering them both covered, often by one defender.
Graham is going to be a good player but... I watched Graham on a lot of plays and he runs good routes and seems to be able to find holes in the defense. That was a plus in this game. However, he also quit on a route or two and really needs to work on consistency. He should also be a better player in the red zone.
Andre Johnson is still amazing But the Texans aren't continuing to use the things that work. At the beginning of the game Andre was having much success flashing open on crossing routes. He would be left by Talib and then the Patriots secondary would lose him. For some reason, after the 2nd QTR, this route was nowhere to be seen.
The ugly.....
The offense is terribly predictable While some would say it's not fair to compare any offense to a Belichick offense, I tend to differ. Watching both teams play out there it was painfully obvious that the Patriots route schemes were light years ahead of what the Texans had drawn up. If Kubiak really is an "offensive guru" then I would expect to see some high-level route running. Instead the Texans became more basic as the game progressed. Granted, some of this might be due to young players running wrong routes, but that (again) falls on the coaching staff.
The Patriots weren't spying, The Texans defense is poor. How many issues? Well, Gronkowski lined up uncovered twice, several times (including his TD grab) Brooks Reed drew single coverage and the Patriots, in the second half, had no problems developing schemes that overloaded the Texans defensive backfield, especially when the Texans blitzed. It was so bad that fans in the stands knew what bad things were coming before they came.
Shut down JJ Watt, shut down the Texans defense Watt was double or triple teamed on almost every play. Once the Patriots nullified him the rest of the defense just couldn't get to Brady. Yes, watching Brady throw the ball is an amazing thing, but on their 2nd touchdown Brady had almost 10 seconds standing along in the backfield with no pressure.
It's not all that bad however, because the Texans are now in prime position to grab the first pick in the 2014 NFL draft. That said, unless the team undergoes a major overhaul I've serious concerns whether or not it's going to matter. On Sunday the Texans were not outplayed, they were outcoached and out-schemed. That's not piling on it's just the truth. Wade Phillips defense has an annoying tendency to line up wrong and then no one seems to recognize the problems. When you have two receivers on one side and one DB in coverage (with the LB blitzing) you're bound to have bad results. The offense, despite the coaching issues, played hard and well and the run game was spectacular. Keenum made enough big plays to keep the game close while handing it off to Ben Tate, who is now running for his big contract (with another team). I still think the Texans have a huge talent gap, especially on defense, some of this is due to injury but most of it is due to bad personnel decisions. The offensive line played better, but still needs more talent. Special teams, for all of the attention they're being paid, were hit and miss with every good play (a long Martin return) being negated by a bad play (a long Patriots return).
The most concerning issue to me however remains the issue of coaching. In short: This is a poorly coached team that, surprisingly this late in the season, continues to have obvious busts on both sides of the ball. There are zero signs of improvement, and the team continues to do things that don't appear to be in their best interests. There's no doubt the Texans are playing hard as the coaches continually say, but there's increasing evidence that this is not enough because they're being out-coached from the start, with the coaching gap increasing as the game continues.
There were signs of some improvement, but this is very likely the worst team in the NFL so that's not saying much.
