NFL and Houston Texans Superthread: Are we ready for some football?

The Texans became a different team after the Carolina game. There was talk on the morning drive shows that BoB did not have the play chart in his hands. I suspect higher ups might have made him give up play calling. What has changed is that the team is more balanced in their play calling. Before it was Hopkins or bust on important downs but now they are spreading the ball around and taking the play that is open rather that try to force something that is not there. Going to be an interesting rest of the year.

Great win! Now I’m trying to figure out how the Jets will blow a 21-6 halftime lead to the Cowdorks, but the Jets are creative in the wrong ways!

Pretty solid game on both sides of the ball. Keep building on it and they may actually have a team that can compete for the division.

The biggest problem yesterday was kicking. On one of those missed attempts Fairbairn had to kick squarely on the laces. That miss falls on the holder, Anger. Gutsy call by BoB to go for that 4th down instead of kicking a 44yd FG. He was in a tough situation and obviously trusted the offense more than the kicking game.

Penalties played a part in the game. There were some bad calls I think both teams ended up with 10 or 11 penalties. Some defensive holding calls against the Chiefs helped extend a drive or 2. I'd like to see stats on how many PI calls have been correctly overturned by replay. Seems like they still can't get it right.

Isn't Tim Kelly the Offensive Coordinator? Shouldn't he be calling the plays?

Isn't Tim Kelly the Offensive Coordinator? Shouldn't he be calling the plays? Originally Posted by gnadfly

Yes, Kelly is the OC. As of the first of the season he was only involved in game planning though. BoB was retaining play calling duties until Kelly had a full year under his belt.

That may have changed though. BoB's play calling is too conservative. He's got a lot invested in the offense including his reputation and while it may seem intuitive to open it up that may not be the case depending on the guy's personality. Perhaps BoB only wanted to run plays that he knew the team could execute flawlessly in walk throughs or stick too close to the game plan based on the defense they thought they were going to see. He seemed reluctant to take any chances at all.

Someone may have convinced him to give up the duties to Kelly whose sole focus on game day is to analyze what the other team's defense is doing well and call plays that exploit weaknesses. That includes understanding which personnel packages create match up problems for the defense. A head coach can't pay attention to all aspects of the game, offense, defense, Special teams, time management, in game personnel management, etc. Other coaches have to be involved and he has to trust them to do their job until they show they aren't capable of it.

This isn't single A high school football. It's like the COO of a fortune 500 company trying to micromanage production, sales, distribution and purchasing where a day is condensed into three hours.


Whatever they have figured out, they need to avoid overthinking it. Sure they should build on it but don't try to do to much. Just tweak it week by week as the game plan dictates and adjust during the game.

Well that was a shit game. Colts looked lots better

Andrew who?

The Colts were able to get consistent pressure on Watson.
Brissett had very little pressure. He had plenty of time and wide open lanes.

Losing Clowney for a LT doesn't feel like a good trade off at the moment. Stills has become a reliable option though.

Glad Texans won! Hate Gruden and Raiders!

JJ Watt tore his pec and is done for the season.

Watson played well but his playing style will land him along side JJ.

Better offensive play calling.

Man I wish they could have gotten Leonard Williams from the Jets but we have NADA to offer anyone.


Once again, the secondary is going to be an issue for the rest of the season.


They won but there is NO pass rush.

Defense is definitely an issue now. I have no idea who some of these DBs are. Seems like they appeared out of thin air. Getting rid of Clowney looks even more questionable now.

Watt will not be the same player that he was. Time and those beast mode workouts are catching up to him. He is going to have to change some things if he plans on staying in this league. He's played 9 seasons. 3 of the last 4 have been cut short due to injury. Compare that to Michael Strahan. He played 15 seasons. He didn't start having injury issues until his 12th season.
Yes, the play calling is better but Watson is having to improvise way too much. He takes hits every week that he shouldn't be taking. That is going to add up. He's back to relying mostly on Hopkins but he's starting to find his TE as a secondary outlet on big downs which is a sign of a maturing QB.

Tunsil is injured but expected to play Sunday. Shoulder injuries are not good and he could quickly go from kind of OK to out for the season depending on what exactly is wrong. OL coaching and developing those guys seems to continue to be a problem. Sometimes they look like a unit but others they look like 5 guys doing their own thing. Moving around in the line should actually help them to understand each other's responsibilities but I question whether they are actually being coached that way.

Against everything I prdicted in preseason, the RB's seem to be the one real bright spot. Hyde and Johnson are playing better than I expected. Defenses have to respect that part of the game which opens up better options.
The Jags suck but they have the ability to beat the Texans. The Colts are the best in the division and may start to run away with it soon.

There are key injuries and other personnel issues on every team in our division, if not the league. My ff team has been devastated by concussions this season. Looks like age will be responsible for changing of the old guard elite QBs next season. Perhaps only Rodgers will survive.

Unless the coaches make an offensive scheme to maximize Watson's strengths while minimizing his bad habits, he's going to get hurt soon. Everyone looks at Jackson (QB-BAL) and doesn't remember Michael Vick. After his fourth season, the defenses adjusted. And after he gets hurt, you don't have a Vickesque backup player to run your offensive schemes with.

Baltimore is making Houston look like chumps.
Jackson is making Watson look like a chump.
The Baltimore OC is making the Houston OC look like a chump.

I'm tired of the announcers calling every pass Jackson throws a "dime." They aren't.
Do the Texan defense look unaggressive? Like they didn't bring the right spikes for slippery field?

The Texans are a paper team. When they play teams a little worse they look awesome, when they play equals or a little better they total fold and look out classed. If Jack Easterby is Total Quality Management type of guy like they say then he will come to the conclusion that the team cannot get to the Super Bowl with BOB as coach and will let him go at the end of the season.