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Posted
54 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

And yet we held them to 14 points.

We lost because of our boring ass vanilla offense. That's becoming a Demeco Ryans trademark.

What we have is a head coach as a coordinator, but on the defensive side.

We also have that problem at Texas, but on the other side.

 

Posted

I’ve echoed this in threads among friends and everywhere else. Demeco’s fatal flaw will have been hiring an up and comer as OC first time and making that same mistake the 2nd time. That will be his undoing as a first time HC. I like the guy and know the players love him. But this is a results business and if you waste that “franchise” qb’s rookie contract and don’t win, you make it extremely difficult to do so after you re-up him. Especially since it’s now glaringly obvious he’s not a generational qb but an above average one. 
 

CJ didn’t do jack shit to will us to a single victory last year and he didn’t show any signs of doing that today. Whatever “magic” he had first year was either complete bullshit (most likely) or has completely evaporated due to lack of confidence in either the coaching staff and/or the players. Once we re-up him and give him the new highest paid qb moniker we’ll have 5 more years of painful mediocrity before we start afresh and Ryans gets fired. 
 

almost 25 years now of complete ineptitude at every level of this franchise. At least Hannah is totally fuckable. 

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Posted
9 minutes ago, Fat Bastard said:

I’ve echoed this in threads among friends and everywhere else. Demeco’s fatal flaw will have been hiring an up and comer as OC first time and making that same mistake the 2nd time. That will be his undoing as a first time HC. I like the guy and know the players love him. But this is a results business and if you waste that “franchise” qb’s rookie contract and don’t win, you make it extremely difficult to do so after you re-up him. Especially since it’s now glaringly obvious he’s not a generational qb but an above average one. 
 

CJ didn’t do jack shit to will us to a single victory last year and he didn’t show any signs of doing that today. Whatever “magic” he had first year was either complete bullshit (most likely) or has completely evaporated due to lack of confidence in either the coaching staff and/or the players. Once we re-up him and give him the new highest paid qb moniker we’ll have 5 more years of painful mediocrity before we start afresh and Ryans gets fired. 
 

almost 25 years now of complete ineptitude at every level of this franchise. At least Hannah is totally fuckable. 

Larry?

I agree with all of this.

Posted
7 minutes ago, Fat Bastard said:

I’ve echoed this in threads among friends and everywhere else. Demeco’s fatal flaw will have been hiring an up and comer as OC first time and making that same mistake the 2nd time. That will be his undoing as a first time HC. I like the guy and know the players love him. But this is a results business and if you waste that “franchise” qb’s rookie contract and don’t win, you make it extremely difficult to do so after you re-up him. Especially since it’s now glaringly obvious he’s not a generational qb but an above average one. 
 

CJ didn’t do jack shit to will us to a single victory last year and he didn’t show any signs of doing that today. Whatever “magic” he had first year was either complete bullshit (most likely) or has completely evaporated due to lack of confidence in either the coaching staff and/or the players. Once we re-up him and give him the new highest paid qb moniker we’ll have 5 more years of painful mediocrity before we start afresh and Ryans gets fired. 
 

almost 25 years now of complete ineptitude at every level of this franchise. At least Hannah is totally fuckable. 

He's missing Tank Dell. That dude took a lot of pressure off of Collins. He was also missing a big target at WR today in Kirk. We just can't keep our good WRs healthy enough to help Stroud out, not to mention the shit show we continue to put out in the 5 guys in front of him.

I do think Demeco will ultimately be fired here because he just doesn't allow his offense to do anything worth a shit and prefers the FGs over TDs approach to coaching. Too many times, the 3rd down playcalling in the opponent's RZ is pedestrian.

He's the defensive Tom Herman of the NFL, but shit at least he kicks the fucking FGs so his teams are never out of the game for the most part. I wish Sarkisian would take the fucking points when playing top teams.

Posted (edited)

The OL is garbage. Don’t disagree at all. What did our shitty FO do this offseason? Get some fatfuck journeyman in Robinson, one of the lowest rated guards in Tomlinson and put a bunch of jags around an overpaid Tytus. Ersery may be good, but more likely he’ll regress to the shitty mean of this OL and not improve to + level. 
 

Scruggs, Fisher, trading 2 or 3 1st’s for Tunsil (I don’t remember how many exactly) and giving Tytus that contract are each, independently fireable offenses for Casserio IMO. He just flat out fucking sucks at OL scouting/talent eval. 
 

if the Bears OL dominates after spending all those resources this offseason to protect their franchise qb vs the fucking Goodwill bin we went to will be interesting. 

Edited by Fat Bastard
Posted
1 hour ago, HtownHorn said:

He's missing Tank Dell. That dude took a lot of pressure off of Collins. He was also missing a big target at WR today in Kirk. We just can't keep our good WRs healthy enough to help Stroud out, not to mention the shit show we continue to put out in the 5 guys in front of him.

I do think Demeco will ultimately be fired here because he just doesn't allow his offense to do anything worth a shit and prefers the FGs over TDs approach to coaching. Too many times, the 3rd down playcalling in the opponent's RZ is pedestrian.

He's the defensive Tom Herman of the NFL, but shit at least he kicks the fucking FGs so his teams are never out of the game for the most part. I wish Sarkisian would take the fucking points when playing top teams.

Demeco will be here for at least this year and next.

I hope he improves.

Posted
3 minutes ago, Honeysucklerose said:

I know they are both incredible, but when you see Allen and Jackson on SNF, it just makes you realize that CJ is pretty pedestrian

The team as a whole.

Posted (edited)

Texans Drop Opener in Familiar, Disappointing Fashion

The Houston Texans lost to the Los Angeles Rams 14-9. 

Here are 11 observations from the disappointing opener. 

  1. The Texans picked up where they left off. The offense was inefficient. The blocking stunk. The quarterback was too gunshy. The penalties mounted. The defense was forced to be perfect, and they weren’t. All the issues that led to the disappointments of last season reared their ugly heads. 

  2. Nick Caley’s offense showed no noticeable differences from Bobby Slowik’s offense. The Texans made just a couple of changes to the offensive staff in the offseason, and the offense looked much the same. It was choppy, lacked rhythm, and was inefficient for most of the day. The moment they stepped into the red zone, they went backward. There were two illegal shift penalties, one coming late in the game when they tried to catch the Rams off guard. They scored no touchdowns. An entire offseason produced ZERO touchdowns in the first game of the season. That’s wholly and totally unacceptable. 

  3. C.J. Stroud looked essentially the same as last year. Stroud held onto the ball too long, too often. He drifted into pressure. He didn’t rip it when guys were there. The control he was afforded at the line of scrimmage made no difference in the offense’s operation. Stroud said he knows he misidentified a couple of plays. They still didn’t get into plays fast enough, multiple times taking the play clock down further than comfortable. Stroud also tossed the ball up, hoping for someone to make a play a couple of times. One of them ended up being an interception. There needs to be improvement here. He did use his legs exceptionally well, which was one of the lone bright spots of the offense. 

  4. The defense was good enough to deserve a win. There are things to nitpick, but they held the Rams to 14 points. That’s a good enough performance. The nitpicking will come later. 

  5. The new Texans offensive line played like last year’s offensive line. Cam Robinson started at left tackle, Laken Tomlinson was the left guard, Jake Andrews was the center, Tytus Howard was the right guard, and rookie Aireontae Ersery was at right tackle. This shuffle came about due to Ed Ingram’s injury. The line allowed a couple of sacks in the first half. The pressure affected plenty. It wasn’t any better than last year. There were still unaccounted-for blitzers. There were still moments when they couldn’t move the line of scrimmage. New faces, but the same results. 

  6. Rookie tackle Aireontae Ersery wasn’t good. He frequently allowed pressure. There were moments where he flat-out whiffed on blocks in both the run game and the pass game. He has a little excuse, though. He was shifted from left tackle, where he had practiced for about a month, to right tackle because Ed Ingram couldn’t play. Still, he needs to put his hands on guys. Too many times he came up empty. Cam Robinson, who replaced him at left tackle, also wasn’t good. Nobody was good. The line was bad. No matter the configuration, the line was bad. 

  7. Nico Collins has to get the ball more.There should never be a game where a player like Collins, against a defense that has no standouts in the secondary, only has three catches for 25 yards. This is one of the most dynamic wideouts in football. Get him the damn ball. The Rams somehow found a way to consistently get the ball to their two star wideouts against what many believe to be an excellent secondary. There is no excuse that is acceptable for why Collins didn’t have a bigger day. 

  8. The little things were a problem. This is not a team that can give away yards, and yet, they made a multitude of mistakes. It put them behind the sticks too much. The defense made some mistakes too, but thankfully corrected their own mistake on a drive where they had two lack of focus penalties. It felt like an undisciplined team. The third-string running back fumbling the football when you’re trying to drive in and take the lead isn’t ideal. Nick Chubb couldn’t be on the field after putting the offense on his back for a lot of that drive. Just not tight enough on the details during this one. 

  9. Derek Stingley Jr. didn’t have a good day. He looked to get hurt early in the game, but he came back in. Davante Adams might not have lost a rep to Stingley all day. The veteran wideout had multiple excellent plays against Stingley at key moments. Every catch from Adams went for a first down. Cornerbacks aren’t expected to be perfect, but they have to win more than Stingley did in this one. 

  10. The defense had a hard time accounting for Puka Nacua. Nacua finished the day with 10 catches for 130 yards. He got open from all over the field. He finished the day abusing Jalen Pitre in coverage, as most do, and caught the game-sealing pass from Matt Stafford. This was even though he was checked for a concussion and bleeding from his head after a hit early in the game. The Rams constantly got him open against a variety of Texans defenders. 

  11. The Texans have to hope this is a one-off and not the standard for their season. Hope, however, is not a strategy. The offensive line is lightly talented. The offense didn’t look ready for its debut. The quarterback still isn’t confident under center. There’s not much to take from this offensive performance overall. They cobbled together a few field goals; that’s it. The defense has a few things to clean up, but they at least have a chance to live up to their potential. The offense looked like they lived up to their very low potential in this one. 

Additional Observations

  • Nick Chubb was one of their best offensive players. When he got rolling, he barrelled over defenders. Unfortunately, the push was inconsistent from the line. 

  • Blake Fisher clearly is unplayable right now. When he got in the game, he got a 15-yard penalty. The Texans did gymnastics to keep Fisher off the field, but an injury forced him out there. Juice Scruggs is also unplayable because instead of just inserting him into the lineup when Ed Ingram couldn’t play, they shuffled the whole way they set up the line. That’s awful. Nick Caserio has whiffed on offensive line draft picks. 

  • Jake Andrews spent most of the preseason as the first center, and he got carted off in this one. Jarrett Patterson replaced him. Getting carted off kind of feels like Patterson is the starting center for a while, unless Andrews was really lucky. 

  • Henry To’oTo’o had some nice moments at linebacker. 

  • Dalton Schultz had a little more life to his game in this one. 

  • The punt coverage looked pretty good. 

  • The Texans have a good field goal kicker. 

  • Next up is the home opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday NightFootball. 

Edited by Macklemore
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Posted

Grading the Houston Texans in Their Loss to the Los Angeles Rams

Sunday’s loss to the Rams was a frustrating one, but one that shouldn’t surprise anyone with a grasp of what this team has been and what they currently are: one-dimensional.

More often than not, the defense must do the heavy-lifting to win games, and unfortunately, against good teams, even elite defensive efforts won’t always be enough to win.

The offensive line problems are still around. There’s a lack of discipline, an under-discussed theme of the DeMeco Ryans Era, despite being around consistently.

Here are this week’s grades.

Quarterback: C

C.J. Stroud wasn’t bad, but he also wasn’t good.

Did he play good enough to win? Maybe. If Dare Ogunbowale doesn’t fumble, then who knows how much the outlook could have changed.

Stroud did run into one of the three sacks, and the pocket presence is something many question, which is a bad combination with this offensive line.

He did a good job of using his legs in the first half. He should do that more consistently. 

His surroundings weren’t good: The interception was the fault of rookie wide receiver Jayden Higgins, who had to put out a solid enough effort for the pass to be incomplete at least. The offensive line still stinks. Despite the 15-yard reception before the fumble, Ogunbowale shouldn’t be in the game during must-score drives.

It wasn’t awful. It wasn’t great. It was familiar.

Running Backs: D

Nick Chubb was good and set the tone, especially on the final drive of the game, where he had 20 yards rushing to set up an opportunity to win the ballgame. He was the only running back who played well.

Dameon Pierce was awful, and outside of a couple of long runs last season in mop-up duty, he hasn’t been good in years. He had a drop and three carries for five yards.

Woody Marks, for whatever reason, wasn’t targeted in the passing game despite being BY FAR the best receiving back in camp and one of the best receiving backs in college football the last few years. He had three carries for three yards.

Ogunbowale caused Frank Ross to cry happy tears at his press conference during the week, and on the weekend, he caused the entire Texans team and their fanbase to cry sad tears. 

Ogunbowale has maximized every ounce of talent he has and deserves credit for doing so, but this organization’s failure to have a back, or two, or three that they trust more than him in clutch offensive situations is one of the most fascinatingly frustrating things during this era of Texans football. 

Marks didn’t have a target, Chubb was cooking, and they really decided to go with Ogonbowale with 41 yards to win the game, a fresh set of downs, and all three timeouts with 1:57remaining in the game.

Wide Receivers: F

Where was Nico Collins? Were the Rams doing something to take him out of the game? Could this be a new way teams play the Texans? It should be, but we will look closer into that as the week goes on.

Higgins had a 23-yard reception early, but ended with only two catches for 32 yards, which was sadly the most receiving yardage on the team. He also had the previously mentioned inability to come down with the ball that led to Stroud’s interception.

Xavier Hutchinson had a couple of moments. Justin Watson had a couple of nice catches and played well based on expectations. Braxton Berrios and Christian Kirk were inactive, Jaylin Noel played, but was pretty much inactive, too.

The Texans had a combined 10 catches for 121 yards from their wide receivers. Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua had 10 catches for 130 yards.

Tight Ends: B

Dalton Schultz and Cade Stover showed some life, combining for seven catches for 50 yards and not being consistently exposed in blocking. Improvement from last year and something to build on.

Offensive Line: F-

They are handcuffed when they shuffle because they have two second-round picks that they don’t want to step on the football field in Juice Scruggs and Blake Fisher. Fisher entered the game briefly and was able to pick up a 15-yard penalty.

It was the same as last year, awful.

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Defensive Line: A

The defensive line held the Rams to 72 yards on the ground, had two sacks, and bailed out the offense numerous times. Danielle Hunter didn’t stick out, which is the only negative, but as a unit, they were solid.

Linebackers: B

Azeez Al-Shaair’s forced fumble was as big a play as you’ll see and gave the offense a chance to win the game.

Henry To'oTo'o had six tackles and a sack.

That was pretty much it, but it was a solid effort despite not hearing much from Christian Harris.

Cornerbacks: D

This grade is based on the standards Derek Stingley has set. He shouldn’t be getting cooked by Davante Adams. He is too good a player, even after getting banged up early in the game. 

Kamari Lassiter was physical and led the team in tackles. He may have been lost on the second Rams touchdown, but we will have to look closer at it this week.

Nacua dominated, but not all was on the corners.

Safeties: F

Jalen Pitre was sniffed out in coverage, and it’s hard not to imagine this not being something any offensive coordinator with a pulse does this season. I’m actually surprised he was on the field when the Rams iced the game with the third-down pass to Nacua and SHOCKED he was manned up on him.

C.J. Gardner-Johnson didn’t have a great game, and Calen Bullock got lost on the touchdown to start the second half and take control of the game. 

It was a poor day for what is supposed to be one of the team’s strengths.

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Special Teams: B+

Ka’imi Fairbairn accounted for all of the offense. A penalty negated the only big play the Rams made on special teams. Tommy Townsend punted well.

Coaching: C

The defensive effort and game plan should have been enough to win. 

The biggest issue for DeMeco’s defense is the Pitre chess match and when Pitre should and shouldn’t be on the field. The coming weeks will tell if this is going to be a consistent theme this season.

The offensive line limits what offensive coordinator Nick Caley can do. More attention to Collins might make Caley’s job even more difficult. It would have been nice to involve him more in the quick game.

The most confusing thing from an offensive game plan point of view is that Woody Marks wasn’t targeted at all, and they prefer to play Ogunbowale. 

I can already sense some viewers/readers cringing because the grade isn’t lower, but it’s hard for me to specifically say what was significantly wrong with Caley’s game plan besides the previously mentioned things.

If Ogunbowale doesn’t fumble, then Caley’s game plan, like DeMeco’s, could have been enough to win.

It will be interesting to see how Caley responds and adjusts, but the offensive line creates a grading curve.

Posted
14 hours ago, Fat Bastard said:

The OL is garbage. Don’t disagree at all. What did our shitty FO do this offseason? Get some fatfuck journeyman in Robinson, one of the lowest rated guards in Tomlinson and put a bunch of jags around an overpaid Tytus. Ersery may be good, but more likely he’ll regress to the shitty mean of this OL and not improve to + level. 
 

Scruggs, Fisher, trading 2 or 3 1st’s for Tunsil (I don’t remember how many exactly) and giving Tytus that contract are each, independently fireable offenses for Casserio IMO. He just flat out fucking sucks at OL scouting/talent eval. 
 

if the Bears OL dominates after spending all those resources this offseason to protect their franchise qb vs the fucking Goodwill bin we went to will be interesting. 

Can’t believe I forgot to mention fatfuck aggy. Think I have ptsd on that pick and have selectively wiped it from memory. 

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