Sadly, I barely have the strength to type this.
The Texans, for the second week in a row, did not play well. Their defense was god awful against the pass. Matt Schaub didn’t have a straight-out horrible game, but he was not good. Missed throws all over the place. Shayne Graham is, was, and will continue to be terrible. Gary Kubiak called a questionable game, and was downright awful in overtime. I didn’t even like the way Wade Phillips called the defense. The team had just played almost five full 15-minute periods on Sunday. They were missing their best defensive back against the most dominant receiver in the NFL.
And yet, they won. Again. This team is all heart. ALL heart. Thanks to some questionable play by Detroit, a free touchdown from the referees and Jim Schwartz, and some straight up luck in overtime – the Texans are 10-1. Somehow.
Shayne Grahahm. If you follow me on Twitter, read this blog, or listen to Battle Red Radio, you know I’ve wanted this guy gone pretty much all year. Gives you nothing on kickoffs, and can only make the easy field goals. Suddenly today – touchbacks! But was there anyone – ANY Texans fan – ANYWHERE – that thought for one second he was going to make that 51-yarder in overtime? I sure didn’t think he had a shot. Most of that falls on him, but a lot of that falls on Gary Kubiak for going UBER conservative at a time where the offense was shredding the Lions. YOU CANNOT PLAY FOR A LONG FIELD GOAL WHEN SHAYNE GRAHAM IS YOUR KICKER. YOU CAN PLAY FOR A LONG FIELD GOAL IF YOU HAVE A GOOD KICKER. But, it turns out that 1 – the Texans don’t have a good kicker, and 2 – the kicker they do have IS SHAYNE GRAHAM!!!
*deep breath*
Shayne Graham is at best not good, or just plain terrible.
Okay, I’m done. (He’s terrible. I hate kickers.)
The defense is officially a problem. I know they were missing Johnathan Joseph, but it’s clear we’ve got some issues going forward. The team can probably continue to win against average or good quarterbacks, but against a great QB, the Texans would have gotten destroyed today. SO much blitzing, and blitzing like they did today (because they didn’t get there on blitzes) will KILL us against Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger, or Tom Brady. That said, Wade probably doesn’t blitz that much against those guys.
On Thanksgiving Day, I’m thankful for free touchdowns like the one Justin Forsett scored. I did not know the rule that ended up giving the Texans a touchdown, and neither did any of the people I text messaged about it. It was an insane combination of: 1) The referees not blowing the play dead. 2) Forsett not giving up on the play. 3) Jim Schwartz, like me, not knowing about the rule that his team can’t benefit from an automatic scoring-play challenge if he throws a challenge flag himself. Man, is that ever a stupid rule. But thank goodness it’s out there… uh, for now and now only.
Hey, it’s Turkey Day, and even though we are having ours tomorrow – I’m going to have some more beer and watch some more football.
More on this game soon. Plenty more. But for now I need to recover from that game.
TEN and ONE, and man it feels good.
This, though? This does NOT feel good. h/t SB Nation
Nov 22, 2012 at 19:23:45
Sweat, more sweat, and indigestion. Glad that win is over! Guess what –back at ya number 90! Glad to see Kubiak say something about the intended kick as the announcers sure did too!
Nov 23, 2012 at 03:16:05
2 big things; these are unquestioned truths, and I’m sorry Chris, but you’re on the wrong side of one of them, so I’ll lead with that.
1) the defense is not in trouble. They gave up a lot of points blah blah blah I don’t care and you shouldn’t either.
Megatron dominated Alan Ball, a guy who belongs solely on special teams (where the fudge are Harris and Carmichael?!?) but K-Jax held him in check.
Watt got 3 each of sacks and deflections. After a couple of off weeks, the salute and Mutombo-finger were back in action (to include when the lineman he beat for a tip gave him a late pancake and he just got up and did the finger wave right in his face). Someone did not like getting upstaged by Aldon’s 5.5-sack game.
Let me remind you that these guys have played 2.5 games in 5 days, and 3.5 in the past 11. These guys were totally gassed and faced a punishing offense in Detroit. Give them a damn break. That said, if they rest for 9 days then let the BESF’s drop 30+, then we can bring the pitchforks.
2) Booth reviews on every TD and TO detract from the game. The whole benefit of the coaches’ challenge is that it gives the coaches one more way to impact the game. With every TD and TO reviewed, there are now very few plays that are worth the flag, not to mention that every score has the momentum-killing gridlock of a booth review. In an effort to try and make it impossible to ever have a bad call happen (which is impossible in and of itself) the NFL went too far and jumped the shark on replay rules. “The Forsett” WILL cause a modification of the rule and I hope they do not side in favor of more booth BS.
Nov 23, 2012 at 11:22:42
Schwartz knew the rule because he pointed to himself on the sideline and basically said its on him. I also read on ESPN NFL that teams/ coaches were sent memos at the beginning of the season about this new rule
Nov 26, 2012 at 16:33:37
@johnnyterror
That’s true but the problem is the rule itself. There’s no reason to have the booth review each and every single touchdown or turnover when we can put that on the coaches and let them be as smart/dumb as they want.
This also gives a huge homefield advantage, which I wholeheartedly support. Homefield plays that may be a favoreable challenge will get repeatedly replayed on the jumbo screen as a hint hint for the coaches (there was a Texans game this season – I forget which – where Kubiak has grabbed the ref in anticipation of tossing a challenge flag and you can see him looking up at the jumbo screen and talking into his headset “Run it again” to whomever has the authority to dictate what replay is shown.
The constant booth reviews slow down the game and do not necessarily eliminate human error since humans are the ones reviewing it and lack of evidence sides with the original ruling.
It is also not unprecendented for the replay rules to reflect a desire to not slow down the game. Penalties (especially non-calls on penalties) can’t be challenged, and that is clearly in an effort to keep the game moving forward.