The interception would have helped the Texan's big time. It would have kept the Pats from having the ball and giving it back to the Texans with 2min left. Perhaps they wouldn't score against the Pats, but atleats they would have run the clock.
Damn that hurt. I thought the Jets game was painful but this one put a couple of knots in my stomach.
And I thought the Tuck Rule was injustice. You got ****in jobbed. New England is a group of collective spoil-sports. It is too bad they resort to cheating.
A quick post to vent and I'm off to bed. I do not like Chris Palmer's play calling. I hated running the ball twice with 40 seconds left in regulation time. CHICKEN****!! They may have never even seen the ball in OT if they lose the coin toss. After moving the ball on the first possession of OT they have a second and 8. What's the call? A long pass just out of reach, bringing up third and long. They have to punt after not converting. Why a low percentage long pass down the field in that situation? If they had kept moving the chains, they would have soon been in field goal range. Why not try that long pass at the end of regulation. Next possession in OT, they have a first down in field goal range and go chicken**** again. Two straight runs resulting in losses that took them out of field goal range. N.E. defensive line was nails all day. How about some short passes or screens? How about a short pass or screen on the second and 8 on the first OT possession that would have been a higer percentage play and would have given them a first or third and short. I've not liked Palmer's play calling all year. I think the team's done well in spite of him. Last b**** I have is please, let's upgrade Eric Brown. The guy finally gets a pick and doesn't take care of the ball and gives it right back. He was also stumbling around on the coverage of the touch that tied it in regulation. I know he's pretty good against the run, but he never seems to make plays against the pass. Now that Matt Stevens isn't starting, let's focus on this position. I know he signed a healthy contract in the off season, but I don't see the production. Oh well, we still need another good draft pick or two. I feel bad for the players, they played very hard and should have won. I blame Palmer for this one.
Perfectly said. At the end of regulation I would've tried to get a 1st down then taken a shot down the field. They basically threw away 40 seconds and that pissed me off. I also think Chris Palmer is a good coordinator, he just gets too conservative when the game is on the line. When the Pats got the ball back, they opened up the offense and drove right down the field. I really wish he would learn from watching the other teams, or something.
since you seem to have blocked it out, banks' first pass in OT was intercepted - THAT's why you run out the clock, especially at your own 19, with an opportunistic D across from you. it's the smart thing to do. banks threw an interception on their first possession. AJ should've caught the pass; the call was fine. you don't try that at the end of regulation for two reasons: 1) you don;t want a turnover in vinatieri's range; 2) an incompletion stops the clock - you want them punting from their goal line? i can't really fault them for running here; they really only needed 5 yards to get into range for brown - no need to get fancy, risk a sack, etc. hell, stay at the 35, i bet they would've given brown a chance. he intercepted the pass - isn;t that production? honestly, the pats rarely threw to glenn's (and thus, brown's) side of the field; they were picking on coleman and mccree. brown can certainly be upgraded, but he and the defense played admirably today - kept NE out of the end zone, made big plays, pressured brady. tough one to lose, but you can't knock the effort.
We'll see four W's in the next 5 weeks... watch. And we''l still be 6-7 after the TB game... (we'll make it up there on the way to 8-8).
First of all, we should have been at least 5-5 before the start of this game,(I still have the image of AJ missing that bullet thrown to him against the Jets on the 10 or 5 yard line) . And our last drive when the we got the ball around the 40, if the first time Davis didn't get much on the first run, well we should have passed both of the other downs.
My thinking with 40 seconds is that you drop back and if nobody is open you can throw it away, fall down, or take off. So there's no real danger of a turnover unless you are completely careless. If you feel the pressure of a sack you drop to the ground and then let the clock blow out. If you don't feel the pressure then you take a look down field and see what you've got. You're really not taking a gamble at all. If a coverage gets blown you throw it. If not, you get to the ground. Banks would have to make a terrible decision to get intercepted in a situation like that if you ask me.
I wondered if my post would bring our Ric or not. I didn't forget the interception, I just got the possession wrong. My memory is not quite as sharp as it used to be. However, the interception does not change any of my points. What difference does it make if AJ should have caught the ball or not? It is still a relatively low percentage call. It resulted in third and long, just out of field goal range. Texans were having a difficult time converting. I absolutely disagree about running out the clock in regulation. What if N.E. had won the toss. They (N.E.) had trouble in the red zone, but moved the ball much better than the Texans all day. It is possible to throw a ball long where only your guy has a chance to catch it. You twice mentioned the interception as justification for going conservative. I have watched football for a lot of years and have seen going conservative backfire more times than not. Texans not only went conservative at the wrong time, but went super conservative. There are many different coaching styles. Look around the league and it is easy to see. I don't like Palmer's style. You can't tell me that a different coach very probably wouldn't have called those plays differently. It doesn't mean either one is right, and I said I don't like Palmer's style. The problem I have with your posting style, Ric, is you post like everything is black and white and you are the only one that knows which is which. You have a condescending style where your opinions are facts which they are not. There are plenty of coaches around the league that would have handled those situations differently. I know the logic behind Palmer's stragegy. There is some logic behind all strategies, yet there are all sorts of different strategies both offensively and defensively. Go figure.
both are much, much easier said than done; you don't have that much control over what happens in a game. look at what happened to carr in buffalo. blind blitz he never saw coming; ball pops loose, nearly resulting in a defensive touchdown - what if that happened inside our 10? re: running davis - at the 35, the last thing you want to do is lose yardage at that point. throwing the ball makes that a possibility. davis was the safe, but also smart option in that instance; they simply failed to execute.
aren't you using the fact they effectively moved the football on their second drive in OT as justification for playing less conservatively? so why is in the interception irrelevant? 999 out of 1,000 times, banks' pick ends the game. (i'm still stunned vinatieri had a GW'er blocked.) you get a second chance like the texans did, you're gonna put the ball back in banks' hands and ask him to win the game for you? too risky. banks has played well enough to not blow games, but his numbers have been pedestrian, at best. you don't put the game on his shoulders. there's a reason he's lost two other starting jobs and is now a back-up. and yet, putting the ball in the air from inside their own 10 with :40 left is high percentage? coaches can't execute plays, only call them. AJ was open, banks made a perfect pass and it hit johnson in the hands. if he holds onto that football, the texans win the game. how is putting your team in a position to win a product of bad coaching? as you said, low % play; the chances of hitting on something like that rate lower than the chances of banks getting sacked and/or him turning the ball over. the texans generated 169 yards of total offense in five full quarters; banks tallied 93 of those yards. if you're not moving the football effectively, what's the likelihood that you'll suddenly reverse that trend in the most extreme of situations? if tom brady were my QB, or i had the rams' offensive talent; i think about it. palmer had neither yesterday. it was the right thing to do. you'd be b****ing up a storm if banks had dropped back, took a hit and fumbled. and buddy ryan would've punched somebody. a different coach with different personnel, maybe, but given the same team palmer has to work with? i don't agree. the OL was overmatched all day, banks has a history of turning the ball over and 2 of your 3 receivers have less than 2 years NFL experience, and the third one drops as many as he catches. coaches given that to work with would have done the safe thing, especially in light of how pathetic the offense had been to that point. it's not condenscension - it's detachment. i'm not yet emotionally invested in wins and losses, and won't be until games really mean something, so i don't react emotionally, but, rather, objectively. i always consider how i'd react to the two worst case scenarios. i'd rather them lose doing the right thing than hanging their dicks in the wind and losing because they abandonded all common sense. a year or two from now, this team might be good enough to take a chance; if carr's healthy, i'd like to see them give him a chance to see what he can do and learn in the process. there are certainly other styles, but this is a question of personnel - a back-up QB, an overmatched line, an inexperienced group of receivers. all the texans had to do at the pat 35 was NOT lose yardage and hold onto the football. passing elevates the chances of either happening moreso than a run does. if davis can just get three yards -- THREE -- on those two carries, brown's left with a makeable 49-yarder - why jeopardize that?
btw, for the record, i'm not a big fan of palmer's but am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt because i don't think the texans have the horses yet to dictate offensive pace. he's passive, and, imo, has to be until everyone developes further. i think the team, offensively, has made quantum leaps from last year. if they can make the same leap next year, i'll be OK with palmer. next year is when i start holding his feet to the fire. we'll see...
This will be my last post to you about this. You're the type that never quits, always tries to get in the last word. You will have it. Look at your quote. You act like running the ball wide with Davis eliminates the chance to lose yardage. Davis did not have a lot of success running wide in that game. If they had been running the ball down N.E. 's throat, then it's not so questionable. They had not. That makes it not so safe and smart. Why should the execution necessarily be better at that point? If Banks had thrown a perfect pass to a perfect route, it probably would have been a touch. That's just it, it wasn't a perfect pass, it was slightly underthrown, making AJ slow just enough to let the defender make a play. That's my point. You have to execute a perfect play there or bring up third and long when you're just out of field goal range and haven't been converting third and longs. You talk about it being better to lose by playing right, rather than abandoning all common senes. What B.S. You're saying the type of play calling I would have liked to have seen in those situations would have been abandoning all common sense. I'm sorry, but that is just a stupid exaggeration. Again, it's your propensity to see everything in black and white, and if it's not your opinion, then it's abandoning all common sense. One other small point. Of course other coaches would employ different strategies, even with the same exact personnel. Banks is a veteran qb, has a strong arm and made some great plays last week to beat Buffalo. Ridiculous comment. Oh, by the way, fwiw, The Houston Comical has an article questioning the play calling in OT, and specifically the long pass attempt with 2nd and 8.
since you've been rather helpful in dispensing forum etiquette, allow me to return the favor: it's kind of uncool to knowingly attempt to call someone out and then, once you've accomplished that, quickly jumping upon your high horse to try and make that person look bad. you wanted me to respond, and i have - seems like you were more interested in sabotaging me that actually discussing your or my opinions. my recollection is that both plays were up the middle, but i'm at work, so i can't confirm that. if they were both sweeps, then i would, like you, be upset, but, again, that's not how i remember them. prior to the 2 runs in question, davis had 22 carries for 74 yards, an average of 3.3 a carry. if he gets his average on those two carries, brown's left with a 45-yard FG to win the game (and had he picked up 6 on those two carries, they would have run on third down, too - another 2-3 yards and it's a 42-43-yard FG). comparatively, banks was averaging 3.7 yards per pass attempt and completing 40% of his passes. when you're in field goal range, especially in overtime, you take the road of least resistance. running davis was the right thing to do. wait - so when you're already in field goal range, it's time to pass, but when you're just beyond, the proper course is to go conservative? which is it? do you even know what you're arguing anymore, or are you just being contrarian for the sake of being contrarian? and go back and watch the tape - the ball wasn't under thrown, it was out in front of AJ, hitting him in stride. watching the replay, the NE defender actually grabbed and ripped AJ's helmet, but johnson still should have made the catch. no, a ridiculous comment would be pretending banks "made" some great plays against the bills. his two game-breaking passes traveled a total of 11 and 1 yards, respectively; johnson did the rest, running 76 yards. beyond that, banks was 9/14 for 119 yards. he had about as much to do with the win as tyra banks did. also, fwiw, after banks' interception in OT yesterday, do you know what the pats did after taking possession? three straight run plays, the last of which was brady falling between the hashmarks to set up vinatieri. did you have a problem with him running when his team was in field goal range? and are NE and HOU the only coaches who adopt this radical brand of thinking? well, it's good to know a publication you respect so much, you're calling it the comical, agrees with you.
dude...i freaking love the texans...i freaking love the fact we gave an 8-2 team all they could handle...i freaking love the fact that a second freaking year freaking expansion team is one that can't be freaking overlooked by anyone...i seriously love this freaking team...i love the game presentation..i love the personality of the team...i love the owner...i even love the freaking mascot that makes my freaking son laugh his freaking head off before every freaking game. this team...and this experience with this team...has so far exceeded my expectations, it makes the other teams in this freaking city look freaking laughable. as one who has owned season tickets for the oilers, astros and rockets..the texans, as an organization, put them all to shame. it's not even close. it's so far apart it's freaking laughable. freaking. thank you. freaks.
Well said...sorta. At the time, I was going insane, but I love the fact that we were able to give the Pats a huge scare. In the past 2 years (27 games), we've had 17 games where the score was less than 10 pts. only 10 games (mostly all last year) were 11 pts or more (all losses) The Texans have been competative, and BEATEN great teams so far. Beat the Giants/Steelers last year, both playoff teams. This year, we've beaten Miami, Carolina and kept it close with New England. great games against 5 playoff teams (in the year we beat them) Anyway, I got lost in where I'm going. I'm out.
