The Texans hadn’t lost a game since mid October. They showed last week they could go on the road, get punched in the mouth, and respond with a spectacular come from behind win. Well this week they punched in the mouth again, hard. They tried to respond after halftime but Cam Newton and the Panthers laid the knockout blow with a 7 play, 80 yd, 4th quarter drive that put the game essentially out of reach.
On one hand the Texans, as they have all year, had the cards stacked against them in this game. This was a classic trap game after a super emotional comeback win that claimed the first ever playoff spot for the franchise. The assistant coach of the year who has turned this defense from worst to first wasn’t available for his signature half time adjustments after a mid week medical procedure. The best offensive threat on the roster was sitting on the bench AGAIN for the 8th time this season. And the best weapons we had left combined for a pretty poor performance offensively. Not to mention Ron Rivera was running trick plays from the kid’s movie “Little Giants”. All of this combined with the fact that the team has been getting patted on the back ALL week may have set this team up for a letdown. And maybe a much needed wake up call.
On the other hand, this isn’t the first time the Texans offense has struggled under Yates. I know we all, including myself, had him up on a huge pedestal after the Atlanta win and especially after the Cincinnati win, but he looked like a rookie on Sunday in ways he hasn’t the 3 previous games. He seemed to always be going straight to the check down receiver rather than looking to move the ball downfield. Only 3 of Yates 19 completions were long throws over 10 yards. He didn’t complete his first long throw until the 4th quarter with the game almost out of reach. Both of the interceptions were caused by bad decisions, especially the one in the end zone. Yates tried to squeeze a ball into Jacoby with triple coverage because, as the TV analyst put it, he saw the flash of color he was looking for. He obviously failed to see the 3 defenders surrounding Jones. For all you Schaub haters out there ready to hand the keys to Yates, this was the 5th best offense in the league under Schaub scoring 27 points per game, now with the 3rd stringer Yates, were down to 17 points per game and 19th in total offense over the last 4 games.
Let’s not put this all on Yates though. There’s plenty of blame to go around for this bad performance. Arian fumbled and gave Cam a short field, the defense failed to secure a much needed turnover, and let’s be honest, the defense laid an egg in the first half. 3 out of 5 drives in the first half netted TDs for
the Panthers. The defense got caught sleeping on trick play and our linebackers had no answer for Cam when he got outside the pocket and ran. Interim Defensive coordinator Reggie Herring seemingly made great adjustments at half time but after the 3rd quarter we couldn’t stop Cam Newton and the 5th ranked offense in the NFL.Now I ask you, should we as Texans fans write this off as a bad game and expect the Texans take it as a wake up call, or should we be worried that maybe the Panthers exposed a weakness that will limit us against the higher competition we’ll see in the post season. Antonio Smith said today that this is going to be the fuel they need. I hope so…
You have to keep this game in perspective and look at the uniqueness of our opponent last week as compared to the threats we are facing in playoffs. Cam Newton and Carolina's offense are simply freaks when it comes to 3rd down conversions. They have been able to rely on Newton's feet to move the chains against all of their opponents this season. Our defense wasn't helped any either with Phillips' absence on the sideline. If you look, Carolina's W-L record doesn't reflect the caliber of their team. They arguably have one of the toughest schedules in football and have had an excellent showing against Green Bay, New Orleans, Atlanta, Chicago, and Detroit. The bright side is that we wont be facing them or a team built around a running QB for the rest of the season or through the playoffs.
ReplyDeleteThe things that concern me are how TJ Yates will handle defeat and how timid he will be after throwing 2 picks. He has to have the confidence to throw and I think that's why he kept looking at the check down receiver, Daniels, and Foster to throw to most of the time. He wasn't helped at all with dropped passes that should have been receptions. I really liked how active Delhomme appeared to be in calming down Yates after coming off the field. I think Schaub should be talking to the kid every second that he can. His role has moved from starting QB to Yates' mentor, coach, and sports psychologist. That whole team needs to keep him in "the zone". Yates was there in the previous 2 weeks but lost it last week.
We are still in the hunt for a 1st round bye if we win out the season and I am not ready to give up on that dream quite yet.
I also want to point out that I like what they were doing with Lawrence Vickers in this last game and I hope they continue mixing it up like that. We do need to get a bit tricky and use all of our tools if we want to see progress in the playoffs.
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