Kubiak needs to let Yates play

I am going to apologize in advance for what I’m about to say.  I’m not even sure I believe any of it but I have to let off some steam or my head is going to blow up! I was literally throwing things and breaking things last night I was so livid!  If you want to be considered a legitimate playoff team, you cannot lose to a 1 win team.  Under no circumstances can you lose to a 1 win team. Bad officiating or not, I repeat, you cannot lose to a 1 win team!!!

The officiating was awful!  Terrible!!  It was near scandalous.  The two main penalties that most fans are complaining about are the two separate roughing the passer calls that were so bad even Colts fans had to be scratching their heads.  It just seemed every time the Texans made a play on defense they were getting flagged.  And it wasn’t just the calls against the Texans, it was the non calls against the Colts. Mathis slapped TJ in the head on one of the sacks and on another TJ got popped in the head helmet to helmet. If you are going to call that weak ass penalty, you HAVE to call it both ways!!

That said, there is so much blame to go around, singling out bad officiating would be almost unfair. You won’t beat many teams if you don’t convert a single 3^rd down until late in the 4^th quarter.  And that one was a fluke!  1 for 10 on 3^rd down against a 1 win team is inexcusable!! Utterly inexcusable!!!  Many people are putting this loss on TJ today, but TJ wasn’t the problem.  He only had 3 incompletions and one of those was a hail mary. The problem is Gary Kubiak and Rick Dennison.  They have absolutely no faith in TJ and its obvious! Last week TJ only threw the ball deep down field 3 times, this week only twice, and again one of those was a last second hail mary.

If you won’t even attempt to stretch the field then you have to operate with 8-9 in the box every down.  Credit Arian for still being very productive in that environment but against a good Jets or the Steelers defense it won’t work!! Yes TJ played a bad game against Carolina, but he’s a rookie!  He is going to make mistakes but that’s part of the learning process. If you won’t let him get some confidence with those downfield throws now against a team like Indy, then when are you planning on doing it?  When we’re down by 21 to Pittsburg in the playoffs?  Yates showed he can play well against a good defense, if you let him.  So let him!! The 1^st round bye is gone.  Stop being so damn conservative!   I thought that would make me feel better but I’m still so pissed today! Inexcusable!!

Wake Up Call or Exposed

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…

Can Yates be "Legendary"?

The Houston Texans trailed the Cincinnati Bengals on the road by two scores with less than 12 minutes left in the game. The Texans running game wasn’t providing its rookie QB the protection it normally does and the defense wasn’t getting to the Bengals QB like the Bengals were getting to ours.  After he fumbled the ball away on 4^th down early in the fourth quarter, most 3^rd string rookie QB’s would have folded up the tent and gone home, but Texans rookie QB TJ Yates, with his parents watching from the nosebleed seats,  put on his big boy pants, put the team on his back and won Houston is first division crown in team history.

Yates was near legendary on the final game winning drive.  Watching him pull it off with the poise and precision of a grisly veteran I couldn’t help but be reminded that the guy on the sidelines calling the plays witnessed, first hand, another QB define the “game winning drive” 25 years earlier. Before you have me committed for comparing Yates to Hall of Famer John Elway, hear me out.  Yates game winning drive had a lot of similarities to “The Drive” by John Elway in the 1986 AFC Title game.

Elway was backed up on his 2 and Yates got it at his 20 but Elway had over 5 minutes to play and Yates had only 2:33 and no timeouts.  Elway dinked and dunked down the field until he had a huge 20 yd completion to Mark Jackson.  Yates completed a few short passes until he hit Kevin Walter on a long pass over the middle.  Both QB’s took sacks in the drive, and both QBs had to scramble for long first downs but neither saw a 4^th down during the drive. Yates went 5-9 (not including spikes) and Elway went 6-9.  Both QB’s finished off the drive with a TD pass to the same receiver that made the big catch to get them in position to win it.

Now Elway’s legendary drive was in the playoffs and won the Broncos an AFC Title while Yates’ drive only won a regular season Division Title.  So before we anoint Yates the second coming (Tebow already has that title by the way), let’s see what the kid can do in the playoffs.  He will still have chance to prove he’s the real deal against NFL legends like James Harrison and Troy Palamalu, or Ray Lewis and Terrell Suggs.  Just remember no rookie QB has ever started a Super Bowl so Yates will have to succeed where so many others have failed.  But then again this team is doing all sorts of things that are “impossible” so, not to be too cheesy but, who knows where this magical run will end?

Notes:

Texans reclaimed the top defense spot after allowing only 111 yards and 3 points in the second half including -1 yards for RB Cedric Benson.

Texans sustain more injuries losing KR Sherrick McMannis for the year with an ankle injury and G Mike Brisiel for 3 to 4 games with a broken leg.

How the Texans can win the division this week!

The Texans can claim their first division crown and first trip to the postseason this coming weekend if they can beat the Bengals and the Titans lose to the Saints.  The scenario in which Gary Kubiak will  get the gatorade bath in Cincinnati this week is quite complicated and goes to the 3rd divisional tie breaker.
Here are the tiebreakers:

1. Head-to-head (best won-lost-tied percentage in games between the clubs).
2. Best won-lost-tied percentage in games played within the division.
3. Best won-lost-tied percentage in common games.
4. Best won-lost-tied percentage in games played within the conference.
5. Strength of victory.
6. Strength of schedule.
7. Best combined ranking among conference teams in points scored and points allowed.
8. Best combined ranking among all teams in points scored and points allowed.
9. Best net points in common games.
10. Best net points in all games.
11. Best net touchdowns in all games.
12. Coin toss  (that would suck!)

The first tiebreaker in this scenario would still be even as we already beat the Titans in Tennessee in week 7, so a loss at home in week 17 is meaningless.  The second tie breaker (divisional record) would also be even as we are currently 4-0 in the division and Tennessee is 1-2.  The worst we could possibly finish is 4-2 and the best that Tennessee can finish is 4-2 as well.  The third tiebreaker is W-L record in common games and this is where it gets complicated.  Our common games would be Indianapolis twice and Jacksonville twice, then we both played the AFC north and the NFC south. Neither of our Strength of schedule games were common.  At this point we can do no worse than 3-1 against Indy and Jacksonville and the best Tennessee can do is 3-1. We are can do no worse than 2-2 in the NFC south as we've already beaten Atlanta and Tampa. If Tennessee loses this weekend their NFC south record will be 2-2 as well. At last we get to the AFC north.  If we win this weekend we will finish the year with 3 wins in the AFC north over Cleveland, Pittsburg, and Cincinnati.  Tennessee already lost two games in the AFC north this year to Cincinnati and Pittsburg, so our 3-1 AFC North record will trump their 2-2 record and break the tie.
Whew!!  I need to take a breath!! So as you can see its possible.  This scenario does require TJ Yates to win his first road game in the NFL, but they always say when you go on the road in the NFL, the two things to make sure and pack are your defense and running game.  Our two strengths.

Go Texans!