Game Thoughts: Houston, we had no problem (with you) Thread

Here we go:

• I think it was a tactical error for Bill O'Brien to bench JJ Watt for the game. They really could have used him. In all seriousness, JJ Watt (or as I like to call him, Josh McDaniels' B**ch) was invisible last night. Kudos to the o-line and McDaniels for totally taking him out of the game. He has never done a lot against the Patriots.
• Although the defense played great, I think the special teams were the real heroes of this game. Ryan Allen had the best game of his career. Every one of his punts were perfectly placed. And the kick coverage unit caused two turnovers that got the Pats 14 of their 27 points.
• Speaking of the kick coverage unit, have you seen a new rule blow up in the League's face like the change of the change of moving the touchback to the 25 yard line. I can't believe they didn't see that it would make teams kick it short like the Pats have been doing. The first thing I thought when I heard the rule was that even most of the successful kick returns don't go beyond the 25 and it is worth the risk to kick it short and hope to bring down the returner before the 25.
• Speaking of rules, this officiating crew was awful. Missed blatant PIs. Very questionable PIs. Horrible spots. On one spot, the line judge got wrapped up in the pile and actually moved his spot at least a foot beyond where he originally spot it turning a 4th and inches to a first down. Awful! Awful! Awful! This game cost Walt Coleman any chance of working the Super Bowl.
• Jacoby Brissett played pretty well considering, but he really needs to work on his touch passes. He gave up two TDs because he rifled the ball into the end zone rather than putting a little arch on the ball. I don't have a problem with his missed deep passes just because he had little to no time to work with the receivers and get a good feel of their speed to know what area to throw to. I think if he had a full week with the starters in practice (and not a short week with only walk throughs), he might have connected a few of those long passes.
• I know he gets a lot of crap in the gameday threads, but I think Logan Ryan has been very good this season other than the second half of last week's game when the entire secondary fell apart. He has drawn the toughest assignment each week thus far (Larry Fitzgerald, DeAndre Hopkins). Every single one of Hopkins' receptions were in tight coverage and great catches that only an elite WR could make (and maybe not every elite WR).
• It has been night and day for the o-line from last season to this. Interesting how an o-line can gel when they pick a line up and pretty much stick with it rather than doing a completely different line up week after week. Solder probably had his best game as a pro on Thursday.
• I guess Jamie Collins listened to the radio this week. There were several shows where the hosts were starting to say that Collins was overrated. He proved on Thursday that he is among the top LBs in the league.
• I still don't get what people see in Osweiller. He was wildly inconsistent in Denver in his limited starts. Yet, Denver was willing to pay him $16 million a year to be their starter and Houston paid oh-so much more to steal him away. I don't think he fits Houston's system well either.
• Say what you will about LeGarette Blount, but the guy is a closer. The last two weeks, he ran like a force at the end of the game when the Pats needed him to run down the clock. He was more than that this week. He won't be a top RB in the league, but he is far better than some give him credit for. Wait until Brady comes back and teams sacrifice run defense to put extra guys in coverage.
• I know there is a contingency that still doesn't like Josh McDaniels (one of my closest friends is one of them), but the guy is clearly the best OC in the league. He designed a brilliant game plan to go against one of the league's top defenses with a rookie third string QB as a starter. If you want to see what the Pats could have without him, just look how the Texans called their offense on Thursday. That was a disaster.

Good post. On your 1st bullet you might have misspoke as it relates to how Patricia neutralized JJ Watt.

robertweathers said:

Good post. On your 1st bullet you might have misspoke as it relates to how Patricia neutralized JJ Watt.

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I meant McDaniels. I will fix.

I don't think the new rule is blowing up in their face. IMO the league moved KO up to put up a show that they cared about players health and wanted to reduce the risk of injury by making Touch Backs more common.

The league didn't do away with the KO because it is one the most exciting plays in the game. Now by adding the 25 yard on TBs, the KOs are more common adding to the excitement, and TBs give an extra 5 yards to the offense, which will add to more points over the season. A win win either way.

I actually love the changes, now the KO is a lot less predictable. First from the standpoint of not knowing if the KO team will take the easy TB or if they will the roll dice to see if they can get the short stop. And seeing how the return guy handles the return with Defenders coming down quicker than before.

Rob0729 said:

I think it was a tactical error for Bill O'Brien to bench JJ Watt for the game. They really could have used him. In all seriousness, JJ Watt (or as I like to call him, Josh McDaniels' B**ch) was invisible last night. Kudos to the o-line and McDaniels for totally taking him out of the game. He has never done a lot against the Patriots.

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Good post.

I think the addition of Bennett and the return of Devlin has been a boost for the O line as well.

Rob0729 said:

Here we go:

• I think it was a tactical error for Bill O'Brien to bench JJ Watt for the game. They really could have used him. In all seriousness, JJ Watt (or as I like to call him, Josh McDaniels' B**ch) was invisible last night. Kudos to the o-line and McDaniels for totally taking him out of the game. He has never done a lot against the Patriots.
• Although the defense played great, I think the special teams were the real heroes of this game. Ryan Allen had the best game of his career. Every one of his punts were perfectly placed. And the kick coverage unit caused two turnovers that got the Pats 14 of their 27 points.
• Speaking of the kick coverage unit, have you seen a new rule blow up in the League's face like the change of the change of moving the touchback to the 25 yard line. I can't believe they didn't see that it would make teams kick it short like the Pats have been doing. The first thing I thought when I heard the rule was that even most of the successful kick returns don't go beyond the 25 and it is worth the risk to kick it short and hope to bring down the returner before the 25.
• Speaking of rules, this officiating crew was awful. Missed blatant PIs. Very questionable PIs. Horrible spots. On one spot, the line judge got wrapped up in the pile and actually moved his spot at least a foot beyond where he originally spot it turning a 4th and inches to a first down. Awful! Awful! Awful! This game cost Walt Coleman any chance of working the Super Bowl.
• Jacoby Brissett played pretty well considering, but he really needs to work on his touch passes. He gave up two TDs because he rifled the ball into the end zone rather than putting a little arch on the ball. I don't have a problem with his missed deep passes just because he had little to no time to work with the receivers and get a good feel of their speed to know what area to throw to. I think if he had a full week with the starters in practice (and not a short week with only walk throughs), he might have connected a few of those long passes.
• I know he gets a lot of crap in the gameday threads, but I think Logan Ryan has been very good this season other than the second half of last week's game when the entire secondary fell apart. He has drawn the toughest assignment each week thus far (Larry Fitzgerald, DeAndre Hopkins). Every single one of Hopkins' receptions were in tight coverage and great catches that only an elite WR could make (and maybe not every elite WR).
• It has been night and day for the o-line from last season to this. Interesting how an o-line can gel when they pick a line up and pretty much stick with it rather than doing a completely different line up week after week. Solder probably had his best game as a pro on Thursday.
• I guess Jamie Collins listened to the radio this week. There were several shows where the hosts were starting to say that Collins was overrated. He proved on Thursday that he is among the top LBs in the league.
• I still don't get what people see in Osweiller. He was wildly inconsistent in Denver in his limited starts. Yet, Denver was willing to pay him $16 million a year to be their starter and Houston paid oh-so much more to steal him away. I don't think he fits Houston's system well either.
• Say what you will about LeGarette Blount, but the guy is a closer. The last two weeks, he ran like a force at the end of the game when the Pats needed him to run down the clock. He was more than that this week. He won't be a top RB in the league, but he is far better than some give him credit for. Wait until Brady comes back and teams sacrifice run defense to put extra guys in coverage.
• I know there is a contingency that still doesn't like Josh McDaniels (one of my closest friends is one of them), but the guy is clearly the best OC in the league. He designed a brilliant game plan to go against one of the league's top defenses with a rookie third string QB as a starter. If you want to see what the Pats could have without him, just look how the Texans called their offense on Thursday. That was a disaster.

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The very first sentence is classsssic! LOL

Blount is such a good closer because of his size. You have a defense chasing around short shifty receivers and being steamrolled by Blount/OL/TEs for 3 quarters...they get gassed so the 250lbs back is going to have a field day the longer the game goes.

Can I hand out a trophy for the awesome title of this thread?

Cannon for comeback player of the year.

gobesmug said:

I don't think the new rule is blowing up in their face. IMO the league moved KO up to put up a show that they cared about players health and wanted to reduce the risk of injury by making Touch Backs more common.

The league didn't do away with the KO because it is one the most exciting plays in the game. Now by adding the 25 yard on TBs, the KOs are more common adding to the excitement, and TBs give an extra 5 yards to the offense, which will add to more points over the season. A win win either way.

I actually love the changes, now the KO is a lot less predictable. First from the standpoint of not knowing if the KO team will take the easy TB or if they will the roll dice to see if they can get the short stop. And seeing how the return guy handles the return with Defenders coming down quicker than before.

Click to expand...

Nah, it's blowing up in their face. The reason for the rule was to reduce returns out of the endzone. The thinking was to place the ball at the 25 to reduce the temptation for coaches to have their Kick returners run it out of the end zone. This was a stupid attempt to reduce collisions (concussions) during kick offs.

What has happened is that some coaches now kick the ball higher and shorter to force the opposing team to try to make it to the 25. In New England's case it has led to a few takeaways and shorter starting position for the opponent.

Anyways more collisions when the NFL wanted to reduce them.

No mention of Cryus the Virus fumbling three times?

NG Pats Fan said:

No mention of Cryus the Virus fumbling three times?

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He technically only fumbled once. He was down by contact on one drop and the gunner hit him before he got the ball on the other. My guess is when he was illegally blocked while trying to get the punt, it rattled him. Besides, the one fumble didn't hurt them at all.

gobesmug said:

I don't think the new rule is blowing up in their face. IMO the league moved KO up to put up a show that they cared about players health and wanted to reduce the risk of injury by making Touch Backs more common.

The league didn't do away with the KO because it is one the most exciting plays in the game. Now by adding the 25 yard on TBs, the KOs are more common adding to the excitement, and TBs give an extra 5 yards to the offense, which will add to more points over the season. A win win either way.

I actually love the changes, now the KO is a lot less predictable. First from the standpoint of not knowing if the KO team will take the easy TB or if they will the roll dice to see if they can get the short stop. And seeing how the return guy handles the return with Defenders coming down quicker than before.

Click to expand...

Except the results of the rule thus far is to increase the potential for injuries because kick returns are up this year and touchbacks are down.

Rob0729 said:

Here we go:

• It has been night and day for the o-line from last season to this. Interesting how an o-line can gel when they pick a line up and pretty much stick with it rather than doing a completely different line up week after week. Solder probably had his best game as a pro on Thursday.

Click to expand...

How much of this is due to change in coach? So glad Scarnecchia was lured out of retirement.

Cyrus will be coached up on returns.....ball security......he could become a force later this year...can't wait to see him break one for 6........plus it should be saving Jules and Danny from extra hits.......Having Jones injured on a return would be preferable than losing Edelman or Amendola.......

Rob0729 said:

Except the results of the rule thus far is to increase the potential for injuries because kick returns are up this year and touchbacks are down.

Click to expand...

Sorry I didn't make myself clear.

The rule to increase the TB to 25 yards instead of 20 yards is to serve two purposes.

1st is to shorten the field for offense to increase overall scoring potential. Higher scoring games seem to interest the ave fan more.

2nd is to increase the amount of KO returns than last year.

The NFL is playing the PR game of trying to look like they care about player safety. Ultimately the KO return game is exciting and even more so now than before. The shortened field allows KO coverage teams more time to try and stop the returner short. Fun to watch along with the possibility for the exciting KO return for a TD due to the decreased % of TB.

If the league truly wanted to reduce the return game more, they would have moved the TB yard to 15 yards, thus creating greater incentive for teams to get TBs.

At least this is my opinion. If the NFL really didn't anticipate the new strategies than their blunder has created a more exciting KO experience than last year.

Tony2046 said:

Nah, it's blowing up in their face. The reason for the rule was to reduce returns out of the endzone. The thinking was to place the ball at the 25 to reduce the temptation for coaches to have their Kick returners run it out of the end zone. This was a stupid attempt to reduce collisions (concussions) during kick offs.

What has happened is that some coaches now kick the ball higher and shorter to force the opposing team to try to make it to the 25. In New England's case it has led to a few takeaways and shorter starting position for the opponent.

Anyways more collisions when the NFL wanted to reduce them.

Click to expand...

I just don't see how it is "blowing up in their face". Did fans truly outcry over KOs and demand that the NFL reduce them? Are fans screaming in anger over the increase in KOS?

You say it's it's blowing up because you are enjoying watching the pats utilize the shortened KO to high arch kicks to allow the coverage team to to get stops within the 20. That is exciting. How is making the game more exciting blowing up in the NFL's face?

If anything the NFL can say they tried to reduce it, but coaches are the ones who keep it going. This they can show they care about player safety but place the blame on the players and coaches.

Again this is my opinion and if you don't agree then it's cool. Just wanted to share a different view then the standard NFL FO is a bunch of monkeys and every decision they make is stupid. Granted that is always fun as well

Rob0729 said:

Say what you will about LeGarette Blount, but the guy is a closer. The last two weeks, he ran like a force at the end of the game when the Pats needed him to run down the clock. He was more than that this week. He won't be a top RB in the league, but he is far better than some give him credit for. Wait until Brady comes back and teams sacrifice run defense to put extra guys in coverage.

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Gonna add a Huzzah to this one...it's and yes it's only 3 weeks and the other backs haven't played yet but look...



Also has 4 total TD which leads the league. Oh and one more thing..



I post these to say, perhaps Blount may be the offseason signing we look toward at the end of the year that paid dividends. That was a signing that went so under the radar nationally, and this guy, along with the OL run blocking like bosses, is showing out. Long way from walking off the field in Pissburgh on MNF, eh?

I think that Watt was at much less than full strength in this game, whether it was his back, the short week or whatever. When he's going full tilt it's difficult for two blockers to contain him. But I've also noticed that in games where he's being handled successfully he tends to dial down the effort. I think all defensive players do that to some extent, but the difference is more noticeable with him.

Good job, though, for the OL to keep him contained, no matter what.

Didn't like Vince landing on top of Jacoby that one time, when he was already down. Don't know if that was the time he hurt his thumb or whether it was another. Vince must be up to nearly 400.