Game Thoughts - The Texans are BBQed Edition

[Rob0729]

Here we go:

1. I was hesitant to go this far the last time the Pats beat them, but I will go there now. The Texans are frauds. I said they cannot beat the elite teams, but they really can't even run with them either. The game really wasn't as close as the score made it.
2. Sucks about Gronk, but this was the perfect example of "next man up". Vereen decided to have a career day making people forget that Gronk wasn't on the field and Texans fans, players, and coaches wishing Vereen wasn't. Vereen has the potential of being an unique RB in this team. He can rush the ball and has speed and mobilty none of the other RBs have. That speed makes him a dangerous threat in the receiving game and he create mismatches down he field.
3. So much for the concern about Ninkovich not being healthy. The guy made a huge impact on both defense and special teams. Belichick should have let him play offense ala Mike Vrabel to make him an impact player on offense.
4. The special teams coverage unit absolutely sucked today. I trie to see where they went wrong, but it seems a mixture of a numer of things including missed tackles, players over pursuing, and just beingout of position. McCourty got all those props from coming from behind and saving the TD on the first kick coverage, but he got totally out manuvered earlier on the play.
5. I thought the Broncos taking a knee at the end of the first half yesterday as spineless. The Pats' offensive sequence was even worse. What happened to Belichick saying that if you sit in a trench, you lose and you always need to attack.
6. I still don't know what the Texans continued to run Foster right up the middle. I thought they would have tried to run outside. The Texans don't have the bulk inside and the inside is the heart of the Pats' defense vs. the run.
7. Kudos to the defense. They gave up some yards and points, but overall they shut down the Texans other than when the special teams gave up field position and in what was really garbage time.

 

[ALP]

i tried to figure out the "keep running Foster up the middle" too...i think they expected for holes to start opening up (some did, especially late 1st half)

but i also think our edge setters did a fantastic job, and everytime Foster thought about popping outside, he saw bodies, and instinctively turned it inside

 

[chasa]

that stand after the 90 yard return in the opening really set the tone.

 

[mgcolby]

Our kickoff coverage is terrible and has been for a few years now. Every time someone runs it out I hold my breath. Gostkowski covers it up with his ability to boot it out of the end zone on a consistant basis.

I was confused with the end of half clock management at first. But Simms did a good job of explaining why they were doing it and it actually worked. If they hurried up and go 3 and out then the Texans would have had atleast another 30-45 seconds and probably would have scored a TD. By running down the clock they had to kick a FG with 2 seconds.

 

[Rob0729]

Oops a couple of more:

1. Kudos to Brady for the most wins by a QB in playoff history. Well deserve. Let's hope he extends that record by two more games in the next month.
2. I think today was the first time I have ever seen the refs determine a ball carrier had stopped forward progress and blow the play dead probably before the ball was even caught (that is without actually blowing a whistle). How they could have ruled the progress stopped when Spikes stripped the ball as soon as he hit the carrier is ridiculous.

 

[mgcolby]

I look at the fumble call as evening out the non-call for Offensive PI on the big play to Hernandez that led directly to a TD. But I agree they were rough tonight. That Personal Foul against Lloyd was terrible!

 

[Joker]

nice perspective, Rob.

I was at the game....I saw things that made me question the honesty of this league. I am very disappointed in what I saw today from the NFL referees...there wasn't even an attempt at keeping the game properly refereed...someone had their hands on this game and it can only be coming from one place...it's sad what this corporate criminal is attempting to do to this once proud and above board league.

 

[Rob0729]

nice perspective, Rob.

I was at the game....I saw things that made me question the honesty of this league. I am very disappointed in what I saw today from the NFL referees...there wasn't even an attempt at keeping the game properly refereed...someone had their hands on this game and it can only be coming from one place...it's sad what this corporate criminal is attempting to do to this once proud and above board league.

The sad thing is I checked Jets Insider and even Jets fans thought the Pats were robbed by the refs. With Jets fans convinced Kraft pays off the refs, you know the calls had to be bad.

 

[Bella*chick]

I definitely felt at moments like the refs were trying to keep the Texans in the game on purpose. Whether they just wanted a dramatic game or what, I don't know, but it was pretty bad.

 

[IcyPatriot]

The kickoff coverage looks worse in person than it does on TV ... when they catch the kick you can see the hole that he's going to run through 20 yards away ... and the runner sees it also. Every kickoff the team is left side heavy.

 

[BradfordPatsFan]

I look at the fumble call as evening out the non-call for Offensive PI on the big play to Hernandez that led directly to a TD. But I agree they were rough tonight. That Personal Foul against Lloyd was terrible!

According to Mike Pirriera (sp) on Twitter that was not OPI on Hernandez. The defender impeded Hernandez's path and Hernandez had a right to that spot.

I was listening on the radio while putting my son to bed and missed the review for a TD in the fourth quarter and Zo and Gil were going bananas and I had three missed phone calls from friends who left very angry voice mails. People NEVER call me during games. That says all I need to know.

 

[Rob0729]

The kickoff coverage looks worse in person than it does on TV ... when they catch the kick you can see the hole that he's going to run through 20 yards away ... and the runner sees it also. Every kickoff the team is left side heavy.

Are you sure about that? Didn't think it could look much worse than it looked on TV.

 

[mgcolby]

According to Mike Pirriera (sp) on Twitter that was not OPI on Hernandez. The defender impeded Hernandez's path and Hernandez had a right to that spot.

I was listening on the radio while putting my son to bed and missed the review for a TD in the fourth quarter and Zo and Gil were going bananas and I had three missed phone calls from friends who left very angry voice mails. People NEVER call me during games. That says all I need to know.

Interesting especially since they called it the second time. If they are going to throw flags every time a defender blows bad breathe in a receivers face then they should throw a flag when a receiver chucks a defender on his ass.

 

[jmt57]

Here we go:

1. I was hesitant to go this far the last time the Pats beat them, but I will go there now. The Texans are frauds. I said they cannot beat the elite teams, but they really can't even run with them either. The game really wasn't as close as the score made it.
2. Sucks about Gronk, but this was the perfect example of "next man up". Vereen decided to have a career day making people forget that Gronk wasn't on the field and Texans fans, players, and coaches wishing Vereen wasn't. Vereen has the potential of being an unique RB in this team. He can rush the ball and has speed and mobilty none of the other RBs have. That speed makes him a dangerous threat in the receiving game and he create mismatches down he field.
3. So much for the concern about Ninkovich not being healthy. The guy made a huge impact on both defense and special teams. Belichick should have let him play offense ala Mike Vrabel to make him an impact player on offense.
4. The special teams coverage unit absolutely sucked today. I trie to see where they went wrong, but it seems a mixture of a numer of things including missed tackles, players over pursuing, and just beingout of position. McCourty got all those props from coming from behind and saving the TD on the first kick coverage, but he got totally out manuvered earlier on the play.
5. I thought the Broncos taking a knee at the end of the first half yesterday as spineless. The Pats' offensive sequence was even worse. What happened to Belichick saying that if you sit in a trench, you lose and you always need to attack.
6. I still don't know what the Texans continued to run Foster right up the middle. I thought they would have tried to run outside. The Texans don't have the bulk inside and the inside is the heart of the Pats' defense vs. the run.
7. Kudos to the defense. They gave up some yards and points, but overall they shut down the Texans other than when the special teams gave up field position and in what was really garbage time.

Nice analysis Rob - although I will disagree with point #5. The Pats ran plays; they just didn't execute them, and had to punt. That's completely different from the Denver situation, which was at the end of regulation time rather than halftime, with the score tied, and the Broncos had timeouts. It's not as if the Pats were taking a knee, and they certainly did not intend to have to punt the ball back to Houston.