NFL Season Opener: TNF Texans @ Chiefs GDT

[Zalixar]

1 hour ago, Drained said:

I have always been big on DJ. Don't think it isn't an effort issue, he lost a step after the MCL strain, wasn't having sharper cuts and he needed more help from the o-line cause of it. Our o-line can run block really well. The Cards O-line hasn't been exactly good recently, especially the year where Wilks ran him into the ground.

So have I.

2018 was a bit of an enigma.  He was decent that year considering, but definitely had concerns.

But we got a new team and his "new look" really came on the scene in 2019.  He was in the doghouse for a reason, stats aside. 

Unfortunate really.   He is a pretty big fan favorite,  even now.  But he was grilled pretty hard by fans and clearly the team saw the same thing.   But fans have forgiven him now.

There was speculation of a combination of getting paid (on a dumb contract  - dumb for AZ) a new baby (and wife influence), and getting injured for the season (and fear/hesitation) were the main contributions for "his effort."

Either way, most like him but agree that it was best to part ways.  

He probably has a chip on his shoulder,  but he is kinda up there in age for not having played a lot.  Not 100% on durability,  especially his wrist.  He broke his carrying hand wrist.

Edited September 11, 2020 by Zalixar

[HolmesPriest]

2 hours ago, Chiefs_5627 said:

137 so far, nice call

Dang so close  

[Tugboat]

Weirdly appropriate, but the ad on this page for me, was for a manure spreader.

 

But anyway...2020 season opens with a whimper, not a bang.  Seems about right.

[Soko]

3 hours ago, Malfatron said:

nah, the GM shouldnt be fired. He put together a good enough team that any decent coach should have done a lot better with

[ET80]

7 hours ago, Chiefer said:

So are chiefs that good or Texans that bad

I think it's a bit of both. KC is really good, Texans defense is going to be really bad.

A lot of people (translation: me) tried to downplay the loss of DJ Reader. That was on display in a big way yesterday - both ILBs could not work through traffic, Ross Blacklock was washed out on every snap, PJ Hall only showed up with about three minutes left in the game. JJ Watt looked pretty good at times, but he's not the guy who could be everywhere at once - you can run opposite of him and he can't knife his way into the play anymore. Whitney Mercilius is trash, Brendan Scarlett isn't much better, Charles Omenihu was invisible, Jacob Martin is good for o e good play at most...

Watson didn't look good, sure. But it's hard to look good when you're on the sideline for 2/3 of the game.

[Texansfan713]

8 hours ago, Drained said:

Goes back to college imo. He thrives there cause he does well in offenses not expecting anything from him. That's why he did well at Penn State.

eh he didnt do well at penn st. doing well at penn st is what james franklin is doing now.  a nfl team would be stupid to hire him if he got fired just like teams tried to hire chip kelly.

[Ray Reed]

8 hours ago, Drained said:

Texans coaching that bad, unless you think the Broncos last year were a team that could regularly blow out a 11-5 team

May be an unpopular thing to say but in all honesty I find this rationalization frequently used by fans who typically don't want to point the finger at the actual talent level/performance of the players on the team.

In no world am I arguing BoB to be a good coach, but the guy has won the AFC South 4 out of the last 5 years. It's not like he has absolutely no idea how to run a functioning football team. Tonight I didn't see a bunch of cases of "Man, what is BoB doing?!". He wasn't out there going for 4th and longs early in the game, calling double reverses, QB sneaking on 3rd and mediums. Tonight I just saw a Texans team not able to execute really anything well on either side of the ball. I saw an Oline getting blown by without getting hands on guys. I saw an out of sync Watson, and I saw a defense that couldn't tackle CEH. 

I think that performance may just be a reflection of the fact that outside of a very good QB, some oft-injured WRs, a late-career JJ and DJ, and maybe a piece or two on the offensive line, I really don't see a whole lot of talent on that team. But that is tough to swallow as fans, so we kind of just like to vaguely blame "coaching" every game even when the players couldn't get any semblance of consistency going.

[SteelKing728]

Kansas City's defense is good again.

[SteelKing728]

9 hours ago, ET80 said:

I've never seen a losing team take the "victory" formation and kneel out the clock.

I don't know how to react to that.

I've seen it before. Jeff Garcia did it for Tampa Bay back in like 2006 or 2007 after a blowout loss.

Don't know how I remember that, but it happened.

[Hunter2_1]

Over/under on how many times we'll hear "how did the league let CEH fall to the Chiefs" this season, 11.5?

[ET80]

53 minutes ago, Ray Reed said:

May be an unpopular thing to say but in all honesty I find this rationalization frequently used by fans who typically don't want to point the finger at the actual talent level/performance of the players on the team

I don't necessarily disagree with this - it is a common scapegoat - but I do think it's not quite as applicable to O'Brien.

53 minutes ago, Ray Reed said:

In no world am I arguing BoB to be a good coach, but the guy has won the AFC South 4 out of the last 5 years. It's not like he has absolutely no idea how to run a functioning football team.

This is a misnomer - three of those four years, Jacksonville and Tennessee were trotting out corpses of a team, and Andrew Luck wasn't really available for Indianapolis, so the division in itself was really a race on who can be the least worse - or, who had the best individual player who could simply will their team ahead of everyone else. With guys like JD Clowney, DeAndre Hopkins, JJ Watt (pre injury) it was the Texans who had that proverbial "best player" to lean on. The last two years, it's been Deshaun Watson - the best QB in a division void of good QB play. You also have to look at the roster of coaches around the AFCS over the years - Ken Whisenhunt, Mike Mularkey, Chuck Pagano, Doug Marrone - BoB is bad, but he is better than these guys by a significant margin. That's not complimentarily, that's just saying these guys were BAD. Jury is still out on Mike Vrabel and Frank Reich insomuch as long term, but we're seeing actual challenges growing in the division - that's probably why people are looking at Tennessee as the next front runner from this division, good team with good coaching (not great on either front - good).

TLDR - it's easy to portray a functional football team in a division with three perpetually dysfunctional teams. Tennessee is evolving, Indy has a QB that isn't replacement level, so the dysfunction that BoB could rely on is quickly leaving the building.

53 minutes ago, Ray Reed said:

Tonight I just saw a Texans team not able to execute really anything well on either side of the ball.

This is the takeaway from tonight. I would agree that this is on the players (or - in the case of the defense - the lack of functional players). Any blame on BoB is a "how did you let it rot on the vine like this" as opposed to a knee jerk take on last night. Belly, Sean Payton, Pete Carroll wouldn't have been able to do much with this - given how bad Watson, the WRs, the OL and the defense looked. The only guy who showed up was David Johnson, ironically enough.

53 minutes ago, Ray Reed said:

I think that performance may just be a reflection of the fact that outside of a very good QB, some oft-injured WRs, a late-career JJ and DJ, and maybe a piece or two on the offensive line, I really don't see a whole lot of talent on that team

I think the Texans are who they are - a middle of the road team that relies on a franchise QB and a bad division. The franchise QB is here, but the division? That's not here anymore... And I think that'll show itself going forward.

If the Jags do get #1/Lawrence and bring in Eric Bienemy, you'll quickly see the Texans drop to #4 in this division - and probably stay there until BoB is fired AND this defense is revamped from the inside out (not OR on the defense - it HAS to be stripped down and rebuilt). They'll probably have to do this with a strapped cap and no high 2021 draft pick to rely on.

So, this is not a very good road to be on.

[candyman93]

Houston needs some mean dudes on their team. They need to inject nastiness and toughness.

 

It doesn’t need to be Myles Garrett type of crazy, but they need some true alpha dogs in that locker.

[MWil23]

KC with their ZB scheme, what looks to be a very solid rookie RB and capable 2nd, with their great TE, dynamic WR1, solid core of 2/3, and the best QB in the NFL, makes defending them borderline impossible. If you don't account for the TE/H, then you are a full fit short on the frontside, as demonstrated by that 15 play, 9+ minute TD drive in the 2nd Quarter. If you account for that fit, then you end up with a LB on a slot and/or the safety rolling downhill, freeing up the middle of the field underneath and/or in the seam.

Barring injuries, I don't see KC losing more than 2-3 games this year tops.

[Texansfan713]

1 hour ago, Ray Reed said:

May be an unpopular thing to say but in all honesty I find this rationalization frequently used by fans who typically don't want to point the finger at the actual talent level/performance of the players on the team.

In no world am I arguing BoB to be a good coach, but the guy has won the AFC South 4 out of the last 5 years. It's not like he has absolutely no idea how to run a functioning football team. Tonight I didn't see a bunch of cases of "Man, what is BoB doing?!". He wasn't out there going for 4th and longs early in the game, calling double reverses, QB sneaking on 3rd and mediums. Tonight I just saw a Texans team not able to execute really anything well on either side of the ball. I saw an Oline getting blown by without getting hands on guys. I saw an out of sync Watson, and I saw a defense that couldn't tackle CEH. 

I think that performance may just be a reflection of the fact that outside of a very good QB, some oft-injured WRs, a late-career JJ and DJ, and maybe a piece or two on the offensive line, I really don't see a whole lot of talent on that team. But that is tough to swallow as fans, so we kind of just like to vaguely blame "coaching" every game even when the players couldn't get any semblance of consistency going.

before i was going to attack this post @ET80 already summed it up perfectly!

 

[AkronsWitness]

1 hour ago, SteelKing728 said:

Kansas City's defense is good again.

Im not sure if its their actual defense, or if it comes from the fact that other teams offenses are almost always playing catch up throwing the ball to score points.

The cheifs offense makes their defense look better than I think they are. The defense after Q1/Q2 is almost always in a great position to force other teams into over passing and abandoning the run game.

Edited September 11, 2020 by AkronsWitness