Notes from Game Charting: Texans-Rams, Week 15, First Half
It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times. But whatever it was, at least it was a win.
The horrifying truth of this game is that if the Rams had a quarterback who could throw a deep ball, they would have won this half by about 14 points. Keith Null is just not good enough to exploit an NFL defense. On 3 occasions out of 17 dropbacks, Null threw a pass 10 or more yards. A bomb to Donnie Avery over a beaten Dunta Robinson that was overthrown, an end zone throw over a beaten Robinson was overthrown, and a 10-yard curl to Avery was completed after Robinson fell down. I see a few common factors here, neither of which bode well for the Texans success against teams with actual quarterbacks.
I’ve been doing some research for an offseason moves post, and I’m really worried that the Texans may want to bring Robinson back. Not only do they seem completely oblivious to the fact that he’s awful by playing him all the time against the opponents #1, but they have a history of complacency with talented underperformers. If the league does have an uncapped year, my research shows that there is almost nothing on the cornerback market: it’s going to be Leigh Bodden or bust. Sorry to poop in your stockings, but it struck me as something pretty alarming. For the long-term good of the Texans, you might want to root for Dunta to get burned over and over again while the Texans win shootouts the next two weeks.
I, again, was unimpressed with the Texans defensive game plan. A rookie quarterback who has started one game and thrown 5 interceptions in it, and a running game blessed with one of the very best running backs in the NFL. What do the Texans do? Run a 7-man-front most of the time. They also didn’t throw too many blitzes at Null, so you can ignore Mr. Solomon Wilcots and his DeMeco Ryans quote that the Texans were going to bring the heat at him. No, what the Texans did was sit in zones against a weaker team instead of being aggressive. Kudos on the one effective zone blitz, which notched another sack.
Null was helped by Bernard Pollard and Glover Quin having their worst games of the season. Both of them took poor angles on routes and overplayed the run game. Maybe it goes down to a deeper philosophical angle than the bounds of this post, but between the Texans poor zone defense and poor containment, perhaps there would be a benefit to hiring a coach who could tell them the right place to stand. It gets ridiculous watching the same mistakes over and over again. The offsides penalties, which always seem to come in a string with this team that keeps a drive alive, were also inexcusable. This is the St. Louis Rams, a team that can only beat you within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage. You don’t need to be jumping offsides trying to stop a run for -2 yards instead of 0. They will eventually beat themselves. Just let them.
Kubiak had a dreadful game as well. Benching Arian Foster after he fumbled was a complete overreaction. This Chris Brown dominant pass-blocker thing is a complete red herring. Not only is it not true, but most of the time Brown is just going to chip and go run an underneath route anyway. Chris Brown can’t catch, run after the catch, or do anything but fall forwards helplessly. If the Texans wanted an extra pass blocker, they’d be better off keeping Joel Dreesen at the line of scrimmage and sending Foster wide. In fact, they might be better off with Dreesen in the backfield at fullback. Sure, they couldn’t credibly call that a running threat, but they can’t call Brown that either really.
The other thing that really bugged me was the challenge. 3rd and 9 on the Rams 28, Kenneth Darby takes a dumpoff, shakes Pollard, and squeaks out what appears to be a first down had he not stepped out a step early. It looked questionable on the field, but what exactly is the point of challenging there? First of all, context. This is the Rams, the 30th ranked offense in the NFL by DVOA and the worst by points per game, and that’s not even accounting for Null at QB. They are, with a first down, about three more first downs from even taking a field goal. Additionally, there is 11:28 left in the second quarter, with a slim lead. Not to play the hindsight game with the timeouts, but considering you have a struggling field goal kicker, perhaps hoarding timeouts to give him a potentially closer shot would be in the best interests of the team.
Offensively, the game plan was pretty good. Those pesky turnovers and a few key drops by open receivers managed to conceal it, but this was a decent half of offensive football. Matt Schaub ran an excellent two-minute drill only to be denied by Kris Brown again. The Texans run-game wrinkle of the day (TM) was starting Andre Johnson at fullback and motioning him wide. Which makes sense given the relative ineffectiveness of Vonta Leach blocking (he also had his worst game). Finally, our terrible running game made our ineffective play-action pass game (TM Solomon Wilcots) go for 2 terrible 35+ yard gains, a 13 yarder, and a Leach drop. The Leach drop was perhaps the first time all year I can really question Schaub on a non-Andre Johnson throw. Schaub goes out on the bootleg, the Rams entire team is fooled, perhaps 7 or 8 guys jump the run. He has a covered Leach and an uncovered James Casey deeper down the field and checks it down to the covered man. You can even see Casey, after the play, looking behind himself and wondering who was covering him on that play.
Merry Christmas. Here’s hoping for the impossible: two Texans wins and a cluster of good results that get us at least one more game of them.
