40 hours later, there is still no reason to feel any better about the performance of the Texans defense Saturday against the Saints. Brees, Harrington & Brunell picked them apart thru the air. Bell, Thomas, Donaldson, Hill ripped through their front seven like they were out for a walk in the park. Did I mention special teams allowed a 79 yard punt return for a touchdown?
Kubiak after the game said, “I’m just disappointed. I thought we were not very physical in the football game at all. They ran the ball extremely well on us. But in all three phases, they were more physical than we were as a team"
After watching the film, Kubiak had no reason to change his tune..."I’m disappointed across the board. I could point out a play here or there where some guys did some good things but when you look at the overall picture and you give up 120 yards and 14 carries in the first half, it’s kind of hard to sit here and say you found anything good and I would hope that they would feel the same way.
"We took a step back, I hate to say that because preseason is about stepping forward but I got to be honest with our players and honest myself, we took a step backwards last night."
He continued, "I was disappointed in our overall effort, as I told you all last night. New Orleans was much more physical than we were as a football team in all three phases. That was disappointing for me. We didn’t stop the run and turned the ball over and those two things get you beat in this league week in and week out. Special teams wise, (special teams coordinator) Joe (Marciano) has a list, he’s got ten goals we try to reach every week, we didn’t reach any of them so that tells you how that went."
The defensive tackle play has been so poor, that Kubiak said Frank Okam was fighting for a starting job. He fully acknowledged that Okam and everyone else on the line was not very good - yet he's fighting for a starting job. That's an indictment of the group - especially Amobi Okoye. Among the group that has been at DT so far in the 2 games, regardless of where they line up, I'd rank their play like this...
1. DelJuan Robinson - it's not even close. He holds his spot more than any others, and he's has a consistent push.
2. Frank Okam - yep, off his poor performance against the Saints he's still the next best guy they've got, but he needs a big bounce back game against a very good Vikings 0-line.
3. Shaun Cody - hardly noticed, but at least Connor Barwin credited Cody with an assist on their stunt, which allowed Barwin to record his 2nd sack in as many games.
4. Jeff Zgonina - I thought he was only a late invite to camp b/c they had some injuries. Now I'm worried that he might stick, b/c at least you know you are going to get all-out effort from him.
5. Amobi Okoye - Travis Johnson hasn't even practiced yet after late, offseason sports hernia surgery, but Okoye has had only slightly more impact in the two games.
New defensive line coach Bill Kollar has his work cut for him this week - and likely all season. This will likely be the weakest area of the entire team and when that is the case, the entire defense looks bad and will get crushed weekly.
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Quick hitters & links.
- Juan Diaz took a unanimous decision over Paulie Malignaggi at Toyota Center. 115-113 was fair, 117-112 was a bit off and 118-110 was disgraceful. It was an entertaining fight and Diaz had to fight most of the night with a nasty cut above his left eye, but I'd have scored the fight just as HBO's unofficial scorer Harold Lederman had it, 115-113 for Malignaggi.
There was much more action after the fight anyway. When interviewed by Max Kellerman, Malignaggi praised the fans in attendance and the fans in Houston in general calling H'town a great boxing city. Then he tore through the state's boxing commission calling them crooked and let loose with this killer line - "(judge) Raul Caiz is Golden Boy's gopher and he actually had the closest card!!" He also mentioned something about one of the other judges bending him over. Classy - but in my eyes he did win a very close fight in which neither fighter was really truly hurt.
- Somehow Vegas likes what they see in the Texans, or maybe just the "players" do
- And you thought Bennie Joppru was injury-prone. Fanhouse.
- Dinner is dangerous, well it is if you're a Colorado Rockie.
- Via twitter, and nj.com on a couple of former Texans with the Giants. Jenny Vrentas tweeted "QB coach Palmer not pleased w David Carr... he's showing too many of old skittish habits" & and CC Brown, who started, didn't exactly receive glowing reviews.
- Tennessee visited Arlington Friday, DMN's Jean-Jacques Taylor crushes Vince Young...and Archie Griffin for some reason.
- Hopefully this is bad news today, leading to better news in the future for Michael Beasley.
- Hasn't the 15 minutes expired already for either half of this exceptionally untalented and uninteresting duo? The latest disaster from last night w/ plenty of links to more examples of Speidi's assault on our time and senses.
(Added) - Can you fix my car? Thanks. Oh yeah, don't worry about the live animal in the trunk! Only in Minnesota...I hope.
- Any guesses which teams made this list - 5 teams whose fans should temper their expectations?
- Seriously NCAA?!?! No violations reported, yet they tell 2 Alabama players to steer clear of a man they went fishing with. Yes a man with apparently no ties whatsoever to Alabama. Yes that's right says NCAA stop taking fishing trips with this man...who can barely walk.
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