(Get it? "Steer"? The Texans' mascot is a cow!)
I'm not going to be too hard on Luke McCown for this loss because it mostly wasn't his fault. There were times he held onto the ball too long and that overthrow of Joey Galloway could have made the difference in the game, but for the most part he played it safe and took few chances which is generally what you want your backup to do.
A lot of blame has to sit with the offensive line. Again, having to choose for some reason between run-blocking and pass-blocking, yesterday they chose to run-block. Arron Sears was beaten by Earl Cochran, Donald Penn was beaten by N.D. Kalu, Davin Joseph was beaten by Amobi Okoye and Jeremy Trueblood was beaten by Mario Williams. And John Wade should just be beaten. All of the exceptional centers are locked up in multi-year deals, so the team needs to either get Dan Buenning off his ass or draft a center in 2008.
Hey, Michael Clayton looked good. That's something, right?
Earnest Graham has been fantastic running the ball, but three drops to six catches is not a good ratio.
Will someone tell me why the Bucs traded away two draft picks for Michael Bennett if they aren't going to use him? Christ, the man doesn't have to memorize the whole playbook. Just a few specialty plays that get him into open space. One big play from him would have given the team a nice spark. Maybe a punt return? Something?
It seemed like the Bucs defense started to bring serious quarterback pressure in the last two games, so I'm not sure why they would go back to playing a basic Cover 2 for this game. Sage Rosenfels absolutely ate up the Bucs defense with the short passes because he had all day to throw. They played Houston the same way they played Indianapolis, and got exactly the same result.
The exception, of course, is Greg White who did everything he could possibly do. Three sacks, two other tackles, a pass defensed and two forced fumbles.
Gaines Adams is the only other player credited with a "quarterback hurry". This was a beaten up Houston offensive line, too. There's no reason why the Bucs defensive tackles couldn't get more pressure on the quarterback and make that soft Cover 2 work.
Barrett Ruud had a busy day. He got six tackles on the day, but got beat by Andre Johnson for one pass when Rosenfels got the mismatch we was looking for. He also missed a tackle on Darius Walker.
Actually, tackling seemed kind of weak overall yesterday. I can think of tackles that Derrick Brooks, Ronde Barber and Brian Kelly all missed.
Speaking of Barber, he was the leading tackler for the day with ten. Ouch.
Let's be fair to the defense. The Texans had scoring drives of 23 and 17 yards and a kickoff return. But instead of making the Texans kick field goals, they got touchdowns. And when the defense really needed a stop on third down, it seemed like the Texans were always converting and grinding down the clock. Ski called this one right on the money when he said, "This has the smell of a trap game for the Bucs as they are going on the road following a big division game." That's exactly what this was. It's hard to believe that the team took this game as seriously as they take NFC games and it played like to was preseason.
Comments (1)
Not to be too negative -- 'cause I swear I have been a Bucs fan from the very beginning -- but games like this are what make me worry about this team. If the Bucs were a solid, consistent team, we should have smacked these guys around.
Instead, we fell apart in the same fundamental areas where we always seem to fall apart. First, the O-line (which will be very good soon) is not yet able to provide real pass protection. Without Garcia's ability to scramble like a maniac and throw accurate passes while his body is being planted into the ground like a lawn dart, the other team's D-line just plays whack-a-mole with our quarterbacks. I recommend hiring a new line coach right now, while there's time before the playoffs. We need new pass protection schemes.
Second, our receivers somehow never seem to get open. Maybe it's lack of effort or lack of talent, or maybe its just poor routes? We don't seem to run the quasi-pick plays that the successful passing teams run, plus we never seem to spread the field (deep or wide). That could be the problem. Or it could just be lack of talent? Either way, despite Clayton occasionally teasing us with his running and his blocking prowess, Galloway remains the only consistent receiving threat. If he gets hurt, I honestly could not criticize Gruden if he abandoned the passing game until Galloway returned. I would recommend looking through the list of the unemployed again, and I would steal some of the Patriots/Colts pick plays.
The tackling was pretty poor in this game, BUT I view this as an abberation. The Bucs really seem to have returned to the fundamentals this year, and it generally shows.
On the plus side, I'm happy to see that Gaines Adams was getting good penetration on his pass rush, plus he's fairly decent against the run (good recognition, good tackling, not great at breaking blocks yet). By the middle of next year, I think he'll be a pretty special player.
Greg White and Barrett Ruud are going to be great too. Lock them up long terms right now.
I am also thrilled about Earnest Graham. I honestly believe that he is a better back than Caddy. I think he runs stronger, he's "slippery-er", he has better vision (chooses deeper holes), and he has the ability to always fall forward for an extra yard or two when he's hit. I hope next year they make him the primary back in a two back set (with Caddy). That makes either a threat, plus that should help keep Caddy fresh and hopefully injury free. I agree though that he needs to practice pass catching.
That's what I would recommend if we want to make a serious run at the playoffs.
Posted by Matt Price | December 11, 2007 1:05 AM