Jets send Texans' bold predictions crashing
Written by davemundy, Sunday September 13 2009
If you happened to tune in at the wrong spot in the telecast, you might have gotten the impression that there was a big Tea Party underway at Reliant Stadium Sunday. And the Texans were playing the role of Congress.
The Texans, who predicted by many experts to be among the league’s best teams this year, came crashing back to earth amid a resounding chorus of boos Sunday as the Jets humbled them 24-7 in the 2009 season opener.
“We were pretty much dominated as a football team across the board,” head coach Gary Kubiak told the media. “You play that poorly, that starts with the coach. I didn't have them ready to go."
The Jets defense, re-engineered in the off-season by new head coach Rex Ryan to resemble the unit he’d had so much success with during his time with the Baltimore Ravens, completely stifled the Texans’ vaunted offense. Led by nose tackle Kris Jenkins and linebacker David Harris, the Jets stuffed the Texans’ running game and harried
“A lot of credit has to go to them (Jets) and how their defense played schematically — how they come after us,” Schaub said. “When you have a couple of little mistakes here and there, spread throughout the game it hurts you on first-and-10 and you get first and 15 or 2 and 8. Those things start to put you behind the eight ball and tough third-down situations, where it is hard to convert those situations.”
Schaub didn’t have bad numbers statistically—18 of 33 for 166 yards—but the
“They pretty much did some of the same things they did to us last year when he (Ryan) was with the Ravens,” Johnson said. “I was seeing a lot of double coverage today and that was it.
“Just when you talk about starting off a season a certain way and the way we started today—unacceptable,” he added.
Kubiak credited the Jets defense with coming up with a good game plan, but expressed his dismaythat his team didn’t beat it.
“First off, they played a lot of two man defense which makes you beat man under coverage,” Kubiak said. “That's a difficult coverage to go deep on. When they did come after us we had our quarterback and team in tough positions …(we) didn't have the opportunity to make those plays.”
The
“Our football team can't afford for the Houston Texans to go out there and three to one throw the football,” Kubiak said. “This team has got to find a way to run the football and be committed to running the football.”
On the other side of the ball, the Texans defense did an effective job until the final quarter in limiting the Jets’ running game—but couldn’t stop rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez on third down. At one point the Jets had converted 10 of 12 third-down situations in building a 17-0 lead in the third quarter.
“We made him move around,” Kubiak said of Sanchez. “We were there making him move and he made a lot of plays off schedule. He did it preseason, he did it in college, and I told our guys he would come in here and do it here and he did.”
Cornerback Dunta Robinson, who returned to the team just last week after a camp-long holdout, said the third-down stops were critical.
“We've got to tackle better and we've got to get off the field on third down as a defense,” he said. “Third down was our biggest problem. We played well 1st and 2nd down but we didn't get off the field on third down. We know what we've got to fix and we've got to get it done.”
“If we get off the field on third down the game could have been better and we could have hung in there a little longer,” middle linebacker Demeco Ryans said. “We didn't get enough turnovers and we didn't get off the field on third down and when they are keeping the chains moving on third down, it's going to be a long day."
Tags:
Recent Texans Articles
- Texans UDFA rookie WR says he’s the ‘next Andre Johnson’
- Texans Lose Another Key Player
- Texans Lose Key Defender
- Texans Release OT Eric Winston [TWEET]
- Texans Can’t Sign Everybody
- Houston Texans May Catch a Break
- Texans to Bench Matt Schaub?
- Wade Phillips Leaving Houston?
- Texans Win First Ever Playoff Game
- Houston Texans Set to Handle Yet another Set Back
Leave a comment
Not So Fast! To publish your comment, you have to login
Not Registered? Register now as it only take 20 seconds!
Click here to browse
0 comments