HappyDays

They beat two teams that we lost to (Jags and Bengals) and those games really weren't close. The Bengals game ended up close on the scoreboard but they vastly outplayed them for most of the day. No need to downplay how well the Texans coaching staff is doing. They have elevated the players on the roster beyond their talent.

Their OC Bobby Slowik is another young up and comer from the Shanahan tree. At this point you'd have to be crazy as a franchise not to have someone like that as your OC or head coach. That has far and away been the easiest and fastest path to success for several NFL teams over the past few years. Rams, 49ers, Dolphins, now the Texans.

Nothing will change my opinion about the defense. Russel Wilson is one of the worst QBs against the blitz. As a result I expect us to have a good defensive performance and it will tell me nothing. The offense though I will start to believe they can carry this team to a championship if they put up 28+ points on the Broncos and Jets. If they come out looking like they did early against the Bucs and actually commit to that style and it works, that will change my opinion of our championship potential.

We have one of the most uncreative run schemes in the league. Dorsey just expects everybody to line up and beat their man, no wrinkles or clever motions thrown in to create advantages. In fact there were a couple plays against the Bengals where the pre-snap design of the run play created a disadvantage. And then when those plays predictably fail we completely shut down the run game. So defenses don't respect our run game even a little bit which means our pass offense is left at a disadvantage. Everything works together to create one big failure. Uncomplementaty football as it were. To be fair this isn't just a Dorsey problem. Daboll had the same problem. Which means ultimately it's a McDermott problem.

For me it's Ben Johnson, then Slowik, then Bienemy. Johnson gets the edge because he's shown a longer period of success. Maybe by the end of the season I'll feel differently though. Slowik comes from the Shanahan tree and that has been the quickest key to success in recent years.

9-7 (4-3 the rest of the way)... Then you hope the Dolphins win no more than 4 games the rest of the way... Which means 10-7 wins the division. I'll admit the more I look at the remaining schedules of other playoff contenders, the less optimistic I become. That Pats loss was such a brutal hit to our chances. To give ourselves a really good chance we probably have to be 10-6 heading into week 18 and then beat the Dolphins in Miami. Beat the Broncos, Jets, Patriots, Chargers, steal one against the Chiefs, Cowboys, or Eagles, and then beat the Dolphins... That almost certainly gets us in, probably as the division winner. But I can't say I feel great about that outcome.

The QBs that people are fantasy trading him for did both of those things today 🤣

Bobby Slowik appears to be an excellent OC. Dorsey was an uninspiring hire from the beginning. But what you have to accept is that we are not going to permanently improve our offensive coaching unless that change comes at the top. Look at what happened to the Falcons after Kyle Shanahan got hired away. I think there's a decent chance Houston and Detroit go through a similar drop off when their OCs inevitably get hired as head coaches.

Decent chance that week 18 game against them is for the division... might even be a lose and you're out of the playoffs game. Which means McDermott maybe coaching for his job on Sunday Night Football. Very cool stuff, great to see this season is living up to expectations.

Look at our remaining schedule and then look at theirs. I think at this point it's likely they finish with the same record or better than ours, and probably a better conference record which gives them the h2h over us.

I don't think this loss matters at all. I still expect the Bengals to finish with an equal or better record than us. So if the Texans finish higher in the standings we are competing with the Steelers, Chargers, and Browns for the last wildcard spot.

Even though I like watching the Bengals lose, Texans winning is worse for our wildcard chances IMO. Very good chance they finish ahead of us now.

Again, I hope people are paying attention. Burrow throws two awful picks and misses a wide open TD throw from the 10. But his RB scores a TD, his defense gets an INT, and his 3rd WR ends up wide open and gets like 50 yards after the catch. Suddenly his team is in position to win the game.

Burrow has been garbage the entire 4th quarter. Two bad picks and a missed TD throw to a wide open WR. I hope people are watching this game with the same eye that they watch the Bills.

Oof big rookie mistake from Stroud there.

I'm sorry but even if true that is not enough to account for the difference between their defensive performance and ours. Also what makes you say Stingley is that good? FWIW Benford and Jackson are both rated higher than him by PFF.

Every single time the red zone channel has shown a big Browns defensive play or 3rd/4th down stop, there is a flag on the Browns defense. I'm not exaggerating. It's happened literally every time I've seen that game.

Who do the Texans have on defense? The Seahawks? They managed to stop the Bengals from moving the ball up and down the field.

Watching the Texans game, they give Stroud a moving pocket and they're scheming wide open throws to WR3s. They create open rushing lanes for Singletary. Bobby Slowik is moving up my preferred head coach list. Learned under Kyle Shanahan and now leading an offense that produces well above its talent level. He has CJ Stroud playing confident and fearle

No he wasn't?

He's their backup RB. Pierce is out today so he's getting full time starter snaps.

We have called shotgun goalline runs 500% more often 🤣

When players like Moss, Singletary, and Teller go on to play much better for other coaching staffs, that isn't on Beane.

Texans just used Singletary as a 1st read on a pass play which became an 11 yard gain and then ran him around the edge for an easy TD. Every time the Bills don't play on Sunday I'm reminded of what great coaching looks like.

No IMO. Texans are a wildcard threat and we've already lost a tiebreaker to the Bengals so we want them to win out.