Game Thread W1 - Indianapolis at Houston (1 Viewer)

[Walton Goggins]

I'm hoping this is more Mario than Indy's line, he's looked great

 

[Ministry of Pain]

Asking Dallas Clark to block Mario Williams by himself is not good play design.

Jim Caldwell is one of the worst HC in the NFL of all time, not just now but all time. The guy should have never gotten the keys to this team. It's sad the front office can't see it or felt too much loyalty to Dungy.

 

[Ignoramus]

I'm hoping this is more Mario than Indy's line, he's looked great

Having a 34 point lead helps, too. How many times have you heard Freeney's or Mathis' name called today?

 

[GroveDiesel]

Ward on sidelines announcer said he's start over Tate if game was close

Is Tate missing blocks or something? Because his stats seem WAY better than Wards right now. If Foster were to be out for another week, I think it would be a HUGE mistake for the Texans not to go with Tate as the main guy.

 

[Walton Goggins]

I'm hoping this is more Mario than Indy's line, he's looked great

Having a 34 point lead helps, too. How many times have you heard Freeney's or Mathis' name called today?

Even before the lead he looked great from start. Freeney is pretty much useless if Indy can't generate leads which may not happen much this year.

 

[tarheel4ever]

Okay, for those of you watching the Texans, I know the Colts are not good right now, but is the Texans D for real? With a joke of a schedule this year, are they a sneaky D to pick up? Scanned all the other pages in the post, but couldn't get a good feel of how legitimate the D looks.

 

[Walton Goggins]

Ward on sidelines announcer said he's start over Tate if game was close

Is Tate missing blocks or something? Because his stats seem WAY better than Wards right now. If Foster were to be out for another week, I think it would be a HUGE mistake for the Texans not to go with Tate as the main guy.

Tate was pulled for ankle injury and see on sideline in 4th. I actually thought Ward looked better but that's not taking away anything from Tate. That said this is more with INDY's run defense than anything else which looked horrid. Even Slaton came in and ran off 13 yrds first carry.I would be surprised if Ward is still not the main guy assuming his ankle is fine and Foster is out. Either way Tate will get a number of carries but he can't fumble.

 

[Walton Goggins]

Okay, for those of you watching the Texans, I know the Colts are not good right now, but is the Texans D for real? With a joke of a schedule this year, are they a sneaky D to pick up? Scanned all the other pages in the post, but couldn't get a good feel of how legitimate the D looks.

That's hard to say since Indy looked so bad. That's really a negative when a team blows out a team who looked bad across the board. That said, if this was last year, the Texans would have given up more scores and wouldn't have made some key stops as they did today, bad team or not. I thought there were a lot of great things with this defense today, mainly they looked like they didn't take plays off and were always around the ball.

 

[Walton Goggins]

Ward on sidelines announcer said he's start over Tate if game was close

Is Tate missing blocks or something? Because his stats seem WAY better than Wards right now. If Foster were to be out for another week, I think it would be a HUGE mistake for the Texans not to go with Tate as the main guy.

Tate fumbled and I thought Ward looked slightly better but that's not a knock on Tate. The main thing is Houston can use three legit backs on and off and as a fan that's a great problem to have. No worries at the running position.If both are healthy I really have to believe Ward will start but knowing how many carries either will have NOBODY knows. If Foster is in then he's clearly the best runner out of the three right now.

 

[tarheel4ever]

Okay, for those of you watching the Texans, I know the Colts are not good right now, but is the Texans D for real? With a joke of a schedule this year, are they a sneaky D to pick up? Scanned all the other pages in the post, but couldn't get a good feel of how legitimate the D looks.

That's hard to say since Indy looked so bad. That's really a negative when a team blows out a team who looked bad across the board. That said, if this was last year, the Texans would have given up more scores and wouldn't have made some key stops as they did today, bad team or not. I thought there were a lot of great things with this defense today, mainly they looked like they didn't take plays off and were always around the ball.

Thanks for the additional detail, I appreciate it. Gotta love some weeks ahead for the Texas, both real and fantasy. For the Fantasy D, weeks 14-16 look amazing if today is for real.

 

[GregR]

Finally back home where I can post. Disappointing cell access, was only able to get the forum to load the once.

Yes, of course it would be sweeter if Peyton was playing. After 9 years of getting beat by the Colts though, whether by blow out or by delivering the game to Indy via Rosencopter, it's nice to see Houston actually come out and dominate for a change.

Texans D: I'd say the pass rush is legit. While teams may not show their hands in preseason, I don't think that applies to pass protection. No one wants to get their QB killed. I'd say the Texans pass rush is much improved which should be the case for most teams that they play, not just the Colts.

The secondary was definitely better than last year... much fewer catches where the nearest defender was 5 yards away. However, I am not going to read too much out of that yet. I think there's still some reason to show caution in trusting that the defense as a whole has turned it around yet.

Seeing it live I thought Cushing looked really good, but want to watch the broadcast where I can watch a few plays in slow motion. Another thing I want to look at is how the receivers and TEs were used. It seemed like the Texans were really mixing up their packages and subbing very frequently. The place I think we could see some fantasy impact there is Owen Daniels. It felt like Dreessen was getting a fair number of plays where he was the only TE in. I said in the preseason I think we could see a lot of 2 and 3 TE sets with those two and James Casey when he's not lining up as a FB, but it sort of felt more like a TE-by-committee to me than I'd expected. Again though, that's an impression. Need to watch the broadcast and see if it holds up.