Scottemojo
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Andre Johnson had an MRI on a shin bruise yesterday, if I had to guess, he will play. Pregame visit to the Dr. Feelgood.
Duane Brown has a pretty bad turf toe. If he plays, I would expect him to be limited.
I watched all three of their games, they have an unique style. Very creative with their blocking, they are one of the few teams in the league as dedicated to the run game as the Hawks. Even behind two scores, show them a defense they can run on and they will. Ben Tate is playing for a contract and is a tough dude to tackle. Arian Foster still looks dangerous to me, but is not as big a focus of that offense as he once was. (interesting Seattle note, deduct Cam Newton and Kaepernick's run totals from the run D and the Hawks are only giving up 2.8 yards per run. Not bad, seeing as Schaub is no run threat)
Schaub is a zone killer. He excels at taking what the D is giving, and rarely challenges anyone to make plays except Johnson. He seems to be establishing a rapport with Deandre Hopkins. Schaub tends to make his mistakes on the conservative side, He would rather punt than screw up. And with that D, who can blame him? He tends to target Daniels the tight end in the middle of the field, one of his mistakes was when he seemed to make up his mind pre snap to go to Daniels vs the Ravens and got pick sixed. Schaub will hold the ball while things develop, most of his 2nd and third reads seem to consist of Where Is Andre Johnson and dumpoff plays. Also, lots of crossing routes, in fact I would have to say Schaub is at his most accurate throwing crossers. Last year, that was a big soft spot for us. This year, not so much. Still, Wagner better keep his head on a swivel, he might get some chances. Also, despite Shaub's desire to be a caretaker, he does have a panic button and the slightest pressure in his face leads to back foot throws.
Speaking of passes to the backs, Houston loves to put 3 WR to one side, have the back act like he is blocking, and then have him leak out for a pass opposite the 3 WR set. They like to run a big variety of screens too. VS some of our press, I would fully expect to see some screens. Watch those 3 WR sets close, a good portion of the time there was no intention of throwing to any of those receivers. Just a clever way to get a RB is space. Schaub can, but does not like, to throw a lot of sideline stuff. To my eye, while accurate, he doesn't throw players open effectively. In fact, vs Baltimore Andre Johnson had a red zone crosser where the accurate pass would have gotten him annihilated by a LB, and he alligator armed the catch, which was nearly picked. Lots of Texan fans are frustrated with Schaub, who always seems to throw for 5 on third and 6.
On defense, that run D is the real deal, and the pass rush is nasty. Like Seattle, they like to drop a safety down to stop the run, they will dare a QB to beat their secondary. Which has been happening, while only giving up 150 yards a game passing, they have already given up 6 passing touchdowns on the year. Now, I happen to be of the opinion that Seattle is going to be a much bigger threat to run than San Diego or the without Ray Rice Baltimore team, but as of yet only the Titans have run with success, and that was pretty inconsistent success at that. Essentially, the Texans dared Jake Locker to beat them with his arm, and he just about did.
It is worth noting that the team to run best on Houston, the Titans, ran their best from single back pistol looks. Coincidentally, that has been our most effective running look for Marshawn Lynch.
Part of the reason they don't have more yards thrown on them is pass interference penalties don't count as passing yards. Both corners have been flagged, with number 25, Jackson really getting the brunt of the officials wrath. He is one of those tight cover but never turn to find the ball guys. Both he and Joseph are fairly sound corners, especially in zone coverage. Eddie Royal kind of stole their lunch boxes, which bodes well for Baldwin and Tate. I personally think Wilson is going to have a field day painting the sidelines vs these two. Also of note, I have seen little good or bad that shows how assignment sound the Texans are when a scrambling QB like Wilson extends a play for 4 or 5 coverage seconds.
The safeties have some big play potential, Swearinger in particular. However, I saw both missing a lot of tackles as well.
The linebackers get after it, but gamble to stop the run by being very aggressive getting into their gaps. More than once I saw their linebackers destroy a pulling guard before he could get turned through the gap. I think some play action to a tight end could be effective vs that aggressiveness. I expect them to spy Russell, a few times Jake Locker bootlegged right into his spy. In fact, when in their base 3-4, it looks to me like both linebackers had spy duties to their sides to stop the bootleg. Like they were pass rushing wide just to take away bootlegs.
And they blitz. Not all the time, but the stuff we have seen hurt the Hawks. Delayed blitzes to kill play action, guys coming behind Watt if he is doubled, stuff like that. And they have a good defensive plan behind the blitz, the Texans only interception of the season was Cushing jumping a Philip Rivers hot route for an easy pick 6. Russell seems to be doing a better job this year of going after the vacated blitzer zones, like the pass to Marshawn vs the Niners, so we will see how effective they are. Wade Philips is no slouch as a DC, that defense essentially went worst to first when he took over. Expect to see a variety of 3 or 4 man fronts, Wade really mixes his fronts up.
I have no doubt Wade is going to try to put the pressure on Wilson to carry the Hawks by taking the run game away.
The Houston kicker has just been sucking it up. There is no other way to say it. They also surrendered a specials TD vs the Ravens.
As far the coaching matchup, Gary Kubiak is a ball control all the way kind of guy. He isn't going to give up on the run. That offense is really kind of hamstrung by his philosophy, but he is a genius at running against 8 man fronts. The Texans play with physicality, and much like our Niners game, the Texans Ravens tilt was a yellow hanky fest as two physical teams faced off. The final score of 30-9 was misleading, Baltimore got two gift touchdowns. It was a nasty and ugly game, much as this next one could be. I feel like Pete is the better coach when it comes to trusting his players, but I think Kubiak is more technically sound.
This game feels to me like Seattle pulls away late.
Duane Brown has a pretty bad turf toe. If he plays, I would expect him to be limited.
I watched all three of their games, they have an unique style. Very creative with their blocking, they are one of the few teams in the league as dedicated to the run game as the Hawks. Even behind two scores, show them a defense they can run on and they will. Ben Tate is playing for a contract and is a tough dude to tackle. Arian Foster still looks dangerous to me, but is not as big a focus of that offense as he once was. (interesting Seattle note, deduct Cam Newton and Kaepernick's run totals from the run D and the Hawks are only giving up 2.8 yards per run. Not bad, seeing as Schaub is no run threat)
Schaub is a zone killer. He excels at taking what the D is giving, and rarely challenges anyone to make plays except Johnson. He seems to be establishing a rapport with Deandre Hopkins. Schaub tends to make his mistakes on the conservative side, He would rather punt than screw up. And with that D, who can blame him? He tends to target Daniels the tight end in the middle of the field, one of his mistakes was when he seemed to make up his mind pre snap to go to Daniels vs the Ravens and got pick sixed. Schaub will hold the ball while things develop, most of his 2nd and third reads seem to consist of Where Is Andre Johnson and dumpoff plays. Also, lots of crossing routes, in fact I would have to say Schaub is at his most accurate throwing crossers. Last year, that was a big soft spot for us. This year, not so much. Still, Wagner better keep his head on a swivel, he might get some chances. Also, despite Shaub's desire to be a caretaker, he does have a panic button and the slightest pressure in his face leads to back foot throws.
Speaking of passes to the backs, Houston loves to put 3 WR to one side, have the back act like he is blocking, and then have him leak out for a pass opposite the 3 WR set. They like to run a big variety of screens too. VS some of our press, I would fully expect to see some screens. Watch those 3 WR sets close, a good portion of the time there was no intention of throwing to any of those receivers. Just a clever way to get a RB is space. Schaub can, but does not like, to throw a lot of sideline stuff. To my eye, while accurate, he doesn't throw players open effectively. In fact, vs Baltimore Andre Johnson had a red zone crosser where the accurate pass would have gotten him annihilated by a LB, and he alligator armed the catch, which was nearly picked. Lots of Texan fans are frustrated with Schaub, who always seems to throw for 5 on third and 6.
On defense, that run D is the real deal, and the pass rush is nasty. Like Seattle, they like to drop a safety down to stop the run, they will dare a QB to beat their secondary. Which has been happening, while only giving up 150 yards a game passing, they have already given up 6 passing touchdowns on the year. Now, I happen to be of the opinion that Seattle is going to be a much bigger threat to run than San Diego or the without Ray Rice Baltimore team, but as of yet only the Titans have run with success, and that was pretty inconsistent success at that. Essentially, the Texans dared Jake Locker to beat them with his arm, and he just about did.
It is worth noting that the team to run best on Houston, the Titans, ran their best from single back pistol looks. Coincidentally, that has been our most effective running look for Marshawn Lynch.
Part of the reason they don't have more yards thrown on them is pass interference penalties don't count as passing yards. Both corners have been flagged, with number 25, Jackson really getting the brunt of the officials wrath. He is one of those tight cover but never turn to find the ball guys. Both he and Joseph are fairly sound corners, especially in zone coverage. Eddie Royal kind of stole their lunch boxes, which bodes well for Baldwin and Tate. I personally think Wilson is going to have a field day painting the sidelines vs these two. Also of note, I have seen little good or bad that shows how assignment sound the Texans are when a scrambling QB like Wilson extends a play for 4 or 5 coverage seconds.
The safeties have some big play potential, Swearinger in particular. However, I saw both missing a lot of tackles as well.
The linebackers get after it, but gamble to stop the run by being very aggressive getting into their gaps. More than once I saw their linebackers destroy a pulling guard before he could get turned through the gap. I think some play action to a tight end could be effective vs that aggressiveness. I expect them to spy Russell, a few times Jake Locker bootlegged right into his spy. In fact, when in their base 3-4, it looks to me like both linebackers had spy duties to their sides to stop the bootleg. Like they were pass rushing wide just to take away bootlegs.
And they blitz. Not all the time, but the stuff we have seen hurt the Hawks. Delayed blitzes to kill play action, guys coming behind Watt if he is doubled, stuff like that. And they have a good defensive plan behind the blitz, the Texans only interception of the season was Cushing jumping a Philip Rivers hot route for an easy pick 6. Russell seems to be doing a better job this year of going after the vacated blitzer zones, like the pass to Marshawn vs the Niners, so we will see how effective they are. Wade Philips is no slouch as a DC, that defense essentially went worst to first when he took over. Expect to see a variety of 3 or 4 man fronts, Wade really mixes his fronts up.
I have no doubt Wade is going to try to put the pressure on Wilson to carry the Hawks by taking the run game away.
The Houston kicker has just been sucking it up. There is no other way to say it. They also surrendered a specials TD vs the Ravens.
As far the coaching matchup, Gary Kubiak is a ball control all the way kind of guy. He isn't going to give up on the run. That offense is really kind of hamstrung by his philosophy, but he is a genius at running against 8 man fronts. The Texans play with physicality, and much like our Niners game, the Texans Ravens tilt was a yellow hanky fest as two physical teams faced off. The final score of 30-9 was misleading, Baltimore got two gift touchdowns. It was a nasty and ugly game, much as this next one could be. I feel like Pete is the better coach when it comes to trusting his players, but I think Kubiak is more technically sound.
This game feels to me like Seattle pulls away late.
