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Greetings from a Texans fan

Discussion in 'Miami Dolphins Forum' started by Texans Fan, Sep 5, 2012.

  1. Texans Fan

    Texans Fan New Member

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    Hello Dolphins Nation! I just wanted to check in and talk a little about the game coming up Sunday. I've been reading this board for a couple of days and just thought I would tell y'all a couple of things about the Texans that you may or may not know and give y'all a little insight into what we're talking about down here in Houston.

    We Texans fans are confident about this weeks game but cautious at the same time. We know what can happen on opening day when an underdog comes into a favored teams stadium. We got smoked by the Jets a few years back on opening day and we were the heavy favorites. We in Houston are use to disapointment and catious when we have success.

    As for the Texans, we are concerned about the NEW right side of the O-line. G Caldwell and T Newton have looked "decent" in preseason, but you never know what they'll do when the lights come on opening day. Running the ball over the right side has been shaky at best this preseason. They've dealt with the pass rush good enough, but we'll see.

    Our new young recievers have looked good in preseason. They have been a welcome addition to the team and have provided Schaub with some extra weapons other than just Daniels, AJ & Foster. They have had some fumble problems in the preseason, so we'll just have to see if it carries over into the season. Our TE Graham has looked great! I was worried about loosing Dreessen in the offseason, but I feel a lot better after watching Graham for a few games. He has cought passes for some really big gains this preseason. He has great hands.

    As far as Foster goes, he hasn't looked great this preseason. He hasn't been hitting the holes like he has in the past. This could be due to the fact that he hasn't had time to adjust to the blocking style of the right side of the line or he just needs some more reps, but I'm not too worried about him and Tate. Schaub has looked better than he has in a long time. I'm usually hard on him, but I have to give him his props on how he has bounced back.

    As far as the defense goes, I'm a little worried about our run defense up the middle. ILB Brady James has not looked good at all taking Domico Ryans spot at ILB. he has not plugged the holes, looks timid tackling and just looks generally slow. And on top of that NT Sean Cody hurt his back a few weeks back and this will be his first game back as well as JJ Watt returning from a dislocated elbow. He will be in a brace for a few games. He says he's 100% but we'll see.
    And ofcourse we can't forget about Texans "Fan favorite" CB Kareem Jackson. Still looks to be the weakest link on the defense. He still hasn't learned to turn his head around on deep passing plays and has got picked on and burned a couple of times in the preseason already.
    As far as the rest of the Defense goes it's business as usual. The pass rush looks great and with the addition of Mercilus it should give Reed and Barwin some much needed rest throughout the game. I'm expecting Tannehill to be under pressure the whole game.

    I'm an Aggie fan, so I hope he does well when he gets the opportunity, I just hope he doesn't have many opportunities. :)

    Lastly, We have a new returner this year. Tendon Holliday. He was drafted a couple of years back out of LSU. He has 3 returns for touchdowns in four preseason games. He is the new hometown celebrity. He has fumbled a couple of times and lost one of them that resulted in a TD for the other team, but I hope that's the last we see of that. He should be exciting at the least. Don't go to the fridge on a punt.

    We're really excited about the season starting down here in Houston so I'm sure it'll be a playoff atmosphere in the stadium Sunday. We all hope we don't get hit with the injuries this year like we did last year and can see what this teams full potential is. Good luck this Sunday Fellas. No matter what happens I sure am glad it's football season again!!
     
  2. DePhinistr8

    DePhinistr8 Season Ticket Holder

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    Welcome aboard and thanks for the insight to your Texans.
     
  3. Section126

    Section126 We are better than you. Luxury Box

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    Well...at least we are getting some sweet talk before we get violated on sunday.

    Thanks Texans fan.
     
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  4. PhiNomina

    PhiNomina White-Collar Redneck

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    We can't block, we can't catch, and we can't defend. Other than that, it should be a good game.
     
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  5. MonstBlitz

    MonstBlitz Nobody's Fart Catcher

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    Thanks for the insight! Already knew about your kick returner from Fantasy Football studying. 3 in 4 games is something. Hell, 3 in one season is impressive. We'll see how he does against starting special teams units. I have a feeling that might be the least of the Dolphins numerous problems come Sunday...
     
  6. finyank13

    finyank13 Reality Check

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    This game is going to be like watching Scarface...

    At no point do you have to pay attention to the movie but you know the plot all along and how it ends....

    Congrats on being 1-0...now go beat the Patriots....:up:
     
    Ophinerated likes this.
  7. jboogie

    jboogie The sky is NOT falling!

    I think we'll do ok on special teams and run defence. Now, the deep ball is gonna be a problem :(
     
  8. FasanoPaisano

    FasanoPaisano Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    Yeah but we make up for it by dropping interceptions and not tackling
     
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  9. Texans Fan

    Texans Fan New Member

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    Deep ball


    You may be ok on the deep ball. Schaub can't throw the ball more than about 40 yards in the air. That's why we have to have tall receivers because a pass over 40 yards is always a jump ball. We're lucky AJ is REALLY good at that because I don't think I've ever seen Schaub hit a receiver in stride on a pass over 35 yards. He's really accurate, he just doesn't have an arm.
     
  10. gilv13

    gilv13 Well-Known Member

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    Amen Brother.
     
  11. rafael

    rafael Well-Known Member

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    Thanks for the insight. I would be worried about your inside run defense as well, not necessarily against us, but during the season. I do hope Foster turns it around b/c I have him on my fantasy team. I also picked you guys as the AFC rep in the SB this year.

    As for Miami, despite the negativity around here, there's not much that we learned from the preseason. One of the keys is going to be our defense. Last year, we finished as a top 10 D after a horrific start where key players came in out of shape after the lockout. Once everybody rounded into shape (by about game 5 or 6) we were statistically a top 3 defense. IMO the turnaround was primarily keyed by our LBs Dansby and Burnett. This preseason, our defense has not looked great and coincidently those two guys have not played (only Dansby played maybe half a dozen snaps in the first preseason game). Reportedly they're both healthy and will play on Sunday. So what defense will we have this year? The top 3 unit we fielded to finish of the year or the one we saw during the preseason? The other defensive questions are whether we will get any pass rush from anybody other than Cameron Wake. IMO he is arguably the best DE in the league (up there with Ware), but he's just one guy. Our coverage unit is thin. I would say that our S Reshad Jones has shown the ability to be a play maker, but also allows himself to get beat when he's too aggressive. We traded away CB Vontae Davis, but I see that as a marginal loss as he was talented but inconsistent. CB Sean Smith has looked really good in the preseason. He was an INT machine in college, but has dropped a ton of INT opportunities in the pros. We're hoping he's turned the corner. I'm looking forward to watching him against Johnson. We have a new DB coach so I'm not sure if he's prone to have one DB on a WR or if he has them stick to their side.

    On Offense, we're starting Tannehill, who has looked good although you have to expect he'll make his share of rookie mistakes. The big question is the WRs. IMO we have two good ones in Bess and Hartline, but Hartline has not played all preseason due to a mysterious calf injury. He has been back to practicing this week. Unfortunately, behind them we nothing but youngsters and one crappy vet (Nanee). I do like one of our young WRs (Matthews, but how much can you reasonably expect from him at this point. We have some talent and potential at TE, but it's all unrealized as they've underwhelmed this preseason. Bush has looked good at RB in his few carries. They do tend to run him up the middle. Our other main back Daniel Thomas has looked decent this preseason. He's running hard after an injury plagued rookie year, but I find he sometimes misses the correct lane. Our OL is good from C to LT assuming Long is healthy, but that's not a given as he tweaked a knee last week. The right side is more of a work in progress.

    IMO Houston is one of the premier teams in the AFC and it would have to be a monumental upset for us to pull this one out. The best chance of that happening is if those unknowns are answered in an extremely positive way for us. My expectation is that we'll give you a game for a bit, but we're not ready to compete with one of the premier teams in the first game for a new coaching regime.
     
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  12. finyank13

    finyank13 Reality Check

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    Gotta love Florio....

     
  13. xphinfanx

    xphinfanx Stay strong my friends.

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    This is my thoughts on playing Houston at Houston to boot. But I'll be rooting for some players to step up and start showing why they are on the 53 man roster.
     
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  14. Texans Fan

    Texans Fan New Member

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    Thanks for the info. It's always more fun to watch when you know what's coming at you.

    Also, I forgot to say that cushing has had bruised rips for a couple of games and has not played. He went back to practice last week and they say he is doing fine, but he will be in a flak jacket to start the season. So, Cody, Watt & Cushing being out for most of the preseason has not helped out our interior run defense. I hope that changes now that their all back; plus it's hard to tell anything in the preseason because they always run such a vanilla defense.

    Good stuff, Thanks for the insight.
     
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  15. Texans Fan

    Texans Fan New Member

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    That's funny he said that since he picked us to lose the division to the Titans and miss out on the playoffs entirely.
     
  16. Alex13

    Alex13 Tua Time !!! Club Member

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    i'm curious how our run defense will respond, number 3 overall last year and really the exact same personell and you think your right side of the oline is a ?, relax you haven't seen ours...i just hope its not coming down to a sneak,couldn't take to lose a game in the final seconds like last time
     
  17. Texans Fan

    Texans Fan New Member

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    Well, I think it's safe to say Schaub won't be doing any QB sneaks in the near future. That's how he broke his foot last year. :)
     
  18. cdz12250

    cdz12250 Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    If the universe misaligns for three hours or so and we somehow beat the Texans, we will be given enough false hope for us to crash violently to earth in the following weeks.
     
  19. rafael

    rafael Well-Known Member

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    How has the Texans' deep pass D looked? One of my criticism's of Miami's offense this preseason has been that we've been too short pass oriented. I'd like to see them try one or two deep if the opportunity arises. (Hartline, if he plays can get deep along with Matthews and Marlon Moore is fast). I could also see Miami wanting to test the middle seam with Clay or Egnew (TEs). I saw that you mentioned a strong pass rush. Are you not feeling the loss of Mario Williams?
     
  20. Mcduffie81

    Mcduffie81 Wildcat Club Member

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    Thanks for coming over for a visit. I predicted the Texans win the SB. I will be rooting for your team the whole season other than Game 1!
     
  21. djphinfan

    djphinfan Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    I watched all the Texans a lot this preseason..

    What stood out the most is their cohesiveness, you wanna watch how a team zone blocks just watch them, so scychronized..

    Trindon Holliday was just scary..no other way to put it..

    Shaub looked Sharp..no ill affects of the injury.

    Defense not as much..

    They lost three good players in Williams, Winston and Ryan's..their right side of the oline is in a bit of flux..

    Their receiving unit is not deep..

    Their hoping for players to step up, notsomuch replacing lost players with equal value.
     
  22. rafael

    rafael Well-Known Member

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    Yeah, I thought Holliday was scary too. He'll be fun to watch, not necessarily on Sunday, but the rest of the season. Our kick coverage units have been decent this preseason, but he has made some would-be tacklers looks silly.
     
  23. sloppyjoer

    sloppyjoer New Member

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    Haha! So much truth to this.
     
  24. brandon27

    brandon27 Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    Please don't beat up on us too bad. I'd like you to let us keep it somewhat close of a game so we dont all loose faith week 1. :lol:

    Also, please, no blitzing on the right edge. Jonathan Martin isn't ready for that. Also, no blitzing from the left either. Jake is still hurting a bit.

    Please, no passing against us either. That's unfair.
     
  25. vizi0n

    vizi0n Boom.. Club Member

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    I think this can be attributed to Sherman calling vanilla plays in the preseason. Everything I saw seemed pretty basic.
     
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  26. Texans Fan

    Texans Fan New Member

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    I feel we have a pretty good deep pass defense with good safeties and Johnathan Joseph as our lockdown corner. The only weak spot is of course Kareem Jackson. He is not good against the deep pass at all. He lacks in speed and does not look for the ball, but hopefully he gets good help over the top because I have faith in our safeties.

    As far as pass rush goes, the national media likes to focus on us losing Mario. We didn't see a big drop off after losing Mario. He wasn't a real high motor guy like Wade likes and he is probably more suited for a 4-3 defense. He did well in the 5 games that he played, He had 5 sacks, but Brooks Reed took his place and had 6 sacks in 10 games and I can't remember the exact #, but i think he had 2 or 3 in the playoffs. Connor Barwin had 11.5 sacks last year. They are moving Cushing to the weak side this year to get him more opportunities; he had 4 sacks last year from ILB. Also Mercelus is going to help giving Barwin and Reed some rest. He's looked good in the preseason.
     
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  27. Texans Fan

    Texans Fan New Member

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    I agree with most of what you said, but losing Mario was not that big of deal for us. We didn't have him most of last year anyway. We only had him for 5 games at the first of the season. I agree that losing Winston may hurt us this year. Domeco was a 2 down ILB. He never was the same after his achilles injury. I am worried that Brady James will not fill the void, but Dobbins and Alexander have both looked good against the run, so if he doesn't workout we may have alternatives.

    As far as the receivers go, we have never really had anybody but AJ, Daniels & Foster. Walter has not been a target for Schaub in recent years and Jacoby Jones REALLY SUCKED! I think we have really improved this year by adding Martin, Jean, and Posey. We're hoping that one of them gives us another option on the opposite side of the field from AJ. They have looked really promising this preseason. And Graham looks great filling Dreessen's spot. So I'm excited about what our new receiving crew can bring to the team.

    Losing RG Brisiel and RT Winston makes me nervous, especially since we lost RT Newton's #1 backup for the year last week. We just picked up Ryan Harris from Denver to be our swing tackle. Crossing our fingers.
     
  28. vizi0n

    vizi0n Boom.. Club Member

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    Perfect example would be when we laid the world's largest egg back in 2003 when you guys came to town. In the last couple years we have played really well on the road. Especially the year before when we couldn't muster a single home win until more than half way through the season against Tennessee while we were able to go to Green Bay and pull off a W. This fanbase's optimism and faith in the organization has been decimated with disappointment over the years so we can relate to you on being cautious with faith.

    Our right side of the O line is in serious question as well. Rookie Jon Martin was said to be a pure plug and play player by a lot of the "draft experts" (Whom none of the coaches or scouting personnel seem to hold to any sort of standard what so ever). Martin has simply looked overwhelmed though. Charles Johnson who is a good player but definitely not elite pushed the rookie around bad in our preseason game which in turn gave Tannehill fits and didn't let him get into rhythm...along with the wide receivers not stepping up for him. RG is also not solid because we depended on veteran Artis Hicks to take the starting role but he was just placed on IR so now we have to count on a model of inconsistency in John Jerry. Once again Jerry showed up to camp overweight and seemingly unmotivated. Our offensive line coach has killed him with extra reps and it seems to be paying off as he has dropped weight and looked better in games but only time will tell if he can work out long term.

    If we were to have a real shot at beating Houston it would have to be on the ground. RB is one position we are actually stacked at pretty well. Reggie Bush is healthy, primed, and motivated. Finally not coming off an injury and looks good as he did last year. Daniel Thomas was drafted in the 2nd round year and everyone hoped for him to be a change of pace back for Reggie but he was simply plagued with hamstring issues all year long. By far his best game as a pro was actually against Houston last year. We were making a comeback through his runs but like rookies do he coughed up the ball and the momentum was killed. However he has looked a lot more aggressive and is running with more purpose so far...but it's preseason..time will tell on the young man.

    So you mean to tell me Jason Allen isn't your weak link in the secondary :) He's still in Houston right?

    Our return game has changed as well. Marcus Thigpen has come out of nowhere and made this team particularly for the kick and punt return role. I like what I have seen out of the kid so far. Lamar Miller was also drafted in the 4th round out of the U and has world class speed. Can that translate over to the pros? We shall see.

    I actually said last year that Houston could of went far if people could of stayed healthy. I hope that happens and everyone can see what this team is capable of...and as previously said...beat the patriots lol.
     
  29. djphinfan

    djphinfan Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    I can't agree that losing Briesiel, Winston, Ryan's and Williams makes you "really improved"

    Williams is overrated IMO but he's still a good player, same with the others, over a whole year, the games could reveal the weaknesses of the payers that replaced them.

    Y'all are good though.
     
  30. Texans Fan

    Texans Fan New Member

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    Actually Allen was lost to free agency at the end of last year. He was platooning with Jackson all year. Now we have to rely on Jackson all year with no platoon unless one of the rookies from last year step up, Brandon Harris. Scary.
     
  31. Frumundah Finnatic

    Frumundah Finnatic U Mad Miami?

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    WEll given that this team has seemomg;y gone out of its way to lose to your boys 8 ****ing times already, congrats on the ninth win.
     
  32. Texans Fan

    Texans Fan New Member

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    No, you are right. Losing Winston and Briseil and starting Caldwell and Newton isn't an improvment at this point. We'll see as the season progresses whether or not they can fill the void.

    Losing Mario, a good DE for sure, scared everyone at the time, but I think he is more suited for a 4-3 and Reed filled in nicely. We are hoping to see even more improvement from Reed this year seeing he was only a rookie last season. Also adding Mercilus will improve our depth at that position.

    And it is tue that the young receivers may prove to be less than probowl quality, but i was just stating that I think they are an improvment over what we had last year, which was nothing. Only time will tell.

    By the way, Y'all have a great forum here. There is a lot of traffic and your fans are willing to talk rationally about both teams. Good stuff.
     
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  33. vizi0n

    vizi0n Boom.. Club Member

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    I'll talk rationally as long as it's not the Jets, Patriots, Bills, Steelers, or Cowboys...I know I'm flexible...lol
     
  34. djphinfan

    djphinfan Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    I agree that it is a great forum, lot of smart people round here, ( except for a guy named MrClean, he's a dirty old man that has some whack *** satelite feed in the middle if the jungle)Connor Barwin is a good player, a few of us liked him a lot and thought his transition would be successful?
     
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  35. Texans Fan

    Texans Fan New Member

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    That is hilarious! We have those here in Texas too. LOL!
     
  36. kiwitexansfan

    kiwitexansfan texanstalk.com

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    Greetings from another Texans fan, from over at texanstalk.com.

    Pretty much came here because I am terrified of the Texans choking this game away and was looking for assurance that we'll win.

    Really feel this is a should win, but I am having nightmares of Cameron Wake living in the backfield as he abuses our new rightside OL.

    I'm also too scarred from years of us making bad QBs look like hall of famers. It was the Texans who made Ryan Fitzpatrick a legitimate prospect at QB and I am scared we'll do the same for Tannehill.

    BTW how is Tannehill a better QB than Moore?
     
  37. vizi0n

    vizi0n Boom.. Club Member

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    Did you see how Moore played? He was simply awful for the most part.

    I don't think you have to worry about losing... But I see it being closer than ppl think.
     
  38. Muck

    Muck Throwback Uniform Crusader Retired Administrator

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    You already have Andre Johnson. Now you're just rubbing it in. :lol:

    We had about a dozen young receivers in camp and not a one of them stepped up. Our backup TE's have regressed and/or look like rookies at the moment.

    Having Dansby and Burnett back will certainly help. But I'm worried that this game gets out of hand early like the last time. And our ability to defend the pass, like every time.

    Welcome to the forum. :)
     
  39. jsizzle

    jsizzle Banned

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    We lost 6 *****ing times, here comes 7
     
  40. Muck

    Muck Throwback Uniform Crusader Retired Administrator

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    Honestly think that has been more a product of Tannehill than anything else. He was a shorter guy in college and he's worked predominantly outside the numbers in preseason.

    Maybe that's what he's being told to do. But when Matt Moore subbed in, that ball was down the field and down the middle. Very contrasting attacks from each QB.

    If we can't run and/or can't protect, it'll probably be even more of the same.
     
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