Skins need to further invest in the trenches next season

[Larry Michael is Satan]

As a general rule I wish we would select a lineman with one of our top two picks every year.

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by Dirtbag359

I think that if you want to invest anywhere look for someone special at Guard. Maybe get a slight upgrade at backup over Heyer. However I'm not to concerned with our running game. The situations haven't really worked in our favor. Last week we didn't have a whole lot of possession and this week, passing was way to easy. Once the ground game got going the Texans held on to the ball like their life depended on it.

The only really upgrades I can think of, that are worth pursuing next offseason, are a young talented back and a Trent Williams like Guard. That play though by Larry Johnson was flat out pathetic. I'd like to see more from Keiland Williams. The guy is physically a beast and has little wear and tear on him. The main thing is we don't need to give up draft picks for VJax todays game proved that. Instead we need to invest on defense and maybe on a special Running back prospect.

Up by 17 in the third quarter is about as favorable of a running situation as there is in the game of football.

You pass to get the lead, which we clearly did today, but running the football efficiently is still critically important to run out the clock. We did a really bad job running out the clock at the end of the game with the opponents on the rope.

That's pretty much the only thing we did bad today.

[FRPLG]

Originally Posted by Beemnseven

Guilty as charged. I thought about that too. It's games like this that make you take a long hard look at the weak links.

The sting for this game is wearing off though, and like I said earlier, our secondary just ran into a far superior opponent. We won't be the only ones who look like amateurs against Houston.

Welcome to the NFL the season is string of 16 games where the opponent tries to exploit your weaknesses. We are never...NEVER going to eliminate them all. Right we have some weaknesses but I'd say they aren't as debilitating as seasons past and our schemes give us a chance on a weekly basis. We do need to improve along the OLine..same as probably 27 other teams in the league. We aren't awful there though (minus Williams though is another story). Same with DLine..main problem there is we lack the right type of talent for the 3-4 depth-wise. Where I was truly concerned today was our secondary constantly making mistakes. Not getting outclassed but making mistakes to leave guys open. No one is going to convince that Kevin f*cking Walters has an iota more talent than anyone is our secondary. He killed us because we played poorly in the secondary. We need to get smarter out there. I said it last week. If Doughty is going to be a slow unathletic safety at least be a smart one. Right now he doesn't look smart to me out there. Moore can't start soon enough.

[SirClintonPortis]

Originally Posted by Mattyk

Yeah and to the same token everyone was convinced our receivers were garbage a week ago. Some things take some time to come together.

Bad receiver play was not a persistent trend. One, Moss was getting open. Two, Galloway did not play enough to conclude either way. Three, Armstrong was a playmaker. Fourth, it's freaking Dallas. Their D has always make things difficult for our O.

[FRPLG]

Originally Posted by GTripp0012

Up by 17 in the third quarter is about as favorable of a running situation as there is in the game of football.

You pass to get the lead, which we clearly did today, but running the football efficiently is still critically important to run out the clock. We did a really bad job running out the clock at the end of the game with the opponents on the rope.

That's pretty much the only thing we did bad today.

Our secondary looked damn sketchy out there today. I'll attribute some of it to our defense simply taking their foot off the gas in the second half but still we're making mistakes there. I think we have the talent to be good but it isn't quite machine-like back there yet.

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by SirClintonPortis

Yeah, but if we had monster line, Schaub would have already been on the ground.

Some of the most negative plays for our defense happened with Schaub under immense pressure right off the snap. He's great at beating the type of coverages we were playing, but a lot of times, he was only able to extend drives via off balance throws across the field on third down. They couldn't run the ball for crap against our linebackers.

I think the biggest reason they scored as much as they did is they were very lucky on third downs, making really low percentage throws but executing them anyways. The Texans offense LOOKED out of sync all day, but they managed to still move the chains while looking like a pop warner team. Sometimes, that's football.

They made more plays than we did without really winning the line of scrimmage. At least their offense did against our defense.

[GusFrerotte]

I agree Tripp, but our secondary is more of a problem than the running game. Like I said in an early post, the rushing totals thus far for the fantasy stud RBs from last season are down. Very, very few 100+ games thus far across the league. Unfortunately, the NFL seems to becoming pass happy.

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by FRPLG

Our secondary looked damn sketchy out there today. I'll attribute some of it to our defense simply taking their foot off the gas in the second half but still we're making mistakes there. I think we have the talent to be good but it isn't quite machine-like back there yet.

Haven't gone to the tape yet (obviously), but my initial feeling is that they caught a LOT of 50-50 balls. In other words, their receivers played great more than our secondary played terrible. A lot of balls where Schaub just "gave them a chance" ended up going for long completions against more than acceptable coverage.

Horton still sucks in coverage, but we already knew that.

[MTK]

Becoming pass happy? The NFL is a passing league, it's been that way a while now.

[Beemnseven]

Yeah, the 497 yards passing we allowed has to make it on the "things we did bad today" list somewhere.

[EARTHQUAKE2689]

Originally Posted by Pocket$ $traight

A healthy Ed Reed turns hanging balls into pick 6s.

I still want to know where the effing corner was on that play. It was 3rd and 10 and we release the best WR in football on our safeties? Big time lapse by the coordinator.

It was 4th and 10

[GTripp0012]

What I'm saying is: the rushing offense is clearly the achillies heel of our team. You need a strong running game to finish off blowouts. This game should have been a blowout, but we were ahead of them because McNabb was playing other worldly for nearly three quarters.

He played more in line with his career numbers in the fourth and that great running game he didn't have in Philadelphia that Shanahan was going to provide him with to help him extend his career...well, that was a fun myth while it lasted, was it not?

[tootergray34]

plain and simple...if you bring the NOISE to the QB and don't get to him...he's going to pick you apart...unless said QB is Jason Campbell.

on a more hilarious note, did anyone see who got benched today?

I'll give you a hint.

it starts with over and ends in rated!

[GTripp0012]

Does Larry Johnson do anything well? Why is he on this team again?

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by Beemnseven

Yeah, the 497 yards passing we allowed has to make it on the "things we did bad today" list somewhere.

Where is 44Deezel to talk to us about how Schaub inflated his numbers in garbage time?