Well... I wasn't quite as on-the-money as I thought (hoped?) I would be. Kubes announced the dearly departed in today's press conference. They are:

(# denotes practice squad possibility, ! denotes turd-eating pederasts who no longer wear Battle Red)
Chad Stanley!
Bethel Johnson
Keenan McCardell
Wali Lundy
Jared Zabransky #
Darius Walker #
John Walker #
Tyrone Poole
Dexter McCleon
Jon Abbate #
Drew Hodgdon
Alfred Malone
Matt Brisiel
Brandon Frye #
David Anderson
Victor Degrate #
Brandon Mitchell #
Trent Bray
Deljaun Robinson #
Tim Bulman

Which leaves us with the following roster:
QB: Matt Schaub, Sage Rosenfels
RB: Ahman Green, Ron Dayne, Sam Gado, Vonta Leach, Jameel Cook (boo.)
WR: Andre Johnson, Jacoby Jones, Kevin Walter, Andre Davis, Jerome Mathis,
TE: Owen Daniels, Jeb Putzier, Mark Bruener, Joel Dreessen
OL: Eric Winston, Fred Weary, Jordan Black, Scott Jackson, Chester Pitts, Kasey Studdard, Steve McKinney, Mike Flanagan, Chris White, Ephraim Salaam

DL: Mario Williams, Travis Johnson, , ND Kalu, Amobi Okoye, Anthony Maddox, Jason Babin, Earl Cochran, Anthony Weaver, Jeff Zgonina, Cedric Killings
LB: DeMeco Ryans, Danny Clark, Morlon Greenwood, Charlie Anderson, Shantee Orr, Shawn Barber, Zac Diles
CB: Dunta Robinson, Petey Faggins, Jamar Fletcher, Dexter Wynn, Fred Bennett
S: Jason Simmons, Von Hutchins, Brandon Harrison, C.C. Brown

P: Matt Turk
K: Kris Brown
LS: Brian Pittman

Unless my counting is off, that's 55, so there are still two more cuts to come. (Eduardo Castaneda does not have to be cut--he will be put on the practice squad automatically and doesn't count against the number of players we can put on the squad.) I imagine one cut will be either Dreessen or Pittman, as I can't see carrying two longsnappers, and I am guessing Chris White or Scott Jackson will get the boot.

It blows my mind that McCardell didn't make this team, but it blows it in a nice, call-you-the-next-day sort of way. When was the last time we could honestly say we had a deep WR corps?

Labels: Athletes who don't stab people, Batman, Chocodiles, Demarcus Faggins sucks, DeMeco Ryans, Dunta Robinson, Please let the season start soon, Posts that list too many players, Preseason 2007, Preview, Roster, The Fred, The Schaub Experiment

Posted by matt at 4:25 PM | Permalink | links to this post

And like that, the preseason is over. Thank goodness. While I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Schaub exorcise some demons and watching Jacoby Jones be absolutely amazing, the preseason still reminds me of that girl in high school that would make out with you at a party, but never went any further. She thought she was playing hard to get, but she was really just annoying you and leaving you unfulfilled. That's the preseason in a nutshell. ESPECIALLY game 4, when most teams play "this is what it would look like if all our starters died." Blech.

Anyway. Moving on. Like last week, * denotes a player is a lock to make the team. All numbers are based upon last year's opening day roster.

QB (2)- Matt Schaub*, Sage Rosenfels* (Jared Zabransky should make the practice squad, as shown by his performance last night. Practice, dude.) Changes since last week: None.

RB/FB (5)- Ahman Green*, Ron Dayne*, Vonta Leach*, Sam Gado*, Wali Lundy. (That's right--I think we will carry five RBs and only one true FB. If push came to shove, I'm sure Captain Pie and/or Samkon could play the role of blocking back. Lundy looked good (relatively speaking) last night. That coupled with Jon Abbate's injury likely puts him on the practice squad. Patrick Pass just misses the cut. Darius Walker continues to not be good. Jameel Cook not invited back after last season's debacles.) Changes since last week: Wali and Abbate switching places.

WR (5)- Andre Johnson*, Jacoby Jones*, Kevin Walter*, Jerome Mathis*, Andre Davis. (Charlie Adams is the sixth WR if we really keep six like Kubiak is saying. [Ed: Nevermind.] (What a difference a week makes. Last time I did this, I wrote "Keenan McCardell looks to be getting every benefit of every doubt in order to keep him on this team." However, after seeing Bethel Johnson get every chance in the world to make this team, I think he's the sixth man if such a creature exists. David Anderson reminded me that he is, in fact, still on the roster.) Changes since last week: Bethel above McCardell on the list.

OL (9)- Eric Winston*, Chester Pitts*, Fred Weary*, Ephraim Salaam*, Mike Flanagan*, Steve McKinney*, Kasey Studdard, Drew Hodgdon, Jordan Black. (Just missing the cut: Scott Jackson, Kevin Barry, and Brandon Frye. I have pretty much already decided that Black is the player I like least on this team, but I'm guessing he'll still be around come Sunday morning. Chris White and Mike Brisiel won't.) Changes since last week: NONE.

TE (4)- Owen Daniels*, Jeb Putzier*, and Mark Bruener*. (Yes, I realize that Joel Dreessen is on the roster, and, yes, I realize that he is a TE and long snapper... but I have been laboring under the impression that he had zero chance from day one. I stick to that.) Changes since last week: NONE

K (1)- Kris Brown*. Changes since last week: Impossible.

P (1)- Matt Turk. (Dear Chad Stanley. Please leave. Sincerely, all of us.) Changes since last week: NONE.

DL (9)- Mario Williams*, Amobi Okoye*, Anthony Weaver*, Anthony Maddox*, Jason Babin*, ND Kalu*, Travis Johnson*, Jeff Zgonina, and Earl Cochran. (Just missing the cut: Cedric Killings. Also not making the roster, though by a wider margin, DelJuan Robinson, Victor DeGrate, Alfred Malone, and Tim Bulman. Christ, this is a logjam. Cochran and Killings looked decent last night. I moved Orr back to the LB list just for the sake of simplicity. ) Changes since last week:

LB (6)- DeMeco Ryans*, Morlon Greenwood*, Charlie Anderson*, Shawn Barber*, Danny Clark*, Shantee Orr. (Practice squad: Zac Diles. Getting cut: Trent Bray.) Changes since last week: Orr back on this list, with Diles to the practice squad. I think he's a great kid and he will probably find a way back onto this roster, but Orr's ability to play pass-rushing DE and pass-rushing LB keeps him on the roster.

CB (6)- Dunta Robinson*, Demarcus Faggins*, Fred Bennett*, Jamar Fletcher*, Von Hutchins, Dexter McCleon and Tyrone Poole. (Not making the cut: Dexter Wynn and Roc Alexander.) Changes since last week: Wynn and McCleon changed places.

S (4)- C.C. Brown*, Jason Simmons*, Brandon Mitchell, Brandon Harrison (John Walker gets cut. In my perfect world, Von Hutchins is spending more time at safety. Gary Kubiak does not seem to agree with this plan, so I'm guessing it's Walker who misses out.) Changes since last week: Mitchell up.

Long Snapper (1)- Bryan Pittman*. (I just want to mention one last time that Zgonina can long snap, which would allow us to carry 6 CBs and 5 Safeties.) Changes since last week: NONE.

Labels: Athletes who don't stab people, Batman, Chocodiles, Demarcus Faggins sucks, Dunta Robinson, Posts that list too many players, Preseason 2007, Preview, The Fred

Posted by matt at 2:41 PM | Permalink | links to this post

Three player-related notes on the eve of the 53-man roster.

I wonder if Chad Stanley¹ woke up this morning with a Jack-Bauer-esque countdown clock in his head. Considering it's 83.2% certain that Stanley will get the axe² at some point between now and Saturday afternoon, it's kind of fun to picture him racing around town today, trying to save his job. It's even more fun, however, picturing him getting a pink slip on Saturday morning. Lord knows he deserves it.

Jacoby Jones continues to show that he is a pass-catching, punt-returning, country-music-listening³ super ninja bent on total NFL domination. He ended the preseason with 11 catches for two TDs to go along with his two punt return TDs. Which, of course, means that Kevin Walter is still the second WR. Because, you know, those two catches and two drops he had over the past four games were simply dominant.

I have a love-hate relationship with Brandon Mitchell. On the one hand, he worships at the altar of Woody Hayes and, thus, is a soulless puppy-eating incubus. On the other, though, he's played well enough this preseason that I would actually feel better about our safety depth if he made the roster. Honestly, I would rather have him on the active roster than Brandon Harrison, whom Mitchell has outplayed in three of the four games.

Final roster decisions made today (trimming from 75 to 53) and most likely announced tomorrow. I'll have my last set of projections up sometime today. Because I'm sure Kubiak is waiting for my input.

¹ The turd-eating pederast.
² Only figuratively, damn it.
³ Huh?

Labels: Chad Stanley, Jacoby Jones is slighty less unheralded, Matt Turk rules, Ohio State makes baby Jesus cry, Preseason 2007, Preview, Secondary issues are primary

Posted by matt at 7:04 PM | Permalink | links to this post

Ask any Texans fan what he or she thinks of Jacoby Jones and the answer you get will likely include phrases such as "simply amazing," "great draft pick," and "want him to be my baby-daddy." Having your way with the Dallas Cowboys will get you that kind of respect, and deservedly so.

Jones might not be the leagues best-kept secret for much longer, though. It looks like the national media is catching wind of the greatness that is JJ. NFL.com's Adam Schefter writes

Last year Bears rookie Devin Hester rocked the football world, returning punts for touchdowns and the Bears to NFC prominence.

This year, Texans rookie Jacoby Jones could do the same.

Three weeks into the preseason, no rookie has shined anymore than Jones, who has been a threat as a punt returner and a wide receiver.

The 6-foot-2, 210-pound Jones has caught eight passes, including one that went for a 19-yard touchdown against the Dallas Cowboys.

As a punt returner, Jones has brought back two for touchdowns in each of the Texans past two preseason games –- one for 81 yards against Arizona, the other for 90 yards against Dallas -- and there could have been a third if Jones weren't narrowly tripped up in Houston's preseason opener against Hester's Bears.

The Texans recognize Jones' talents already, and have for quite some time. While many teams forecasted Jones as a fifth- or sixth-round pick, the Texans picked him in the third round. They liked him then; they like him even more now.

Jones was something of an unknown coming from tiny Lane College. There were questions about Jones' small hands and dropped passes. But Jones hasn't dropped anything this summer. It's starting to look as if other teams dropped the ball on not picking Jones sooner.

Seriously... how cool is that? I know that there's a list as long as my arm of guys who flashed in training camp, but never did anything in the pros. Hell, we've had a few of them. But Jones seems legit. Even if he can't return punts for TDs in 10 or 11 games this season, we'll still be more than pleased with what he brings to the table. As long as he treats the Titans like he treated the girls from up north.

Labels: Jacoby Jones is slighty less unheralded, National Media, Preseason 2007, Special Teams, Training camp 2007

Posted by matt at 12:22 PM | Permalink | links to this post

The team made two player moves yesterday, one surprising and one not so much. First, despite the fact that (a) he'd played pretty well, (b) Jon Abbate is nursing a bum bodypart, and (c) he's not Jameel Cook, the team released RB/FB Patrick Pass.

I want to hope that this means Abbate is going to make the team (or, at the least, that we are going to keep a fourth RB) and that we will not have to deal with another year of Cook screwing things up. I suppose we'll find out soon enough, like right around the same time we find out if Chad Stanley made some sort of deal at the crossroads with Jerry Jones and traded his eternal soul for the chance to punt in Houston in 2007.

The other move--the unsurprising one--was that Charles Spencer was put on the PUP list to start the season, meaning he will have to miss at least the first six games. According to Kubes, however, "it's still a pretty long shot that he plays this year, but who knows."

Spencer will (theoretically) be ready for Opening Day 2008, regardless of how this season turns out for him. If doctors determine that he'd be better served by not playing at all in '07, I am fine with that. That said, and coupled with the dearth of first round quality secondary talent next April, it would not bother me one bit if our first pick was Jake Long, Michael Oher, or Sam Baker.

The other question-marked positions (starter at SLB, C, and DT; survivor at P) should be sorted out some time between now and the fourth of never at this rate. Answers were supposed to come yesterday, then Friday, and now Saturday. My predictions are still Danny Clark, Steve McKinney, Anthony Maddox (though Travis Johnson has impressed me this preseason), and Matt Turk. Of course, the last one in that list is the only one that really matters, as that's the only battle where the loser deserves to be shot in the face gets released.

The best part about all of this, though, is that it means we are only 11 days from a game that actually means something.

Labels: 2008 Draft, Chad Stanley, Dan The Assassin, Jon Abbate, Matt Turk rules, Michigan Wolverines, Offensive (punch)Line, Posts that list too many players, Preseason 2007

Posted by matt at 8:17 AM | Permalink | links to this post

Random Texans-related fantasy football nuggets from Matthew Berry's "50 Things You Need to Know,"

4. Last season, Ahman Green had more than 1,400 total yards in 14 games. Last season, the Houston Texans had 13 rushing touchdowns as a team and averaged more than 100 yards rushing per game, both numbers better than those of the Packers last season. And the Texans did it with Samkon Gado, Wali Lundy[,] and Ron Dayne carrying the rock.

12. Only one wide receiver (Houston's Andre Johnson) had more receptions than Detroit's Mike Furrey last season.

27. Owen Daniels had the same number of touchdowns (five) as Tony Gonzalez, L.J. Smith[,] and Heath Miller.

51. Jacoby Jones is clearly the greatest athlete to ever even consider touching a football.

Well, I'm sure that would have been next, had the list continued.

Labels: Andre Johnson, Batman, Chad Stanley, Jacoby Jones is unheralded, Owen Daniels is a big ol' Pimp, Preview

Posted by matt at 5:37 PM | Permalink | links to this post

I hate the be the bearer of bad news. Actually, wait... that's not true. I generally LOVE to be the bearer of bad news, so long as I am not impacted by it. I have a well developed sense of schadenfreude. Unfortunately, this news does impact me (and most of you) as a Texans fan.

Here's the deal: Barring a whole lot of unforeseen disasters or player developments, it is pretty much a given that we have to address the secondary in the 2008 offseason. Most likely, we will be looking at either or both safety positions, but that supposition hinges on Faggins or Bennett or Fletcher (or whomever) turning in at least an average performance at CB2.

The bad news, though, is that it looks right now like the pickings at safety are going to be extremely thin, both in terms of draft and free agents. On the college front, there appear to be no safeties in the top 40 overall prospects. The highest ranked safety (according to ESPN) checks in at number 42, is 5'8"/180, and inspires such comments as, "he's a safety prospect that actually lacks ideal size for a cornerback" and, "not afraid to mix it up but he gets lost in a crowd too often when filling versus the run." Awesome. And it does downhill from there. Only two of the players are currently graded by Scouts, Inc., as at least an 80. More than a few are slow. Many have horrible footwork, hips, or both. Be still, my beating heart.

On the potential free agent front, only one name jumps out--Mike Doss. He's not exactly durable and he did go to Ohio State (which means that he hates all that is good in the world), but he's a playmaker and a big hitter. Unfortunately, like I said, he's the only guy out there that a Texans fan could actively covet, as other names include Jordan Babineaux and William Bartee.

I am fully aware that a lot can change between now and the end of the season. One of the Brandons could develop into a good safety. One or more of the college players could have worked hard this summer to develop into the next LaRon Landry. Nuclear apocalypse could render this whole discussion rather trivial. Etc. Assuming none of that happens, though, the odds are looking fairly good that we are going to have to find our starting 2008 secondary from within the organization. I think we've heard that song before.

Labels: 2008 Draft, Demarcus Faggins sucks, Free Agency, Ohio State makes baby Jesus cry, Secondary issues are primary, Teams that aren't the Texans

Posted by matt at 4:51 PM | Permalink | links to this post

OK, it's getting close. I like the colors, I like the layout as it appears in Firefox. I need feedback from people using IE--is the sidebar still falling to the bottom? Also, if anyone more familiar with CSS could look at my source code and tell me how to fix any IE bugs, that would be awesome.

Labels: Self-Referential Stuff

Posted by matt at 11:04 AM | Permalink | links to this post

Reader Jersey Bill sends along this story of Zoolander being hobbled by a ...wait for it... broken pinkie toe.

'I'm limping around a little bit; broken toes will do that to you [Author's note: Thank you, Captain Obvious.], but we'll be alright,' Carr said after hobbling through Sunday's practice.'You really don't need it ; it's just kind of in the way. I've been trying to get rid of it all week, but it doesn't seem like it wants to go away.'

You don't need what? The injury? Well, no shit. The pinky toe? Actually, I'm pretty sure you do need that. The weird-ass black glove on your throwing hand? Agreed!

And, yes, the only reason I posted this story was to link to the picture of him with the black glove and glorious, flowing locks.

Labels: David Carr has Post-Concussion Syndrome, Inanity, Teams that aren't the Texans

Posted by matt at 9:34 AM | Permalink | links to this post

Over the last week, on a couple different message boards as well as some random comment threads at the Dysfunctional Family Robinson, I've seen posts to the effect of "using stats to compare football players is stupid."

Now, to the extent that someone would claim that Super Mario and Dwight Freeney had similar seasons last year based on the sacks each recorded, I would agree. That's just dumb. But no one with two ounces of sense¹ would make such a claim, so I highly doubt that's what the makers of these anti-statistic statements are saying.

It seems like there are people claiming that statistical comparisons of football players are de facto misleading because... well... I'm not sure why. The usual reason tends to include something about "intangibles" or "not truly reflecting the game."

My initial reaction is one of bemusement. If we all agree that statistics are context-dependent, that especially in football one has to look at the big picture, then a statistical comparison is as valid as any other and is one of the few means we have to remove nearly all the subjectivity. Why would this be stupid?

Looking more closely, though, I think it's precisely this removal of subjectivity that causes people to bristle at purely numerical comparisons. When we take away the platitudes, reputations, and "intangibles," all we are left with is performance. Suddenly, the player that is great because he's "clutch" is only above average when you look at what he's really doing between the hashmarks. In that situation, it's easier for some people to disregard the message rather than altering their own beliefs. No surprise there; people are almost always loathe to admit that a personal belief is faulty.

The not-quite-ironic-but-still-kinda-funny thing about all of this is that we've seen it all before. Major League Baseball went through the same thing from the mid 80s to the late 90s. The old school cognoscenti derided the sabermetric crowd as eggheads who didn't take things like clutch hitting into account. Remarkably enough, over the ensuing two decades, the vast majority of baseball fans came around. Today, nearly all are familiar with metrics like OPS and many are comfortable with VORP and ERA+. While none of these measurements are much more than 20 years old, only Luddites like Joe Morgan claim straight-faced that those metrics do not measure baseball production better than comparing Runs and Wins.

Given the improvements in understanding baseball that came from accepting the sabermetric offerings, I imagine that a similar movement will sweep the NFL. To be sure, guys like Football Outsiders have already started the ball rolling. Until new measurements become commonplace, however, we have to use the numbers we do have. While I will be the first to admit that raw numbers can be used to "prove" some things that simply aren't true, that does not mean that all statistical comparisons are flawed from the start. To say that they are is the only "stupid" part of the whole debate.


¹ Cowboy fans need not apply.

Labels: Colts Shmolts, Hype, Stats, Super Mario

Posted by matt at 9:00 PM | Permalink | links to this post

Is this format better than the black background?

EDIT: It's 11:30 CST and I've gone cross-eyed from tweaking. Call it version 2.21. Better? I'm starting to like it.

Labels: Self-Referential Stuff

Posted by matt at 6:56 PM | Permalink | links to this post

Another week, another demonstration by Jacoby Jones as to why he should be the starting WR2. Which, of course, means that he's not. That's life, I guess. Like last week, * denotes a player is a lock to make the team. All numbers are based upon last year's opening day roster.

QB (2)- Matt Schaub*, Sage Rosenfels* (Jared Zabransky should make the practice squad.) Changes since last week: Quinton Porter and Bradlee Van Pelt were cut. So, far, I am 2/2.

RB/FB (5)- Ahman Green*, Ron Dayne*, Vonta Leach*, Sam Gado*, Jon Abbate, (Wali Lundy and Patrick Pass just miss the cut. Darius Walker continues to not be good. Jameel Cook not invited back after last season's debacles.) Changes since last week: Gado bumped up to lock status. Abbate is hanging on by a thread and I could see Pass or Cook (NO!) supplanting him.

WR (5)- Andre Johnson*, Jacoby Jones*, Kevin Walter*, Jerome Mathis, Andre Davis. (Charlie Adams is the sixth WR if we really keep six like Kubiak is saying. [Ed: Nevermind.] Keenan McCardell looks to be getting every benefit of every doubt in order to keep him on this team. Bethel Johnson was given a temporary stay of execution, as poor Charlie Adams was killed instead. David Anderson reminded me that he is, in fact, still on the roster.) Changes since last week: Adams and Harry Williams were cut. I am 3/4.

OL (9)- Eric Winston*, Chester Pitts*, Fred Weary*, Ephraim Salaam*, Mike Flanagan*, Steve McKinney*, Kasey Studdard, Drew Hodgdon, Jordan Black. (Just missing the cut: Scott Jackson, Kevin Barry, and Brandon Frye. There is still no indication that Kubiak is as unhappy with Turnstile Black as fans are, so I am guessing that he'll be around come the end of the preseason. Chris White and Mike Brisiel get sent packing.) Changes since last week: NONE.

TE (4)- Owen Daniels*, Jeb Putzier*, and Mark Bruener*. (I think this is why we'll be carrying 6 WRs, which is good news for Charlie Adams someone other than Charlie Adams.) Changes since last week: NONE

K (1)- Kris Brown*. Changes since last week: Impossible.

P (1)- Matt Turk. (Chad Stanley is gone. Praise Jesus.) Changes since last week: NONE, technically, but Kubiak's statement that they "could have" made a decision yesterday but decided not to suggests to me that Stanley is 99% out the door. I mean, I see no way that they could have decided "you know... I am really sick of getting good punts and winning the field position battle. Turk's gone!"

DL (9)- Mario Williams*, Amobi Okoye*, Anthony Weaver*, Anthony Maddox*, Jason Babin*, ND Kalu*, Travis Johnson*, Jeff Zgonina, and Shantee Orr. (Just missing the cut: Earl Cochran and Victor DeGrate. Also not making the roster, though by a wider margin, DelJuan Robinson, Cedric Killings, Alfred Malone, and Tim Bulman.) Changes since last week: Thomas Johnson released, a week after I had moved him UP on this thing. I am 3/5. Orr was moved from LB to RDE and seemed to play extremely well.

LB (6)- DeMeco Ryans*, Morlon Greenwood*, Charlie Anderson*, Shawn Barber*, Danny Clark*, Zac Diles. (Getting cut: Trent Bray. Theoretically, Orr might make the team as an LB who just plays DE, kind of like DeMarcus Ware, with Diles going to the practice squad, which would allow for Earl Cochran to make the team as a DL.) Changes since last week: NONE (though it looks and sounds like Clark is back to being the bona fide starter at SLB).

CB (6)- Dunta Robinson*, Demarcus Faggins*, Fred Bennett*, Jamar Fletcher*, Von Hutchins, Dexter Wynn and Tyrone Poole. (Not making the cut: Dexter McCleon and Roc Alexander. The last four guys on this list were more or less invisible Saturday, so I am not sure if there was any real shake-up here.) Changes since last week: I moved Hutchins back to CB because I think there was some movement at safety.

S (4)- C.C. Brown*, Jason Simmons*, Brandon Harrison, Brandon Mitchell (John Walker gets cut. I moved Hutchins back to CB, as I think Mitchell strong showing Saturday has him back on the good list. Also, there is a possibility that we will carry only 5 WRs/3 TEs so that we can use the extra roster spot for a 5th safety along with our 6 CBs.) Changes since last week: Mitchell up, Hutchins moved.

Long Snapper (1)- Bryan Pittman*. (I just want to mention AGAIN that Zgonina can long snap, which would allow us to carry 6 CBs and 5 Safeties?) Changes since last week: NONE.

Labels: Athletes who don't stab people, Batman, Chocodiles, Demarcus Faggins sucks, Dunta Robinson, Ohio State makes baby Jesus cry, Posts that list too many players, Preseason 2007, Preview, Teams that aren't the Texans, The Fred

Posted by matt at 11:45 AM | Permalink | links to this post

Dear Randy,

I just wanted to write and offer a sincere "fuck you" in regards to your column--In Lousy Loss, Cowboys had Trifecta: Stink, Stank, Stunk--from this past Sunday.

To be clear, it's not the overall message of your post I take issue with. I agree wholeheartedly that the Cowboys played like a bunch of ninnies. (That was the message of your post, wasn't it? I find it so difficult to decipher poorly-written sports columns.)

No, my "fuck you" is directed at this line:

The Cowboys had an embarrassing "all three phases" first-half collapse against the Houston Texans, a team that will be lucky to win five regular-season games.

Lucky to win five, eh? And you are basing that on what, pray tell? My guess it that you've spent far too much time writing love letters to Tony Romo this offseason to actually look at the Texans. Of course, coming from Fort Worth--the ugly sister with an inbred crush on her drug-addict brother, Dallas--I suppose it only makes sense that you would be busy worshiping at the Altar of Botched Snaps.

Fact is, you were fed a steaming turd sandwich by a team that played its starters less than you did, rendered your blitzing defense more or less null and void, and featured a running back that your own announcers were laughing about until he ran all over you. Do you really want to say that this team is unlikely to wi--

Wait a second... did you really paraphrase "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" in your title?!? Did your group home arrange this job for you as a way to get you out in mainstream society? Do you wear a helmet? Are you going to treat your readers to "Romo Hears a Who" next? Would my message be easier for you to comprehend in some sort of rhyme?

I do not like you, sportswriting jerk
I do not like you, I hate your work
Your city's a joke
Your analysis is too
From the depths of my heart
Randy, fuck you

I hope this helps. Keep up the good work.

Sincerely,
Matt

Labels: Inanity, Open Letters, Poetry, Righteous Indignation, Special Teams

Posted by matt at 8:45 AM | Permalink | links to this post

I'm not gonna lie. I was cheering and yelling at the television as if last night's game really mattered. Considering I have no special feeling for the Governor's Cup (I mean, he's not even my governor), I can only chalk this up to some combination of seeing the team play well and hating the Cowboys.

And they did play well, especially the first team, in all three facets of the game.

OFFENSE
Matt Schaub is rapidly making his signing look like the smartest thing this organization has ever done. Which, I realize, is not saying much--kind of like calling him the prettiest girl at Flathead Valley Community College--but still. He is poised in the pocket. He can make all the throws from all the possible drop distances (as well as rolling to either side). He can avoid sacks with his feet. He gets rid of the ball in short order. And so on, and so forth. In short, he's doing absolutely everything we could have hoped for. Plus, he has a totally awesome first name.

I was also thrilled with the WR play of Andre Johnson, Apostrophe Davis, and (of course) Jacoby Jones. AJ flashed speed and nice open field moves on one catch, then turned around and showed his amazing strength/size combination on the TD grab. Without jumping that route, I can think of only one or two CBs in all of football who might have stopped him on that slant. Apostrophe looks like he is completely fine with playing the role of slot guy/3rd WR, which is perfect for what he brings to the table. JJ has done absolutely everything and then some to win the role of WR2 (leaping TD grab/end around speed), PR (breakin' off a little somethin' somethin' twice), and defender of the free world (he could totally catch bin Laden).

Batman looked great. Power runs, toss plays, that huge off-tackle gain... so this is what it's like to have a real running back. Weird. I like it. The Dallas announcers can make all the Ahman-is-old jokes they want. When push came to shove, he run the ball right at them and--with the help of some good blocking--took them from first to fourth in average rushing yards allowed this preseason. I'm still calling 1100 yards and 8 TDs this year.

Speaking of the blocking, I thought the o-line looked very good in run blocking and above average to good in pass blocking. We knew Dallas was going to throw more bodies (and faster bodies) at us than we'd seen so far. The unit was able to pick up blitzers and/or slow them down enough to keep Matt Schaub upright for all but one play. In fact, that one sack wasn't even on a blitz so much as it was a blown assignment where Burnett came free. Sure, you have to credit a lot of that to Schaub's ability to avoid sacks and whatnot, but it was still a good performance all around. And it was nice to have Chester Pitts back.

Owen Daniels and Jeb Putzier played well, too. And that's all I feel the need to write about TEs.

DEFENSE
Super Mario, baby. Sure, I am probably putting too much emphasis on this one game. I'll even stipulate to that. But here's the thing: I am only a fraction of the importance on this good performance as people were putting on his two previous games. If Chicago and Arizona were proof that Mario is a piece of shit bust who should probably just go play in traffic, last night's game supports my notion that he is the greatest athlete ever to play any sport anywhere in the world. The truth, as always, is somewhere in the middle. Still, by my count (though I haven't gone back over the tape closely) he had 3 tackles, 2 assisted tackles, a sack, and at least one hurry. More importantly, though, is that he did a lot of this from the LDE spot, which physically he is probably better suited for.

DeMeco and Dunta continued to shine. D-Rob was the third man to the clusterhump that missed TO on the touchdown, but he otherwise had the Dallas headcase on lockdown. DeMeco was in on 8 tackles. What else is new?

Other defensive notables included Jamar Fletcher, who had a nice defense of a quick pass to the slot man, Jason Babin, who had five tackles and a big sack (as opposed to ND Kalu's 1 tackle and virtual anonymity), and Danny Clark, who should be the damned starter at SLB.

SPECIAL TEAMS
JJ. Punt return TD. Again, he flat ran past people like he was a created player in a video game. I am currently petitioning the wife to let me name the new child, boy or girl, Jacoby. She seems unreceptive.

Matt Turk averaged 39.7 on his three punts, pinning two inside the 20 with one of the boots going 51 yards. TEP hit one 32 yards, yet somehow managed to avoid today's roster cuts.

Labels: Andre Johnson, Athletes who don't stab people, Dan The Assassin, DeMeco Ryans, Dunta Robinson, Owen Daniels is a big ol' Pimp, Preseason 2007, Secondary issues are primary, Super Mario, The Schaub Experiment, Winner winner chicken dinner

Posted by matt at 8:17 PM | Permalink | links to this post

Ten things I've noticed in just over a quarter of play.

1. Jacoby Jones is as good as advertised. If he ever learns to square his shoulders before he catches a punt, he'll be unstoppable.
2. Mario is looking good. By my count, two assisted tackles, one solo tackle, and a sack.
3. Mario is also playing about half the snaps at LDE. I am in favor of this.
4. Manchild is not lining up directly beside Mario very often. I am also in favor of this.
5. Batman is running the ball well. Off tackle, mainly, but he's showing some power is left in that engine.
6. Dunta is owning TO so far. And he still plays the run extremely well.
7. Dallas announcers are jerk offs. Smug jerk offs.
   
8. Schaub has completions on 1-, 3-, and 5-step drops. David Carr does not.
9. Tony Romo is being allowed too much time to pass against our base defense.
10. Seriously. Jacoby Jones.

Bonus coverage: Another live blog at BRB.

Labels: Amobi Okoye is 20, Dunta Robinson, Jacoby Jones is unheralded, Preseason 2007, Super Mario, Teams that aren't the Texans, The Schaub Experiment

Posted by matt at 7:47 PM | Permalink | links to this post

At some point last night, DGDB&D got its 20,000th visitor. I'd like to thank all 23 of you who read it for checking so often, from so many computers.

Totally unrelated: Here's a fun picture of Leon Lett's graceful 40 foot slide.

Labels: Please let the season start soon, Self-Referential Stuff

Posted by matt at 10:39 AM | Permalink | links to this post

Zero. That's the number of times Matt Schaub and Sage Rosenfels have been sacked this preseason.

Now, the optimist looks at that number and says, "I told you the line was improved!"¹ The pessimist, however, counters with "it's just the preseason--hardly anyone gets sacked much this time of year."

I suppose both sides have a point.

The realist, however, knows that this week is the true test of our new line.² Because, apparently, the girls from up north are coming to Houston and bringing a passel of blitz packages. Whiny protestations of John Lynch notwithstanding, I think this is a great opportunity for us to see exactly what we have up front and, perhaps even more importantly, to see how The Schaub reacts to pressure, collapsed pockets, and forced hot reads.

So far this preseason, the Cowboys have used their blitzing 3-4 defense³ to notch 3 sacks and 3 forced fumbles, to hold opposing teams to 42 yards per game rushing, and to keep teams under 200 yards passing. If we get through this game without Schaub getting sacked, you will have to like our offensive line going into this season.

On the flip side, the Cowboys' o-line has allowed Tony "Slipperyhands" Romo to be sacked twice in 29 attempts, while completing just over 72% of his passes. If our front four can get pressure against this line, and maybe knock Romo on his butt two or three times my fears will be somewhat allayed. (Also, with Weaver looking less and less likely to start the season, one has to imagine that this game is an open audition for Kalu and Babin to figure out who will be starting on the left side against Kansas City.)

Things to watch for this week:

• Babin v. Kalu, part III
• Mario. Of course. Just so you are up to speed when McClain, et al, resume bashing him on Monday.
• CBs other than Dunta. Petey was torched last week and was most at fault for Edge's TD. Fletcher has looked pretty good. Which, of course, means that Petey is still the starter. Huh?
• Our running game. For all the talk about how the running game has been solid enough to make play action mean something (and this is true), the "solid enough" has not translated to much actual real estate on the field. Now, they face an extremely stingy run D. Good Times!
• Kevin v. Jacoby. 2 against 2a. Though, if we looked just at performance thus far, this one shouldn't even be a question.
• Turk finally, mercifully issues the coup de grace to Chad Stanley's career in Battle Red. Somewhere, Tim smiles.
• Jordan Black. Just how bad can he be?! Tune in to find out.
  

¹ Or, if that optimist is also a grudge-holding type, "I told you David Carr was the cause of a whole lot of those sacks!" Then he makes some random joke about Carr and a vagina... you get the picture.
² Christ, that was a contrived way to start a post. I apologize.
³ Shake brings up a good question--what's the point of the 3-4 if Ware just lines up as a DE on every play? Also, how long is Jerry Jones' tail?

Labels: Chad Stanley, Dunta Robinson, Jacoby Jones is unheralded, Jason Babin, Matt Turk rules, Offensive (punch)Line, Secondary issues are primary, Super Mario, Teams that aren't the Texans

Posted by matt at 9:58 AM | Permalink | links to this post

Yes, it's been a little quiet around here.

Part of that is because I've been busy in the evenings (damn it) and haven't had time to go back over the game tape from Saturday. I still want to go over all of Petey's snaps, mainly to see if he did anything positive to make up for getting owned repeatedly by Boldin and vacating the spot where Edge caught the TD. I might as well help OJ look for the real killers.

The other reason is because I am refusing to talk about a couple certain stories for the time being. Foremost on the posta non grata list is any further reference to Mario Williams performance until the season actually starts. Sure, I have theories on the guys just like everyone else, but I am going to stop re-writing the same old tired stuff until I see how he plays when it actually matters. Because, if he gets three sacks in week 1, a whole lot of tunes are going to change.

With any luck, we'll be back to multiple daily postings in the next day or so. (Thankfully, we didn't sign Robert Ferguson, so I don't have to post about how dumb that would have been.) For now, just ponder why every media outlet keeps talking about Jacoby getting 24 yards on two "reverses." I'll give you two possibilities: Ignorance or Laziness.

Labels: Jacoby Jones is unheralded, Preseason 2007, Self-Referential Stuff, Super Mario, Teams that aren't the Texans

Posted by matt at 11:47 AM | Permalink | links to this post

Another game, another round of roster shuffling. There weren't too many changes this time around, if only because our defense has the most question marks, but no one really stood out. Click here for last week's entry. (* denotes lock to make the team; all projections are based on the number of players we took at each position last year.)

QB (2)- Matt Schaub*, Sage Rosenfels* (Jared Zabransky on the practice squad. Bradlee Van Pelt and Quinton Porter cut.) Changes since last week: NONE.

RB/FB (5)- Ahman Green*, Ron Dayne*, Vonta Leach*, Jon Abbate, Sam Gado (Wali Lundy and Patrick Pass just miss the cut. Darius Walker continues to not be good. Jameel Cook not invited back after last season's debacles.) Changes since last week: Gado supplants Lundy in the last slot because Kubiak is strangely enamored with Samkon. Pass snuck up to "just misses the cut" status, based mainly on special teams work.

WR (5)- Andre Johnson*, Jacoby Jones*, Kevin Walter*, Jerome Mathis, Andre Davis. (Charlie Adams is the sixth WR if we really keep six like Kubiak is saying. Keenan McCardell is on the verge of having no shot. Bethel Johnson is already there. Harry Williams is like one of those uncles you never see--you know he's alive, but you have no proof.) Changes since last week: Adams up to #6, McCardell less likely to make the team without a big showing over these next two games.

OL (9)- Eric Winston*, Chester Pitts*, Fred Weary*, Ephraim Salaam*, Mike Flanagan*, Steve McKinney*, Kasey Studdard, Drew Hodgdon, Jordan Black. (Just missing the cut: Scott Jackson, Kevin Barry, and Brandon Frye. There is still no indication that Kubiak is as unhappy with Turnstile Black as fans are, so I am guessing that he'll be around come the end of the preseason. Chris White and Mike Brisiel get sent packing.) Changes since last week: Hodgdon moved up, due mainly to a biceps tear to Kevin Barry.

TE (4)- Owen Daniels*, Jeb Putzier*, and Mark Bruener*. (I think this is why we'll be carrying 6 WRs, which is good news for Charlie Adams.) Changes since last week: NONE

K (1)- Kris Brown*. Changes since last week: Impossible.

P (1)- Matt Turk. (Chad Stanley is gone. Praise Jesus.) Changes since last week: NONE, though I would be putting a * by Turk's name if we'd gotten a nice 18 yard wobbler out of the Turd Eating Pederast.

DL (9)- Mario Williams*, Amobi Okoye*, Anthony Weaver*, Anthony Maddox*, Jason Babin*, ND Kalu*, Travis Johnson, Jeff Zgonina, and Thomas Johnson. (Just missing the cut: Earl Cochran and Victor DeGrate. Also not making the roster, though by a wider margin, DelJuan Robinson, Cedric Killings, Alfred Malone, and Tim Bulman.) Changes since last week: Johnson onto the roster, DeGrate moved up, Malone moved down.

LB (6)- DeMeco Ryans*, Morlon Greenwood*, Charlie Anderson*, Shawn Barber*, Danny Clark*, Zac Diles. (Just missing the cut: Shantee Orr. Also getting cut: Trent Bray.) Changes since last week: NONE (though Anderson is now co-starter at SLB with Clark).

CB (6)- Dunta Robinson*, Demarcus Faggins*, Fred Bennett*, Jamar Fletcher*, Dexter Wynn and Tyrone Poole. (Not making the cut: Dexter McCleon and Roc Alexander. These last two positions are up in the air as much as any two can be.) Changes since last week: Wynn up, Poole added, McCleon downgraded.

S (4)- C.C. Brown*, Von Hutchins*, Jason Simmons*, Brandon Harrison. (Brandon Mitchell and John Walker are left out if we only keep 4 safeties. However, given the flux at that position right now, I would not be surprised if we kept 5 CBs and 5 Safeties, in which case Mitchell would get in. This would actually be preferable in my mind, if only because Hutchins really gives you a sixth CB if need be, anyway.) Changes since last week: NONE.

Long Snapper (1)- Bryan Pittman*. (I just want to mention AGAIN that Zgonina can long snap, which would allow us to carry 6 CBs and 5 Safeties?) Changes since last week: NONE.

Labels: Athletes who don't stab people, Batman, Chocodiles, Demarcus Faggins sucks, DeMeco Ryans, Dunta Robinson, Preseason 2007, Preview, Secondary issues are primary, Shawn Barber and Danny Clark, Super Mario, The Fred, The Schaub Experiment

Posted by matt at 8:57 AM | Permalink | links to this post

This should be the final entry in the DGDB&D / DeMeco Ryans saga. You might recall the last entry, where the attorney told me that DeMeco was going to make a donation to StandUp For Kids and send an autographed football to my son.

Well, a few days ago, I received word from the attorney that the football had been mailed, that BOTH DeMeco's Foundation and the law firm were going to make donations to the charity, and that SUFK would actually be the initial charity donated to by DeMeco's Foundation.

Then, yesterday, I received a package from Alabama to find not just a single football for Gabe, but two footballs along with other autographed memorabilia. Once again, the people involved had gone above and beyond.

So, it is with this last fact in mind that I have decided to go ahead and shorten the name of the blog (at least as it's used here) to DGDB&D. They have not asked me to do this since the initial emails, nor has there even been any hinting about doing it in exchange for the gifts. Quite the contrary, actually--it seems like everyone involved is more than happy with the compromise we reached. So why the change?

First, just out of a feeling of good will towards DeMeco, his attorney, and the classy manner in which the whole thing has been handled. Second, I think shortening the name will allow me to be a little less PC, especially in describing people like Chad Stanely or Petey Faggins, without wondering if I am putting DeMeco in an awkward situation with his teammates. (I might be being paranoid with that one, but whatever.) Third, and most importantly by far, it's my little way of saying "thank you" to them for making donations that will help many homeless and at-risk children in the Houston area.

Now, don't get me wrong here. The name of the blog is still and will always be "Da Good, Da Bad, and DeMeco." I like that name a lot and don't plan on pretending like the acronym does not stand for the original name. If you have already linked to it in that manner, please leave it that way. I will still refer to it both as the full name as well as the acronym. I am simply taking the name off the top of the page. Otherwise, nothing has changed. Well, other than a slight restoration of my faith in humanity.

I put the other two entries about this story below, just so I have all of them in one place.

**********

Update 1, Thursday, August 9, 2007

When last we left our hero (me), the disclaimer had been moved into a more prominent position, DeMeco and his attorney were happy, and it seemed as though the whole situation had wrapped up all nice and tidy.

Last night, however, the founder of StandUp For Kids, Rick Koca, found the post and commented on it. (Which is pretty cool.) Then, this morning, I received another email from the lawyer, saying that DeMeco's Foundation is going to make a donation to SUFK, that he thanked me for bringing the charity to their attention, and that DeMeco was going to send an autographed football to my son. (All of which is also pretty cool.)

I still think there is a big underlying issue here and it's likely one that won't go away until one of these "blogger v. celebrity" cases winds up in court. Thankfully, all sides involved in my situation remained calm and worked through the discussion like rational human beings. (Full disclosure: I have to thank my friends for keeping my replies friendly and level-headed. I am nothing if not prone to flying off the handle.)

************

Original Entry, Wednesday, August 8, 2007

If you glance to your right, you will notice that the disclaimer once buried near the bottom of the right hand column has been moved up. "Why is that," you are likely thinking. And the answer would be "because I am a nice guy."

Hold on. Let me back up a few days and fill you in. Because, you see, there have been some rather strange and unexpected goings on in the land of DGDB&D over the past three days.

Sunday morning, I plopped down on the couch to map out my fantasy football draft strategy and check email. Which is to say, it was shaping up to be a pretty typical Sunday.

So, you can imagine my surprise when I opened Gmail to find a letter from DeMeco Ryans' lawyer. According to Mr. Lawyer, my use of DeMeco's first name in the title of this blog presented some possible legal and marketing problems for DeMeco. Lawyer then said they would "greatly appreciate" it if I would remove the name.

I was puzzled. Granted, I didn't pay much attention in law school--OK, I didn't pay ANY attention in law school--but I was pretty confident that I was doing nothing wrong. I replied to the barrister, thanking him for a very polite email (his approach was much better than a boilerplate cease-and-desist letter) and asking him to explain what the problem was. I also mentioned that, while I was pretty sure I wasn't doing anything other than exercising some free speech, I was totally willing to work with him and his client (including changing the name) if we could reach some sort of mutually beneficial agreement.

The law-talkin' guy replied, still in a pretty gracious manner. He said that owners of intellectual property have a right to police "the marketplace" in order to prevent loss of income or marketing viability resulting from unauthorized use, that DeMeco's marketing agreements require him to be pro-active in making sure people aren't illegally using him or his image, and that my use could potentially expose DeMeco to lawsuits through no fault of his own. (I had also asked in my previous email if DeMeco was aware of the site and the attorney assured me that he was. Which means DeMeco might be reading this. Email me, dude.)

Anyway, there are some nuggets of truth to what he was saying. In a vacuum, at least. As they applied to my situation, however, this explanation fell a little short. So, another email from me to him. I asked him to point to me where anyone has intellectual property rights in his or her first name, especially as that would apply to a non-commercial blog. (The non-commercial aspect is the key to this whole exchange, really.) Also, because he had mentioned in his previous email that DeMeco was cognizant of the importance of fans and free speech, I suggested that asking a fan to abridge his free speech rights seemed contradictory.

The attorney again replied. He "explained" that DeMeco has common law and statutory rights in his name and substantial rights of publicity. He also said that, insofar as free speech goes, they have no issue whatsoever with me (or anyone) discussing DeMeco's play in the blog; they were merely concerned that his name in the title of the blog could lead someone to think Ryans supported everything that was said here. (Author's note: I want to meet someone that clueless. That's how millionaires are made.)

And that's where it sat as of Monday night. I read back over his previous email. I had to give him points for aggressively representing his client; he was hyper-vigilant. Still, the legal analysis was not quite right because this is (and always has been) a non-commercial site. And--without getting into boring legal crap--he couldn't claim assumption because, again, I was not making any money off of his name. In short--there was pretty much no way they could force me to change. Still, I was willing to work with them, if only because I didn't like the idea of having DeMeco or the Texans organization mad at me.

But how to respond to the lawyer? He had mentioned throughout the exchange that he and his client were amenable to reaching a compromise that would leave all of us happy. I guess he thought I would ask for some tickets or something. I don't know. Instead, I decided that, if I was going to give up something that I didn't have to, I wanted someone who really needed help to benefit from it. So, I replied with an offer.

I proposed the following exchange: I would shorten the name of the blog to the acronym "DGDB&D" in the header, the page title, and by email to anyone who links here. In return, DeMeco would make a donation to the Houston Chapter of Stand Up For Kids. (They get homeless and at-risk children off the street.) Also, if DeMeco was interested, I'd like to do a phone interview. I figured this charitable donation was in keeping with the whole Ahman Green-Jason Simmons thing and would be good press for the team and DeMeco (and, yes, me). Conversely, I offered to move the disclaimer up on the page so that it was more prominent, but stipulated that I would be keeping the name if I did that.

Lawyerman replied the next day (yesterday) and told me he would run it by his client.

Today, I get an email at 7:14 CST. They had chosen the latter option and would be placated if I moved the disclaimer up. So long as I kept it non-commercial. He also said that they would suggest the charity to DeMeco's foundation at some point in the future. Which brings us to where we are right now.

This whole thing was somewhat interesting, not only from a legal standpoint, but also from a blogger/free speech/new media point of view. Part of me thinks this was just a good attorney doing what he thought was best for his client. I mean, I had a new hit from where his office was located about ten minutes before the first email, so I kind of assume he took it upon himself to run with the ball. And there is no harm in that. Hell, I would want my representative to do the same. (I also respected how cordial he was through the whole thing and his stick-to-it-itiveness throughout the legal back-and-forth.)

Another part of me, however, wonders if this is the tip of the iceberg. As sites like Kissing Suzy Kolber and Ghosts of Wayne Fontes and Fire Joe Morgan grow in popularity, once has to believe that the sites' namesakes are aware of their existence. To the extent that any of it results in negative feedback or positive income, I would imagine that the parties named will slowly start to intervene. And, in the realm of the All Powerful NFL, I assume the "aggrieved" parties will have Goodell and Co. behind them more often than not. It will then be up to the courts to decide where free speech and fair use end, if at all.

For now, however, this blog lives. Free speech rules.

Labels: Athletes who don't stab people, Batman, Chad Stanley, Demarcus Faggins sucks, DeMeco Ryans, Legal stuff, Self-Referential Stuff

Posted by matt at 7:36 PM | Permalink | links to this post

First off, I know that wins in the preseason mean about as much as to the outcome of the season as campaign promises do to the direction of a presidency. Still, given the choice between playing well and winning or playing well and losing, even in the preseason, that's no choice at all.

Second, I feel sorry for the fans of the Arizona Cardinals. You have, hands down, the worst television announcing duo I have ever heard. They talked so highly of everything Arizona did, you would think the Cards were coming off a Super Bowl threepeat. They honestly seemed to believe that every position player for the Cardinals is Pro Bowl quality, and the play-by-play guy makes every tackle sound like it was Mike Jones against Kevin Dyson. Even worse, they whined about every call that went against the Cardinals, while ignoring that the Cardinals offensive line play seem centered around holding. Horrid. Even my wife, who couldn't be less biased about any of this, remarked when the coverage switched to the Texans feed after halftime, "Did they change announcers? These guys don't sound so retarded all of the sudden."

As for the game itself...

• Matt Schaub looked fantastic. He completed his first six passes to five different guys, finishing 9/12 for 108. He showed an ability to roll to either side and deliver a ball. He stood tall in the pocket without getting happy feet and delivered a couple great throws--including the one to Owen Daniels down the middle on the long drive--and showed some good mobility on the naked bootleg TD. What was that people were saying about him being immobile?
  
• Jacoby Jones continued to be, for lack of a better word, amazing. He gained 10 on an end around on the long TD drive in the first and another 14 on an end around in the second. (Note: Not to go all Gregg Easterbrook on you, but both of these runs were end arounds and NOT reverses, as stated here.) He had 2 catches for 32 yards. Oh, and there was little 80 yard punt return TD, wherein he straight ran away from people who had good pursuit angles.
• Danny Clark showed why he has been bumped into a starting role when he stuffed the 4th down attempt by Arizona. Clark came in untouched, got a hold of the RB, and held on long enough to allow the line to snuff out the play. I continue to be more and more excited about the Clark-Ryans-Greenwood trio.
• Sage Rosenfels and Charlie Anderson were the best 2s of the week. I don't think Anderson played well enough to get back into the starting threesome--nor do I hope he did--but he provides some really nice depth at that SAM position.
  
• If I've said it once, I've said it 100 times, but Petey Faggins is NOT GOOD. I know it's hard to stop Anquan Boldin, but Faggins' play made one wonder why the Cardinals did anything on offense other than throw to Boldin. He was also caught napping on the TD pass to James, as the throw went right to the spot he mysteriously vacated. I know Faggins is a crowd favorite, but c'mon... enough already.
• Dunta Robinson continues to knock the crap out of people this preseason. It's always fun to watch a 180-pound DB level someone.
• According to the NFL Gamebook, Jason Babin played. Though you wouldn't know it by watching the game or looking at the box score. Not really the best way to follow last week, Babs.
• Not to toot my own horn, but in last week's state of the roster post, I threw out the line "though I suppose Charlie Adams could make some noise before it's all said and done." A 40-yard TD grab officially counts as some noise. And it pretty much guarantees that Bethel Johnson should update his resume.
• DeMeco Ryans was quietly solid as per usual. It's really nice to have that sort of talent and consistency in the middle of the field on a weekly basis.
• Owen Daniels had 3 grabs for 45 yards and delivered as much damage as he received on the tackles. He is a underrated weapon and a fantasy football sleeper.
• Kris Brown is still banging them through. Though I wish he wasn't getting so many from stalled red zone drives.
• You can color me surprised if Scott Jackson gets anymore lip service from Kubiak about "getting more reps with the 2s." He nearly got Sage Rosenfels killed.
• This lack of a pass rush from the front four (one sack so far, courtesy for Th. Johnson) is going to kill us. I don't want to opine on the reasons just yet, as I hope to go through the tape of the first team a little more closely, but it has reached "critical concern" status. The defense as a whole, actually, is underwhelming. We can't seem to stop the short passes and the check downs, and the Cardinals showed that our secondary is highly flammable against big receivers.
  
• Two picks, regardless of the QBs throwing at the time, is still a nice development. Jason Simmons, however, is not a starting safety by any stretch of the imagination. VIVA VON HUTCHINS! (Sorry.)
• Mario Williams, ND Kalu, and the aforementioned Babin... we're sure they dressed for the game, right?
• The Arizona broadcasters just said "DeMeco Ryans... I think he was the defensive rookie of the year." Really?
  

Next week... the Governor's Cup. Our starters are supposedly going to play into the third quarter. Cowboys jokes are encouraged in the comments.

Labels: Athletes who don't stab people, Demarcus Faggins sucks, DeMeco Ryans, Dunta Robinson, Jacoby Jones is unheralded, Preseason 2007, Secondary issues are primary, Super Mario, The Schaub Experiment, Winner winner chicken dinner

Posted by matt at 10:57 AM | Permalink | links to this post

Halftime in the desert.

Good so far: Schaub, Jones, AJ, Dunta, Danny Clark, Owen Daniels, Sage, Green.
Bad so far: Mario, Amobi, FAGGINS, Dayne, Safeties, officiating, Cardinals broadcasters.
Invisible so far: DeMeco, Morlon, Apostrophe.

Full recap following the game. By which I mean some time between the end of today's game the start of next week's. Also, an update on the DeMeco Ryans/DGDB&D story.

Labels: Athletes who don't stab people, Batman, Demarcus Faggins sucks, DeMeco Ryans, Dunta Robinson, Jacoby Jones is unheralded, Owen Daniels is a big ol' Pimp, Preseason 2007, Super Mario, The Schaub Experiment

Posted by matt at 4:33 PM | Permalink | links to this post

Dear The Fans of The Tennessee Oilers Titans,

About last night. Um... yeah... was that as painful for you to watch as it was enjoyable for me? I mean, are you worried yet?

Sure, it was only one game, but 5 of 17 for 102? Ouch. And that play where everyone in the world knew Vince was going to run and he got run into the ground short of the endzone? Double ouch. Considering your boy only completed about half of his passes last year--worst in the league for anyone with over 90 attempts--watching him bounce ten yard passes at the feet of and sail twenty passes over the heads of his receivers could not have been uplifting.

Oh, and how about those sacks? Rodney Harrison blitzed from the offense's RIGHT and Vince never saw him? Good times. At least for me.

Anyway, hope all is well. We can't wait for you to visit Houston in October.

Sincerely,
Matt

Labels: Preseason 2007, Teams that aren't the Texans, Vinsanity

Posted by matt at 8:24 AM | Permalink | links to this post

During the three months I've been doing this bloggifying, I've made little secret of the fact that I am pro-Jason Babin. (Don't believe me? See here. Don't ever doubt me.)

So, with that in mind, I was happy to see how well J-Bab¹ played last Saturday. He wasn't just impressive--he turned in not-so-arguably the best defensive lineman performance of the night for either team. Kubiak certainly noticed in the post game press conference.

[W]hen you look at the second group, there were some guys that really stood out. Jason Babin being number one, played extremely well.

Yesterday, Kubiak was again asked about Babin's progress throughout camp. The message was still positive.

I said this many of times. We’ve had a lot of conversations about Travis [Johnson] and Jerome [Mathis] at this camp, but Jason needs to get into that conversation because he’s really dedicated himself to our program, to Dan [Riley], to what Jethro [Franklin] and Frank [Bush] are trying to do and it shows. He stood out last week as much as any guy we had up front so I’m looking forward to Jason having a good year (emphasis added)

For Kubiak, that damn near qualifies as gushing.

Anyway, considering how unlikely it seemed even a month ago that the words "Jason" and "Babin" and "extremely well" would be uttered in some sort of succession, it's probably not surprising that the Chronic would run with the story, taking the "change of coaching is responsible" angle.

Franklin has worked on improving Babin's technique and his mental approach.

'That's the thing about it, this game is so mental,' Franklin said. 'Mentally, he was probably all over the place. Hopefully now, he's a little more focused on himself and not other people around him. He's more focused on his body in terms of body mechanics.

'I give them things they can hang their hat on. That's what I try to give them. Try to get them some tools. If you give them some tools, hopefully they can build you a strong bridge.'

All of this is well and good; to a certain extent, I'm sure that new, simplified coaching has helped Babin. However, just as important--and mentioned only ever so slightly--is that Jason has matured professionally to the point where the initial expectations for him are now becoming reasonable.

Very few defensive ends go from being a good college player to a good professional in one year.² The ones that do are usually the freaks of nature like Dwight Freeney and Julius Peppers (13 and 12 sacks, respectively, as rookies). More common, even with guys like Jason Taylor (5 sacks as a rookie) who go on to become great pass rushers, is a learning curve of at least one year. Taylor, for instance, went from 5 to 9.5, but then dropped to 2.5 his third year. Leonard Little played in 6 games each of his first two season--due to that pesky prison term for vehicular manslaughter--and recorded no sacks in either. Michael Strahan recorded 1 in 9 games as a rookie, followed by 4.5 in 15 games in year 2. Aaron Kampman notched 2.5 total in his first 24 games. The list goes on and on. Point is, it was ridiculous to expect a kid from a small directional Michigan school to jump right to the NFL and become a dominant pass rusher.

Of course, the old regime decided to up the difficulty for Babin by moving him from DE--where he was just asked to go forward--to outside linebacker in the 3-4--where he was expected to work in space, move in all directions, and cover the occasional TE. Funny thing is, Babin performed reasonably well in this role, notching 4 sacks and 4 passes defensed while starting all 16 games as a rookie. By 2005, he'd lost his starting gig, but he put up another 4 sacks as the words "bust" started being bandied about. Last year, with a new (read: non-retarded) coach, Babin was moved back to DE and in spot starts had 5 sacks.

That's 13 sacks in three seasons, only one year as a full-time starter, which is more than Strahan or Kampman (and more consistent than Taylor). Now, of course, I am not suggesting that Babin will ever become Jason Taylor (or Michael Strahan); rather, I am just pointing out that at one point, no one thought Jason Taylor would become Jason Taylor.

All of that said, I think it's pretty clear that I am nothing but thrilled with the "sudden" emergence of Babin this summer. Two plays last Saturday hinted that he might be on the verge of becoming the other pass rushing DE--first, when he came off the weakside edge, flew down the line, and brought down Cedric Benson from behind, and, second, when he powered through the strongside double team and made the play. (Ironically, both of those plays were against the run, though the knock on Babin is that he is a liability in run defense.)

So, where does that leave us in terms of a starting D-line? Assuming Anthony Weaver is not ready to go week 1, which seems a safer assumption by the day, I think you still have to pencil ND Kalu in as the starter at LDE, at least for now. Kalu is no spring chicken, though, so I think a pretty heavy dose of Babin might be involved there as well. Also, much like last year, there is talk that Weaver will move to DT on obvious passing downs, clearing the way for Kalu or Babin at times even after Weavs returns.

It wouldn't surprise me at all to see the line change depending on how "obvious" the passing down is and, more importantly, how long the yardage is (i.e. how long the play will take to develop). On 3rd and 10 or more, a pure speed line of Mario, Babin, Amobi, and Weaver (unless you wanted to try Kalu on the inside) could be amazingly effective. In shorter situations, either Babin or Kalu at one end, with a bigger middle (Maddox/TJ, perhaps?) probably makes more sense.³

Regardless of the rotation, having Jason Babin continue to play like he has so far this season would go a looooooong way toward developing that front-four pass rush that our defense (most notably our secondary) so desperately needs. Even better, it will start to make the first-round pick of Babin make sense. "It's about time," you say? I agree... that's EXACTLY what it's about.


¹ No? How about The Babinator? I like that one.
² Something to keep in mind regarding Mario, too, I suppose.
³ The one thing I don't want to see, but that I have seen others advocating, is moving Mario inside on these passing downs, with Kalu and Babin on the edges. Ignoring how such a move would make the anti-Mario contingent even louder, it removes Mario's primary asset (speed) and makes little to no sense in my mind. Plus, Baldinger would run his mouth again.

Labels: Jason Babin, Posts that list too many players, Preseason 2007, Super Mario, Teams that aren't the Texans, Training camp 2007, Tremendous Busts

Posted by matt at 7:31 PM | Permalink | links to this post

In one of the more shocking developments of this offseason¹, Jerome Solomon took time off from calling Texans fans "losers" in order to do something that smelled strangely like real football analysis. He tracked each of Mario Williams' seventeen snaps from the first preseason game and tried to offer something in the way of insight or explanation for each.

Now, being bored as I am and questioning how much of Solomon's article was colored by his own bias, I decided to re-watch the game² and see if his own observations matched my own. I mean, I might not have the same credentials as "King" when it comes to being Tom Brady's fluffer, but we should be on pretty even footing when it comes to breaking down gameplay.

Play 1 - Quick three-step drop for Rex Grossman, running back popped down to double Mario, no chance of doing any damage. Just guessing here, but Mario also slowed to read the back, because if it were a handoff he was the only defender in the area.

True, it was a three-step drop, but Benson had little if anything to do with preventing the rush. Grossman fired the ball to his first target on a 5 yard pass as soon as the back foot hit. He also didn't "slow to read the back" because the back never even faked like he was getting the ball and Super Rex ignored him entirely.

Play 2 - Play-action with a seven-step drop gave Grossman extra time, but after initially honoring the fake, Mario ripped through a tackle-tight end double-team to pressure the QB.

Pretty accurate, but I don't think Mario reacted much to the play action. Charlie Anderson was lined up outside Mario on the line of scrimmage, so he had any off-tackle run responsibility. Mario did manhandle the TE and St. Clair, basically forcing his way through them with minimal effort. These are the things that make us happy. Grossman still completed it. These are the things that make us sad.

Play 3 - Who the heck knows? By the time Ch. 13 got back to live action, Cedric Benson had broken a tackle (announcers say it was DeMeco Ryans) and been brought down on a run to the right.

Yup.

Play 4 - Mario was one-on-one with a tackle (though the tight end probably missed a chip), initial outside move was thwarted and couldn't get free with inside adjustment. Tried to toss 315-pound John St. Clair to the side with a power swing (the move Reggie White made famous) but he didn't budge. Excellent footwork by St. Clair.

The TE released on the snap, so there was no missed chip. Looking at Mario's feet, I think the initial outside move was more of a bluff--he did a little hop step so that his weight stayed to the inside of St. Clair, which isn't really a way to get by someone on the outside--designed to set up the arm swing inside move. Problem was, St. Clair didn't bite on the outside move (that was some solid footwork), stayed square, and beat Mario to the contact, meaning the arm had little to no effect. (By the way, Manchild was lined up beside Mario on this play, though that was the exception rather than the rule as far as I could see. Also by the way, ND should have put his hands up.)

Play 5 - False start on the Bears. Mario might have caused it. We don't know because Ch. 13 didn't show the play. (Hey, it's preseason for TV too.)

Silly Ch. 13. Also, Spencer Tillman is making my head hurt. To hear him talk, you'd think he was omnipotent, as he can basically tell us with exactly detail what every player on the field did on each play, before the replay.

Play 6 - Choppy three-step drop for Grossman. No chance for any pass rush from the outside.

The front four were a little more spread out (nickel coverage) and Mario began the play fully outside the tackle. It was a quick drop and Grossman again delivered quickly, but any inside move Mario had set up (and it looked like St. Clair overreacted to the outside move) was thwarted by the DT (Maddox, I think) pushing his blocker into St. Clair.

Play 7 - Running play, where Mario had outside contain (particularly since C.C. Brown ran up out of position which could have led to a big play), and he locked up the tackle, forcing Benson back inside where Ryans dropped him for a two-yard loss.

Um, C.C. Brown ran up because the WR the safeties were keying on motioned from the other side of the field. Prior to that, Earl was up and Brown was back. When the motion came, Earl dropped and Brown came up. None of which has anything to do with Mario's responsibility on that play. Also, Ryans came through the line between the tackles because he read run all the way. Mario did have outside contain, though, and appeared to be getting past St. Clair when Benson made the move back to the inside.

Play 8 - Beat St. Clair with an outside rush, but it was too deep to get near Grossman's five-step drop, so St. Clair led him further wide.

Newsflash: He didn't "beat" St. Clair. Offensive linemen routinely set up to induce the outside rush so that they can push the DE on past the QB, especially when the play calls for a five-step drop. St. Clair set Mario up and Mario fell for it. By the time Mario tried to correct and move back inside, St. Clair had the position and leverage and made that impossible.

Play 9 - Was making progress into the pocket when Grossman threw a dump-off on a quick read. Had Grossman even thought about his second option in stead of looking at the first and checking down, Williams would have gotten to him.

Slightly late off the ball, but Mario pretty much rode St. Clair back into Grossman. If Anderson doesn't give the RB too much cushion, that's a sack. Grossman did look to his first and second reads, however, before the dump, so Solomon overstates things a bit.

Play 10 - Quick penetration to the outside on a running play. His move opened a cutback hole for Benson, but Charlie Anderson was there and Dunta Robinson closed with authority.

Mario went outside again and St. Clair just pushed him along, knowing it was a run. Mario got off the ball quickly, but a fake to the outside and an inside move would have (a) mixed things up a little and (b) allowed him to play the run. Considering Chicago had passed on three of the last four plays, he should have at least considered the possibility.

Play 11 - Texans were preparing to bring a blitz, drew St. Clair offsides. Granted a couple of people moved, but if the guy in front of you jumps, you get credit for a nice play. Hooray Mario.

Again in that spread front nickel, St. Clair might have been thinking about the fact that he overreacted to the outside bluff the last time they win in this formation. That coupled with Shawn Barber showing blitz over the top of Mario caused him to jump.

Play 12 - Wins race to the outside, forces Grossman to step up and dump off to Benson.

Despite the fact that he went outside AGAIN, Mario blew by St. Clair and forced the step-up and throw. Nicely done.

Play 13 (second series) - Mario slides left as if he read run, but it was a play fake and short throw to the fullback.

That's pretty accurate. He did seem to bite on the playfake, in that he stood up, but he recovered and was double-teamed (allowing Amobi to come free). By the way, Amobi was next to Mario on this play. It looks so far like 2/3 of the time he's not and 1/3 he is. I'm ok with this.

Play 14 - Held the point on an iso running play right at him, but couldn't shake free to make the tackle. 11-yard gain.

Pretty close, though it should be noted that, lined up in a 4-3 Over (as opposed to a Base 4-3 they'd run most of the night so far), the Texans' front was shoved back with some fantastic run blocking.

Play 15 - St. Clair did an excellent job of pass blocking on this one, and again, Grossman wasted little time checking down, though it appeared he did make two downfield reads before overthrowing Benson for his first incompletion.

Mario again tried the stutter-step outside fake, but found St. Clair prepared for the inside move. St. Clair showed fantastic footwork fighting off the inside move while remaining in position to prevent a quick release back to the outside. Mario threw a spin move at the end of this combo and looked athletic enough doing it that he might want to consider using that more often.

Play 16 - Mario read run, and he was right, but he jumped away from the point of attack - something that at times is strategy, but more likely a bad habit created by his ability to chase ball-carriers downfield. (That's why you so often see him arriving on the scene in the secondary after a tackle has been made.) I'll have to ask Texans coaches if it's a problem. Surely there are times Mario is supposed to peel off, but many times he seems to do so because he is waiting for something to happen instead of making it happen.

4-3 Under formation, RB gave the slightest little move to the right, which looked like the reason Mario jumped to the inside. Amobi (lined up next to Mario) ran outside, though, and the right side of the line was Operation Charlie Foxtrot. (Note: This is the main reason I don't like Amobi next to Mario--Manchild is not designed to eat up two blockers like a Sam Adams. Without that, if the line crashes left for the run help the run play, Mario and Amobi seem to get pushed off the ball.)

Play 17 - If Mario had been setting St. Clair up for an out-and-up move, this was the time to whip it out, but he stayed outside on Grossman's five-step drop until a desperation spin as the ball was being thrown. This is what will determine if Mario will either become a stud or just decent. He has to develop a sense of what to do and when to do it. He'd gone outside almost exclusively to this point, so much so that St. Clair instantly dropped back to protect against the outside rush. Mario had St. Clair sliding almost off-balance to his left, yet still chose to go the long way around. He didn't get there.

I still say Mario had tried the out-and-up move at least twice already. Also, I don't know that I would say St. Clair overreacted to the outside move; rather, he squared up and reacted to the direction Mario went. Outside. Again. It only looked like a big hole was left for a possible inside move because there was no inside move made that anyone would have reacted to.

In total, I see five plays where the play either didn't involve Mario at all because of how it was designed, was negated by a penalty, and/or one of Mario's own teammates ruined the play for Mario. That leaves 12 real snaps, which seem more or less equally split between Mario winning/doing exactly what he was supposed to do and Mario getting controlled/beaten.

Yes, I would like to have seen Mario get a sack or stuff Benson in the backfield or tear St. Clair's heart out of his chest and shown it too him before he died. All in all, though, I think winning 50% of the battles against a pretty good offensive line is a positive result.

My biggest concern, though, is that Mario is still relying WAY too much on the speed rush. Maybe that's just a function of the foot being healthy and him wanting to see just how his speed matches up with NFL tackles. At least, that would make sense. He does seem to have developed some new moves, the stutter-step outside fake most notable--but they are not polished yet. Hopefully, that will come over the course of the next three preseason games.

As for Solomon's analysis... it was pretty good. I think was a little simplistic in places and I think his knowledge of offensive line technique is pretty limited, but I can't go so far as to say that there was any real bias evident on his part. If Pat Kirwan turned in this article, it would be a C. For Solomon, though, it's a B+.


¹ Right up there with the apparent emergence of Jason Babin and Travis Johnson.
² By the way, yes, I realize that I never did a breakdown of the second half of Saturday's game. That might still come--I've actually watched it once, in addition to listening to it live--but probably not. Short version: Team was leading. Bradlee Van Pelt appeared. The lead began to shrink. Chad Stanley proved that he is a turd-eating pederast. We had them stopped, but Earl Cochran ran into the punter (weak). BVP intercepted himself at one point. We lost.

Labels: Athletes who don't stab people, DeMeco Ryans, Dunta Robinson, Posts that list too many players, Preseason 2007, Super Mario

Posted by matt at 6:05 PM | Permalink | links to this post

Building on my theory that the roster changes by the day, two roster-related moves were made by the team this afternoon. First, 610 reports that LB Charlie Anderson was supplanted as the starting SLB by Danny Clark. "The Assassin" has impressed Kubiak in camp, both in linebacker duty and on special teams, so he's apparently the man now (dog) at the SAM position.

I like this move. Nothing against Charlie--he showed some ability on Saturday and he plays with a nice intensity--but Clark has some skills. Last year was a down year for him, but he had 129 and 113 total tackles in the two seasons prior to 2006. Plus, I think his size/speed combination alongside what DeMeco Ryans and Morlon Greenwood possess puts us in the position of having one of the most athletic and (dare I say it?) talented starting LB corps in the AFC.

Second, and you can file this under "what the...?," the team signed Tyrone Poole. I suppose this was to add some depth at free safety. However, I really don't understand the thinking here. Poole is a converted CB, just like Von Hutchins, and has the added super happy funtime bonus of being 35 years old. He hasn't played a full season since 2003. In 12 games last year with Oakland, he managed 15 total tackles, 1 INT, and 3 passes defended. Wow.

I understand the idea that Smithiak have had a great track record with bringing guys in off the street (Anthony Maddox, anyone?). Still, I cannot figure out how this move makes sense. If you want to try a converted CB at FS, you have Hutchins. If you want to try an old converted CB at FS, you have Dexter McCleon. If you want to try an actual safety at FS, you have Brandon Harrison, Brandon Mitchell, and/or Jason Simmons. Depth is never a bad thing, but signing some random old guy simply because he had the best workout among some other random out-of-work defensive backs isn't adding good depth. Even if we keep 5 safeties on the active roster, I don't think it makes sense to keep Poole over any of the other guys listed here. I hope I am wrong and that Poole checks in with 6 INTs and 50 tackles by the season's end. Still, I have to think that if he had that kind of Free Safety production in him, he wouldn't have been eating Cheetos and waiting on a phone call.

UPDATE: There are rumors floating around that Poole will see time mainly at nickel and was signed more in response to the loss of Jason Horton than of Glenn Earl, meaning Kubiak is happy with the Brown/Simmons tandem (or a Brown/Hutchins possibility) as of now. This is good, but it still makes you wonder why we brought him in. I mean, Jamar Fletcher and Fred Bennett are the nickel guys right now (and Faggins should be there). Also, Jason Horton was playing like crap on Saturday, so who even knows if he was long for the team? I dunno. Hopefully the next few days will shed some light on it.

Labels: Athletes who don't stab people, Dan The Assassin, Demarcus Faggins sucks, DeMeco Ryans, Morlon Greenwood, Preview, Secondary issues are primary, The Fred, Training camp 2007

Posted by matt at 4:16 PM | Permalink | links to this post

One thing that is becoming clear under Kubiak is that the roster is a very dynamic thing through training camp. A guy can be a starter one day and on the verge of not making the team the next week, all based on performance--either a lack of his own performance or an increase in the level of play by his competitors. You need look no further than Shantee Orr for an example of this. So, keeping that in mind, I thought it would be interesting to track the perceived 53-man roster as we go through these preseason games. Yes, I am that bored right now.

Anyway, using the same numbers as we took last year into week 1, who would be on the roster if the season started today? (* denotes the player is a lock to make the team)

QB (2)- Matt Schaub*, Sage Rosenfels* (Jared Zabransky on the practice squad. Bradlee Van Pelt mercifully taken out behind the barn and shot. Quinton Porter cut.)

RB/FB (5)- Ahman Green*, Ron Dayne*, Vonta Leach*, Jon Abbate, Wali Lundy (Sam Gado just misses the cut. Darius Walker continues to not be good. Patrick Pass is a poor man's Chris Taylor, so he's gone. Jameel Cook not invited back after last season's debacles.)

WR (5)- Andre Johnson*, Jacoby Jones*, Kevin Walter*, Jerome Mathis, Andre Davis. (The last two positions here are some of the most up-in-the-air spots on the roster. If Mathis stays healthy through camp and keeps playing like he did Saturday, I think that spot is his to lose. The last slot will be between Davis and Keenan McCardell most likely, though I suppose Charlie Adams could make some noise before it's all said and done. David Anderson is too small and Bethel Johnson is superfluous if Davis/Mathis are healthy. Much like the Rodents of Unusual Size, I'm pretty sure Harry Williams doesn't actually exist.)

OL (9)- Eric Winston*, Chester Pitts*, Fred Weary*, Ephraim Salaam*, Mike Flanagan*, Steve McKinney*, Kasey Studdard, Kevin Barry, Jordan Black. (Just missing the cut: Scott Jackson, Drew Hodgdon and Brandon Frye. Which sucks, because it means that Turnstile just made the cut. After Saturday night's performance, though, I can see him being on a pretty short leash at this point, so maybe we still get lucky and Black gets the boot. Chris White and Mike Brisiel get sent packing.)

TE (4)- Owen Daniels*, Jeb Putzier*, and Mark Bruener*. (I really don't think they'll carry four this year, though, which means they can carry an extra person somewhere else. If they go with one more at WR, that gets McCardell in for sure. I, for one, am excited about some two TE packages with Daniels and the Jebster.)

K (1)- Kris Brown*.

P (1)- Matt Turk. (Chad Stanley is gone. Praise Jesus.)

DL (9)- Mario Williams*, Amobi Okoye*, Anthony Weaver*, Anthony Maddox*, Jason Babin*, ND Kalu*, Travis Johnson, Jeff Zgonina, and Earl Cochran. (I think Babin nailed down his roster spot with that showing on Saturday. In reality, Zgonina is probably a lock, if only because I can't see anyone on the roster who is suddenly going to unseat him, but we'll leave him as working for the job for now. Cochran was doing a lot to solidify his spot before he got flagged for the penalty that lost the damned game. Thomas Johnson and Alfred Malone could surprise some people and make this roster, but I don't think DelJuan Robinson, Cedric Killings, Tim Bulman, or Victor DeGrate can. Also, rumors that Tim Bulman is the "Tim" behind BRB are likely false.)

LB (6)- DeMeco Ryans*, Morlon Greenwood*, Charlie Anderson*, Shawn Barber*, Danny Clark, Zac Diles. (Shantee Orr is odd-manned out here, as Clark brings MLB/SLB versatility and Diles is shaping up to be a special teams beast. I'm a pro-Shantee guy, but I like the six guys ahead of him as a unit. Trent Bray also will not make the team, which is not even surprising to his wife and mother.)

CB (6)- Dunta Robinson*, Demarcus Faggins*, Fred Bennett*, Jamar Fletcher*, Roc Alexander, Dexter McCleon. (With Von Hutchins moving to safety, Dexter Wynn is left out of this sextet.)

S (4)- C.C. Brown*, Von Hutchins*, Jason Simmons*, Brandon Harrison. (Brandon Mitchell and John Walker are left out if we only keep 4 safeties. However, given the flux at that position right now, I would not be surprised if we kept 5 CBs and 5 Safeties, in which case Mitchell would get in. This would actually be preferable in my mind, if only because Hutchins really gives you a sixth CB if need be, anyway.)

Long Snapper (1)- Bryan Pittman*. (Why the hell can't we find a guy who can long snap and play a real position? I think I heard mention that Zgonina was a LS, though, so maybe he does some dual duty and we can carry 6 CBs and 5 Safeties?)

Labels: Athletes who don't stab people, Batman, Chocodiles, Demarcus Faggins sucks, DeMeco Ryans, Dunta Robinson, Mark Bruener, Offensive (punch)Line, Posts that list too many players, Preseason 2007, Preview, Super Mario, The Fred, The Schaub Experiment

Posted by matt at 8:28 AM | Permalink | links to this post

By now, you've no doubt heard that starting strong safety Glenn Earl is lost for the season (at minimum--Lisfranc injuries can be exceedingly hard to come back from). Now, while the secondary was thin to begin with, I am going to go out on a limb here and say that this injury was a good thing for the team. Addition by subtraction, if you will.

It's not that Earl was bad. He is passably decent against the run and can deliver a big hit from time to time.¹ Of course, he also got destroyed Saturday night by a truck called Cedric Benson, so he's not exactly Ronnie Lott.

The real problem is the current tandem of Earl and C.C. Brown gives the Texans no true free safety. Brown is better served in the strong safety position--he's a hitter, but he bites on way too many play action passes (you saw it Saturday if you were looking for it), and he tackles better than Earl.

Thankfully, it seems most of the early reactions suggest that Brown will slide over to strong safety. So, who takes the free safety role?

The early leader in the race is Von Hutchins. A converted corner, Hutchins had that nice pick off of Brian Greise Saturday night. I suppose, given the options we have on the table right now, he would be my choice. The downside is that he's a little small (5'9") and doesn't have much of a track record, so he's an unknown quantity at best.

Another possibility is Brandon Harrison, the rookie out of Stanford. Technically, he is a strong safety, which kind of puts us in the position we were with Earl/Brown out there. He's a big kid, though (6'2"/227), and if he can show a nose for the ball, he'd be an intriguing prospect. My concern with him, as I've said before, is that I really don't see him being a DB for long. He strikes me as a Cato June type--as in he's going to fill out a little more and be more of a nickel LB when it's all said and done--and he has a reputation for being afraid of making the big hit.

For a third choice, Scott broke the news that the team was bringing in Shaun Williams for a workout. Unfortunately, as Scott points out, Williams is better against the run than the pass and has been described as "reckless." Sure, that would be better than, say, bringing in Matt Stevens--of course, I would be better than Matt Stevens--but it's not necessarily a panacea.

Other possibilities include Dexter McCleon and Brandon Mitchell² [edit: and Jason Simmons.] So, yeah, I guess you could say the position is still up for grabs.

One interesting (if slightly tongue-in-cheek) suggestion floating around the message board was moving Bradlee Van Pelt from QB to FS. He's big enough (6'2"/220), his father was a linebacker, he has some anger management issues (remember him spiking the ball off the face of a Colorado defender?) that suggest he might have the right temperament for defense, and--best of all--he intercepted his own pass the other night. In fact, he originally enrolled at Michigan State, where they converted him to defensive back. Skills, baby! Clearly, this one isn't going to happen, but I don't think it's a horrible suggestion. The kid is not an NFL QB... why not give him a chance to play somewhere else? It'd be like Rick Ankiel, only without Bradlee ever having shown promise at his original position.

My guess, when all is said and done, is that Hutchins wins the job. And if he plays like has so far in camp and preseason, I am fine with that. I just can't help wondering if we are not overlooking some better possibilities.

¹ See, e.g., the lick he put on Jeremy Shockey last year. (That's a great picture.)
² I am still high on the Brandon Mitchell bandwagon, despite my hatred for OSU. I have a sneaking feeling he could be the answer, but I also doubt he will be given a real shot to prove it. So is life, I guess.

Author's note: Sorry for the somewhat disjointed nature of this post. I wrote it in four or five separate sittings because jerks kept expecting me to actually work. At work. Jerks.

Labels: 2007 Draft, Injury bug, Ohio State makes baby Jesus cry, Preseason 2007, Secondary issues are primary, Van Crap, Von

Posted by matt at 10:36 AM | Permalink | links to this post

News and observations from the video tape:

• Despite how they listed the starting lineup (i.e. Mario Williams, Amobi Okoye, Anthony Maddox, ND Kalu), Maddox was actually lined up beside Mario on all the plays where I was able to ID the linemen. As described repeatedly here, this makes sense.
• Matt Schaub's numbers were not good, but he made a couple impressive moves. The pass to Kevin Walter (dropped) with a blitz coming from his blindside was a thing of beauty and something that could not have happened last year. He got a little antsy on the possible TD pass to Walter, but I think he makes that pass 9 times out of 10.
• Jason Babin is seriously fast. He just slipped past a shoulder block and chased down the RB from the backside.
• Ron Dayne is still fat. I mean, he looks like he's dropped a little weight, but he is f-a-t.
• I really hope Kubiak noticed how teams were over committing on the goal line runs. I agree with the TV guys that there is no reason to risk putting your QB out on a naked bootleg in the preseason, but even Jared Lorenzen could have run that one in.
• So, the first team D-line didn't get as much penetration as I'd hoped. Kalu got in a little bit, and Mario had about three plays where he was this close. But that's about it. I know the Bears O-line is very good (Rex Grossman was only sacked 21 times last year), but I still wanted to see a little more middle penetration.
• OK, I'm just going to come out and say it--we don't need Bethel Johnson. Mathis and Jones have the return game on lockdown. Wow.
• I don't think the announcers noticed that Manchild was not lined up alongside Mario. I say that because they were just talking about "people think maybe you put one of them on the other side... no." What?
• Charlie Adams is a little faster and a little more physical than I remembered. But these drops (Adams, Walter) are killing us.
• Even if that was more hustle and output than we've seen in the rest of his career combined, Travis Johnson probably should have saved that little Riverdance for a TD that counted. Still, I laughed. Oh, and it was Babin again causing that pressure.
• Speaking of, we are getting good pass rush with our 2s against their 2s.
• Jacoby Jones was the best athlete on the field throughout the second quarter. I like this.
• Why the hell didn't the officials stop the clock for a measurement on that Sam Gado catch with :17 left? It was within a yard... surely that requires the sticks. The only thing I can think is that Rosenfels called the TO too quickly.
• Kris Brown, 4/4. Consistently consistent.

That's the end of the first half. I'm taking a break and I'll update with second half notes this afternoon.

Labels: Amobi Okoye is 20, Jacoby Jones is unheralded, Preseason 2007, Ron Dayne likes pie, Super Mario, The Schaub Experiment, WR

Posted by matt at 9:37 AM | Permalink | links to this post

Ugh. That sucked.

I know, I know... it's only the preseason and it's only one game. And I know there were plenty of bright spots. For instance:

• Jacoby Jones. Wow. WOW. As a return man and as a WR, Jacoby lived up to the hype. If not for Ricky Manning's penalty-inducing contact, JJ would have had a sweet TD to cap off his great night. If he isn't our WR2 on opening day 2008, something will have gone very wrong.
• DeMeco Ryans. He was only in for limited action, but Ryans had his nose in the middle of everything. I saw NOTHING that would suggest a decline this year or any kind of sophomore slump. This guy is for real.
• Sage Rosenfels. Sure, he's the backup, but he moved the ball well and spread it around. As a security blanket goes, we could do a lot worse. His line--16/26, 138 yds, TD--was all you could have asked.
• Jerome Mathis. He's back. At least, it looks like it. He flashed that serious straight-line speed that made him a Pro Bowler not too long ago.
• Jason Babin. I would have bet you $50 that he wouldn't be on this list. I would have lost. Babin flashed great chasing speed coming from the backside and an ability to shed blocks and make the play from the frontside. He played like (gulp) a first-round draft pick.
• Jon Abbate. They didn't mention on the radio, so I have no idea if people held up five fingers at the start of the 4th quarter. What they did mention was that Jon was blocking extremely well and he even caught a pass. Man, I hope this guy makes the team.
• Zac Diles. I really expect this guy to make an impact on special teams this year. Nice intensity, nice motor. He also played well as a true LB near the end of the game.
  
• Matt Turk. One booming punt (58 on the fly) and one nice pin-point punt in the fourth (downed at the 11).
  
• ND Kalu. If Weaver isn't ready to go in week 1, I am suddenly feeling a lot better about the prospect of Kalu filling in for him. Maybe work Babin into the strongside rotation, too. I'm breathing a little easier.
• Kick returners. Mathis, Bethel Johnson, and Andre Davis all looked good running back KOs. That said, if Mathis is indeed healthy, there is hardly a need to keep one of those other two, let alone both.

Still, in the end, we walked away with a big fat L. Which is what happens when you crap the bed. In the middle of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, we had such craptacular performances as:

• Jordan Black. He played positively awful, which would explain why the Chiefs fans called him "Turnstile." I know I said David Carr caused a lot of his own sacks, but putting Jordan Black at LT will make the beating Sandy took look like he was wearing a red jersey in practice.
• Sam Gado looked like he had tunnel vision and cement shoes. This is not really what I am hoping for from our RB3.
• Bradlee Van Pelt looked like a third string QB--for a Special Olympic team. 1/7, a fumble that led to a TD, and a strange fascination with throwing to Joel Dreessen, which worked exactly zero times.
• Jamar Fletcher played passably decent as a nickel but got beat in standard coverage and Fred Bennett got completely lit up on the drive that ended with Ayanbadejo's TD.
  
• Chad effin' Stanley managed a whopping 35 yards on his vital 4th quarter punt, because he likes to make me throw things around the den. He also lucked out with a great roll on his first punt, making it look better in the box score than it actually was. Surely to god, this type of performance will get him his release sooner rather than later. I hate him.
  
• Earl Cochran had the bonehead running into the kicker penalty that kept Chicago alive with two minutes left, leading to their game winning FG. Nice one.
• Ron Dayne. I'm not sure how our short-yardage back can run three straight times for more or less zero gain. That was ugly. You know... Ron... you are a big (fat) dude. Maybe you could, like, lower your shoulders and actually deliver a hit. Just a thought.
  

This is not setting well. With 10 minutes to go, I was almost positive we had the game won. With 5 minutes to go, I was still optimistic. It all seems... um... familiar. And I don't like that feeling.

OK. Breathe. I'm keeping myself positive. This was a fluke. It was all the fault of Van Pelt (or Stanley). The Colts have lost 10 of their last 11 preseason games. Etc.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have nine beers to drink in rapid succession. NFL Football is back, baby.

UPDATE: I should mention that these notes were the product of the radio broadcast, NFL Gamecenter, and the live blog at BRB. Which is to say they are subject to revision once I watch the recorded replay tomorrow morning. Also, I still hate Chad Stanley.

Labels: Athletes who don't stab people, Chad Stanley, Chocodiles, DeMeco Ryans, Jacoby Jones is unheralded, Jason Babin, Jon Abbate, Matt Turk rules, Posts that list too many players, Preseason 2007, The Fred

Posted by matt at 9:06 PM | Permalink | links to this post

It's not exactly a Bill Simmons running diary, but there's some high quality tag-team live blogging going on at BRB.

GO FREAKIN' TEXANS!!!

Labels: Bad Idea Jeans, Preseason 2007

Posted by matt at 7:56 PM | Permalink | links to this post

In honor of tonight's game (which I may or may will not be live blogging), I present to you a photo. If you've ever wondered who would take the reins if Rex Grossman got hurt...

Ladies and Gents, I present Kyle Orton.




















You stay classy, Kyle.

Labels: Drunky Drunkerton, Inanity, Preseason 2007, Teams that aren't the Texans

Posted by matt at 5:23 PM | Permalink | links to this post

Dear NFL Network,

I appreciate the fact that you are re-airing tonight's game, albeit at 11PM CST. That is very nice of you. As someone living well outside the Texans' regular viewing area, it is nice to know that I can see the game, even if it's after the fact.

What puzzles me, however, is why you would choose to air the Titans-Redskins game live in lieu of Texans-Bears. I really don't understand. We are playing the reigning NFC champs. The Titans are playing... um... the one NFC East team that didn't make the playoffs last year (and who finished with a worse record than Houston). We have a new QB and a new RB, in what could be seen as the launch of Texans v.2.0. The Titans have Vince Young and a whole sack of ass. 'Tis puzzling.

I have to be honest--I feel like you are giving me the finger from your cushy little office. That's not cool. That's the type of shit Matt Mosley would do. And we both know how badly he sucks. So, next time, maybe ask yourself "does airing this game make any fucking sense?" Because right now, the answer would be a fat "no."

Sincerely,
Matt

Labels: Batman, Inanity, NFL Network, Open Letters, Preseason 2007, Righteous Indignation, Teams that aren't the Texans, The Schaub Experiment, Vinsanity

Posted by matt at 1:47 PM | Permalink | links to this post

Game on!

Sure, it's only preseason. Sure, we'll only get to see The Schaub, Batman, Manchild, and Super Mario for a few plays. But it's football. Texans football. So... like I said... GAME ON!

One player I am curious to see tonight is Jon Abbate. The story is well-documented--Abbate, a linebacker at Wake Forest, left school early to enter the draft, but tore a hamstring at the combine (and was considered too short to boot), so he went undrafted. Abbate signed as with Houston, still planning on making the team as a linebacker. However, when Jameel Cook's knee injury was slow to heal, Abbate was asked to make the switch to fullback, a position he hadn't played since high school.

With that kind of attitude, it's easy to get behind Abbate. And Jon invites all Texans fans to get behind something even more special.

As he has done in every game for the past year, Abbate plans to begin the fourth quarter of Saturday's Houston Texans-Chicago Bears preseason game by holding up five fingers. Wherever football takes him, it's still about remembering his younger brother, Luke. It has been that way since Valentine's Day 2006, when he died in an automobile accident on his way home from lacrosse practice. He was only 15.
[***]
[Texans fans], too, are invited to join in, should they choose.

'I hope they do,' Abbate said. 'We'll see what happens. This is definitely a community like Winston-Salem. It could carry over. I hope it does. If not, I understand. My family and I will do it until my career is over with.'

While I won't be at tonight's game, I want to echo Stephanie. Please hold up five fingers at the start of the fourth quarter. Hopefully, the people around you will do the same and something pretty cool will happen at Reliant Stadium tonight.

(You know... in addition to beating the Flying Grossmen.)

Oh, here's the YouTube video detailing the whole Abbate story.

Labels: Amobi Okoye is 20, Athletes who don't stab people, Batman, Jon Abbate, Preseason 2007, Super Mario, The Schaub Experiment, Undrafted Free Agent watch list

Posted by matt at 2:28 PM | Permalink | links to this post

Chron.com has given some fairly good coverage of training camp on a daily basis this year, which is nice. The short info snippets in each daily entry have provided some blog fodder and (more importantly) some nuggets of insight that you probably can't get without being at practice. For that, I commend them.

But the video in the Day 13 roundup... well, I can honestly say I am dumber for having watched it. Why is Anna-Megan bouncing up and down at the beginning? Why is McClain hugging himself throughout? Why did they spend half the video telling us that they were going to do a video with Jon Abbate? Why are the telling us the same stuff about Schaub v. Carr that we've heard for the last two weeks? My head is spinning.

*****
I want to thank everyone who commented on the DeMeco Ryans story, as well as The Big Lead, Roll Bama Roll, and USA Today.com for linking to it. Getting the additional traffic was nice, but getting that story out there was even better. I also want to say that I am disappointed in Matt Mosley at ESPN (I refuse to link) for telling me he was going to blog about it (when it looked like DeMeco had passed up the chance to donate) and then not following through (once it became a feel-good story). I should have known he was only looking for some reason to blast us.

Labels: Athletes who don't stab people, DeMeco Ryans, Houston Chronicle, Jon Abbate, Training camp 2007

Posted by matt at 10:24 AM | Permalink | links to this post

When last we left our hero (me), the disclaimer had been moved into a more prominent position, DeMeco and his attorney were happy, and it seemed as though the whole situation had wrapped up all nice and tidy.

Last night, however, the founder of StandUp For Kids, Rick Koca, found the post and commented on it. (Which is pretty cool.) Then, this morning, I received another email from the lawyer, saying that DeMeco's Foundation is going to make a donation to SUFK, that he thanked me for bringing the charity to their attention, and that DeMeco was going to send an autographed football to my son. (All of which is also pretty cool.)

I still think there is a big underlying issue here and it's likely one that won't go away until one of these "blogger v. celebrity" cases winds up in court. Thankfully, all sides involved in my situation remained calm and worked through the discussion like rational human beings. (Full disclosure: I have to thank my friends for keeping my replies friendly and level-headed. I am nothing if not prone to flying off the handle.)

Labels: Athletes who don't stab people, Charity, DeMeco Ryans, Legal stuff, Updates

Posted by matt at 9:08 AM | Permalink | links to this post

I don't know if you've been following Deadspin's NFL team previews, but today's was about our beloved Texans. In fact, I will go so far as to say Friend of DGDB&D Whitney Pastorek submitted the greatest piece of prose in the history of the English language.

And, yes, it's possible that I am just saying that because she links to me and quotes me. But, it's still really good. Read it.

Labels: Friends, Preview, Self-Referential Stuff

Posted by matt at 2:15 PM | Permalink | links to this post

I fully expect one of you to buy me this. Or a few of you can pretend I am Joe Mayo and split the cost.

TOTALLY UNRELATED UPDATE: I am throwing this link in here because I don't have much to say about it and this post was too short. Make up your own punchlines.

Labels: Inanity, Sandy Vag, Seinfeld

Posted by matt at 11:44 AM | Permalink | links to this post

If you glance to your right, you will notice that the disclaimer once buried near the bottom of the right hand column has been moved up. "Why is that," you are likely thinking. And the answer would be "because I am a nice guy."

Hold on. Let me back up a few days and fill you in. Because, you see, there have been some rather strange and unexpected goings on in the land of DGDB&D over the past three days.

Sunday morning, I plopped down on the couch to map out my fantasy football draft strategy and check email. Which is to say, it was shaping up to be a pretty typical Sunday.

So, you can imagine my surprise when I opened Gmail to find a letter from DeMeco Ryans' lawyer. According to Mr. Lawyer, my use of DeMeco's first name in the title of this blog presented some possible legal and marketing problems for DeMeco. Lawyer then said they would "greatly appreciate" it if I would remove the name.

I was puzzled. Granted, I didn't pay much attention in law school--OK, I didn't pay ANY attention in law school--but I was pretty confident that I was doing nothing wrong. I replied to the barrister, thanking him for a very polite email (his approach was much better than a boilerplate cease-and-desist letter) and asking him to explain what the problem was. I also mentioned that, while I was pretty sure I wasn't doing anything other than exercising some free speech, I was totally willing to work with him and his client (including changing the name) if we could reach some sort of mutually beneficial agreement.

The law-talkin' guy replied, still in a pretty gracious manner. He said that owners of intellectual property have a right to police "the marketplace" in order to prevent loss of income or marketing viability resulting from unauthorized use, that DeMeco's marketing agreements require him to be pro-active in making sure people aren't illegally using him or his image, and that my use could potentially expose DeMeco to lawsuits through no fault of his own. (I had also asked in my previous email if DeMeco was aware of the site and the attorney assured me that he was. Which means DeMeco might be reading this. Email me, dude.)

Anyway, there are some nuggets of truth to what he was saying. In a vacuum, at least. As they applied to my situation, however, this explanation fell a little short. So, another email from me to him. I asked him to point to me where anyone has intellectual property rights in his or her first name, especially as that would apply to a non-commercial blog. (The non-commercial aspect is the key to this whole exchange, really.) Also, because he had mentioned in his previous email that DeMeco was cognizant of the importance of fans and free speech, I suggested that asking a fan to abridge his free speech rights seemed contradictory.

The attorney again replied. He "explained" that DeMeco has common law and statutory rights in his name and substantial rights of publicity. He also said that, insofar as free speech goes, they have no issue whatsoever with me (or anyone) discussing DeMeco's play in the blog; they were merely concerned that his name in the title of the blog could lead someone to think Ryans supported everything that was said here. (Author's note: I want to meet someone that clueless. That's how millionaires are made.)

And that's where it sat as of Monday night. I read back over his previous email. I had to give him points for aggressively representing his client; he was hyper-vigilant. Still, the legal analysis was not quite right because this is (and always has been) a non-commercial site. And--without getting into boring legal crap--he couldn't claim assumption because, again, I was not making any money off of his name. In short--there was pretty much no way they could force me to change. Still, I was willing to work with them, if only because I didn't like the idea of having DeMeco or the Texans organization mad at me.

But how to respond to the lawyer? He had mentioned throughout the exchange that he and his client were amenable to reaching a compromise that would leave all of us happy. I guess he thought I would ask for some tickets or something. I don't know. Instead, I decided that, if I was going to give up something that I didn't have to, I wanted someone who really needed help to benefit from it. So, I replied with an offer.

I proposed the following exchange: I would shorten the name of the blog to the acronym "DGDB&D" in the header, the page title, and by email to anyone who links here. In return, DeMeco would make a donation to the Houston Chapter of Stand Up For Kids. (They get homeless and at-risk children off the street.) Also, if DeMeco was interested, I'd like to do a phone interview. I figured this charitable donation was in keeping with the whole Ahman Green-Jason Simmons thing and would be good press for the team and DeMeco (and, yes, me). Conversely, I offered to move the disclaimer up on the page so that it was more prominent, but stipulated that I would be keeping the name if I did that.

Lawyerman replied the next day (yesterday) and told me he would run it by his client.

Today, I get an email at 7:14 CST. They had chosen the latter option and would be placated if I moved the disclaimer up. So long as I kept it non-commercial. He also said that they would suggest the charity to DeMeco's foundation at some point in the future. Which brings us to where we are right now.

This whole thing was somewhat interesting, not only from a legal standpoint, but also from a blogger/free speech/new media point of view. Part of me thinks this was just a good attorney doing what he thought was best for his client. I mean, I had a new hit from where his office was located about ten minutes before the first email, so I kind of assume he took it upon himself to run with the ball. And there is no harm in that. Hell, I would want my representative to do the same. (I also respected how cordial he was through the whole thing and his stick-to-it-itiveness throughout the legal back-and-forth. )

Another part of me, however, wonders if this is the tip of the iceberg. As sites like Kissing Suzy Kolber and Ghosts of Wayne Fontes and Fire Joe Morgan grow in popularity, once has to believe that the sites' namesakes are aware of their existence. To the extent that any of it results in negative feedback or positive income, I would imagine that the parties named will slowly start to intervene. And, in the realm of the All Powerful NFL, I assume the "aggrieved" parties will have Goodell and Co. behind them more often than not. It will then be up to the courts to decide where free speech and fair use end, if at all.

For now, however, this blog lives. Free speech rules.

Labels: Athletes who don't stab people, Batman, DeMeco Ryans, Legal stuff, Self-Referential Stuff

Posted by matt at 9:21 AM | Permalink | links to this post

The general consensus is that the starting defensive line is going to be Mario Williams, Amobi Okoye, Anthony Maddox (unless Travis Johnson somehow works his way back in), and Anthony Weaver. Given the players we have to choose from, I suppose I agree with everyone else that this is the best combination for our front four. (Though I still hold out hope for Jason Babin, he continues to be the walking embodiment of "'tweener."¹)

Of course, the question mark in this continues to be the health of Weaver's shoulder². While he has been on the field during practice, Weaver still has not been cleared to participate in contact drills and he certainly won't be playing this Saturday when the Flying Grossmen come into Reliant.

The thing is, it's not really surprising that he's not ready to go. The minimum recuperation time for rotator cuff surgery is 4-6 months. And that's just when you can begin and kind of strength building exercises. What is surprising is that the team is moving forward as if he will be ready week 1.

What if he's not? What does the D-line look like then?

N.D. Kalu is behind Weaver on the LDE depth chart, so one could assume that ol' Ndukwe would get the first crack at it. (Aside: Why do we put two periods in "N.D." when it's the shortened version of "Ndukwe?" That would be like me going by M.att.) Kubiak made the comment that, while Kalu doesn't have the stamina of some of the younger guys, he is one of the better pass rushers on the field in camp. Problem: Kalu is at least four years removed from anything resembling a good season. He also turned 32 a few days ago, so I have my doubts as to any sudden resurgence.

The aforementioned Babin could try the position. Problem: LDE is typically the strong side, meaning Babin would have to deal with the RT and TE. I don't think I need to explain why this won't end well.

Mario could move to the RDE spot, with Babin playing LDE. Theoretically, this could work well. I still don't like it, though, as I think Mario needs to spend all season as the LDE. Plus, Babin has yet to prove that he can beat any OLTs.

There's always Earl Cochran. He doesn't have much of a track record, but apparently he's had a pretty good camp. When asked about players that had impressed him, Kubiak replied, "I think [he] has definitely flashed." And, we can't forget about the dark horse, Alfred "Big Pooh" Malone. He's a big dude (6-5, 308), but I know nothing about him other than there are a couple videos at Chron.com showing him getting reps at LDE.

So what's the answer? I honestly don't know. My guess is that Kalu is the starter and Babin or Cochran get snaps there as well. Geez...I never thought I'd be so worried about whether Anthony Weaver was healthy or not.


¹ Other things he seems to be the walking embodiment of: bust, overreaching for a draft pick, and boyband wannabe. Damn it.
² And, to a much lesser extent, his knee.

Labels: Bad Idea Jeans, Jason Babin, Posts that list too many players, Preview, Super Mario, Training camp 2007

Posted by matt at 11:03 PM | Permalink | links to this post

Megan Manfull had a live chat today at the Chronic. Nothing groundbreaking in there, I guess--McCardell has a strained quad, Turk is likely to win the punting job, the coaches are giving Mario extra attention at every practice.

She didn't answer any of the questions I submitted, however.

To the best of your knowledge, is Ron Dayne enrolled in any donut- or pie-of-the-month clubs?

True or false: Richard Justice hates bloggers more than he hates the Texans?

More likely to happen: Texans make the playoffs this year or Jerome Solomon develops a semblance of talent?

(Note: I thought the third one was kind of intriguing.)

Labels: Houston Chronicle, Inanity, Ron Dayne likes pie

Posted by matt at 4:15 PM | Permalink | links to this post

Considering I have never been there, I have a surprising number of friends who either hail from or currently reside in North Carolina. Nearly every one of them has given me some form of the "I think David Carr is going to be great in Carolina" spiel. I pointed out tiny little things like how he was told not to try to read defenses because he wasn't good at it, or that he throws like a ninny, or that he caused many of his own protection problems by refusing to get rid of the ball, but they--for the most part--ignored me.

I found this simultaneously funny and grating. And I assumed all Panthers fans were in agreement that Zoolander was going to lead them to the promised land.

Thankfully, reader Dan sent along this blurb from one more sensible Panthers fan:

It's very obvious that Delhomme is our starter and the better QB by far from any of them out there. Anyone who thinks Carr should start needs to get to TC and just watch him. Overthrowing, underthrowing, fumble (Carr getting Shelton the ball late), dancing feet – ugh!! He needs to step up or settle down or something. He is most definitely a project, didn't look like he's been playing for 5 years. He has a "wind up" to his throw that reminds me of a pitcher's short wind up but he does throw it hard. Did see him, also, just "toss" it with his wrist and it was still thrown hard.

I think Basinez did better than Carr or Bell. Heck, Bell was better than Carr.

Anytime Smitty was out there, every one of the 4 QBs only looked at him and only threw to him. I certainly hope that changes by the end of TC. If he wasn't out there, they all read through their progressions.

Ahh... a voice of reason, blowing in from the East. Not that I care, really; if they want to bench a QB who took them to the Super Bowl in favor of a retread who doesn't know the meaning of "read through a progression," that's fine with me. I just hope they do it before week 2, so we can benefit.

UPDATE: Reader Jersey Bill sends this link to a video on the Charlotte Observer's website along with this comment: "You have got to be fucking kidding me that Carr would double-pump during a training camp drill. He will never get it."

Labels: David Carr has Post-Concussion Syndrome, Preview, Sandy Vag, Super Mario, Teams that aren't the Texans

Posted by matt at 2:37 PM | Permalink | links to this post

There are plenty of reasons to like Amobi Okoye. For instance, he's smart. He's incredibly athletic. He's not Travis Johnson.

Perhaps the best thing about him, though, is that by all accounts he's one of the most humble, down-to-earth people you'd ever meet. Apparently, fearing for your life throughout much of your childhood will do that to a guy.

As recently as eight years ago, Okoye worried almost daily that his father Augustine — or someone else he loved — might be killed by simply opening his mouth. In 1993, when the military overthrew the government in Nigeria, turmoil erupted in Okoye's native country.

'When the military took over, they were very hostile,' said Augustine, who owned his own business and was a major contractor for the government before the coup. 'They went from being hostile to a dictatorship. No freedom of speech. If you said something, you were either killed or something. It got real bad.'

That has got to suck. I mean, when I was 12, I wondered about a lot of things--how to find the last Rated Rookies to complete the set of Donruss baseball cards, whether anyone would be playing football behind the high school in the afternoon, where to maximize my chances to see boobies--but I never had to stress over whether my dad would be alive in the morning. Yikes.

Labels: Amobi Okoye is 20, Athletes who don't stab people, Boobies, Fluff, Self-Referential Stuff

Posted by matt at 10:26 AM | Permalink | links to this post

Going into camp, two pretty wide-spread assumpion were that Jerome Mathis would wind up being cut and Shantee Orr would compete with Charlie Anderson for the starting SLB role.

Oh, how things can change in a week.

First of all, it appears that Mathis is healthy and playing well at WR. (Plus, he's still really friggin' fast.)

It's the best football practice he's had since I've been here, Kubiak said of Mathis. There was a little buzz tonight, some people out here. You can tell his juices are flowing, and if he keeps this up and stays on the field, he's going to have a special year. We've just got to keep him going. He hasn't worked much at receiver, but he's progressing. That was nice to see the things he did tonight."

Then, today, we get this nugget from camp:

WR Jerome Mathis continued his fine play, with several catches, including a leaping one that covered 40 yards.

So... where does that leave us? At first blush, this development would seem to be the worst case scenario for Bethel Johnson. There is absolutely no reason to keep Mathis Lite on the team if the full-calorie version is healthy and productive. If we assume Mathis makes the team, that's four spots filled (along with AJ, JJ, and K-Dub). I see no way we keep more than six WRs, meaning Apostrophe Davis, Keenan McCardell, David Anderson, the aforementioned Bethel, and a couple scrubs will be duking it out for two spots.

On the other side of the ball as well as the other side of the keep-drop ledger, Shantee Orr has apparently gone from being a starter in 2006 to being unemployed in 2007. Chalk it up to some combination of Orr's nagging injury, Kubes' affection for Charlie Anderson, Danny Clark's versatility, Shawn Barber's experience, and the emergence of Zac "Choco" Diles, but Shantee seems almost certain not to survive the first real round of cuts.

Linebacker Charlie Anderson hasn’t recorded a start in his three-year career with the Texans. But if his production in training camp is indicative of the future, that statistic may need to be revised, according to Kubiak.

“When I look at the defensive side of the ball, I think Charlie Anderson’s really separated himself,” Kubiak said. “When you look at the linebacker group, you look at Morlon (Greenwood), you look at DeMeco (Ryans), and you look at Charlie. Then right away you go to Zac Diles, and you go to Danny Clark. Shawn (Barber) is missing time, but Shawn looked good. You look at those six, and chances are you’re going to keep six. Those guys have kind of distinguished themselves day in and day out.”

One notable omission from that list is last year’s starting outside linebacker Shantee Orr. Orr has been slowed by injuries this camp, and the fifth-year pro out of Michigan will need to return quickly in order to compete for his roster spot, let alone his old job, Kubiak said.

“He got bruised, some type of bruise the first day of practice, and just continues to not be able to be out here,” Kubiak said. “It’s very important for him to get out here for him to make this football team.”

I fully admit to being a pro-Shantee guy. Hell, I've posted at least twice that I thought he would be the starter and would have a pretty good season. That said, I am far from broken up about this; if the linebacking corps is so solid this year that we can cut one of last year's starters, that is a good thing.

Labels: Andre Johnson, Athletes who don't stab people, Chocodiles, Jerome Mathis got hurt reading this, Michigan Wolverines, Posts that list too many players, Shantee Orr, Shawn Barber and Danny Clark

Posted by matt at 2:33 PM | Permalink | links to this post

For fans of most teams, a training camp punter battle would be slightly less interesting than Special Olympic tic-tac-toe. (And way less interesting than a cripple fight.)

Most teams, however, haven't been privy to the Chad Stanley Experience.¹

How bad is Chad Stanley? Well, a Google search for "Chad Stanley sucks" turns up the following quotes:

Their current punter Chad Stanley is awful. Gardocki awful. Worse really, if looked at more than just last year. (Author's note: This is from a Steelers fan.)

Chad Stanley? Yikes. This guy was brutal last year. My guess is he isn't the only punter on the roster come training camp. They are probably (no, hopefully) searching for his replacement already.

This sucks. I'm sorry, Chad Stanley is now a terrible NFL punter. Hopefully this is something we can address with a late-round pick.

Chad Stanley laid an egg.

Even accepting that disgruntled fans are not the most unbiased observers, these quotes coupled with Stanley ranking 29th in Gross Average Yards and 21st in Net suggest that Captain Shank might not be the best man for the job.

Enter Matt Turk. The same Matt Turk who ranked 18th in Gross and 9th in Net last year in St. Louis. Yeah, you could say I'm excited.

Dale Robertson sums up just what Matt Turk could bring to our table.

The Friday morning workout was for special teams only and the punt team became the primary focus of the session. Veteran punter Matt Turk, brought in to compete with original Texan Chad Stanley, dazzled the attending media with a series of crushing punts, a couple of which looked like they were going to bust through the Methodist bubble top.

Rookie Jacoby Jones tried to field one and wound up shaking his hand in pain.

"He's a boomer," special teams coach Joe Marciano said. But he didn't want to start a controversy, quickly pointing out that Turk and Stanley are very different types of punters and should be judged differently. "Chad doesn't have any 70-yarders in him," Marciano conceded, "but he's been very effective in the 40- to 50-yard range, with hang times of 4.5 to 4.8 (seconds). One of those guys will be punting here this year and other one will be punting for some other team. They'll both be in the league, I guarantee you that."

Turk missed the 2005 season with an injury but then became "a gym rat," Marciano said, and now could pass for a linebacker, he's so muscular. Asked if he'd ever seen a punter rip into the football like Turk does, Marciano replied, "Yeah, last year, when we played St. Louis (in the preseason)."

Turk was the Rams' punter.

Compare and contrast that with this TexansTV video of Stanley and Turk going head-to-head. Maybe I am just being overly optimistic, but quotes like "we thought it was important to push Chad" and "Matt is a power guy...explodes into the ball" seem to bode well for a Stanley-less future.

Thanks for the memories, Chad. We'll keep in touch. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out, dude.

¹For the uninitiated, watching Stanley has been roughly as painful as a root canal. Performed rectally.

Labels: Chad Stanley, Matt Turk rules, Preview, Special Teams, Training camp 2007

Posted by matt at 9:03 AM | Permalink | links to this post

Meanwhile, back in Spartanburg, SC...

By bringing in Zoolander, the Panthers managed to find the one QB in the NFL with an uglier throwing motion than Cajun Jake. Of course, that doesn't worry the Panthers. Oh no. They think it's a laugh riot when Sandy drops back to pass.

Kids, cover your eyes.

'We look like two guys who are just out of the freaking boat, just swinging out there,' Carr conceded Wednesday.

Ok, first, I have no idea what Carr's quote means. Off of what boat? Swinging what? Second, "Kids, cover your eyes" accurately describes the David Carr Experience. In total. Enjoy.

The article continues

Carr, who signed a free-agent deal in April, said one thing he enjoys about being with the Panthers is that quarterbacks coach Mike McCoy hasn't tried to mess with his throwing motion, as the Texans' coaches did.

Just a hunch, but that could be because you are the backup QB. I seriously doubt if Capers or Kubiak were spending a lot of time worrying about the deliveries of Dave Ragone or Sage Rosenfels. Then again, neither of them throws like Lamar from Revenge of the Nerds, so who knows.

Sandy again talked about this hot topic with the media following Wednesday's practice. We have obtained the unedited copy of the quote.

On how he developed his unorthodox throwing style: I started when I was 12 and it just kept on working [until I got to the NFL]. It wasn’t until I got into the NFL did they really start to talk about it[, saying things like "Jesus Christ, why are you throwing like a cripple?!"]. Here, they just let me worry about other things [like holding the clipboard and making sure my hair is perfect]. That’s what’s great about Mike[; he lets me hold the clipboard with either hand]. We work on footwork drills and things like putting arc on the ball, but not the actual mechanics of me throwing the football. [We tried working on mechanics at first, but he mumbled something about "hopeless lost cause" and quit.] I can’t tell you what a relief it is for Mike to just let me go out there and play ball [in my comfy red jersey, where I am safe from the bad men]. It’s been nice, man[, collecting a paycheck without doing anything productive; it's a lot like it was in Houston]. Real nice.

Labels: David Carr has Post-Concussion Syndrome, Inanity, Sandy Vag

Posted by matt at 10:18 AM | Permalink | links to this post

I've made no secret of (and taken plenty of flak for) my support of the Mario Williams pick. From real-life friends telling me I was a fool¹ to internet strangers emailing me to ask if I was being paid by the Texans to say that Mario was double-teamed last year², I often feel like I have a harder PR job than Tony Snow.

Of course, unlike Snow³, there is still time for my subject to carve out a positive place in history.⁴ If the preseason talk is to be believed, that's exactly what Mario is trying to do.

According to Richard Justice, Mario showed up to camp 10 pounds lighter and ready to play one position--right defensive end. Based on how he worked through the offseason, Kubiak and Co. have high hopes for this year and beyond.

'It was extremely important what he did this offseason,' Kubiak said. 'If he wasn't our best worker, he was up at the top. He has done everything he needs to do. If he keeps working the way he's working, I think the sky's the limit. The key to him being a Pro Bowler is how good we get this football team around him. I think we're headed in the right direction.'

Of course, in typical Justice fashion, Dick also gets in a dig, saying "[t]he Texans surely understand they blew the pick. They've essentially admitted that with the change at quarterback."

But what if they didn't blow the pick? What if Mario really is as good as we all think (hope?) he can be? He has certainly shown flashes already this preseason. (Bonus: If you watch the video in that link, you get to hear some of Morlon Greenwood's Jamaican accent near the end. Awesome.)

But although Williams may be lean, he was not mean enough on Monday, according to coach Gary Kubiak.

'We need to get him mad more often, because he made some progress today,' Kubiak said. 'I know Jethro (Franklin) and them were disappointed with his practice yesterday, and they let him know that. He came out here this morning, and he was a different guy.'

As for Franklin, the team’s defensive line coach, he certainly knows that an angry Williams is one scary sight for opposing offenses.

'I wouldn’t want to mess with him when he’s on the field, that’s for sure, and I get after him every day,' Franklin said.

Then again, just like Steph said, we tend to look for what we want to see in life. This goes double in camp, I would imagine. John McClain took time away from touching himself on camera to chime in with this entry in the training camp blog.

One day after he looked like Reggie White for a few plays in practice, defensive end Mario Williams suffered a hamstring injury. The coaches pulled him out of practice. Coach Gary Kubiak wanted to make sure that everyone knew it was the Texans' decision to take out Williams -- not Super Mario asking to come out. [...]

The one thing we do know about Williams -- other than God gifted him like few others -- is that he'll play hurt. He played the second half of last season with a painful foot injury, despite not being able to practice.

The truth is that Williams is still inconsistent. To get him angry as the coaches did in Tuesday's practice, perhaps they should play that YouTube video over and over.

Oh, John... you are a funny, funny man. And so full of insight into "the truth." Of course, if I am guilty of looking only to the silver linings, then McClain is just as guilty of finding the surrounding storm clouds. I mean, he says himself that Mario looked good yesterday and then got banged up today. Getting a tight hamstring has nothing to do with consistency on the field, at least not in the manner McClain suggests. (I realize that preaching logic and cause-effect to Chron writers is likely a fool's errand.)

So... what now? Well, we are week into camp. Mario has shown flashes of pure dominance. He's shown moments of lapse. He has been nicked up, just like all the other players at this point. So, I suppose the only conclusion we can reach is that we still have no more insight into how good Mario will be.

What we are starting to see, though, is how good he can be. The good news is that both he and the coaches are working double-time to make "will" and "can" meet, starting September 9, 2007.<sup>5


1</sup> Thanks, Ren.
² This actually happened two days ago.
³ Still talking about the White House Press Secretary and not the Informer...a licky boom-boom down guy.
⁴ This ends any semblance of political discussion on DGDB&D. Seriously.
⁵ To make things easier for Mario, let's also hope that Reggie Bush starts hanging out with Odell Thurman and Vince falls victim to the Madden Curse. Call it hedging our bets.

Labels: Houston Chronicle, Preview, Super Mario, Training camp 2007

Posted by matt at 4:53 PM | Permalink | links to this post