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Desperate measures for the Texans defense?
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Or are the coaches just trying to "push the right buttons" in an attempt to get the best out of some of their players?
Is it Coaching Psychology 101 or is it grasping at anything in response to desperate times? You make the call.
Watching the Texans over the first four games of the season in parallel with watching my 401-k turn into a 201-k makes me wonder whether it's the Texans or the world financial markets that are more in need of a bailout plan.
It seems that all we can do in both cases is watch and wait to see if what they are putting into the vat will make wine or vinegar. Heck, I'd settle for a case of Pearl right about now. Do they still make that stuff?
One button that was pushed last week was DelJuan Robinson starting against the Colts in place of Amobi Okoye. The result? Okoye's best game of the season according to Gary Kubiak.
““I thought [Amobi] played his best game of the year this past week, personally. All we did with {him] was we tried to limit his reps. We thought like he was on the field too much and was losing some effectiveness as a pass rusher on third downs. DelJuan had been playing very, very well, so DelJuan spotted [Amobi] on a lot of situations inside and I think it made Amobi play better.” - Gary Kubiak
While it's nice that Amobi had his best game of the season (according to Kubiak), it's a bit disturbing that our first round pick from a year ago is losing playing time to an undrafted free agent. Not taking anything away from Robinson - we like guys who work their butts off and produce - but that's not supposed to happen.
We won't talk about one of our other three first rounders on the d-line whose biggest claim to fame in his four year NFL career is an incoherent expletive filled rant toward Trent Green after the last Dolphins visit to Reliant. Let's save that for another day. Or not.
I'll also save my rant on one of our other d-linemen who happens to be one of our highest paid players. I wonder if he knows that his Wiki page states "no notable achievements" under his career highlights.
But back to the matter at hand.
John McClain of the Houston Chronicle reports that Petey will start opposite Jacques Reeves at corner for the second straight game on Sunday against the Dolphins, a move that has relegated Fred Bennett to nickel back - at least temporarily.
Bennett isn't happy, which is a good sign - I guess.
“They (coaches) said I wasn’t playing to the level of last year,” Bennett said. “That caught me off-guard, but I’m dealing with it. I’m going to work harder and get better. I’m angry about it, but who wouldn’t be?" - Fred Bennett
I wonder if young Amobi is angry? I haven't seen or heard anything about his reaction.
Kubiak soft pedals the situation by saying things like "they're all starters" and "we rotate them all," which to me is nothing more than code for 'no one is stepped up and clearly won the spot.'
The role of a head coach is as much or more about pushing the right buttons as it is X's and O's. So are these desperate moves or Coaching Psychology 101?
You make the call.
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