This post just beat Faggins on a dig route
Sep 23, 2007 2007 Season, Amobi Okoye is 20, Athletes who don't stab people, Batman, Colts Shmolts, DeMeco Ryans, Demarcus Faggins sucks, Posts that list too many players, The Fred, The Schaub Experiment
It wasn’t that long ago that Stephanie admonished me for attacking Chad Stanley the person rather than simply berating Stanley’s performance. While I don’t agree with her, I understand where she was coming from. There are times, however, when a person’s performance is so bad that complaining about the player himself becomes part and parcel of discussing his contributions.
That person, of course, is Petey Faggins.
Last week, Faggins was beat-down to the tune of 3 catches for 47 yards and 2 TDs within Carolina’s first five minutes of possession. This fact was not lost on the Indianapolis Colts. In fact, they did everything short of pointing and laughing derisively at Faggins as they went to the line. Petey might as well have worn a bulls-eye in place of his number 38.
Think about it. A team with at least five weapons in the passing game (Harrison, Wayne, Clark, Gonzales, and Addai)–a team that is known for spreading the ball around among all the receivers–basically said, “you know what… screw it; we’re just going right at number 38.” And did they ever. I need to review the tape for a definite count, but I put the number of passes thrown (and completed) to Faggins’ responsibility somewhere north of 8.
Of course, it’s easy for a QB like Manning to complete passes when the DB is giving his responsibility an 8-yard cushion on every single play. Faggins looked like he was so scared of getting beat deep that he would rather let the person catch the ball in front of him and simply try to make the tackle. This is a bad plan in general. It becomes a truly horrible plan when your team absolutely, positively must have a 3-and-out to get the ball back. Rather than play up even in that dire circumstance, Faggins gave enough cushion that Harrison caught the ball past the first down marker and Petey STILL had to close on him to make the play.
This kind of coverage would be bad enough on its own. Unfortunately, Faggins also screwed up on both of Addai’s TD runs. I’m not sure what is more embarrassing–letting Joseph Addai jump over you because you go too low, too early, or ignoring your outside responsibility, running INTO a block, then failing to disengage in time to even get a hand on the guy who ran right at where you were supposed to be–but both plays were laughably bad. Unless you are a Texans fan, in which case they were still bad, but sans laughter.
Word around the campfire is that People Who Know Things just don’t think rookie Fred Bennett is anywhere close to ready to play CB2 at the NFL level. Well, guess what…neither is Faggins. Are you seriously telling me that Bennett could not play off his receiver, get burned by nearly every receiver he defends, be targeted by opposing offenses, and blow tackling assignments as well as Faggins can? Well that’s a risk I am willing to take. Besides, that would give us 13 games to see if Bennett shows enough skill to make us believe he can take over that role full-time at some point in the near future. If he steps in and does well, we have solved the problem and improved our defense at the same time. If he fails, he can’t be any worse than Faggins has been and it gives us even more reason to pursue Asomugah.
Look, I know all about how Petey is a “really nice guy” and “a hard worker” and all that. Thing is, I don’t care. Not one little bit. Until I see Bennett and Jamar Fletcher look like Moe and Curly out there, you will not be able to convince me that one of them is not better than Faggins.
The good news, Texans fans, is that even with Faggins’ “performance” and enough injuries to make Florence Nightingale say, “yo, hold up,” we still had a chance to win that game with 2:30 left on the clock. That is not something that Texans v. 1.0 would have managed. I smell a list.
Da Good
- Amobi Okoye. That’s three sacks in the last two games for Manchild. The impressive part, though, is the strength he’s shown in blasting through double-teams and closing on the QB once he breaks free.
- The offensive line. While Schaub was technically sacked thrice, the third one hardly counts (other than on the stat sheet), as Schaubby had to hold the ball long enough for the WRs to get 30 or 40 yards downfield. Other than Salaam getting bowled over by a bull rush, the line did a fantastic job against a much quicker front four than they’d previously faced. Their work was even better when you consider that we presented NO running game, so the Colts knew we were throwing.
- Matt Schaub. You know…every time I see Schaub feel a little pressure, escape just far enough to avoid the trouble, and throw an accurate pass to a moving receiver, I cry little tears of joy inside. Watching him march the team down the field in the fourth quarter, I thought to myself, “so this is what it feels like to know you have a quarterback for the next decade or so.”
- Andre’ Davis. Apostrophe was only activated because the other Andre wasn’t able to go today. When Jones went down, however, Davis promptly came in and played like someone who should not have been waiver-wire fodder. The leaping grab he made at the one was nothing short of fantastic.
- The Final Score. No, we didn’t win. But if you told any Texans fan back in April that they would play within a TD of the Super Bowl Champs, despite not having Andre Johnson, Ahman Green, the starting punt returner, or Ron Dayne, and despite only getting one sack, I think they would have taken it.
- The Run Defense. Considering the LBs have to help in pass coverage, read the play, and then close on the RB, the fact that we kept the Colts under 100 yards for the day has to be considered a positive.
- Jerome Mathis. Nice kick return, dude. And a couple nice catches, too. Who are you, and what have you done with Jerome?
Da Bad
- Petey Faggins. Ugh.
- Matt Schaub. He makes this list for one reason–the INT by Gary Brackett. I liked the play call, but you kind of have to make sure that the proper people bit on the play fake before you go to the obvious first read. Tsk, tsk.
- The injury to Cedric Killings. I feel bad for the guy–I might have jinxed him–and I wish him nothing but a speedy and complete recovery. To be fair, though he did drop his head at the last second for some reason. Players are taught from the earliest levels of football not to do this, but Kubiak should still make all his players watch that play and the Kevin Everett injury a couple times, just to reinforce it.
- The injuries. Andre Johnson, Ahman Green, Ron Dayne, Cedric Killings, Steve McKinney, Jacoby Jones. Jeez.
- Petey Faggins.
DeMeco
- 13 tackles. He’s a bad mother.
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September 23rd, 2007 at 7:30 pm
I’m the first to worship at the altar of the Schaub, but why oh why must he throw a boneheaded red zone pick EVERY GAME???
And we put up a hell of a fight, but it may have cost us the season. We’ve lost practically every one of our offensive weapons. Sigh.
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September 23rd, 2007 at 7:32 pm
Once again, I really don’t want to be a Petey apologist, but I just want to clarify a few things.
1. If he is playing with that sort of cushion, it is extremely likely he is playing the coverage he is because the coach wanted him to.
2. Faggins is playing #2 because of lack of better options and because Dunta Robinson likes him playing on the other side. When Petey came back last year, Robinson said that he liked it because he trusted Petey would run the assignments correctly.
Still doesn’t make the product look any better on the field though.
One way or another, you get toasted by Steve Smith or Manning it is one thing. If you get toasted by whatever ATL throws at you, well then, all bets are off.
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September 23rd, 2007 at 7:35 pm
Re: 1. If the coaches told him to play off, I would assume it was following a statement of “well, shit, press coverage doesn’t work with you.”
Re: 2. I’m not buying. Like I said, why should we think that either Fletcher or Bennett could not do slightly better than to be the target of an entire offense?
Besides, it’s not even that he was beaten by the Colts’ receivers that bothers me as much as the fact that he was targeted at every opportunity because they KNEW they could beat him.
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September 23rd, 2007 at 8:16 pm
Take this one step farther: Kubiak must think that P-Fag, even playing 100 yards off his receiver, is better than Bennett or Fletcher. Otherwise P-Fag would have been yanked off the starting roster after (hell, even during) the Panthers game.
What does that say for our secondary’s future?
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September 23rd, 2007 at 8:19 pm
Yup.
Seriously, though… when you can’t defend a WR and you can’t tackle and you can’t maintain position discipline, would someone who could do ANY of that be an upgrade? Hell, at least Fletcher has made some plays and at one point was thought to have first round talent.
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September 23rd, 2007 at 8:21 pm
Oh, this just in - Andre Davis has a dislocated finger. That leaves us with two healthy receivers - Walter and Mathis. I hope Smith has McCardell’s number on speed dial.
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September 23rd, 2007 at 8:23 pm
All Peteyness aside, how badass was it to see Schaub pulling grass out of his eyes (without wasting a TO) so he could complete a 4th and 9? We left him out on an island that game, and he just kept on making plays. Ill-advised pick of course, but that’ll happen sometimes when your #1 (dre), #2 (JJ), and #4 or so (Batman) options are all out.
2: Number of times Jacoby has been taken down by a punter this year.
While we’re on the subject, here’s a Jacoby quote:
“I call them fluke injuries. The punter fell on top of me and that’s a heavy punter, he’s like 200 and something pounds.”
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September 23rd, 2007 at 8:31 pm
Yup. The team’s now armed with nothing more than Mr. Glass, Mr. Stiff, and a 3rd string running back. This awful rash of injuries may have just turned next week into a real game. Against Joey Harrington.
Does anyone else think the Texans — year in and year out — suffer from a ridiculous number of injuries? Who’s the team’s physical trainer? Do we even have a physical trainer?
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September 23rd, 2007 at 8:37 pm
By the way, kudos on the blog. You make Antitrust tolerable and I’m sure you realize that’s no mean feat. Given that I’ve been reading it since pretty much the beginning, I figured it was about time to stop lurking and start contributing.
-S chaub, D emeco, W illiams, & J acoby
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September 24th, 2007 at 6:01 am
SDWJ–Thanks.
Nash–That was cool. It was almost like Schaub was angry that there was stuff in his eyes. He looked pissed. Do Not Anger The Schaub!
Mark–So, I suppose Charlie Adams and Patrick Pass are waiting by their phones today. In all honesty, I’d rather have Adams than Bethel.
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September 24th, 2007 at 6:59 am
I think we need Wali Lundy on speed dial as well. Samkon Gado and Jameel Cook as feature backs? I don’t think so.
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September 24th, 2007 at 10:56 am
I thought about Lundy this morning as well. Lord knows I don’t want Jameel Cook getting more than zero touches per game. I wonder what it would cost to trade for Michael Turner at this point.
/Only slightly joking
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September 24th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
Fletcher hasn’t exactly looked great and Bennett has been practicing through a hamstring injury and wasn’t activated.
Look to the 2005 roster and see how much this defense has transformed. But you can’t change everything at once, and the Texans are “make do” at a lot of positions.
I’m not going to crack Petey cuz it ain’t like he’s an overpaid under achieving guy–he’s a guy who can play nickle corner who is playing out of position because that’s the best we can do right now.
Doesn’t make it any better, but I’m just embracing the Texans current reality. As bad as Faggins looks, I’m much more concerned about the running back position because that can get your quarterback killed if it stays off the rails.
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September 24th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
Running back is definitely a concern right now.
Fletcher hasn’t exactly looked great, but I am sticking with the idea that anything positive would be an upgrade right now. If not Fletcher or Bennett, then how about someone available as a free agent right now like Jerametrius Butler? Besides, doesn’t it seem odd that the reason we don’t put Fletcher in over there is because he hasn’t been playing all that well, but we fail to acknowledge how bad Faggins has really been?
People are making all sorts of excuses for Faggins–that Harrison only had X catches or whatever–while ignoring the facts that (a) he covered people other than Harrison throughout the game and (b) they were actively going at WHOEVER he was covering. Considering how mediocre our safeties are, you’d think the Colts would still spread the ball to anyone who wasn’t covered by Dunta. For the most part, though, they went after Petey because they knew they could complete the ball every single time. Then he compounds this by tackling like crap and being out of position on the second TD run. I don’t care how hard he tries or how nice of a guy he is, if he can’t be at least slightly productive, there is no reason to keep playing him over there.
I know we disagree on Faggins (and have for as long as I’ve been doing this), but when Joey Harrington or Byron Leftwich comes out specifically targeting Petey, I hope he steps up his game enough that Harrison or Smith really are exceptions and not the rule. I won’t hold my breath, though.
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September 24th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
Also, as an aside, given that Faggins is actually GOOD at nickel, don’t we upgrade the defense by putting Fletcher (mediocre to poor) at CB2 and Faggins (above average to good) at nickel instead of having mediocre at nickel and well below average at CB2?
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September 24th, 2007 at 5:06 pm
On the subject of mediocre safeties, that was a shameful display by Boulware on the Dallas Clark TD. If that’s the best he can do (biting on a simple side-step juke), I’d rather have Greenwood covering their TE.
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September 24th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
Yeah, that was weak. I’m not sure why we felt the need to move Boulware up to the LB slot across from Clark. Why not have your regular LB bump the shit out of him–especially on a shrt field like that–and have your safety play the ball?
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September 24th, 2007 at 7:33 pm
I think ol’ Petey might just be a classic coaching sink-hole. He practices better than everybody else who’s vying for the job, but come game time, he shoves his head up his ass and keeps it there. They keep rolling his sorry ass out there because they want to believe he’ll pull it out.
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September 24th, 2007 at 8:53 pm
Re: Schaub: Remember when we gave up three sacks in a game and said, “Well, that wasn’t too bad?”
Re: the injuries: Crap.