Battle Red Blog
In 1984, the band Icicle Works released the song “Whisper to a scream.” As you might expect, the song starts softly and creshendos until the end. It did not make it high on the Billboard hits (#37) but seems to have held up over time as a 1980s anthem. The subject of the song seems to be a perfect artistic rendering of what we are seeing on Sundays (and Mondays). Anyone can write off one game. Plenty of teams have gone from 0-2 to the playoffs. 0-3 is wholly different historically and it is especially different when one side of the ball is responsible 90 percent of the suck.
Of course, I’m getting ahead of myself. As per usual, we begin with the numbers. The keys are starting to come into focus. When you see the team succeeding at one facet consistently or not succeeding at one facet consistently then we begin to see the team take some definition. Every team has an identity. Whether it is the identity they say they have is open to interpretation.
This is one of those games where the numbers absolutely tell the whole difference in the game. The Texans turned it over three times in the Jaguars territory in the fourth quarter. Take those turnovers away (even just one of them) the game turns out differently. Other than the turnovers these two teams played an even football game. Of course, we can and should get to more in the good, bad, and ugly.
Okay, let’s dispense with the pleasantries. Yes, the defense technically gave up the final touchdown, but that was a strategic move to get the ball back. If the flow of the game is any indication, it probably would have turned out to be a field goal and if the Jaguars were playing the percentages it should have been a field goal. Yes, you can absolutely say that the defense gave up the winning points in the end, but that would ignore everything that went on in the football game.
Three weeks in a row the defense played good enough to win the game. The Texans took the number one rushing offense in football and held them under 100 yards. Lawrence was 20 of 40 in a game that will not be included on his tape when he wants a new contract. Identities are both positive and negative. The Texans have an identity of a hard hitting team that makes life difficult for quarterbacks. We cannot ignore the positive even though there is plenty of negative to focus on. This defense has not quite produced at top five overall levels, but...
