I'm going to go ahead and say it: baseball needs a time limit.
After sitting through nearly SIX hours of Astros v. Braves playoff baseball, including some of the most non-eventful nine innings ever to grace the mostly-non-eventful game of baseball itself, I can confidently say I will never get those six hours of my life back back, nor can anyone convince me that 18 innings of baseball is a way to spend an afternoon.
Yes, baseball needs a time limit. I suggested that perhaps the Astros should all lay down and pretend to be sleeping, so at least as to call the game on account of naptime. They could always resume another day. I was not looking forward to seeing position players taking the mound, as both teams had pretty much exausted their bullpens. By the 18th, the team consisted of a bunch of scrubs who I had never heard of before and Roger Clemens. If the game had gone much longer, there would have been some ugly pitching from backup third basemen or some other such silliness.
I did not set out to watch 18 innings of Astros baseball, but it was featured on 4 of the 5 big screens at the sports bar we go to on Sundays to watch football. Football was definately on the back burner yesterday in Houston, and who can blame anyone, seeing as the Houston Texans are now officially the worst team in the NFL right now.
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Speaking of the worst team in football, it is now time to put the anti-rally caps on and pray for a 0-16 season for the Texans, because we could use a high pick in the first round. I'm not quite ready to throw David Carr under the bus, but I would gladly back the car over Dom Capers and Charley Casserly. These two need to be gone. Casserly first and foremost.
My friend Allen, aka The Angry Negro, has a very good point about Casserly and his personnel decisions. Take a look at Phillip Buchanon, the CB we traded a second AND third round pick for in the 2005 draft. Allen's take is this: no matter how big an asshole you are, there are four skill positions in the NFL that you don't bench: QB, RB, WR and CB. If you're a shutdown corner, you don't bench that player. But that's what the Raiders did half of last year with Phillip Buchanon. Add to that the fact that really no other teams were courting the Raiders to get Buchanon except for the Texans. Allen thinks we gave away too much to get Buchanon, that he could have been had for a third round pick if the Texans were patient.
So what has Buchanon done this season for the Texans? Get burnt coming and going by just about every team, and benched the third game into the season. So at least he's in a familiar position as last year with the Raiders.
Let's take a look at the 2005 draft. Rangy linebackers who can create plays fit pretty well in the 3-4 scheme right? And who's sitting on the draft board when the Texans were about to pick? Stud LB Derrick Johnson out of Texas. Do the Texans take him? No, they trade down and let KC grab him up and take Travis Johnson instead. Derrick Johnson is only starting for an improved KC defense. Huh. Go figure. I haven't heard anything of Travis Johnson this year. If the Texans were going to trade down, why not grab up OT Alex Barron to help their woeful O-line?
So, to recap: the Texans keep drafting defensive players high, but they take the wrong ones. The only pick worth anything in the past couple of years has been Dunta Robinson. But they pass on Derrick Johnson, a stud LB, and don't do anything to improve their O-line. Taking a stud OT in the middle of the first round is not a bad way to spend a pick! You can't take them too high unless they're touted as one of the best to come around in years, but good OTs are few and far between, and certainly Alex Barron may have made more of an immediate impact than Travis Johnson. In sum, our defense is without one takeaway, we're worst than last year in that respect, and we make stupid picks and trades that cost us future picks or better players.
And that O-line. It's pitiful. Whether it's the scheme or the players or a mix of both, they are helping deep-six David Carr's career and confidence. There were at least three sacks yesterday against the Titans that Carr had no time to blink, let alone look downfield. That's not bad QB play. There's nothing you can do when the ball is snapped and you've got linemen in your face within seconds. The O line has been a glaring need on this team since the team started four years ago, and yet we trade for a bum like Phillip Buchanon and draft just-on-the-cusp-of-being-busts like Jason Babin.
Oh, and shall we talk of wide receivers not named Andre Johnson? Corey Suckford. There's a reason this guy was cut from the team. He tested the free agent waters. Guess what, no one else wanted him. What do the Texans do? Resign him. All this guy does is drop balls that matter, catch the ones that don't, and don't even turn to catch balls thrown his way. I would put him on the bench so quick his head would spin and get Jerome Mathis out there (faster than fast) and play Derick Armstrong as the slot receiver. All Armstrong does is make plays. So why isn't this guy out there more?
Call the fucking season a wash. Play Mathis, Armstrong and Morency so they get some needed experience. Hope to go 0-16 so we got a shot at a number one pick. I have no qualms about taking a QB first. I'm apathetic about Matt Leinart. A great college QB, no doubt, but I don't want another David Carr. I'm thinking big, exciting and Vick-like. Vince Young? Can we hope? I would prefer Young to be a better passer, but he's quickly improving in that aspect of the game. Leinart isn't electifying, and if the Texans need something, it's someone who has that X-factor of being able to make special plays. Perhaps Reggie Bush fits that bill, but I'm not big on RBs who aren't really RBs. Brian Westbrook might be a great x-factor type player, but I really think Philly's running game suffers because they don't have a true every-down back. Westbrook makes plays when he's in space and running backs need to be able to run between the tackles every now and then.
I don't think Houston's running game is the first thing to work on. I think Carr may be past the point of being permanently scarred, so getting Vincent Young would be a nice change of direction. A WR is sorely needed, because Andre Johnson has not yet proved he can get past double teams. Or can he? We don't know really since Carr can't get him the ball. When Carr's first throwing option is Corey Suckford, you know something is terribly, terribly wrong. O line is, of course, something that should have been addressed 3 years ago. I really think Dom Capers is a reactive coach who takes too freaking long to make the right decision. I don't think this zone blocking scheme is working and they need to do something different now. You gave it year, it hasn't improved, don't give it another year of failure. And here's another reason why Dom is worthless. He was thinking of firing ex-offensive coach Chris Palmer at the end of last season but decided against it. Uh, why exactly? The offense was about as creative as a COBOL programmer on downers. If his gut instinct was to fire him, why did he cripple the offseason, training camp and this season by not pulling the trigger?
0-16 Texans fans. Visualize it. Hope for it. Pray for it. #1 pick. It could be ours!
