Thanks to only one somewhat silly turnover, the Defense didn't have to try so hard to bail out the offense. However, they had their worst game, making numerous mistakes in coverage. The front seven did a fantastic job in containing one of the most lethal runners in Chris Johnson, but Antoine Cason, Eric Weddle, and every linebacker in coverage gave up a huge play or two. Vince Young looked waay better than he's supposed to. When the coverage is good and the pass rush does enough, it's effective, as Young only completed half his passes. But I'd rather see him complete 14 of his 21 passes for just 180 yards and 1 TD and 1 Int (either of the dropped int's) than complete big passes in busted coverage because someone was not staying on his assignment. I hope Steve Wilks and Ron Rivera lay into the secondary for playing so sloppily. 

New Feature in the Analysis!- I now add in it's own column the number of players rushing the QB. This is another new aspect that should make the analysis more complete. It also doesn't really add much time to my preparation.

Click here for the Analysis

Players are graded on a play by play basis. 2.0 is the highest score, and is given to a player who makes a sack, a tackle for a loss, bats a pass down, or a player who is double teamed and can successfully anchor his point. 1.0 is given to players who get pressure, shed a block and can make a stop for little gain, slows down the ball carrier enough to give another player a chance to stop him,11/2/10 or if they're double teamed and can't hold their point, but aren't beat or driven away. 0.0 is given to a player who fails. Whether they don't get any pressure rushing the passer, or are completely blocked, or fail to make a stop. There will be half scores as well, of 1.5 and 0.5 when a player's performance falls in between grading points, like almost getting a sack but forcing an incompletion, or stuffing a play that gains minimal positive yardage. 0.5 would be if they almost fail but manage to do even a little positive, like recover from being beat on a block to make a tackle from behind after a positive gain, or getting a QB to move in the pocket but not hurry his throw, or get beat on his double team but still draw both blockers.     

There weren't more than 2 bad playcalls, but a lot of failures in execution. Namely, coverage breakdowns. On the Asterisk play, It was blown by Cason. He was playing high coverage on Britt, and he has Applewhite underneath in zone help with Oliver across his face. It's very important to keep the receiver underneath you in high coverage, but Cason, looking for the ball (possibly since he expects the blitz to force an errant pass) lets Britt zip past him. Even if Britt had run a route underneath, that's why Applewhite was there. Even if he ran across the field, he'd become Oliver's man, and Cason would have to chase over the top. Bad play by Cason, and he seems to put too much focus on defending the pass instead of the receiver. He needs to fix that.  Everyone who saw the game knew it. Andre Johnson isn't someone you want to leave wide open 30 yards down the field. Or 10, for that matter. And Matt Schaub is a little more accurate than Collins and Young. The Pass rush this game was weak. I honestly expected at least 2 sacks. There was plenty of blitzing in the beginning, but Ron Rivera seems to have dialed it back due to so many problems in coverage. Also, the Offensive line did a fantastic job of picking up the pressure and giving enough time for passes. You'll notice that DE Luis Castillo had his lowest scores of the season so far. I asked last week if he got hurt towards the second half of the New England game where I saw his legs get smashed up a little. If he was less than 100%, it affected his pass rush notably. Either that, or it just wasn't one of his days. Bottom line though, he wasn't getting as much push as last week or any other week, for that matter. Hope he's back to normal for Houston.  Next week, the pass rushers need to hit their rush lanes better and try to run down Schaub. They run a lot of Playaction stretch plays and Phillips likes to overrun the edge sometimes. If unblocked, he could get a few sacks, as well as Barnes or Applewhite. Please post any questions or curiosities in the comments below. Recs are appreciated if you appreciate the article.