On Killer Instinct

The Texans played well enough to win today. For the first time this season, the offense looked competent, and at times even downright good. After looking like a middle school quarterback for the first two weeks, Matt Schaub played as if he belonged with the big kids. Unlike the first two weeks, Schaub made good decisions with the football. That said, he didn't get too cautious, taking several calculated shots down the field and the result was that the Texans hit on a couple of big plays. Schaub also showed me some moxy that I frankly didn't know he had when he led an effective two minute drill that set up a Chris Brown field goal with 6 seconds remaining to force overtime. Schaub's performance today should, at least for the moment, silence any critics (myself having been one of them) who wondered (with good reason) whether Schaub has the "right stuff" to start in the National Football League.
A look at the Texans defensive performance against the Jags leaves fans with far less to be happy about. The Texans clearly have some personnel issues on the defensive side of the ball that are going to need to be addressed in the upcoming off-seasons, but I don't think it was the defenses' lack of talent that doomed the Texans to failure today. Yes, they were awful. But if you go back and you look at the game, you realize that there was a point when the defense could have won the game. That point, of course, came around the two minute mark with the Texans up four points. Jacksonville had driven the ball into the red zone, but the Texans defense stepped up and forced 4th and nine...stop the Jags and the Texans win.
This is of course all very obvious to anyone who watched, coached, or played in the game. But that's the thing, as the players for both teams approached the line on that 4th down, they knew that the game was on the line. Every single Texan on the field knew that if they could get a stop, they would seal the victory. It was a chance to win the game, right then and there.
In the NFL, the really good teams to give second chances. When they smell blood, they go in for the kill. The Texans had a chance to bury the dagger and end the game, and they couldn't do it. That it was 4th and nine makes it all the more painful...but I would make the same point if it had been 4th and three. Good teams get that stop on fourth down and end the game, right then and there.
So yes, the Texans did send the game to overtime and lose then. But the Texans didn't lose the game in OT, they lost it on 4th and nine. The Texans have enough talented players to be a fairly good team, but they lack killer instinct. In the NFL, you have to bury the dagger the first chance you get because more often than not, if you give your opponent a second chance, they will burn you. FINISH.