Khyber53

He's getting better with experience. The guy has got the magical playbook, but he's still learning how and when to use it. There are going to be some mistakes along the way, or more of them, but you can just see that the foundation is there. Sending CMC up the middle four plays in a row inside the 5 just wasn't working and it seemed that he wasn't ready to give up the concept yet. The short-term injury to CMC should force him to open up the book a bit more (a la the Tremble end around).

Anything to beat the Cowboys.

You could make an easier case that years of running and making quick cuts and stops in cleats possibly created a bunch of microfractures in Jaycee's feet. It was just a matter of time before these took enough stress to give out. It's not exciting but it happens to a lot of top tier athletes. It even hit Michael Jordan and may have led to the end of his career (and probably Greg Olsen's too). Hopefully Horn will heal quickly and completely. On CMC, you've got a case where a guy's work out gains have been massive in recent years and even though he is as physically fit as you can imagine a human to be, the muscles might have exceeded the tendon loads. Basically, the guy fell victim to his own swoleness. Luckily, it doesn't seem that severe right now, so some rest and rehab should get him back out there. A guy CMC's size wasn't built to have Earl Campbell thighs. And yet there he was, killing it.

Never hurts to have more depth. Even if they are on the extended practice squad, our offensive plans rely heavily on running backs.

It's never smart to start yelling about conspiracies and whatnot. Really we should all know that after the last couple of years. Now incompetency, there's a much more believable answer for the referee work last night. Flat out missed call after call to the point that they quit asking Mike Pereira what his opinion of each call was. That crew was blowing calls left and right. And the calls did seem to favor Houston greatly, making me think there was some accidental bias. Badly called game, through and through.

We're going to be fine. We're three wins ahead of where we were when we started the season. For the moment, no one else is in the league. (That'll probably change Sunday, but we're still in the top of the heap). It's a long season ahead and we have nine days until our next match-up with the Cowboys. They're over-rated and who knows if they'll fall apart this Sunday. We've got an easy schedule ahead and our injured guys are coming back. We're going to be fine, maybe even better. Just let it all play out.

Yeah, it works like that. And we get two chances at the end of the season to give them a reason to put us over Brady. Until then, let's just stay under the radar.

We have a lot of good, good players on the field. And Sam Darnold is looking the part of a top class point guard. He knows who has the hot hand, he keeps things moving and he's instilling confidence in those around him. Dang, Sam, never thought you'd work out like this, but man keep going!

This is one of those turning point games. And you could see it when he got pushed, pulled and squished into the endzone. That wide-eyed look Darnold had as he went through the compactor and came out the winner and alive.

I said before the season began that Robby faded fast last year and kinda quit trying. The idea that he could have big check-itis isn't that hard to rationalize. But, let's give it a couple more weeks. Teams will be rolling their coverage to DJ with CMC out, so Robby may find him some room. That being said, we've had some big plays run through Tremble, Zylstra and Erickson (!?!?!?!) the last couple of games, so there may be some motivation/separation problems Robby is having that the coaches noticed.

Something like this and the fact that it was a non-contact injury makes me wonder if there weren't some tiny microfractures picked up over years of playing before.

That's just what I was thinking. Good running backs tend to be that way. Still needs some work on helping in pass protection, but rarely do RBs come into the NFL with that high on their skill set.

I'm with you. The pass rush and sacks are getting all of the attention but we've been completely shutting down run games.

Everything is going to be fine. Breathe. CMC's injury could possibly be short term. And this is a very long season, there's time for him to heal and come back. And Jaycee, there's even time for him. It's early, he can be back potentially and be fully rested and coached up for that murderer's row they set up for us in the final four games. We're going to be okay. We're going to be okay.

This, as much as anything, is what will get you long-term employment as a QB in the NFL, either as a starter or back up. Stanford QBs in the NFL tend to be tougher than expected with good processor speeds.

I honestly really didn't know him from Adam when we snagged him. Was like, yadda yadda yadda, another vet that's gonna Gerald McCoy himself to some fat paychecks and ride off into the sunset after not even getting his uniform dirty. Well, I sure was wrong about that. Amazing pick-up for the offseason and amazing impact on the field. The guy apparently was just what we were needing. Wow!

I was going to braise some beef short ribs, but man it is such a pretty day, I think it's going to be burgers and dogs on the grill. Hooray for autumn!!!

28-14 Panthers. 2 TD CMC, 1 Anderson, 1 Darnold rushing. Davis Mills actually comes out and performs well for Houston, staying calm even under extreme pressure and makes good use of the veteran resources around him.

I read that one, too. It's college data, though, and that can be pretty skewed depending on the teams used. That 36% conversion rate for 3rd and 7/8 just seems really high compared to the pro game. Somewhere out there, someone's gotta have that data, though.

Umm, our back-ups aren't getting 3-4 yards even when they get the ball. Give them some time. CMC took some time once he got here to become the superman he is. Still, that Freeman block attempt was embarrassing.

The article was a good read and it gave me a lot more insight than just about anything else I've read about Snow's defense. That being said, I'm having a ball watching it right now but I want to make sure this isn't just the flavor of the week defense before I declare it revolutionary. Buddy Ryan's 53 defense ruled the league until they figured it out.

Let's get this season down first.

It's the trenches. O-lines vs D-lines, both sides.

Broke six tackles on that play. In my mind, it always plays out like he broke 11 tackles and was headed to the Houston bench to challenge some more guys before he crossed into the endzone. Or at least, that's the way I tell my kids it happened.

Going into this season, I made a big point of saying that Rhule and Co. could well find themselves on the hot seat if they didn't outperform last year. I still think that could be the case with a late season melt-down, but I have to say right now, things are looking better than they have in years. This team doesn't have the vibe of the 2003 or 2015 seasons, but it has something, that's for sure. Hopefully it's going to be something great, but I keep trying to tailor my vision by reminding myself it's just now week 3. The Jets were a team that collapsed and are being rebuilt. The Saints had excuses and they may have beaten a Green Bay team that is unexpectedly bad (that win over Detroit doesn't wash all the stink off of the prior week). Now, we're up against the Texans and they have a boatload of reasons why they will probably lose. So the pundits will probably downplay our wins, and rightly so. I might worry more if they instead start crowning us as wonderkids this year prematurely. But, all teams have to play the teams that are on the schedule. Just because we're feeling our Wheaties doesn't mean we can demand a cage match against the champs right now. So, we're just going to have to just truck on down the road and keep beating who the schedule makers put in front of us for the next 21 weeks. For once, though, I'm really liking our chances coming out of the gates. And that's been a long time coming.