You don't get points for touch backs and a non-touch back doesn't automatically mean points against. I actually prefer teams trying to run out. Yea they might make the 20-30 yd line but we also have the chance and pinning them inside their own 10.
A forgotten impact of moving the kickoff to the 35 is not just the extra touchbacks... but the coverage team is physically closer and has 5 less yards to run to get to the receiving team. In fact, you could argue for simply making a kick with increased hang-time (even if its falling near the goal-line) and your coverage team should have a better chance at pinning them within the 20/forcing a turnover.
Maybe it'll work out just fine but I still have bad memories of Shayne Graham, I hate knowing that my kicker physically can't kick a FG more than 53 yards. The consistency on short FG's will be nice, but anything over 45 yards is going to be a crapshoot.....then again the way Fat Aggie was kicking, 33 yard FG's appeared to be a crapshoot so there's hope for it to be an upgrade
Dude, Randy Bullock has been incredibly inconsistent for the last 3 years. Remember how terrible he was a few years ago? Last year he did a little better but this season he started off horrible. The first game against KC he missed an extra point. You can't be in the NFL if you miss an extra point twice in 3 games. Any where from 40 yards out, Bullock is horrible. The Texans are not that great of a team and the offense will struggle. They can't afford to have a lazy kicker who the team cannot depend on to put points on the board. After that game against the Bucs, I knew immediately Bullock will be gone. He is horrible. Everyone knew that since his rookie year. The guy is incredibly inconsistent. In the NFL, 1 point conversion should be automatic. There's no excuse missing on the 1 point conversion, especially twice in 3 games. If the Texans kept Bullock, I guarantee you he will cost the Texans a lot of games this year. The thing they were talking about on 610 am radio is Randy Bullock has become complacent, took things for granted and got lazy because he didn't have to compete against anyone else during camp and thought his job was safe. They were saying that it was worrisome because Bullock was pretty much lazy throughout, never worked to improve much and was complacent because he had no one to compete with in camp and believe his job was safe. During that first game against KC when he bricked that 1 point conversion, I knew immediately this guy is done and will probably be trying out in the CFL. Randy Bullock was lucky to be on an NFL team for 3 seasons. He took it for granted and now his NFL career is most likely over. No other team will waste their time with him because there are so many kickers who are better. Have fun in CFL Randy Bullock. I am so happy this guy is done with the Texans. GTFO of HOUSTON Bullock.
Its not only the extra point after touchdowns but because this team struggles to score points, 3 pt FG is extremely important. The Texans will struggle a lot this year in the Red Zone so they need a FG kicker who they can count on to give them 3 points. Plus that extra point after touchdowns is extremely important. Because this team doesn't score often, every FGs, extra point conversion is vital to the Texans. You take anything you can get. The defense will play well but you need to score to win. You don't win by just playing defense and not giving a damn about offense. Every point counts. Comon, you guys know that. How important are free throws during the last few minutes of a close game? Even though each free throw is 1 point, every point is important.
Bullock has missed all of one field goal this season. Last year he hit 85% which was the top half of the league I believe. If you take anything you can get, then you also take field position after kick-offs. You know what's worse than missing an extra point? Surrendering a kick-off return for a touchdown. Or giving the defense a very short field. I'm not arguing with you about the importance of every point. I'm not even arguing about the decision. I'm disagreeing that Novak puts SO much more points on the board than Bullock.
Kicker is probably one of the few position in all of team sports that requires absolutely ZERO chemistry or familiarity among teammates. You could probably sign and release kickers weekly until you find a good one and still win games.
I felt Nick Novak was "automatic" for anything under 50 yards, and had as good of a chance as any kicker with FG's 50-55 yards. Last season he was 21 of his first 22 FG's then our holder got injured and he missed 3 of his last 5.
Don't blame him if it was anything like some of the threads on yahoo etc .. the amount of hateful posts are almost Manziel level hatred .. Only thing the dude did was miss a few kicks ,reading some of the crap on the net you'd think he bombed a daycare or something .
Heard some audio on the radio this morning. Novak says he was working on kickoffs with some kicking coaches out on the west coast during his break. Says he's better. Not sure if "break" means offseason or time between when San Diego cut him and now. But he did average 65 yards/KO this preseason, which is pretty normal for kickers. Texans obviously had them do kickoffs during the tryout, so maybe he's right. We'll see on Sunday. Also, he wore #9 with the Chargers, but that's Lechler's number. So instead, he's going to wear #8. "Kick Six" anyone?
The other personnel moves the Texans made this week seem specifically designed to address kick coverage so I don't think BOB is ignoring the likelihood that Novak is not going to be booming them out of the end zone on a regular basis.
Did they appreciate BOB pulling his hand-picked QB he spent all preseason selling to them after three quarters?... I'm just suggesting he needs to find a balance that works with his locker room.
Do you have any examples of the quick hook other than Hoyer and now Fat Randy? I don't remember this ever coming up last season so I'm not sure it is really a trend at this point, especially considering one of the two is a kicker and non-kicker players rarely seem to care much about the kickers. Besides, the Bullock cut may only seem like a rash decision to us. For all we know BO'B has been on him about this or that since his tenure started last season and finally decided it was time to change horses. If the other players saw that, I doubt they would think of this as something to foster distrust of their coach. I think you are worrying over nothing.
