Mario has been turning it on lately, while Reggie Bush has been stinking it up. Neither one has lived up to the (ridiculous) hype so far, however.

The Julius Peppers comparisons are unfair because Peppers joined a defensive line that already had Rucker, Jenkins and Buckner. Peppers racked up the sacks as a rookie while Rucker and Jenkins got the double-teams. Teams don't have to pay special attention to the rest of the Texans line.

11/2/2006 9:06:16 PM

Quote :

"Mario has been turning it on lately, while Reggie Bush has been stinking it up. Neither one has lived up to the (ridiculous) hype so far, however."

Mario has had negative hype. At least in the ESPN analysts view, Mario already has 3.5 more sacks than they expected him to have.

Quote :

"dont players peak at like 29-31?"

Depends on the position, but that seems right for a D-lineman

11/2/2006 9:13:39 PM

Defensive line is also a much harder position to adjust to than most others. Not on the level with QB, but Mario could cheat in college and his athleticism let him get away with it. Once he masters his technique he will be dangerous.

11/2/2006 9:15:58 PM

Quote :

"Mario has had negative hype. At least in the ESPN analysts view, Mario already has 3.5 more sacks than they expected him to have."

Exactly, nothing but it, which is why I posted this article back before the regular season began.

http://www.thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=431347

Something had to be done to kill all the negative shit being said about Williams, and this is as good an article as any to do it. They've calmed down some, and now that Wali Lundy has more rushing yards than Reggie Bush, talking shit about Mario ("BUT THEY'RE STILL RANKED 32ND IN DEFENSE!!!") seems less and less valid.

11/2/2006 9:35:55 PM

make that 4.5 sacks

11/5/2006 2:07:15 PM

Mario must be pressuring Eli all day - i have Eli on 2 of my teams and he's pissing me off

11/5/2006 3:23:25 PM

11/5/2006 6:33:21 PM

ahaha, look how small that guy is compared to mario

11/5/2006 6:34:45 PM

Mario: "Get this thing off of me"

11/5/2006 6:39:34 PM

my god...........he looks even more beastly than he did here.

seriously, that jersey doesnt fit

[Edited on November 5, 2006 at 6:57 PM. Reason : jersey]

11/5/2006 6:57:13 PM

ahahaha...who saw the highlight of his sack today? got up and did the gay giants jumpshot celebration and the crowd started booin. that is awesome.

11/5/2006 7:44:29 PM

i just saw that, hahahahaha, that was hilarious

11/5/2006 7:45:16 PM

ima need a link

11/5/2006 7:45:16 PM

they showed it on this nbc highlight/recap show

11/5/2006 7:45:42 PM

lol

got em

11/5/2006 7:49:57 PM

4.5 sacks? how the hell does he walk?

HHAHAAHHHAAHHA
HAHAHHAHAHAHHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA




- I'm 12

11/5/2006 7:51:22 PM

nice quotes:

Quote :

""The son of a gun is almost inhuman out there for how big and thick and solid he is," tackle Bob Whitfield said. "And I caught it firsthand, because I said to myself, 'Don't give the young kid a sack.' ... When he hit me, it was almost like he needed to have a penalty for tearing up an old man. I actually told him, 'Slow it down, young fella.' "He is strong; he is big. He's got it. He is going to be a force to reckon with.""

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/4312581.html

Quote :

" Believe it or not, Williams is seriously having a decent year. Keep in mind he's 21 and doing a lot more with his life at that age than you were. He leads his team in sacks (4.5, a Texans rookie record) and is No. 7 in tackles. He's also taken up mimicking opposing defenses and shoving quarterbacks when they're out of bounds. Good news all around for Texans fans."

http://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/335333/detail.html

[Edited on November 7, 2006 at 11:58 AM. Reason : ]

11/7/2006 11:54:57 AM

Insider article on Mario's game

Quote :

"I'm sandwiching the weekend with travel for ESPN The Magazine stories, so I was parked on the couch for this week's games. I tuned into the Giants-Texans' game, and decided to track Mario Williams. I've been thinking a lot about him this fall since I did a cover story in the Magazine about the impossible position he's facing this year. His first month was rough, and at one point coach Gary Kubiak singled him out, saying the rookie needed to play better. But as I talked to opposing coaches, many seemed to be really impressed by his talent and thought that if he had one other star on the D-line and wasn't constantly double-teamed he'd be all over the highlight shows every week. Facing the Giants midway through the year was a good barometer for the No. 1 pick because New York runs and throws well. I charted all of Mario's plays, so remember these figures are unofficial. But what I found was that the Giants targeted and relied on his aggressiveness, didn't fear him as a run-stopper and, most interestingly, spent most of the passing game single-blocking him. Williams lined up at right end for 18 snaps and left for 35. The Giants ran at him eight times and passed at him five. The Giants toyed with Williams by constantly running bootlegs and counters at his direction. In the first half, Williams was twice caught out of position on bootlegs to Jeremy Shockey, and on Tiki Barber's 16-yard touchdown run, the Giants ran right at Williams, who ended up on his knees. For a while, the Giants didn't seem to fear Williams at all. Despite surrendering 45 pounds to Williams, Shockey single-blocked him on many plays and did so successfully. On the game-deciding touchdown that made the score 14-10, the Giants bootlegged at Williams, giving Eli Manning plenty of time and Shockey was wide open. Williams was double teamed on only four passing plays. Sometimes he struggled to get past tackles; other times he didn't. At the end of the first half, he showed the dominating style that made him the top pick. On first-and-15 from the Houston 19, Williams bull-rushed Giants tackle Bob Whitfield, throwing the 318-pounder aside with his right arm, and sacked Manning. On the next play, he moved over a gap and plowed over Whitfield again ­- like, planting the dude on his butt and hurdling over him ­- and helped crumble the pocket for DeMeco Ryans to get Manning. Then, from the right side, Williams creamed tackle Luke Petitgout and forced Manning into an incompletion. On the next series Williams again beat Whitfield and forced Manning into an interception, although it was the final play of the half. I know one game isn't indicative of the season, but there's no doubt Mario has moments where he looks like the most dominant player on the field and others when he isn't even a nuisance for the offense -­ a reflection of his NC State career, when he was benched for ineffectiveness. Considering the pressure he's under amid the controversy surrounding his selection, pressure that he did nothing to earn, for his sake I hope his overpowering play develops into the norm. "

http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?name=wickersham_seth#20061106

11/7/2006 12:28:46 PM

Quote :

"a reflection of his NC State career, when he was benched for ineffectiveness."

When was this? Is he talking about for like 2 plays, or during his freshman year? because I don't remember him being benched for ineffectiveness.

11/7/2006 3:42:47 PM

The shot thing that the players do means they are "BALLIN" thats why they are pretending to shoot if you get the whole thing...

11/8/2006 9:01:21 PM

There were periods of time where Mario wasnt the super freak as we know him. For example, he was almost non-existent during the first half of his final year until he finally turned it around and destroyed everyone.

11/8/2006 9:40:40 PM

It's because people were blocking him in a different manner than they had before. It took him a few games to learn how to adapt to this and all of the double teams he got. He learned from it, then dominated. Doesn't sound like a bad thing to me.

11/8/2006 9:53:39 PM

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/justice/texans/4322104.html

Quote :

"And — this is important even if the Texans won't come right out and say it — he's playing better than either Vince Young or Reggie Bush."

11/9/2006 1:46:44 PM

Does anybody have any clips of his plays against the Giants??

11/9/2006 1:56:31 PM

^you could probably search youtube for 'mario sacks manning' or something to see the one play but i dunno otherwise

11/9/2006 2:07:04 PM

Despite teams changing their blocking on him, from double and triple teams to chop-blocking, etc., if you watched Williams career here he definitely did go silent for long periods of time. It would be like a light switch. He'd play mediocre for 3-4 games and then explode and remind everyone why he was the best.

I think he's gotten better as his career has gone on, but he still seems to have that in him.

11/9/2006 2:13:02 PM

Yeah....I've already tried that. Came up with nothing.

11/9/2006 2:13:50 PM

[Edited on November 9, 2006 at 2:29 PM. Reason : look at what a faggot eli is...]

11/9/2006 2:28:04 PM

^^^I think that's going to go away as he matures as a player. Everybody has a slump for a couple of games every now and then, though.

11/9/2006 3:07:43 PM

If he finishes with 9-10 sacks, maybe defensive rookie of the year unless Elvis Dumervil from Denver keeps playing well

11/9/2006 4:07:44 PM

Mark Anderson and Tamba Hali have both been more impressive at the same position.

DeMarco Ryans has had more of an impact for the Texans.

11/9/2006 4:40:37 PM

he would have to have a monster 2nd half of the season to get DROY and those guys^ would have to cool off.

11/9/2006 4:43:00 PM

there's a video of his sack on google. i've seen it posted on other boards.

^^ those guys also have better players around them on defense. the d-line has to work together has a whole, and they also need help from the linebackers and corners. if your corners are sorry, then the qb could easily get rid of the ball before the pass rush gets anywhere near him. the corners need to cover their guys long enough for the d-line and/or linebackers to put pressure on the qb. at the same time, the defensive front needs to disrupt the qb before the corners start to lose coverage. cohesiveness, chemistry, and complementation are critical for good defenses.

it's not a coicindence that the texans defense has been getting better as the season progresses. they're coming together, and learning about one another - one anothers abilities, tendencies, etc.

julius peppers wouldn't be shit if he were the lone talent on the line. think of our d-line with mario, manny, mccargo, tank, and pressley. individually, they would be okay. together, they were unstoppable.

furthermore, consider that this is what would be mario's senior campaign in college. he's a 21 one year old kid in the nfl that still has alot to learn.

[Edited on November 9, 2006 at 5:16 PM. Reason : ]

11/9/2006 5:07:40 PM

^ good post

11/10/2006 7:16:35 PM

^^Great post. It's good to hear intelligent football conversation rather than the incoherent bumblings in most threads.

11/11/2006 8:48:00 AM

danke.

11/11/2006 10:03:47 AM

^^^ just wondering if you caught the monday night game this week?

11/14/2006 11:19:56 PM

The one where Peppers had a huge day because the bucs couldn't double team him as much as they needed to?

[Edited on November 15, 2006 at 1:19 AM. Reason : Since the panthers D-line is full of talent]

11/15/2006 1:18:53 AM

^ lol

11/15/2006 11:26:38 AM

I can't find the video of him vs the giants

11/15/2006 11:31:58 AM

^^^^ Is that directed to me? No I didn't, I had class.

11/15/2006 8:43:10 PM

no videos for me either

11/15/2006 9:44:15 PM

Mario got bashed again on sports in Texas. "Mario who???"....Said Texans passed on both Young and Bush....worse pick ever.

[Edited on December 11, 2006 at 1:00 AM. Reason : w]

12/11/2006 12:59:38 AM

^ No way.

Ryan Leaf FTW.

12/11/2006 1:02:01 AM

Leaf wasnt Number 1.....but the sports reporters here have a field day bashing him every Sunday

12/11/2006 1:04:56 AM

In that case, Tim Couch was a worse #1 pick than Mario BY FAR.

[Edited on December 11, 2006 at 1:08 AM. Reason : can you say Mario over Bush was worse than Couch over McNabb?]

12/11/2006 1:07:05 AM

given the position Tim Couch was put in, I'm willing to give him a halo (a pretty dim one... but a halo nonetheless). I think the worst thing an upstart franchise can do is turn over the reins to a rookie QB. You need a proven leader in that huddle, directing the younger WRs and other offensive players around, not the reverse of that. Heck, even the Eagles - who were picking 2nd overall for a reason - had Doug Pederson or whoever playing in front of McNabb early. Many questioned it, but I think the Broncos and Titans will be better down the road for letting their rookies sit behind the vets for awhile. Heck, look at Rivers' development while getting to watch Brees. If you're picking that early, chances are throwing a young QB to the lions (or the Lions) will not be a cure-all for the team.


But then Mario Williams is under the worst pressure in the world because any time Reggie Bush or Vince Young does something, you hear Mario Williams or the Texans mentioned right behind it. Tonight's game, for example: First replay of Bush's TD catch, commentator (forgot which) says "I bet the folks in Houston are kicking themselves;" it's a paraphrase, but if there were a drinking game invented for this type of thing, I'd have gone broke on booze by now.

[Edited on December 11, 2006 at 2:05 AM. Reason : ~]

12/11/2006 2:05:29 AM

nvm

[Edited on December 11, 2006 at 2:10 AM. Reason : i originally had something bashing him]

12/11/2006 2:06:30 AM

yea, tonite on SNF when Al Michaels made the statement, "THe fans in texas have to be thinking, 'What the hell were we doing in the draft'"...........i kinda frowned

12/11/2006 2:10:52 AM

^hahahhahah he said that?

kudos to al michaels then...motherfucker is smart

12/11/2006 2:17:54 AM