Houston Texans 2014 Thread

Houston is needing some defensive back help right? Yeah, I knew you'd agree with me. To help make up for this weakness on the team Houston resigned veteran safety Danieal Manning today. S Chris Clemens to make room for Manning.

 

Here's a rundown of the roster moves made this past weekend and today by the Texans.

 

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/Texans-roster-moves-August-31/57ad4ba8-4173-4ea4-981f-02bf99096baa

 

Here is the list of the Texans 10 player practice squad from Texans.com.

 

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/Texans-sign-10-to-practice-squad/8cdc8ada-f6c6-434b-82c3-f29ffea1de74

J.J. Got his money today. Another one of the 2012 draft class just got paid. The deal was reported to be the highest ever at 50 million but Jason Cole reports a better break down in the tweet after Chris Mortenson here:Watt becomes NFL's highest paid def player, surpassing 6-year, $96-mill Bills gave ex-Texan Mario Williams, who got $50 mill guaranteed

12:28 AM - 2 Sep 2014

Ok, real guar on Watt is $30.87M. Remainder of $51.8M guar kicks in before 2016 season. Fair deal, but not Mario Williams deal.

8:33 AM - 2 Sep 2014 Jason Cole.

The way I look at it Watt has been a real warrior and he was the only bright spot in a pretty bad defense last year. He deserves the money and he is guaranteed to be a Texan for the foreseeable future. Well, done Houston. It may be the best off season move the Texans have made this year.

 

So far this preseason we saw a little of Jadeveon Clowney and he was pretty good flashing some of the potential to his game the Texans were hoping to get when they drafted him this past May. Now, instead of just a handful of plays we will get to see what it's going to be like to have Clowney on the field for 4 quarters. I really don't think Texans fans will be disappointed. The Texans announced that Clowney will start this Sunday against the Redskins.

I can't wait until the end of the season and the nay sayers about the Texans chances of having a +.500 record can go find a rock to crawl under. I've been saying this since the day Ryan Fitzpatrick was signed that he is better than he's given credit. It will start with a win on Sunday over the Redskins and end around Week 17 with no less than 10 wins. 10 wins could get a team a wild card spot in the playoffs. I've said it before and I'll say it again. This team was killed by injuries especially on defense last season and the inexplicable dumpster fire that was Matt Schaub. Fitzpatrick is not Matt Schaub. Fitz will go down the field some where Schaub was the one who liked to dink and dunk. The national press doesn't cover Houston and like every other team they report on they do it in generalizations, outward perceptions and clichés. Houston media, especially the guys on the Blitz in the afternoon, are just plain douches who can't find anything positive to say about Houston teams. I'll eat whatever crow I have to if Houston doesn't win at least 10 games but I don't think I will. They have a last place schedule and they play the NFC east which are all winnable games. I'm not saying they will but they won't be more than 6 point underdogs in any of them. It's going to start Sunday vs the Redskins. The other division they play this year is the AFC North which will be considerably harder but doable for at least one win (the Browns on the road) Don't think they can beat any of the other teams? Consider this. Houston had the Super Champion Seattle Seahawks on the ropes and the way their defense was playing a punt on third down and let the defense do their thing and Houston wins. That is until Matt Schaub tosses a pick six to Dick Sherman. Houston can beat any of the teams on their schedule. I honestly believe that. I think Texans fans better strap it up because we're in for a little fun. Edited September 5, 2014 by eagle eye

So the Ryan Mallett rumors have gone on for years. We finally get things to go our way and I hear this:

Lance Zierlein of Sports Talk 790 in Houston reports the Texans tried to trade for Eagles QB Matt Barkley before acquiring Ryan Mallett from the Patriots.

Zierlein is plugged into all things Texans, so we don't doubt its validity. The Philadelphia News and Inquirer reported last weekend that the Eagles were "open" to the idea of dealing Barkley. Houston likely didn't want to part with anything more than a late-round pick -- which was the price for Mallett -- while Philadelphia probably wanted at least a fourth-rounder for Barkley, considering it used the 98th overall pick on Barkley in last year's draft.

Related: Texans

Source: Lance Zierlein on Twitter Sep 5 - 8:42 AM

 

I don't think the coaching staff has a lot of faith in any QB they have and this season is going to be a long one.

 

I also found this tidbit about Mr. Foster: Coach Bill O'Brien said Arian Foster is "going to play a lot" Sunday against the Redskins, and "will get the bulk of the playing time" in the Texans' backfield.

Source: Houston Chronicle Sep 5 - 10:43 AM

 

I have no faith in Arian. Don't ever confuse how much you love the game and wish you were playing on Sunday with their feelings. He won't make it 8 games if he has to carry this team on his trick back.

All that can be said about the Texans has been said. Most people think the best Houston can do is 7-9. I am of the opinion they will go 10-6. If the preseason is any indication RGIII is not fully grasping the Sean McVay (read, Jay Gruden) offense. Despite all the top notch options Washington has on offense it's hard to use a tool, or tools, if you don't know how. Plus, the Redskins defense ain't all that.

One bit of bad news is that TE Garrett Graham could be a scratch from the game Sunday due to a bad back. He has missed practice since Wednesday and Coach O'Brien said it could come down to a workout Sunday morning to see if he can play. it seems Graham has learned some bad lessons from his mentor Owen Daniels.

 

 

Houston wins their opener by a score of...................

 

Houston 24 Washington 17.

Edited September 5, 2014 by eagle eye

I predicted a 24-17 win by the Texans and at least I got the team right. The score was a little lower than I thought with Houston winning 17-6. The Redskins have a ton of talent but RGIII and company didn't have an answer for the Texans resurgent defense. They were awesome. Despite Jadeveon Clowney having to leave the game with what has turned out to be a torn meniscus in the his knee it was all thumbs up for the Texans D. Ryan Fitzpatrick's numbers weren't gaudy (14-22 for 206 yds and a TD and NO PICKS) but he got the job done. The big blow was a 76 yard catch and run for the Texans first TD of the season. The Texans other score came on a blocked punt by rookie RB Alfred Blue who recovered the kick and took it 5 yards for the score.

Pretty much the rest of the game was a lesson in dominance by the Texans defense. JJ Watt was his usual awesome self and Brian Cushing showed why losing him is such a blow to the Texans D. He seemed to be everywhere. A big surprise was the play of LB Brooks Reed who played solid ball and the it wasn't a surprise but Jonathan Joseph's return to the lineup was big and he played big today.

Arian Foster had 100+ yards rushing and Andre Johnson had 93 yards on 6 catches and DeAndre Hopkins added 89 yards on 4 balls including the aforementioned TD. A win is a win and this was the first under Bill O'Brien and the first win since September of last season. In 2013 Houston went 2-0 and then proceeded to lose 14 straight. It's always nice to begin the season with a W isn't it?

As for Clowney, he'll miss some time with that meniscus issue but at least it wasn't an ACL. Whitney Mercilus had a solid game in relief of Clowney. We probably won't know any more than Bill O'Brien decides to disclose which probably ain't much considering he learned how to handle such things from Bill Belichick who is a notorious pain in the ...... neck when it comes to talking to the media.

Jadeveon Clowney had arthroscopic knee surgery yesterday to removed a portion of the meniscus in his right knee. He also has a torn MCL. He is expected to miss 4-6 weeks. I know most Texans fans knew this already but why I mentioned it was AM 610 out of Houston on their morning show has a orthopedic surgeon come on from time to time to talk about what effect or how serious an injury to a player may be. He discussed at length the difference between what Clowney had done vs a complete repair job which would have resulted in Clowney being placed on IR and lost for the season. The really interesting thing is most players opt for the procedure Clowney had done which will help him get back on the field quicker but could become a problem later in their lives whereas the complete repair is more favorable but has no guarantee it will even heal completely. The doctor said the meniscus is a tissue that doesn't like to be stitched and he could take a long time to heal IF it ever does. I thought it was an interesting conversation.

 

How about the efficiency of Ryan Fitzpatrick? Both Andre Johnson (6-93) and DeAndre Hopkins (4-87-1) had solid fantasy days. Fitz didn't have a lot of yardage but he was efficient. He's not a fantasy option at this point but as time goes by he may become a bye week option. Arian Foster was tested with 27 carries and he put up 103 yards for his effort. Nice balance from the offense but obviously you want a little more scoring taking place and some more sustained drives but I'll take a win. I am definitely not complaining.

The Texans returned to work today and missing was TE CJ Fiedorowicz missed practice today because of a foot injury. Bill O'Brien doing his best Bill Belichick imitation said of Fiedorowicz, “(Ryan) Griffin and C.J., they’re working hard and it is what it is.” Ryan Griffin is the other TE on the roster, a 2nd year man from UConn. Who knows what the heck is wrong with him! Garrett Graham who missed practices last week as well as the season opener against the Redskins because of a bad back was back at practice on a limited basis.

 

The TE's aren't the only ones with issues but you already know about Jadeveon Clowney. Otherwise the Texans came out of Week 1 pretty healthy. It looks like the defense is back. We should keep an eye on how Whitney Mercilus does in relief of Clowney going forward. With Brian Cushing back and Brooks Reed playing well maybe Mercilus will be free to be better than he has been so far in his career. It would be nice if Clowney has to earn his starting job back because that means that Mercilus is playing well as well as the rest of the defense.

 

The Raiders QBs have ties to Houston. There's Matt Schaub of course and lest you forget Matt McGloin was the QB in Bill O'Brien's first year as head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions. But this year's second round pick Derek Carr is the guy you need to remember. His big brother was a 1st round pick of the brand new Houston Texans franchise way back in 2002. Derek was a fixture around the Texans facility during his brother's tenure as a Texan. Now, Derek and his Oakland Raiders are hosting the Texans this Sunday.

On the eve of Houston's 2nd game of the year Andre Johnson said today that he likes new head coach Bill O'Brien's hard-nosed approach. This is a complete turnaround from his stance in May when he said he wasn't sure if Houston was the place he wanted to be. Johnson even held out of OTA's and mandatory mini camp and the question was would he boycott training camp? Well, he relented and showed up to Houston's facility on time for the beginning of training camp. Johnson postured but he probably never believed Houston would trade him. Houston couldn't because the cap hit the Texans would take would have been prohibitively large. Since he showed up he has developed a rapport with O'Brien and what strikes Johnson is O'Brien's blunt approach to his players. Johnson said that O'Brien will definitely tell when you do something wrong and he doesn't pull punches no matter who the player is. Johnson appreciates this honesty.

 

One item of note: Andre Johnson should be in your fantasy lineup. As bad as Houston was last year Johnson caught 10 balls for 116 yards. He has also had a lot of success vs the Raiders in his career.

 

Here's an article from Texans.com from beat writer Drew Dougharty on the 5 things you need to watch for in tomorrow's game.

 

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/5-Things-to-Watch-Texans-at-Oakland/c1f8e3d2-2305-488e-bd40-3af9eca87439

 

How are the Texans going to do? How about Texans 27 Oakland 10

So far so good. 2-0 is just where Houston wants to be at this point and the Texans have been going about their business in a very business-like way. Run the back, pass efficiently, move the chains and score on offense. Even more simple, stop the run, stop the pass, force turnovers. Houston hardly broke a sweat beating the Oakland Raiders today. They may have settled for too many field goals but, shoot, that's just nitpicking. Go on the road in one of the most hostile environments in the NFL and just shut the crowd up. Arian Foster followed up last week's 103 yards with a 138 yard effort. Ryan Fitzpatrick was economical with a 14-19, 2 TD performance. Fantasy owners won't go crazy but Texans fans will definitely take that every week as long as Houston is winning. The defense gave up a combined 101 yards rushing to the Raiders and Derek Carr passed for 263 yards and 2 TDs but every time Oakland got something going there was an interception or a fumble to derail a Raiders drive. The final score was 30-14 but it wasn't that close. I predicted a final of 27-10 so that wasn't too bad even if I do say so myself.

So, let's enjoy the win and prepare ourselves to take on the New York Giants next week. I don't want to jinx anything but as bad as the Giants have looked the past two weeks Houston has to be licking their chops about Wednesday thinking about that trip to the Big Apple.

The only downer was an injury to CB Jonathan Joseph. We can only hope it isn't serious and he'll be ready to go next week.

It's nice to root for a team like the Texans because there isn't a lot of drama. The organization seems to be stable and the management has not shown any interest in getting face time in the media. As a Cowboys fan it does get tiring talking about, listening to and dealing with Jerry Jones. With the Texans you can consentrate on rooting for the team but the Cowboys carry a lot more baggage. I think the coverage of the Cowboys, especially on their website, is better over all than the Texans but still, it's nice to root for the team without all the fooferall.

 

On bit of good new is that C J Fiederowicz was back at practice yesterday and could be back for this week's game vs the Giants. CJ missed practices and the game last Sunday vs Oakland because of a foot injury but he could very well be back in the lineup Sunday.

 

Bill O'Brien said yesterday that JJ Watt could be used more as a tight end in goal line situations. This comes on the heels of his first TD catch of his NFL career last Sunday.

 

Arian Foster was on the Texans injury report yesterday as limited. This is news to me because I didn't know he was having hammy issues. He came out of the game on Sunday in the fouth quarter when the Texans were making substitutions all over the field because the game was well in hand. It may be just a veteran day off and nothing more. Let's hope so as Foster is the second leading rusher in the NFL after two weeks and one of only two backs with over 200 yards rushing so far. With 51 carries the past two weeks I think he's earned a veteran day off.

 

DJ Swearinger was limited in practice yesterday because of hyper extended elbow he suffered in a collision with Brian Cushing in the 3rd quarter of the Raiders game. He left the game and didn't return. He is experiencing a lack of mobility and some pain but he's hoping to be on the field this Sunday vs the Giants.

Houston is going to New York, or rather New Jersey, to face a really bad Giants team. For whatever reason the Gints are not firing on more than 2 cylinders trouble is that hasn't been nearly good enough. The defense is bad and the offense compliments this with an equal amount of ineptness. I think every week the Texans are growing in confidence and despite the loss of Jadeveon Clowney in the preseason for 6-8 weeks the defense has dominated and the offense is becoming believers in the Bill O'Brien system which features a heavy dose of Arian Foster. Foster is the second leading rusher in the NFL after the first two weeks of the season and the reason is O'Brien has the O-line playing at a high level. Everyone was down on QB Ryan Fitzpatrick but he's done nothing but lead his team to wins the first two weeks of the season. Houston is better than NY in every aspect and should win the game. It's on the road but Houston is better than that and they will win.

 

Final score? Houston 31 NY Giants 10

You may have jinxed em EE. They look horrible today and they are currently 0-5 in third down conversions. It's pathetic.

Yeah, I was afraid of something like this. It's not the first time the Giants have looked like total garbage to begin the season and then turn it around. One thing I didn't know until it was too late was that Arian Foster's hamstring issue was going to cause him to be benched for this game. We learned in a hurry how much Foster means to this team. Alfred Blue did a decent job but Foster's presence was certainly missed. It ddn't help any that Ryan Fitzpatrick has a total crap game. Every QB has 'em and today was one for Fitz. The Giants tried to give Houston help early but Houston couldn't capitalize and it opened the door for the Giants and they bull rushed their way through that door. 30-17 isn't embarrassing but it wasn't anything to hang your hat on either. Where is god's name was the defense letting Rashad Jennings rush for 176 yards for goodness sake. Jennings is a serviceable back but Houston made him look like the second coming of Jim Brown. Eli wasn't great but he did his job. When you have a dominating run game you don't have to be great.

The radio voice of the Texans, Marc Vandermeer, offers a quick perspective from his article in Texans.com.

 

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/Vandermeers-View-Knocked-Down-in-NY/af5974f6-17a3-4e15-891a-8889af2ff3f8

 

In an interview today Arian Foster describes his hamstring condition as day to day. Thanks Arian, all us fantasy football mavens who have you on their roster need to hear that ambiguous crap when we decide to set out lineups this week. Sheesh.

 

DeAndre Hopkins caught 6 balls for 116 yards yesterday and his performance drove him over 1,000 yards receiving in his career. Big deal, we lost.

 

Subbing for Arian Foster was rookie Alfred Blue who gained 78 yards on 13 carries who translates into 6 yards per carry. Houston abandoned the run after they got behind and the Texans lost out on some plays as a result of the 3 INTs thrown by Ryan Fitzpatrick. All in all it was a pretty decent outing for Blue's first NFL start it's just overshadowed by the fact the Texans lost the game.

Edited September 22, 2014 by eagle eye

One of Texans 2014 draft picks is now going to be sitting out the rest of the season. NT Louis Nix III from Notre Dame was placed on injured reserve today because of a wrist injury and the fact that he has never really seemed to heal after having arthroscopic knee surgery this past summer. He will get the whole off season to recover and get stronger so he's ready to go next spring. To fill the NT void Houston signed veteran Ryan Pickett to help shore up what was a very porous run defense last Sunday. Pickett is a 14 year veteran who began his career in St Louis spending 5 seasons with the Rams. He has spent the last 8 in Green Bay. Pickett is 6'2" and 340 lbs and he's going to join Texans free agent signee Jerrell Powe to plug the middle of the defensive line. JJ Watt expressed his excitement at having Pickett on the team saying that a man of his experience and having the success he's had in the NFL is a great addition to the team. Houston defensive line coach Bill Kohlar held the same position in St Louis when Pickett was there so a familiar face on hand to help Pickett learn the Romeo Crennel 3-4 will help him make the transition.

 

For all you wondering about Arian Foster Texans.com reported today the Foster was at practice and "did some things". That was the tag line to the article in Texans.com. No real explanation of "some things" was forthcoming but Bill O'Brien classified Foster as day to day. Meaning you will have to be alert prior to game time Sunday as to his playing status. Fantasy owners are like okay, is it Foster or Blue? I hate game time decisions.

 

Texans center Chris Meyers will start in his 100th game as a Texan this week. Myers, who was acquired in a 2008 trade with Denver, also currently holds the NFL’s longest active consecutive games streak for an offensive lineman (139) and active consecutive starts for a center (114). In 2012, he made franchise history when he became the first Texans offensive lineman ever to be elected to a Pro Bowl. So, way to go Chris, keep up the good work!

Houston is back home after being duely embarrassed by the NY Giants last week in New Jersey. The defense knows it played like crap and now they will be facing a more potent running attack by the Buffalo Bills. CJ Spiller and Freddie Jackson are a good 1-2 punch and for a team that looked as bad as it did against the run last week, Houston better suck it up and play better.

Too bad that Jadeveon Clowney is injured because the storyline would be how 2 No 1 picks in the draft by the Texans fared in this game. The other No 1 pick, of course, is Mario Williams who left for Buffalo a couple of years ago in free agency. Even though Clowney and Williams would never face each other on the field the comparisons would be too intriguing to pass up.

Arian Foster continues to be a game time decision. If Ryan Fitzpatrick can avoid throwing the ball to Bills defenders then either Foster or Alfred Blue can focus on pounding the rock. It's incredible how bad players, QBs in particular, can play on a given Sunday and last Sunday Fitz was god-awful. Let's hope he's got an ax to grind against his former team.

The Bills QB play hasn't caused any presses to stop. It's been mediocre at best and Houston's defense should be able to expliot that offense some. The reason I don't sound as confident about this as in the past is how terrible they looked against the Giants who were really pretty awful prior to last Sunday. As a matter of fact, the Giants tried to hand the game over to Houston early on but Houston wanted no part of it and it seemed to fire up the Giants who summarily steam-rolled the Texans into the turf.

All that said, I have to believe that at home, as 6.5 point favorites the Texans will play better and win and go to 3-1. Final score?

 

Houston 27 Buffalo 17

Edited September 27, 2014 by eagle eye

Houston played hard and they overcame a game Buffalo Bills team to win 23-17. They are now 3-1 on the season with the Cowboys up next in Arlington next Sunday. Make no mistake about though, Houston was lucky. Lucky to have a beast like JJ Watt athletic enough to jump up and intercept a pass and take it to the house from 80 yards away. He literally outran everyone to the end zone. Lucky to play defense well enough to hold Buffalo to 17 points and lucky enough to overcome another less than stellar effort by Ryan Fitzpatrick. I was all in on Fitz from day one but he's making me a non-believer as the weeks go by. I would not be surprised if he had another sticker like last week in New York that Tom Savage would be given the keys to the Texans car.

I hate to say this but I don't think that yesterday's win over Buffalo is all that great. It looked a lot more like luck to me. It may be that Houston's defense isn't as talented as I first thought. I should get better when Jadeveon Clowney comes back but his real impact may not be fully felt until next season when he will have the benefit of a full off season of work to get NFL strong. I may have been wrong about Ryan Fitzpatrick. He may be the journeyman QB with diminishing skills everyone thought he was coming in. It may be the next real stinker of game by Fitz that sees the beginning of the Ryan Mallet era in Houston. If not for a super human play from JJ Watt it's likely Houston is looking squarely at a 2-2 record with the real meat of their schedule coming up in the next few weeks beginning with the resurgent Cowboys at the Death Star in Arlington next week. I hate to say it but in yesterday's games the team that looked like a team capable of stringing together some wins wasn't Houston, it was Dallas. Dallas is better than Buffalo by a long shot and Tony Romo is better than EJ Manual by a long shot. In fact it was announced that Manuel was benched going forward and the starting job belongs to Kyle Orton, the ex-Cowboy backup. If the Texans expect to win next Sunday they better fix some major problems on defense and get better play from Fitzpatrick and the Texans offensive line. Seems like a lot to ask in one week.

The Texans placed S Shiloh Keo on waivers today. Keo has been with the Texans for four years but he was not playing all that well and he has been slowed by and ankle injury. To take his place the Texans brought up S Josh Aubrey from the practice squad. To fill Aubrey's spot the Texans have resigned WR Travis Labhart and they also waived punter/kicker Chris Boswell from their practice squad.

Aubrey is a hard hitting player who should be able to contribute on special teams. Aubrey should be somewhat familiar to BRI readers because he went to school at Stephen F Austin. He does have six games of NFL experience gained playing for the Cleveland Browns last year.

 

Jadeveon Clowney gave the media an update on his progress recovering from a broken foot. He said he's been out running and he expects to be back in a few weeks. Here's the article with accompanying video from Texans.com.

 

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/Jadeveon-Clowney-gives-injury-update/a0b19731-b297-4b80-abce-46269b5e0fb5

JJ Watt's 80 yard pick six against the Bills last week helped make him the AFC Defensive Player of the Week.

 

The Houston-Dallas rivalry goes back to the halcyon days of the Luv Ya Blue era in the 1970s when it was Dan Pastorini vs Roger Staubach, Earl Campbell vs Tony Dorsett any number of matchups that would be just as relevant. Don't believe it? You should have been in the Reliant Stadium stands on the inaugural game of the new Texans franchise. A woeful Dallas team was beaten by an expansion team in it's first ever game. No established NFL team had ever been beaten under those circumstances before. Was the crowd into it? You bet your sweet longhorns they were. It is easily the loudest place I have ever been in my life. I was at the inaugural game at the new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington and the noise level couldn't compare to the Reliant crowd. My ears rang for days after that game. This intra-state rivalry is a meaningful one especially to Houston fans. I am a fan of both teams I can justify that because one is an NFC team and the other is an AFC team. My dream is for a Texas Super Bowl. It almost happened in 1977 and 78. It almost happened after the 1992 season but Houston couldn't hold up their end after blowing a 32 point halftime lead to lose to Buffalo 41-38 in overtime. Dallas faced those same Bills in the Super Bowl three weeks later. Dallas is on the rise and Houston is too. It probably won't happen this year but it could, and very soon. In the meantime we have a game to watch and enjoy this week. It's a meaningful game for both and it's meaningful to their playoff chase. It should be fun.

Okay, I have to make a correction. JJ Watt didn't win Defensive Player of the Week earlier this week. No, it was better than than. He was named Defensive Player of the MONTH for September. He was not the force he was in 2012 last season but under Romeo Crennel and Bill O'Brien he is having a bit of a resurgence. Needless to say he has been in full beast mode so far this season.

 

Arian Foster's availability is not in question for Sunday's game vs Dallas but how much he's able to do is still the question. Last week he suited up but he wasn't much of a factor. He did have some impact in the passing game coming out of the backfield but he wasn't setting the fantasy world on fire with the numbers he posted. It seems to be same song second verse. He's planning on suiting up for Dallas but how much or how well he will be able to play is still very much in question.

As a Cowboys fan this game scares the hell out of me. Why? Because, it's just this sort of game the Cowboys lose. What kind of game is it, you ask? I'll tell you. Dallas is by and large healthier than Houston. Dallas is arguably more talented than Houston and if compare position by position Dallas wins the projected matchups with a couple of exceptions. Dallas is at home. They are favored by 6.5 and they are coming off a big win over New Orleans last week that moved Dallas to 3-1 and they are on a roll. All the odds seem to favor Dallas. That's what scares me. The fact that Dallas is coming off a very emotional win really scares me. Houston could win.

Know what else scares me? Houston best three players are questionable for the game. Arian Foster has a gimpy hamstring. Andre Johnson has a bad ankle and didn't practice Friday and JJ Watt has a thigh problem. Foster and Watt are probable but how effective will they be? Johnson is questionable. You know, only Cleveland and Oakland could lose a game like this with the stars and the moon lining up like this. Houston has been overcoming poor odds and bad luck so far this season and this could be a real high water mark for them if they can pull off this upset. It's kismet, karma or what ever you want to say but Dallas loses games just like this. Houston can win this game. After all, they are 3-1. That means that both teams are tied for their division lead. Houston must be doing SOMETHING right. They can win but I don't think so. Final Score?

 

Dallas 31 Houston 10

Edited October 4, 2014 by eagle eye

For those of you who think Ryan Fitzpatrick is holding this team back, well, I'm not sure I can disagree with any sort of straight face. One thing though, while the Cowboys didn't record a sack in the game they did pressure Fitz a lot and they got some good hits in too. Fitz completed 16 balls to 6 different receivers. Problem was, Dallas did a good job of tackling. They didn't allow much in YAC yardage which kept the offense down. Arian Foster did show up big for the first time since Week 2 so I guess his hamstring is a non-issue--for now. His 23 carries for 157 yards and 2 TDs gave the Texans a spark they haven't had. I wish to goodness Houston's defense had played this well against the NY Giants. The D had a big pass rush going and despite getting only one sack they were up in Tony Romo's grill all day. Unfortunately, Romo is an expert at making plays on the fly and he did it again Sunday. The only way I can figure, and I mentioned this in another post, is that Romo is a Jedi Master and using the Force he could feel the JJ Watt train wreck bearing down on him. Without ever seeing Watt coming Romo did a spin move to his right at the last possible moment leaving Watt only air to bash. Rolling back around in the direction Watt had just come from and quickly setting up and throwing a 43 yard strike to Terrence Williams for the Cowboys 1st TD of the game. That play and surreal catch by Dez Bryant in overtime broke the Texans backs. A simply superhuman effort by Bryant to come down with the desperate heave by Romo on 3rd and long with Jonathan Joseph (who pretty much shut Dez down the whole game to that point) hanging all over him like a cheap suit. That play will be one of THE plays of the 2014 season. All you can do is tip your cap to Dez for being a helluva player. Houston will have put this one behind them and pronto because Indy is coming to town Thursday. There is no time to think about woulda, coulda, shoulda in Arlington. They've got business to take care of at home.

One cool note: The fans represented in Arlington Sunday afternoon. The crowd was about a 50-50 split between the Cowboys and Texans. The noise from the Texans fans was loud enough to force Dallas to go to silent counts to get their plays off. Dallas usually has that kind of support when they travel. It had to be disheartening to have the tables turned on them in their own house.