Houston Texans 2016 Regular Season

Somebody forgot to remind the Tennessee Titans they were out of the playoffs. The Titans played hard and got a 24-17 win over the Texans in Nashville. The Titans defense actually played their asses off and Houston had no answer with Tom Savage at QB. I hate to say it but Savage looked a lot like Brock Osweiler with pretty much the same results. In the second quarter Savage suffered a concussion on a quarterback sneak for a first down. It took a few minutes before Savage was looked at because he appeared to be fine. Eventually he was taken out of the game and had to go to the locker room to go through the concussion protocol. When he came back out after halftime he was declared cleared to play then the next thing you know Brock Osweiler was back on the game and Osweiler was not cleared. Very strange circumstances. If Savage was cleared and was not let back in the game you would think that Osweiler is the starter heading into the playoffs. If Savage is really concussed Brock will definitely be the QB because the Texans can't waste valuable practice time while he goes through the NFL concussion dog and pony show. To his credit, Brock did a decent job. He didn't throw a pick in his 40 pass attempts and that really is saying something. Brock also led the Texans to all 17 of their points all in the second half after the Texans upped the tempo of their offense and stopped trying to run on 1st and 2nd down. I really believe the offensive explosion the Texans had under Tom Savage in the game when Osweiler was first benched was because O'Brien opened up the playbook and stopped trying to run the ball on predictable downs.

Houston will not get their 10th win of the season and it's only partly because of the lack of offense in the game. The defense, down Jadeveon Clowney, Brian Cushing, John Simon and others couldn't get off the field on 3rd down. For a guy who likes the Cowboys and the Texans I just couldn't fathom how or why Matt Cassel was tearing up the Texans defense. Yesterday Cassel looked like the guy who led the Patriots to an 11-5 record when Tom Brady had his ACL torn way back in 2008.

In Savage's 2nd possession in the first quarter he made the biggest impact he was going to make during the game. Unfortunately, it was to the Titans benefit. Savage, on 3rd and 9 at their own 14, was sacked by the Titans Sean Spence and recovered by Daquan Jones in the end zone for a TD and the first score of the game.

Houston will have to regroup and get ready for the Oakland Raiders next week. Since the Raiders lost to Denver and Kansas City beat San Diego KC and Oakland ended up in a tie for the AFC West division title with KC holding the tie breaker they won the division and that made the Raiders the 5th seed in the playoffs. In a way, it is a blessing for Houston to avoid having to play a hot KC team in a rematch of the Wild Card round playoff game from last season. A game that Houston lost. As it is the Texans get a good Raiders team that looked pretty average against the Broncos yesterday without MVP candidate David Carr. Houston should get a lot of players back next week bringing them up to full strength and given the Raiders liability at QB should be able to beat the them and move on to the Divisional round where things get considerably harder. If Pittsburgh beats Miami and Houston wins they would travel to New England to play the Patriots. If Miami should prevail the Dolphins would go to New England and Houston would face, you guessed it, Kansas City.

At least there weren't any significant injuries yesterday outside of Savage. With a week of rest Houston should get Lamar Miller, Jadeveon Clowney, Brian Cushing and several others back. Now the only dilemma is having to worry about whether or not Evil Brock shows up next week.

In the past week there hasn't been all that much news coming from NRG Stadium but it has been significant news.

First we learned that Brock Osweiler is the QB of the Texans going into today's game against Oakland. That was no shock considering Tom Savage had been under the NFL concussion protocol since having his bell rung in the 2nd quarter of the Texans loss to Tennessee last week. The question is will it be the good Brock or the evil twin who shows up to play today? Only time will tell but this is playoff football, Baby, and Bill O'Brien had better be more aggressive in his play calling that he's been. The Texans offensive success with either Brock or Tom Savage under center has come when O'Brien sped up the tempo and started throwing the ball on 1st down. When the Texans operate the run-run-pass-punt offense which is their basic scheme it rarely works out well for the Texans. We don't know what goes on behind closed doors of the locker room but you have to think that the guys on the #1 ranked defense in the NFL have to be saying, or thinking, WTR are you clowns doing? Three and outs and no points scored has to be frustrating for the defense as they battle their asses off and watch the offense do absolutely nothing to help them out. Houston's highest point output all season was 27 points in a win over Tennessee way back in Week 4. Houston hasn't won every game they scored at least 20 points but they have had a chance to. Houston is actually 7-1 this season when scoring 21 points or more. Their other two wins came on a 19-12 win over Kansas City in Week 2 and a 12-10 win over Cincinnati in Week 16. The only time Houston was shut out this season was the embarrassing Week 3 loss to the Patriots where the Pats third string QB led them over Houston 27-0. That was a very low point in a very young season. Brock was the guy that night and he's the guy today. Last Sunday in relief of Tom Savage the good twin showed up and passed for 240 yards with a passing TD and a rushing TD and NO PICKS. That's right, I said it, no picks. We need that Brock to show up today.

Another item was just a rumor but word on the grapevine is that this is Bill O'Brien's last season in Houston. I know, right? Why would that be? Good Ol' BO has gone 9-7 in his three seasons in Houston winning the division twice. I know the Texans got embarrassed by Kansas City in the playoffs getting shut out 31-0 in a game that was so horrendously played by QB Brian Hoyer that he not only lost his starting job, he lost his freaking job, period. So why would a coach with a winning record and two division titles lose his job? Simple, he and GM Rick Smith don't see eye to eye. Or at least that is the rumor. O'Brien knows that Smith has provided him with a terrific defense that suffered the loss of the NFL's best defensive player in JJ Watt in 2016 and still ended up with the #1 defense in football. When Watt returns next season they will be even better. Smith also provided O'Brien with offensive weapons to work with to go along with DeAndre Hopkins. He drafted Will Fuller, Braxton Miller and signed free agent RB Lamar Miller. That, along with the development of TE's CJ Fiedorwicz and Ryan Griffin and the Texans have the potential for a very explosive offense. Smith even tried to upgrade the O-line starting with drafting C Nick Martin, little brother of the Cowboys Zack Martin, out of Notre Dame but the younger Martin suffered a bad ankle injury that required surgery to repair and landed him on IR for the entire season. The Texans also struggled keeping their O-tackles heathy. Duane Brown and Derek Newton both spent time on the sidelines with injuries. Newton is on the Texans injured/reserve list and will miss the playoffs. The one place where Rick Smith has totally screwed Bill O'Brien is at QB. Smith tried to address the position but he has whiffed at every turn. Last year he signed not one, but two, QBs Brian Hoyer and Ryan Mallett and both proved to be busts. Mallett especially. He was the sexy free agent after the 2014 season and Smith paid a pretty penny to lure him to Houston. What he proved to be was an immature, petulant doo-doo head. Brian Hoyer was just inconsistent. This past offseason Smith let both Hoyer and Mallet leave and he pursued and signed Broncos QB Brock Osweiler. There was reason for optimism because Osweiler had gone 5-2 in seven starts for Denver in 2015 including a big Monday night win over New England but so far Brock has been more bust than boom. Part of the reason may be because of the bad O-line he plays behind and some of it is a disturbing lack of awareness or field vision or both that Brock has shown to have. Generally, when a head coach and a GM don't see eye to eye it's over personnel decisions. That goes back to Bill Parcell's comment that if he's going to be the chef he ought to have some say in who buys the groceries. Bill O isn't going anywhere as long as the Texans are still in the playoffs so the focus of everyone should be on the Oakland Raiders game today at NRG Stadium at 3:35 this afternoon.

As to the game itself, it's a hard call. Houston played these same Raiders in November on a Monday night in Mexico City. The Texans lost 27-20 but it was a game that Houston could have, and maybe should have, won. That was with the Raiders having their QB Derek Carr. Brock has to play better than he did that night south of the border. He still had the Texans up 20-13 in the 4th when the whole thing came crashing down. It was on the defense who allowed the Raiders to score 2 TDs in the 4th to steal the victory. The Texans had the chance to ice the game but Bill O'Brien failed to challenge a spot on a 3rd down play that would have given the Texans a 1st down and allowed them to run clock on the Raiders. He would have won that challenge as it was clearly a poor spot by the officials. On fourth down Bill opted to go for the first down and it appeared it was made but another bad spot left Houston short. O'Brien challenged that spot but the officials said it was upheld and Houston gave up the ball and eventually the lead in the game. When officials rule that the call was upheld that is shorthand speak for there was no conclusive evidence to overturn the call. If the ref had said the call was "confirmed" that meant the video evidence supported the original call. That fourth down was one of those "upheld" calls. This time around the teams are not on a neutral site outside the United States. The Texans have the Raiders at home in from of one of the loudest crowds anywhere. The Raiders are also having to start a rookie, Connor Cook late of Michigan State University, who has all of 2 quarters of NFL experience. The Texans defense, which is pretty darn healthy all things considered, should be licking their chops at this. The Raiders have a good O-line as evidenced by their sixth ranked rushing offense and 13th ranked passing offense but who knows what the loss of Carr means to the Raiders. Houston is the 8th ranked rushing offense but Lamar Miller and his 1,053 yards out distances Oakland's Latavius Murray's 788 yards. Houston's passing offense is ranked 29th and is a far cry from the Raiders but, again, the Raiders do not have Derek Carr and Connor Cook is a big unknown right now. It looks like the cards are stacked in favor of the Texans and that is what scares me. It looks too good to be true. This is a scenario where evil Brock loves to show up and crap all over everyone's birthday cake. Houston is supposed to have Lamar Miller back after his missing the final 3 games of the season with an ankle injury. If he's truly healthy he will inject life into what has been a very sickly run offense lately. If Miller runs the ball effectively evil Brock won't be able to come out as often. The offense has to stay on the field longer than they did against Oakland back in November. I really think the reason Oakland was able to come back on the Texans was the defense had just spent too much time on the field and they wore down. At least I thought so until I saw that Houston's time of possession in that game was 36:27 vs 23:33 for Oakland. That shot that theory down big time. It appears that the Texans defense just lost their mojo in the 4th quarter. Can the Raiders put up 27 points without Carr? Can the Texans offense put up more than 20 points against the Raiders defense? A lot of that depends on whether good Brock or evil Brock shows up today. So, what does that mean?

Houston 23 Oakland 16

The game went off pretty much as I figured if evil Brock didn't show his ugly mug. Not only didn't evil Brock show up and new and improved version of good Brock took the field yesterday. A Brock that did not throw an interception the whole game. Nice. He kept the ball out of the hands of the Raiders by being smart enough to throw the ball away. He didn't take a sack that he didn't have to in the game either. He threw a nice slant pass to DeAndre Hopkins for the Texans first TD and he kept the ball and ran it in for another TD. He was efficient with his passes going 14-25 for 168 yards as Houston maintained a balanced offense as Houston threw the ball 25 times and ran it 44 times for 123 yards. Lamar Miller had the bulk of the work and most of the yards as he gained 73 yards on 31 carries. I know that is not all that impressive when you figure Miller only gained an average of 2.35 YPC but it was nasty in the trenches yesterday. The Raiders may not have had Derek Carr at QB but the defense, led by Kahlil Mack, made Houston every inch of the yardage they gained.

The defense did their part and then some. They shut down the Raiders run game and held them to 64 yards total rushing. The pass defense was helped by a relentless pass rush in which Connor Cook was bashed and battered almost every time he dropped back to pass. The Texans only sacked Cook 3 times, 2 by Whitney Mercilus and one by DJ Reader, but it seemed like more. Jadeveon Clowney was a terror as he just wore the Raiders left tackle. Clowney even recorded an interception when he tipped a Cook pass up in the air and after playing volleyball with it for a few seconds he hauled the ball in and set up Houston's first touchdown. In all the Texans recorded 3 INTs on the day. One by Clowney, one by AJ Bouye and another by Corey Moore.

It was obvious that Connor Cook was in over his head. He was making his first ever NFL start and doing it in the playoffs against the #1 defense in the NFL isn't exactly the scenario you would like a young rookie get this feet wet. Cook didn't just get his feet wet, he was drowned under the tidal wave of Texans defenders. You have to give him credit, he did lead the Raiders to 2 TD's and neither of them came cheap. The Texans made the Raiders earn what they got.

The game was nothing to be ashamed of from the Raiders point of view. The Texans were just the better team. If the Brock that showed up yesterday had been the Brock that went to Mexico City in November the Texans would have ended up the season 10-6 because they would have beaten the Raiders that night too.

It's on to the divisional round next week and the road gets a whole lot tougher. Depending on who wins today's other AFC Wild Card game, Pittsburgh or Miami, Houston will either travel to New England to face the Patriots or they'll go to frigid Kansas City and play the Chiefs. If this new and improved Good Brock shows up no matter who they play the Texans will stand a punchers chance to advance to the next round.

It seems like we should be hoo-raying the Texans even though the win vs Oakland was pretty much an expected outcome. In last year’s wild card game Houston played Kansas City who shut out the Texans 30-0 in a humbling exhibition of total crap football led by the horrendous performance of Brian Hoyer who stalled drives with 5 INTs in the game killing any chance the Texans had of even looking like they were going to be able to compete with the Chiefs. That game is in the past. Brian Hoyer and three other QBs from last year are gone too. Gone is Ryan Mallet, gone is TJ Yates and gone is BJ Daniels (who?). Tom Savage missed all of last season after landing on IR for the season after he hurt his shoulder in the final preseason game against Dallas. Brandon Weeden is still on hand. For most of the 2016 season he was the 3rd string QB and mostly inactive on game days.

Now, Houston has Brock Osweiler to lead the charge. On the one hand Brock has led the team to 7 of the Texans 9 wins plus a win in the playoffs. On the other hand he has been wildly inconsistent leading to the notion that there is a “good” Brock and an “evil” Brock. The Evil Brock was tied for 4th in the NFL throwing INT’s with Eli Manning and Blake Bortles with 16. They trail only Phillip Rivers (21), Jameis Winston (18) and Ryan Fitzpatrick (17) in this category. Osweiler was benched in the Week 15 game against Jacksonville after throwing his second pick of the first half and Tom Savage came on and led the Texans to a come-from-behind victory. He led the Texans to a hard fought win against Cincinnati in Week 16 which was a huge because the Tennessee also lost in Week 16 thus clinching the division title for the Texans. Going into the Week 17 game against those same Tennessee Titans the Texans didn’t need to win but they wanted that 10th victory of the season. In the 2nd quarter of that game Tom Savage, who was named the starter by Bill O’Brien after his performance against Jacksonville, suffered a concussion on a quarterback sneak of all things. This gave Brock his second chance and has looked as if he learned a thing or two by being benched. In the 6+ quarters since he took over for Savage Brock has thrown for 2 TDs and rushed for 2 more. His combined completion percentage is 54.25 which is not where you’d want to see it, you’d like to see his comp % north of 60% but the most important stat is the zero picks in 65 pass attempts. The Texans didn’t win that 10th game of the season but they didn’t lose because Brock didn’t take care of the football. Considering what Brock has done this season I can live with 54% as long as there are no INT’s. Against the Patriots this week the Evil Brock simply cannot show up if Houston expects to win.

I heard Jon Gruden say on Mike and Mike this morning that he doesn’t think the game this week will be a blowout by the Patriots simply because the Texans defense is so good. If the Good Brock shows up I agree with Mr Gruden that the game could be much closer than most people think it will be. It won’t be easy to say the least because even though the Texans have the #1 defense in the NFL overall the Patriots lead the league in fewest points allowed this season with 250. That averages out to be just 15.6 PPG. The difference between the Texans and Patriots is pretty simple, the Pats have a better QB. However, if the Good Brock continues to show up and play a clean game, from a turnover perspective, the Texans have a fighting chance to shock the world by upsetting the Patriots in their home stadium. A guy can dream can’t he?

The Texans play the New England Patriots in about 3 hours or so. There isn't much to say that hasn't been said before. Texans #1 defense in the NFL, Patriots #1 in fewest points allowed per game. Brock Osweiler vs Tom Brady. Really, I'm going to stop here with the comparison stuff. The Brock-Brady matchup is the most important in this game. It's the main reason the Patriots are favored by the Wise Guys by 16 points. For a playoff game, that is a huge spread and it speaks volumes as what Vegas thinks of Brady AND how little they think of Brock. It's such a big spread I think I might call my guy and put some money down on Houston to cover that spread. The fact is, when Houston played the Patriots it was in Boston and evil Brock showed up and the Texans were shut out by the Pats 27 zip. The disturbing thing about that win was lousy the Patriots made Brock look and also that the Patriots rolled out their rookie 3rd string QB Jacoby Brissette because Brady was suspended and Jimmy Garoppolo was injured and they still beat the crap out of Houston. I put a lot of that loss on Brock. He was awful that night but he did have help in the form of a fumbled punt that set the Patriots up deep in Texans territory. The defense must have seen that the offense just didn't have it against the Patriots D because they looked like they were trying to get back into the game by making a spectacular play or two. The problem was they were not making the routine play. It was just a case of the Texans, despite being 2-0 at the time they were just out of their league. Fast forward 15 weeks and both teams are better than they were way back in September. The big equalizer could be Brock. Can he remain the Good Brock he's been the past game and a half or will he wilt under the cold weather in Boston Not just the cold weather but can Brock withstand the heat of the Patriots defense. He wasn't so hot in the first meeting. He needs to be better this time around. If Brock plays smart football and he doesn't turn the ball over the Texans have a chance, albeit a slim one, to win this game. And wouldn't THAT be something?!

As for the weather, it is a factor. At kickoff tonight the forecast is cold, real damn cold. Not as bone chilling cold as Kansas City last week, or Pittsburgh, but cold just the same. How cold? Well forecast temp at kickoff is 28^p F with a wind chill of 20^o. The wind will be a bit of a factor as it is out of the SSW at 10 mph.

The Texans can win but they will need to move the football and they will have to pressure Tom Brady aside form the need for Brock to play well. Simple right? Block, tackle, run, pass, catch. Do your job and everything will be okay even though you are 16 point underdogs.

I hesitate to give a prediction of the score but I have come this far so, what the hell.

Houston 23 New England 20

The Texans play the New England Patriots in about 3 hours or so. There isn't much to say that hasn't been said before. Texans #1 defense in the NFL, Patriots #1 in fewest points allowed per game. Brock Osweiler vs Tom Brady. Really, I'm going to stop here with the comparison stuff. The Brock-Brady matchup is the most important in this game. It's the main reason the Patriots are favored by the Wise Guys by 16 points. For a playoff game, that is a huge spread and it speaks volumes as what Vegas thinks of Brady AND how little they think of Brock. It's such a big spread I think I might call my guy and put some money down on Houston to cover that spread. The fact is, when Houston played the Patriots it was in Boston and evil Brock showed up and the Texans were shut out by the Pats 27 zip. The disturbing thing about that win was lousy the Patriots made Brock look and also that the Patriots rolled out their rookie 3rd string QB Jacoby Brissette because Brady was suspended and Jimmy Garoppolo was injured and they still beat the crap out of Houston. I put a lot of that loss on Brock. He was awful that night but he did have help in the form of a fumbled punt that set the Patriots up deep in Texans territory. The defense must have seen that the offense just didn't have it against the Patriots D because they looked like they were trying to get back into the game by making a spectacular play or two. The problem was they were not making the routine play. It was just a case of the Texans, despite being 2-0 at the time they were just out of their league. Fast forward 15 weeks and both teams are better than they were way back in September. The big equalizer could be Brock. Can he remain the Good Brock he's been the past game and a half or will he wilt under the cold weather in Boston Not just the cold weather but can Brock withstand the heat of the Patriots defense. He wasn't so hot in the first meeting. He needs to be better this time around. If Brock plays smart football and he doesn't turn the ball over the Texans have a chance, albeit a slim one, to win this game. And wouldn't THAT be something?!

As for the weather, it is a factor. At kickoff tonight the forecast is cold, real damn cold. Not as bone chilling cold as Kansas City last week, or Pittsburgh, but cold just the same. How cold? Well forecast temp at kickoff is 28^p F with a wind chill of 20^o. The wind will be a bit of a factor as it is out of the SSW at 10 mph.

The Texans can win but they will need to move the football and they will have to pressure Tom Brady aside form the need for Brock to play well. Simple right? Block, tackle, run, pass, catch. Do your job and everything will be okay even though you are 16 point underdogs.

I hesitate to give a prediction of the score but I have come this far so, what the hell.

Houston 23 New England 20

Sure hope you are right.

I sitting here pissed off after the Packers just beat the Cowboys. I hate Aaron Rodgers. I have renewed my hatred of the Packers as well. So what has this got to do with the Texans thread? Nothing, I just needed to vent. I'll rip the Cowboys tomorrow but right now it's time to rip the Texans.

In nobody's mind did anyone think the Texans were really going into Foxborough Massachusetts and beat the Patriots. The key matchup was, as I said, between Brady and Brock. Brady wasn't perfect but he was good enough. Brock wasn't awful but he was awful enough but the reason the game got away from the Texans wasn't Brock's fault. Down 24-13 Houston was driving the ball and they had gotten inside Patriots territory. On 3rd and 8 at the Patriots 45 Brock unleashed a perfectly thrown ball to Will Fuller. The ball flew in over the defender who was a step behind Fuller at the Texans goal line and right in the waiting arms of fuller. TD right? Fuck NO! As he has done way too many times this season Fuller dropped the damn ball forcing the Texans to punt instead of lining up for the extra point. Instead of closing the gap to a manageable 24-20 the Patriots got the ball back still with a comfortable 11 point lead. CJ Fiedorowicz dropped a couple of passes, one that would have kept a drive going. On defense on the first possession of the 2nd half by the Patriots leading by a slight 17-13 margin Brady made a bad mistake on a pass to Dion Lewis. Brady threw the ball slightly behind Lewis and one of the Texans defensive MVP candidates this season jumped the route and the ball hit him right between the 2 and the 1 on his jersey but he couldn't hang on to the ball. Houston would have been set up around the Patriots 25 with a big slug of momentum on their side. Instead the Patriots punted and the Texans did nothing with the ball despite having good field position. Ryan Griffin dropped a pass on 3rd and 4 at the NE 41 that would have kept the drive going. Now, Brock threw 3 picks in the game and 2 of them were just lousy throws but he was hardly the only one to blame for this loss. As I said, the outcome of the game comes as no surprise but to see where Houston opportunities to capitalize on Patriots mistakes and failed to do so makes the loss even more irksome to Texans fans. I think the fans are not the only ones to feel a combination of pissed, disappointed and angry at the loss knowing they could, and should, have had a real shot at winning the game if just a couple of things go differently. In an article on NFL.com NT Vince Wilfork said that last night's game was probably going to be his last inferring he was going to retire after another disappointing performance in the playoffs. At least they didn't get shutout in the their home stadium the way they did last year but it's still got to suck.

It's the freaking Patriots though and they are travelling under a charmed existence since Tom Brady became the starter of the Patriots all those years ago. Frankly, I'm going to root for them to win another Super Bowl because I would love to see Roger Goodell hand yet another SB trophy to Belichick and Brady as well as the MVP award. Wouldn't that be sweet? Goodell persecutes Brady for 18 months, spends millions of dollars on the deflate-gate fiasco, and ends up winning the right to suspend Brady the first 4 games of the 2016 season. There would be some poetic justice in that sight.

After the game the announcers addressed the rumor that Bill O'Brien was going to resign as head coach despite recording a winning record in his first 3 seasons and despite a virtual turnstile of QB's during his tenure from Matt Schaub through Brock Osweiler. What really needs to happen this off season is get JJ Watt back 100% healthy and teach Will Fuller how to catch a mother f**cking football.

I'm officially starting a rumor. In this offseason the Texans will work out a trade with the Dallas Cowboys to bring in Tony Romo to finish his career as a Texan. They work out a deal where Dallas has to foot a huge chunk of the salary Romo still has on the books from that $100+MM contract he signed a few years ago. There are two big years salary-wise left on Romo's deal but the Cowboys get a couple of draft picks and a prospect or two in exchange for Romo. Of course, this is the missing piece of the Texans puzzle as Romo wins the starting job in training camp next summer and he leads a rejuvenated offense to Super Bowl LII in 2018. All this as the Cowboys flounder under the inexperienced Dak Prescott as the mistakes that didn't bite him in the ass in 2016 rip him a new one in 2017.

I'm sorry the Texans lost and pissed off that the Cowboys lost and throw up a little in my mouth every time I think about the demise of any chance of a Texas Super Bowl falling in pieces on the ground in Foxborough and Dallas.