Houston Texans 2016 Regular Season

In an almost unbelievable occurrence JJ Watt passed a physical and was removed from the preseason PUP list and placed on the active roster. The other amazing thing is Watt is supposed to play this Sunday in Houston's season opening game against the Bears. Roughly six weeks after back surgery Watt will take the field when speculation was he was going to miss as much as the first 4 games of the season when his surgery was announced at the end of July. If Watt does play it will keep his string of never missing a game in his 5+ years as a Texan going.

 

With the final cuts made and the focus on game planning for Chicago the intensity has ramped up around the NRG training facility beginning yesterday. The players will get today off and get down to business of getting ready for those Chicago Bears tomorrow.

 

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/Shift-in-intensity-around-Texans-on-Monday/06abbf7d-4cde-47b6-b4ba-73e3ccc6821d

 

As for Watt, he started off his week last Saturday getting to celebrate his alma mater Wisconsin's win over top 5 ranked LSU. Not only that, he won a bet with former LSU alum Tyrann Mathieu. On Monday he passed his physical and will play Week 1. Not a bad start to the week for him at all.

 

JJ Watt is not the only player making his 2016 debut this week. RT Derek Newton will also be back after being activated this past weekend. Newton has missed all of training camp has been doing conditioning work recently and he feels he will be able to play the whole game Sunday. Despite that Bill O'Brien says whether or not he's on a snap count will depend on how he does in practice this week. Newton is a 6 year vet in the NFL and he's never missed a game since 2012 so he is trying to keep that string going.

 

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/Derek-Newton-ready-for-Week-1/f5b6af87-dc8f-45ba-9e37-155d9545e334

We may never know how close we came to never seeing JJ Watt play football again but it's seems to be true as Watt admitted his rehab from back surgery caused him to seriously consider retirement but it was such a painful and frustrating process. In the article linked below from ESPN.com Watt discusses his thinking that went on in his head when he was recovering from his surgery.

 

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/17487980/during-rehab-jj-watt-houston-texans-wondered-play-again

 

Will Fuller is dealing with a pulled hamstring issue but it is not bad enough to keep him out of the lineup on Sunday's opener against Chicago.

 

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/Will-Fuller-“fine”-for-Sundays-game/a5fdbf71-3d71-4178-83ca-ba99fe82bb6d

 

Here's a first look at this Sunday's game by Texans.com's Drew Dougherty.

 

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/First-Glance-Texans-vs-Bears/e7943898-e5cd-4ff8-a506-c80d7d23f7d8

To lighten the mood on the day before opening day comes this week's Deep Slant WIR (Week In Review) which includes social media items from the Texans like a tweet about a pair of YEEZY Cleats received this week and Kids Report which features a nine and ten year old boys interviewing various Texans players.

 

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/DeepSlant-WIR-Yeezy-Cleats--Precociousness/98524560-66a2-43c7-9b39-31ce26bccb97

 

Here is a preliminary injury report of the Texans and Bears. The official injury report will be released tomorrow morning. What is absolutely awesome if you are a Texans fan is the only guy who will miss this week's game is LT Duane Brown but we knew that already. Brown is continuing his rehab from the quad injury he suffered in the final game of last season. This could be the last time Houston's injury report is this short given the nature of pro football but it won't keep us from hoping that the Texans, or anyone else for that matter, suffers an injury this season. We all know that isn't going to happen but we can hope that Houston can escape the injury bug for as long as possible.

 

Texans.com has an article linked below that comes from Chicago Bears senior writer Larry Mayer who was interviewed by Texans.com's Deepi Sidhu to give fans an insight into the Bears. I have to tell you, I know what Matt Forte meant to the Bears offense for an awful long time and it's faith in that production by Forte that I actually took a chance on drafting current Bears bell cow Jeremy Langford. Langford was drafted in 2015 in the 4th round by Chicago and he got his first start in Week 8 with Matt Forte out because of injury. Langford got a total of 148 carries in 2015 and he ran for a YPC of 3.6. Not terribly impressive but he got only 3 starts and played portions of 2 others. He still rushed for 6 TDs and he, like Forte, is good out of the backfield as he caught 22 balls for 279 yards (17.9 YPC) and a TD. He had one game when he caught passes for 100+ yards. It was a leap of faith as I took Langford over CJ Anderson and Eddie Lacey. I hope to goodness that I didn't outsmart myself here given the opening day Anderson had Thursday night and the fact that Lacey has looked really good in limited action in the preseason. The reason I was willing to take a chance on Langford was because his head coach is John Fox who lead the Denver Broncos to four straight division titles and an appearance in Super Bowl XLVIII (48 for those of you who suck at Roman numerals). His teams in Denver, and before that Carolina, featured a wide open passing attack built around a strong running game. RB Ronnie Hillman had his best seasons as a pro playing for Fox.

 

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/In-The-Know-Chicago-Bears/3d6252dd-c04d-4630-9cab-9a2db949266a

 

I am really glad that JJ Watt can play tomorrow but I really hope the Texans are judicious about how the use him. He has had no playing time, or practice for that matter, in training camp so he is definitely not in game shape. Tomorrow is just the first leg of a 16 part marathon so I really think the Texans should use him sparingly, like on third downs and maybe some first downs. The Texans defense definitely showed it can live without Watt during the preseason so why chance his long term health in Week 1?

 

The Week 3 preseason game showed a lot in what we can expect from Brock Osweiler. I know he has a lot of learning to do with only 7 starts under his belt but his 5-2 record in those starts says something about him as a player. He didn't play in any chump games either as evidenced by his Week 10 matchup in Denver against the then undefeated Patriots. New England was 10-0 facing the 8-2 Broncos and Brock led them to a 30-24 overtime win over Tom Brady and the Patriots. That's something that even Peyton Manning had trouble doing in this career. The Texans team speed is off the charts, especially on offense, with several upgrades via the draft and free agency. I like Houston's team, I like Houston's chances in this game and I like....................

 

Houston 31 Chicago 17

The Texans won largely because their defense shut the Bears down in the second half of the game. The halftime score was 14-10 Chicago but that was just the Texans teasing the Bears. The defensive coaches made some adjustments and the result was Jay Cutler was battered by the relentless pressure brought be the Texans. Houston only recorded one sack in the game but they must have knocked Cutler down a dozen times. They also shut down the Bears run game holding the Bears to 73 yards rushing for the game. All this without Brian Cushing who left the game on the first defensive series with what was later learned was a torn MCL. The injury will not require surgery but it will mean Cush will miss 8-10 weeks at worse.

 

The offense was efficient with Osweiler passing for 231 yards, 2 TDs and a pick. Lamar Miller led the rushing attack with 106 yards on 28 carries as he led all rushers up to this point in the NFL. Rookie Will Fuller V led the receivers with 105 yards on 5 catches but he dropped a sure TD on a long pass from Osweiler in the first half. The ball couldn't have been placed any better as Brock continues to show he has a strong and accurate arm when he goes downfield. Fuller knew he blew a great opportunity but that was the scouting report on him when he was at Notre Dame. Fast, dynamic receiver with so-so hands. Hopefully, he gets better with time.

 

Yesterday the Texans showed what I suspected. They are a strong team with an offense that is only going to get better as Osweiler and the receiving corp get to know one another better and the talented rookies gain more NFL experience. Also, as much as the ESPN Blitz guys diss the Texans O-line they got after it yesterday paving the way for Miller's 100 yard plus day. I'm confident when Houston takes the field this season for the first time ever that they can beat anyone who lines up against them. That's how I used to feel about the Cowboys when they were actually good. I am loving it because Houston is long overdue for a team like this.

 

 

UPDATE:

A couple of days after a very satisfying win over Chicago to do what they have not been able to do in a while---win in September. The last couple of years the Texans have started by stinking up the place the first month of the season so a Week 1 win is new territory for Texans fans. Pleasant territory to be sure. The first game by Brock Osweiler was good as he threw for about 230 yards and a couple of TD's which could have been closer to 290 yards and 3 TD's if Will Fuller hadn't dropped a perfect pass that hit him right in the hands which would have made the Texans looked as dominant as they really were. The defense gave up 14 points in the first half but they shut down Jay Cutler and the Bears offense almost completely. Enough that they didn't score a point in the second half. Cutler was only sacked once in the game by John Simon but he was pummeled almost every time he went back to pass. The Bears didn't run the ball either as they held the Bears to under 75 total rushing yards. Bad ass defense and an efficient offense which is what we figured going in and the offense is only going to get better as they play more games together. They are certainly not as good right now as they are going to be by December. Until last night when Pittsburgh's DeAngelo Williams ran for 143 yards there wasn't a 100 yard rusher in the NFL except for Lamar Miller. Nice going offense when you run up a total of 359 yards including 128 yards rushing. The one stat you want to see improve is red zone efficiency. Houston was 1 of 3 scoring TD's in the red zone but you have to like their 60% 3rd down conversion rate. There is just so much positive to be gained from this game you have to like this team's chances of being a dominating team down the stretch.

 

In the link below Texans.com beat writer/analyst John Harris give his 4,139 observations from Sunday's game. I like to make jokes about Harris' observations because most article feature 10 take aways from the past game or 5 things I noticed in practice yesterday. Harris is different. He is obviously ADD and his mind just works non-stop but it's okay because he generally has some good information to share.

 

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/28-observations-from-Texans-vs-Bears/1492c4fb-6482-47a6-81ec-0fb8fe153cbd

The Texans owe the Chiefs a little payback. Even for last year they owe them because the Chiefs came into NRG Stadium in Week 1 and beat the Texans 27-20 and Brian Hoyer lost his job to Ryan Mallet in the space of 2-1/2 quarters. The Chiefs weren't devastating on offense but they capitalized on Houston turnovers to spoil opening day for the Texans and their fans. To make matters worse Houston overcame a dreadful start to the season finishing with a 7-2 record in their last nine games to win the AFC South and host a playoff game. Trouble was the Chiefs were the ones coming back to NRG and they again capitalized on Houston turnovers, 5 by Brian Hoyer alone, as the Chiefs demolished Houston 30-0. So, yeah, the Texans would like to get a little revenge for that game in particular I'm sure. The defense are the ones who are mostly involved in that payback mentality. Why? Because most of the offense wasn't even here last season. Since that fateful day this past January we have a new quarterback, 2 new running backs and 3 of the top 4 WRs are new. Maybe revenge isn't the prime mover for Houston this week after all. Maybe they just want to build on the opening day win they got against the Bears. I would have a great deal of trouble believing that Houston would give up a 17 point 4th quarter lead and lose in overtime the way the Chargers did against KC last week. It was the biggest comeback in Chiefs history going all the way back to their first year of existence as the Dallas Texans in the old AFL. That would be 56 years of history that KC bucked last week when they completed the comeback with a 33-27 win over the Chargers in overtime. Houston's defense is just too good for something like that to happen. Houston's offense is better than it was last year. They have added beaucoups of speed and QB who doesn't appear to be prone to make stupid mistakes. Make no mistake, this a good football team who is not suffering any significant injuries (knocking on wood) at the moment. The only guy not playing for Houston right now is Duane Brown and, in Week 1 anyway, veteran Chris Clark is doing pretty well thank you. KC is without their best pass rusher in Justin Houston who is recovering from a torn ACL. He is slated to miss the first six weeks of the season but all we care about is this week and he is out. The Chiefs will likely be without RB Jamaal Charles who is rehabbing from yet another knee injury. You have to admire Charles' tenacity as he has had horrendous luck where his knees are concerned and he just keeps coming back. I think I speak for everyone when I say you go, Jamaal, we're rooting for you!

 

After looking like a sure enough bust when he had injury plagued and subpar years leading up to last season Whitney Mercilus has gotten healthy and he has found a place in Houston's defense. He came on strong in the second half of last season when a light seemed to go on in his head and he started playing like a true beast. That beastliness carried over into Week 1 where he had four tackles, 2 sacks, 2 tackles for a loss among his other impacts in the game against Chicago. For his effort Mercilus was awarded Defensive Player of the Week in the AFC. Nice job Whit!

 

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/Mercilus-named-AFC-Defensive-Player-of-the-Week/8ec98d7d-378d-4158-a7f9-89b5e45a0fbe

 

JJ Watt wasn't a major factor in last week's win but it was his first action in a game since last season since he missed all of training camp and preseason games recovering from back surgery in late July. The fact he was even able to play was amazing. When I say he wasn't a major factor I just mean he wasn't his usual amazing self. He still was good against the run and he was a part of a front 4 or 5 who harassed Jay Cutler mercilessly as the defense pitched a second half shutout of the Bears offense. In this article from Texans.com JJ talks about how much better he's feeling going into Week 2.

 

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/JJ-Watt-feeling-stronger-with-each-practice-rep/c75c0e08-b445-46a8-8980-e007c390d5eb

 

The O-line was seen as a liability coming into the season. If you listen to The Blitz on ESPN radio 97.5 out of Houston the guys on that show would have you believe the line was the worst ever in the known universe. Frankly, and I said in another post, when The Blitz guys came down so hard on the Texans line I knew they'd be okay. In Week 1 against the Bears the line paved the way for the only 100+ yard rusher in the NFL on Sunday. Lamar Miller was lapped by Pittsburgh's DeAngelo Williams on Monday night but Williams and Miller were the only 100 yard rushers in Week 1. Brock Osweiler was pretty clean in the pocket as well. He threw for 231 yards with 2 TDs and one pick. He was only sacked twice compared to Jay Cutler who was sacked 5 times. The line did their job and in this article from Texans.com linked below new Texans guard Jeff Allen will get to go against his old team on Sunday.

 

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/Jeff-Allen-to-face-former-teammates-in-Chiefs/ed88d0f3-ce86-4aa9-ae68-e02ffd86e569

 

Brock Osweiler wasn't a member of the Texans team last year that lost to KC twice but it's not like he's not familiar with the Chiefs. As a member of the Denver Bronco the past 4 seasons Osweiler saw the Chiefs twice a year and last year when he had to come in for an injured Peyton Manning in the 3rd quarter of a game with Chiefs for his first action in 2015. The Broncos lost the game but it was just his first live action of the year and he went 5-2 as a starter for Denver after that and he was a big part of their march to the Super Bowl. Here's an article about Osweiler from Texans.com with a video featuring an interview with Osweiler from yesterday.

 

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/Brock-Osweiler-ready-for-rematch-with-KC/4d4e1277-b546-4337-a0b3-749f3c244dbf

The Texans know for sure that MLB Brian Cushing will be out with an MCL sprain and LT Duane Brown is out rehabbing after quad surgery this past February. The injury report from Friday listed RT Derek Newton and G Jeff Allen as questionable with Newton not participating in practice Friday. If I had a guess I'd say Allen plays as will JJ Watt who is also listed as questionable. For the status of the offensive line to be in question is not good considering how well the unit played last Sunday. The fact is as much as I respect the Chiefs I don't see Houston's defense being victimized the way San Diego's defense was exposed in the 4th quarter of last week's game so the difference in the game, IMO is how well Houston is able to execute their offense. The line did well last week against Chicago so possibly being without 2/5 of the line is a big gap to fill. The thing is Houston didn't have Newton for most of the preseason and if Allen was limit but practiced Friday I expect him to play but even if he doesn't Oday Aboushi did a decent job in the preseason and I saw some good play out of 2nd year tackle Kendall Lamm as well. I think this is a different Texans team that Kansas City abused twice last season. The Chiefs won't have pass rusher Justin Houston and LB Tamba Hali didn't practice Friday which weakens the Chiefs defense a lot. I just feel like Houston has the better team and will win the game. Add the fact that Houston is at home and NRG Stadium is as loud is becoming as tough a place to play as the Chiefs home stadium. Advantage Houston. I also think the overall talent on offense is better than KC's offense so, advantage Houston. I may be just prejudiced but I just think the Texans at home are better than Kansas City. So what does that really mean? It means...................................

Houston 27 Kansas City 17

Houston went toe-to-toe with a pretty good Kansas City Chiefs team and came away with win. The Texans were punched in the mouth and bloodied some but they did what I expected and just beat the Chiefs with their physical defense and timely offense. The Texans weren't perfect and they squandered some chances but in the end they did what they needed to do to go 2-0 on the season and they also have the longest current regular season win streak in the NFL. Dating back to last season they have won 5 in a row. They will be put to the test this Thursday night when they host the 2-0 New England Patriots who lost Jimmy Garappolo to a shoulder injury yesterday against Miami. Houston gets the Pats at just the right time to take advantage of their misfortune and beat them at home which is a tough place to win a game if you're not the Patriots. Houston (knock on wood) have not suffered any significant injuries outside of Brian Cushing and the Patriots are fairly healthy too except at TE and QB. Rob Gronkowski has been out the first two games recovering from a hamstring pull in preseason. He was questionable going into the Miami game and it's doubtful he will recover in just 3 days for Thursday's game. The QB situation has been in question since Tom Brady lost his appeal of the ridiculous deflate-gate suspension but Jimmy Garappolo had been more than good enough for 6 quarters until he hurt his shoulder and was out for the rest of the game and he will miss the next 1-2 weeks which is when Brady returns. I'm sure the Patriots would have been happy to go 2-2 during Brady's absence but now that they are 2-0 I'm sure the expectations have gone up some. The Pats will have to rely on rookie Jacoby Brissett out of North Carolina State to carry the Patriots torch the next 2 weeks beginning Thursday night against Houston. As for the Texans, they did a great job overall. On offense Brock Osweiler passed for 268 and a TD but he did have 2 picks in the game. Lamar Miller racked up 83 yards on 25 carries and Houston had two receivers go over 100 yards for the game. DeAndre Hopkins had 113 yards on 7 catches while Will Fuller had 4 grabs for 104 yards. On defense the Texans pretty much harassed the dickens out of Alex Smith recording 4 sacks including JJ Watt's first sack of the year plus a half sack he shared with John Simon who is turning into a beast at linebacker. The Chiefs were able to run the ball some and they had some success in the passing game but when push came to shove Houston got off the field by winning a lot of 3rd downs. Nice win but there won't be any time to sit back and enjoy it because the Texans have two days of practice before having to travel to Boston.

This week has all kinds of storylines.

1) Bill O'Brien was an assistant coach for the Patriots from 2007 to 2011 and he was on both Super Bowl losing teams to the New York (luckier than they deserve to be) Giants. In 2011 he was the offensive coordinator for the Patriots.

2) Brock Osweiler has a history playing against the Patriots including a start against New England when he was with Denver with home field advantage riding on the game last season. The Broncos won that day in overtime snapping the 10-0 Patriots winning streak in Week 12. Osweiler was back on the bench when Denver beat NE in the AFC Championship game in January.

3) Texans nose tackle Vince Wilfork was the nose tackle for the Pats from 2004 to 2014 winning two Super Bowls with them in his first and last years with the team. Wilfork came to Houston in 2015 and he's on a team once again that should challenge for a championship. Coming to Houston reunited Wilfork with Bill O'Brien who was with the Patriots for 5 years of Wilfork's career.

4) Mike Vrabel the Texans linebacker's coach was himself a linebacker with the Patriots from 2001 through 2008. He was on the Patriots teams that won 3 Super Bowls in 4 years when NE won in 2001, 2003 and 2004. In 2014 Vrabel was reunited with both Bill O'Brien and Vince Wilfork when he became the LB coach of the Texans.

 

There are plenty of storylines for all week, especially considering it's a short week with the Texans and Patriots playing on Thursday night.

 

JJ Watt had a nice game Sunday against the Bears but he says he's not all the way back from his back surgery in late July. He's getting there however and this defense, while it wasn't perfect against the Bears, is a beast none-the-less. Jadeveon Clowney his finally healthy for the first time in his pro career and there are emerging stars on a very deep defense. Guys like John Simon and Whitney Mercilus. You've also go DB's coming into their own like Kevin Johnson and Andre Hal. The O-line is better than people thought and the addition of guys like Will Fuller and Lamar Miller and others have added a speed dimension the Texans haven't had in the past. Seriously, the Texans could actually have home field advantage for the first time in the Super Bowl era when Houston hosts Super Bowl LI next February. This team is that good. Brock Osweiler hasn't disappointed yet and the good thing about him is he isn't afraid to sling the ball downfield. When he checks down it's because it was a designed play or there just wasn't else anyone open. Here's a story about JJ Watt and the defense from Texans.com.

 

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/JJ-Watt-defense-building-something-special/85d634a9-24ad-4b67-84e9-9d6a05a7b48c

 

As one of those storylines I mentioned before here's an article about the two Bill's mutual admiration society from Texans.com.

 

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/Bill-OBrien-Bill-Belichick-share-mutual-admiration/fbce2171-a8db-46bd-8d23-c63623e90a8b

Texans, Foxborough. Tonight. The Texans are actually a 1 point favorite in this game and you can see why. The Patriots are starting a rookie QB who, just a week ago was the third stringer behind Jimmy Garoppolo and the specter of Tom Brady. Garoppolo is hurt and Brady is still suspended so it's up to the young man from NC State to come through. There are reports that Rob Gronkowski could play but just how effective can he be missing most of training camp and the first two weeks of the regular season?

Houston is listing 3 players as out because of injury this week. One, LT Duane Brown has been out as he's still rehabbing from surgery on his quad muscle way back in January. The other two are more recent. Brian Cushing has been out since he tore his MCL in the first quarter of Week 1 against the Bears. Braxton Miller will also miss due to a pulled hamstring in Houston's Week 2 game with Kansas City. From an injury standpoint--advantage Houston.

Who knows how well Brissett will do in his first NFL start on a Thursday night national TV broadcast. On the other side of the field you have Brock Osweiler who has learned his craft under Peyton Manning and he's made 9 starts in the NFL in some very big games and his team won most of them. Advantage Houston.

The Texans have a top five defense that is only getting stronger as Jadeveon Clowney and JJ Watt get better and better as the games roll on. The Patriots defense is middle of the pack good. Advantage Houston.

The Texans have Nick Novak who has been money so far for Houston while NE counters with Stephen Gostkowski one the best kickers in the league for several years now. Advantage New England.

The Patriots are at home in Foxborough where they are very, very difficult beat. Advantage New England.

 

The bottom line is Houston has a better team right now than the Patriots because of injuries. Houston is a road favorite in a place where the road team is almost never the favorite. Houston should take care of business against the Patriots simply because they are the better team. It is another branch in the learning tree of Brock Osweiler. This game may be a totally different story if Tom Brady was playing but he's not thanks to our friendly neighborhood NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. Houston needs to take advantage of this situation and beat the New England Patriots while they are undermanned. So, what do I think is going to happen?

 

 

Houston 31 New England 21

Boy, was it ever a bad night for Houston sports. First the Astros fall to the Angels at home and pretty much at the same time the Texans were kicked in the groin and beaten up and bullied by the New England Patriots. Houston lost all five phases of the game last night, offense, defense, special teams, turnovers and coaching. What was really the key to Houston's loss was the fact Bill Belichick and his staff outcoached the hell out of Bill O'Brien and his staff and turning the ball over a total of 3 times didn't help. The two that really hurt both came on special teams when, after one Patriot score Charles James III fumbled the ensuing kickoff and Tyler Ervin fumbled on another Patriots kickoff. Both turnovers led to Patriot scores. The first fumble resulted in a Patriots TD on Jacoby Brissett's 2 yard TD run on the second play after the fumble. It was Brissett's first TD as a pro on a read option play that Houston was totally fooled on. The second resulted in a 6 play 21 yard drive ended by a LeGarrette Blount TD run. Houston only crossed into Patriots territory once last night as the Pats defense just stymied the Texans at every turn and despite being able to make a first down or two every drive eventually stalled resulting in a punt. Only twice in the game this did not happen. Once when Osweiler tried to force a pass down the middle which was intercepted and the other was failed 4th down at the end of the game. The 27-0 beating by the Patriots over a good Texans team just cements the status of Bill Belichick being the best coach in the NFL right now and maybe in NFL history.

Bill O'Brien said it best, it's only one game and when they get back to Houston they will begin working on Week 4 opponent Tennessee Titans on October 2nd. There is, indeed, a long way to go.

Brock Osweiler said he accepts full responsibility for not getting more out of his offense last night. Osweiler could have done better but the Patriots took away the Texans run game and the Pats took advantage of Houston's offensive line. Most of the night New England only rushed 4 guys and dropped 7 in coverage and they were able to pressure Osweiler and cover the Texans receivers down the field. The front 7 for NE stuffed the run limiting Houston to a total of 109 yards rushing, 80 by Lamar Miller on 21 carries and they prevented the Texans from completing any shots down the field. The defense wasn't any better and that certainly wasn't Osweiler's fault. Osweiler didn't allow the Pats a total of 195 yard rushing, 105 and two TDs to LeGarrette Blount and 48 yard and a TD to Brissett all the while knowing Brissett wasn't going to kill them with the passing game. A point of fact is Brissett was just threw for 103 yards on 11 completions in 19 attempts. Turnovers and great coaching was the difference in this game. The coaches will get to work today but the players will likely get a day or two to mull over how they were embarrassed on national TV in Boston last night. One thing for sure, the Texans defense needs to go to tackling school because they sucked at tackling last night. That is something that, despite some good defense in the first two games, Houston has been struggling with. They had better think of something because the next game is a division game against an opponent who likes to run the ball. The Titans will be saddling up DeMarco Murray and Derrick Henry and riding them into Houston in 11 days. Yep, a lousy night for Houston sports.

So what are you going to do, throw in the towel on the whole dad-burned season because you got embarrassed on Thursday night? Of course not. The Texans are 2-1 on the season 1/2 game ahead of 2nd place Tennessee who travels to Oakland this week which means there's a good possibility Houston will still own a 1 game lead in the division by Sunday evening and then Houston plays Tennessee in Houston the following week. This after getting an extra 3 days of rest after playing on Thursday night. Baltimore travels to Jacksonville and as good as the talent is in Jacksonville they can't seem to find a winning formula and even though the Ravens have done much offensively they keep winning. Indianapolis host the Chargers and the Chargers have been pretty good through 2 games. What my point is Houston, by the end of the weekend could be a game up on Tennessee and 2 games up on the rest of the division. That's a darn sight better than what we've been seeing out of the Texans in recent years. For two years running Houston has stunk it up through the first half of the season but they have come back strong to look good down the stretch. They just missed a Wild Card spot going 9-7 in 2014 and they won the division with that same 9-7 record despite going 2-6 in their first 8 games. Having a winning record in September hasn't been seen in these parts in a while so we all, as fans, need to lighten up and realize things are not all that bad. Seriously. This team is too good to just give up on after 3 games when there is so much more ahead. I know going up to Foxborugh and getting their asses handed to them by a rookie QB who probably only knew 5 plays on the way to a 27-0 ass whoopin' is embarrassing but it still only counts as one loss. Getting shutout and allowing the Patriots 27 points doesn't mean you have extra losses tacked on. It's just one game and I sort of pity the Titans because the Texans will have almost two weeks to think about what happened to them on Thursday night. It could get ugly for Tennessee.

 

Texans.com's John Harris gives us his multitude of observations from the "Failure in Foxborough", "Boston's Massacre", "New England Smack-down"----you get the point.

 

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/18-observations-from-Texans-at-Patriots/ade54830-90cb-46fe-a6be-0cfa106c9c27

 

Yesterday Bill O'Brien gave injury updates primarily concerning starting All Pro left tackle Duane Brown and rookie WR Braxton Miller.

 

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/The-latest-on-Duane-Browns-return-Braxton-Miller/a56658d3-df72-4caa-8858-403cba1ad7c7

Well, just the worst news ever. It is being reported that JJ Watt is going to miss significant time this season because he injured his back. They are saying he injured it in the Patriots game last Thursday but he had not been playing like he old self since day one of the season. Neither the Texans nor anyone else is saying for sure that Watt's back is injured at the same disc he had surgery on back in late July but it would appear to be likely that's exactly what happened. Anything about the exact nature of his injury is only speculation at this point as Watt and the Texans are trying to find out what part of his back is hurt and to what extent. The only thing people know for sure is that he will miss significant time, maybe to the point of missing the entire remainder of the year. The Texans are reported as intending to put Watt on IR today. With the new IR rules Watt could come back but only after 8 weeks which means the very earliest Watt could play again this season is Week 12. Right now, the media is speculating that Watt returned from his back surgery too soon and re-aggravated the disc area where the surgery was performed but, as I said, there is no confirmation over what is giving Watt issues with his back.

 

The world and time stops for no one and the Texans have a game this week. It's a pretty big game at that. Houston is coming off a real old fashioned whooping by the New England Patriots and they are having to digest the news that their best defensive player will be lost for a minimum of 8 weeks to a maximum of the rest of the season. Oh yeah, they play their first division game on Sunday with the Tennessee Titans coming to town. The Titans are a bit of a sad sack team but they have a new coach in Mike Mularky who became interim head coach during the 2015 season after Ken Whisenhunt was fired for going 3-20 in his year and half as head coach. This is Mularky's first full season as the Titans coach and he's already put his stamp on the team personnel wise. The Titans are 1-2 on the season but they are tied for 2nd place in the AFC South with Indianapolis and they are just one game behind the Texans who lead the division with a 2-1 record. Here's an article from Texans.com called 'No Your Foe' which gives a breakdown of the Titans team.

 

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/Know-Your-Foe-Tennessee-Titans/387ea0fc-be0b-4bd0-b234-232b115147ca

 

On the flip side of the personnel issue LT Duane Brown who has been rehabbing his surgically repaired quad muscle he injured in the Texans final regular season game of 2015 against Jacksonville was back at practice on Monday for the first time since his injury. The return of Brown should help solidify the O-line but it's not like he backup Chris Clark was terrible. This just makes the Texans line deeper with a proven backup at swing tackle. I would imagine that Brown will need time to work his way back into playing shape so I wouldn't be surprised if he's on a snap count IF he plays this coming Sunday. Without benefit of OTA's or training camp Brown will have a lot of catching up to do and I can't imagine he is ready for 40 or 50 snaps in a live game. Also, I'm sure considering the bad news about JJ Watt the Texans will not be in a hurry to rush Brown back onto the field.

 

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/Breakfast-Are-you-there-yet/5594c2eb-0312-4b41-91e9-47110b3a97da

We still don't know what is wrong with JJ Watt's back or if he will need surgery but one thing everyone knows right now is Watt is on IR and under the new IR rules this year Watt could play again but it will be 9 weeks from now minimum. That's a big blow to lose your best defensive player for most, maybe all, of the 2016 season. Sonofabitch, sonofabitch, sonofabitch! This sucks for Watt, it sucks for the Texans and it sucks for fans who appreciate just how good Watt is.

 

The Texans did get some good news yesterday as Brian Cushing was back at practice for the first time since he hurt his knee in Week 1 against Chicago. There's just a possibility he will play this Sunday against Tennessee but it's good to have him back on the practice field.

 

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/Brian-Cushing-back-at-practice/3c65e76d-af75-4a16-acee-0d8ba21d0262

 

So, who is going to replace Watt on the D-line. The answer is former Texans DE Antonio Brown. Brown began his career with the Arizona Cardinals in 2004 and he was part of the team behind Kurt Warner to go to the Super Bowl in 2008. Houston signed Brown as a free agent in 2009 and he spent 5 seasons with the Texans. He went to Oakland as a free agent in 2014 and then on to Denver last season when he finally won a Super Bowl with the Broncos. After SB 50 Smith retired but he has been feeling he made a mistake walking away from the game when Houston called his agent. Smith signed with Houston after a workout on Tuesday and he's happy to back in an NFL uniform. After 12 years I the NFL the fire still burns.

 

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/Antonio-Smith-on-new-role-and-returning-home/cd04dca5-419e-48c0-ab63-7efff426c420

 

They were talking on Mike and Mike this morning about JJ Watt and somebody turned the conversation toward Brock Osweiler. There was someone who said that Osweiler was overpaid and if he was all that great Denver would have resigned him. Someone else pointed out that Denver did offer him a $16 MM a year deal but he got more money from Houston. Point: Osweiler has 4 turnovers in 3 games while virtually all the rookie and 1st time starters don't have any. Counterpoint: Osweiler is in a new system with almost every starting player on offense is new to the Texans. Also, Osweiler is confident and unafraid to push the ball up the field. He should get better with good coaching. The main point is with the Texans defense losing its best player there will be more pressure on Osweiler to perform at a high level. Osweiler has looked good at times and his accuracy, especially on deep balls is awesome so I'm not currently worried about him right now. What I am worried about is Houston finding gloves with enough stick 'em on them so Will Fuller will stop dropping passes.

 

Here's the Texans injury report from yesterday which includes the list of Tennessee players on the report.

 

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/Wednesday-Injury-Report-Texans-vs-Titans/8845f368-51f9-4ca9-927f-75a12564c966

The worst case scenario for the Texans' JJ Watt has come to pass. I can't find any info on whether he reinjured the same disc that he had surgery on back in late July or if it is a different injury. All that is being reported in Watt had surgery yesterday to repair the latest injury and he will be done for the 2016 season.

Adversity sucks.

Your attitude towards it doesn't have to.

I will be back. pic.twitter.com/56lhtHYs7r

September 28, 2016

The response from Watt came after he was placed on IR earlier in the week. I would really be curious to know if Watt suffered this injury because he returned too soon after his surgery. The original prognosis for his return to action was 8-10 weeks which would have put him coming back around Week 5. It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that I'd rather be without Watt for 4 weeks and get him back for the rest of the season including the playoffs rather than have him for 3 and then out the rest of the year. Did JJ push himself back into the lineup too soon or should the Texans have exercised more caution with Watt? The answer is probably both. I also think, since Watt missed all of training camp, he should have been on a snap count since beginning with Week 1 that was he time to work his way back into playing shape. Slowly work JJ into the mix until Week 5 against the Vikings when he should have been full go. The equivalent to 4 preseason games because, for JJ, that is exactly what they would be. The Texans didn't do that. Watt played almost a full compliment of snaps from day one which really wasn't what needed to happen. There is blame for both Watt and the Texans but I put most of the blame on Houston because they didn't exercise enough caution in working him back into the swing of things. Everyone thinks JJ is Superman but he isn't. He tore his body apart, literally, last season and his offseason rehab of completely tearing core muscles away from the bone made Watt consider retiring because the rehab was so grueling. He's flesh and bone and heart and in this case the heart was bigger than his body could support. It should have been on the Texans to see that and throttle Watt down several notches but they didn't and now they are without their best player for the whole season. Kids, thank Mr O'Brien for not looking out for Mr Watt like he should have. Thank you Mr O'Brien. Great, now kids, go outside and lift a car or something.

 

Speaking of Bill O'Brien, he is going to make a change to try to light a spark under the offense which has been points challenged so far this season by taking over the play calling on offense. Being shutout by the Patriots last week didn't help their points per game average but if you look at Weeks 1 and 2 they only scored 23 and 19 points respectively. After two games their PPG average was just 21 points. That's not terrible and it won them two games but a guy like O'Brien who comes from New England expects to score 30 per game. The shutout in New England dropped their PPG to 14 which is not good at all. The current NFL philosophy is if you hold the opposing team to 17 points or less you will win most of your games. O'Brien was an offensive coach with New England ending his tenure there to go on to be the head coach of Penn State he was the offensive coordinator on a team that went to the Super Bowl. O'Brien, with the new weapons they acquired in the offseason, expects the offense to be more explosive than it's been. I think the perception is that Brock Osweiler should be more dynamic than he's been. Especially in light of all the rookies and 1st time starters in the NFL that have been wildly successful so far. Even the guy who was behind Osweiler at Denver last year, Trevor Siemian, is playing so well that he's got people in Denver saying, "Peyton who?". I just think Bill feels he needs to be more hands on with the offense especially after the Patriots put a foot in the Texans ass last week. Shutouts are not fun for the team who is shut out. Brock Osweiler has had his struggles too as he's thrown 3 TDs but also 4 INTs. Unfortunately, Bill can't do much about a receiver like Will Fuller who drops as many balls as he catches. Fuller has dropped one for sure and maybe two potential TD passes not to mention several 1st down catches that never happened that would have kept the chains moving instead of having to trot out the punter. Fuller isn't the point. O'Brien taking over the play calling is a clear indication he doesn't like the direction the team is going in offensively and he's going to do all he can to right the ship for the Texans.

 

There is a game this week and from Texans.com comes an article giving insight into the heart of what makes the Tennessee Titans tick from Titans.com beat writer Jim Wyatt in an interview with Texans.com writer Deepi Sidhu.

 

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/In-The-Know-Tennessee-Titans/87c4274c-6a3f-4c04-8c47-5739c6001078

 

Texans.com's Drew Dougherty gives a "First Glance" at the Texans-Titans game by listing 5 things to look for this Sunday.

 

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/First-Glance-Texans-vs-Titans/250836de-07d1-4662-80c5-dc9d141fee09

Duane Brown is officially out tomorrow. I believe the Texans want to give the All Pro left tackle an extra week to work back into the mix. I really believe Brown will be back in Week 5 barring a setback next week. The Texans could be getting LB Brian Cushing tomorrow. He is officially listed as questionable so we'll see but if it were me I would give him an extra week to practice. Houston should beat the Titans and after what happened to JJ Watt I would really err on the side of caution here.

 

The fact is the offense has under performed so far given the weapons they have. They really stunk in New England last Thursday and that's probably why Bill O'Brien has decided to take over play calling on offense from OC George Godsey. O'Brien just needed to shake things up a little bit. He tried to cover Godsey's pride a little bit by downplaying the move by saying that nothing has changed because he makes calls in every phase of the team all the time. It's been correctly pointed out that if nothing has changed then why announce he will be calling plays? It's pretty clear that O'Brien is trying to save a little face for Godsey.

 

It's a division game, the first of the season so it's important and there could be some separation gained this week because Indianapolis and Jacksonville are going at it in London that will begin around 9 AM tomorrow morning. The Colts have been not so impressive so far and they are missing some players this week due to injury including Donte Moncrief who is out with a bad shoulder. If Jacksonville wins and Houston takes care of Tennessee they will have opened up a 2 game lead in the division early in the season. The thing you'd expect is that after getting embarrassed and shutout by New England plus the extra four days to think about it and prepare for Tennessee the Texans will come out pissed off and hungry to prove the debacle in Foxborough was a fluke and not even what the Texans are as a team. Tennessee is better than in recent years but they really haven't looked good enough to go on the road and beat a team as good as the Texans. So what does that mean.............................................

 

Houston 27 Tennessee 13

The best thing other than a Texans victory was me getting the Texans score right in my prediction. When the game was still in the 1st quarter it looked like Houston was going to run off and hide from the Titans as they had built up a 14-3 lead which got extended to 17-3 early in the 2nd quarter. Tennessee made some adjustments in their defense, mainly they started bringing pressure on Brock Osweiler and it had the effect on him the Titans wanted. Osweiler's accuracy went down a few notches and his decision making in the passes he threw was also not up to snuff. The Titans whipped off 14 unanswered points to tie the game but Houston got the ball back late in the 2nd quarter and they got a field goal to end the half to take a 20-17 lead into the locker room. Houston got a TD from Will Fuller on a punt return for a TD in the 3rd quarter which made the score 27 to 17 at the time. The game turned into a defensive struggle in the second half with the only scoring that took place was Fuller's punt return and a field goal by the Titans. The Texans defense stepped up and just stuffed the Titans in the fourth quarter as the Texans demonstrated they could be dominant without JJ Watt. AJ Bouye made some terrific plays in coverage and the Texans front stuffed the running game in the second half. Will Fuller also made some nice plays on the day. He was the leading receiver for Houston nabbing 7 catches for 81 yards and a TD. For the day Osweiler threw for 254 yards and 2 TDs but he also threw two picks. Both picks were his fault because they were either bad throws or bad decisions. The pick that was a bad throw Osweiler could have gotten more help from the receiver, DeAndre Hopkins, as the defender out wrestled him for the ball. Still, it was on Osweiler and he has got to find a way to take better card of the ball. He's got 6 picks in 4 games with only 5 TDs and that is not a ratio you want from your QB. A win is a win as they say and Houston has a two game lead in the AFC South after Jacksonville knocked off Indianapolis in London earlier in the day. Houston is 3-1 with rest of the division sitting at 1-3. I'm not going to bitch about a win and I am not going to attach style points to a win. I'm happy Houston won period. We can enjoy this win today and tomorrow we fans and the Texans will need to start getting ready for the Minnesota Vikings. The 4-0 Vikings. In Minnesota. Next Sunday is coming fast but Houston has the right to enjoy this win.

 

To make this win even sweeter is the fact the Patriots, who shut out the Texans 11 days ago in New England got shut out themselves yesterday by a score of 16-0. It's a pretty rare thing for the Patriots to lose at home and it may have been years since Buffalo did it. But, somehow Buffalo did figure out a way to win and it was pretty much due to the same things that derailed the Texans last week. Turnovers killed the Pats and Jacoby Brissett, who started the game, didn't have the same magic he had against Houston. Besides turnovers the Bills just played good defense shutting down the Patriots run game and limiting their passes to just short yardage. AFC fans had better enjoy this loss because at 12:01 this morning you may have heard the Darth Vader theme music from Star Wars playing. Lord Brady is finished with his 4 game suspension and he will be looking to wreak havoc on the NFL empire beginning with Cleveland this Sunday. I sort of feel sorry for Cleveland as they have played 4 very winnable games so far, they just couldn't seem to get over the hump. This week I wouldn't give you a plug nickel for the Browns chances even with them at home. New England is going to roll into Cleveland in their Death Star and obliterate the resistance the way the Empire forced rolled over the rebels on the ice planet of Hoth.

It is looking like LT Duane Brown may be back for the Texans when they travel up to Minnesota to play the Vikings this week. That's a good thing for the Texans but it is probably something that needs to be tempered with some caution. The Texans didn't exercise that type of caution when JJ Watt came back early from back surgery in late July and he reinjured his back in Week 3 against New England and he's lost for the season after having a 2nd back surgery in 2 months. Brian Cushing came back last week after missing two games because of a partially torn meniscus in his knee and he played 48 snaps in the game against Tennessee. That would be 73% of the defensive snaps in the game. I would expect Brown would be on a leash like that with maybe a little lighter load since Brown has been out since Week 17 of last season when he injured his quad. No OTA's, no mini camps and no training camp. I would think Brown should be limited to 25 snaps. I realize he's a veteran but everyone needs practice and unfortunately regular season games are going to be his "preseason".

 

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/LT-Duane-Brown-trending-toward-return-vs-MIN/60adf7b2-11e6-4fa2-b182-dec2ce14b8c4

 

TE CJ Fedierowicz was awarded a game ball by Bill O'Brien for his play against Tennessee. CJ had 4 catches for 48 yards and a TD before he was injured late in the 1st half. Even though he appeared to be in a lot of pain at the time of his injury he did later come back an play more snaps in the game although he didn't have another catch.

 

AJ Bouye has carved out a niche for himself as a guy would can cover a TE in the NFL. Here's a story from Texans.com about his new found specialty.

 

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/Breakfast-AJ-Bouyes-special-skill/dc7ae984-4869-4806-b8a4-eaff08358887

 

Here is the multiple observations from Texans analyst John Harris from the Texans win on Sunday.

 

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/26-observations-from-Texans-vs-Titans/06b9c78b-afda-4def-a129-87ad91e95b2e

Houston is in Minnesota and I have to say, I'm not confident Houston is going to win the game tomorrow. The Vikings have a studly defense and they don't allow much in the passing game or the run game. Then I got to looking at the stats and Houston is ahead of the Vikings in total D and Passing D. The Texans are way behind in run defense as Minnesota is 8th in Rushing defense and Houston is 26th. The good thing in that stat is Minnesota doesn't run the ball all that well unless you think being 32nd out of 32 teams in rushing offense is all that great. So, maybe Houston gets the edge in defense. Then you think that the Vikings are pretty efficient on offense. Sam Bradford is getting better every game as he gets deeper into the Vikings playbook. The Texans are just a hair better in total D but both are in the bottom third of offenses in the NFL. Houston has one deficiency that is a big concern. Sam Bradford doesn't turn the ball over while Brock Osweiler has turned the ball over in every single game so far. In fact Osweiler is tied for 3rd in the NFL with most INTs in the NFL so far with 6. Only Ryan Fitzpatrick (10) and Jameis Winston (8) have thrown more picks than Osweiler, Blake Bortles and Blaine Gabbert. Bradford is also way better than Brock in completion %. What all this means is this is going to be a rough game and the fact it's on the road is even more challenging. Houston will be getting slot man Braxton Miller back from a hamstring injury this week so that is a good thing. I don't know if it's just that he's just not getting open or if he's open and Osweiler is just not seeing him but Jalen Strong has been pretty much a non-factor so far. This was supposed to be the breakout season for him after he dedicated himself in the offseason to working harder on his conditioning, mental approach and overall value to the Texans. So far, Will Fuller has lapped him to become the clear cut #2 receiver on the team. Statistically Fuller is the #1 receiver on the team but he's not the best Houston has. It's just that Fuller is the beneficiary of double coverage on DeAndre Hopkins. Houston, I my book has the edge in rushing because Lamar Miller is better than either Jerick McKinnon or Matt Asiata. What it comes down to is can Brock Osweiler play a clean game with no turnovers. If he can this game is a toss up. The Wise Guys in Vegas have the Vikings a 7 point favorite which is normally the amount of points a good home team gets credit for. This is telling me Vegas doesn't think much of the Texans chances tomorrow. It's hard for me to go against the Texans but Osweiler's propensity to throw picks scares me. What does all that mean............................................

 

Minnesota 24 Houston 23

I picked the Vikings to win but I didn't know that Houston would get embarrassed again on the road. This week was a little less embarrassing than the shutout pitched by the Patriots two weeks ago because you didn't face a rookie 3rd string QB yesterday, Sam Bradford has found a home and an offense that he feels quite comfortable running. That said, the Texans didn't even get a first down until the 2nd half. By that time Houston was down 24 zip. The love affair with Brock Osweiler is getting a little sour. He threw another pick yesterday making 7 INTs in just 5 games and he failed to make plays that could have slowed the Vikings down and given his team a chance to win. He got beat up pretty good and as a result he got happy feet as he showed a lack of poise in the pocket and his passing accuracy was just lousy. You aren't going to win many games with a 45% completion percentage or a 56.1 passer rating. When Osweiler says the first place to look at when the offense is the QB he's absolutely right. It would be nice if the O-line would play better because that group not only got Osweiler beat up they weren't able to open up any holes for the run game. A lot of the blame for Osweiler's and Lamar Miller's lack of production is tied directly to bad line play. In their 3 wins the Texans line did a decent job and in their 2 losses they were just flat bad. The defense got spanked by the Vikings offense right off the bat and later they stiffened up and played pretty decent. You can't blame the lack of offense totally because most of the damage came early in the game and the defense couldn't claim to be tired. They just had to admit they got beat and beat up. It was very disappointing to see the Texans lose again on the road. You also have to take into consideration the Texans played, and lost, to two teams that are among the best teams in the NFL. Houston will get to rebound back at home next Sunday night against a division foe, their main division foe over the span of their existence, the Indianapolis Colts. Indy won yesterday with an offensive outburst at home that I'll bet nobody saw coming. On the other hand the Bears defense hasn't exactly been all that great. Houston beat them a few weeks ago so maybe it wasn't such a surprise after all. The Colts defense hasn't been very good so far this year so you might have expected more from Brian Hoyer and the Bears. The Tennessee Titans also won yesterday narrowing Houston's division lead to just one game over those same Colts and Titans. The Jacksonville Jaguars were on bye this week and it's a good thing considering how northern Florida was hammered by Hurricane Matthew. Indy isn't a very good team and Houston needs to take care of business next week and put this mess behind them.

Man, I've heard a lot of Brock bashing in the past week and I have to admit it has been warranted. Brock has been bad. He sounds great at the press conferences and he says he WILL get these things cleaned up and learn from his mistakes but so far you have to admit he's a slow learner. I said before the season began everything would depend on Brock. If he sucks the team will not do well and if he's good then the Texans will be good. I saw him make good throws against Kansas City. I saw him make some good throws at home in general. Some he didn't get the benefit from because they were dropped, yes I'm talking to you Will Fuller. It's been on the road that the evil Brock comes out. It's not really an evil Brock so much as it's an inept Brock. Poor decision making Brock. Weak armed Brock. Sad, pathetic Brock.

The good thing is the Texans play at home this week. The also get to play an Indianapolis team that pretty much sucks. Yes, they won a game against the Lions last week but the Lions aren't all that good despite having their own highly thought of QB in Matthew Stafford. The Lions and the Colts are two sides of the same coin. The trouble is there seems to be a third side to that coin with a red, white and blue bull on it. It's okay. Houston has been beating the bad teams and KC, KC hasn't been great but you could count them as not lousy. They are currently in the mediocre category at 2-2 and they are coming off their bye week but not lousy, definitely.

The last time Houston was in a prime time game was last season on the road in Cincinnati. Houston wasn't given a chance in hades of winning that game but they did and it turned their whole season around. This Sunday night Houston won't be that kind of underdog but they can begin to right the ship with a win over the bane of the Texans existence, the Indianapolis Colts. Now, that was primarily because they were in the same division with Peyton Manning and he just wore the Texans out. Manning isn't a factor but Andrew Luck seemed to take up where Manning left off so a solid win over the Colts would be a very good thing.

 

Here's the injury report and it features some names that will be missed this week and the questionables have some important names on that list too. Still, even with those players out Houston still has more overall talent than Indy.

 

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/Game-Status-Report-Texans-vs-Colts/7bb3e9e7-1609-4962-a2a2-3d296739205e

 

Mark Van Der Meer gives us his take on the Colts from this article from Texans.com.

 

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/Vandermeers-View-The-Colts-are-back/018fc15c-a775-469d-b3fb-c088f790a3a6

It's about the now. That's what the best say. As I have been watching Sportscenter this morning with the broadcast originating from Foxborough Mass as the folks in the Boston area get to welcome Tom Brady back to the first home game he's played since last January. It's his first home game after his 4 game suspension and the crowd there is already in a near frenzy. Now. Today. The past doesn't matter and the future is something that gives us hope but it's all about today. It should be the same in Houston tonight. Stay in the moment. Forget the last week. Today is all we can control so the Texans need to live that mantra. They are better than Indianapolis and they are at home, one of the loudest places anywhere on game day. Do your jobs, have a short memory when things don't go your way and have some fun. Most of all, WIN THE DAMN GAME.

 

Final score? Houston 26 Indianapolis 24

> Still wondering what the hell got into Brock Osweiler last night. For 3-1/2 quarters Brock was the goat of the game but all of a sudden he just transformed in the a super hero. Maybe it was about the same time the full moon rose in the east. Maybe he's got some werewolf in him. All I know is Brock stopped short hopping passes to open receivers, he stopped sailing his passes high out of reach of his receivers and he made good decisions. Considering how he's played the first 5 weeks of the season there had to be something that got into him. When the score was 23-9 with around 7 and a half minutes left in the game I thought it was over. So did a lot of fans in NRG Stadium as NT Vince Wilfork ripped the fans who left early but in all honesty, could you really blame them? I sure can't, not after what I've seen in recent games. Not after what I've seen of Osweiler against New England and Minnesota. He was just awful in those games. Thank you Indianapolis for a giant choke job and let's hope the way he played in the final 8 minutes of last night's game in regulation and overtime gives Brock some confidence going forward. After all, isn't that kind of what we expected after Brock helped the Broncos last season going 5-2 in 7 starts? It really is what we had expected and it's about time he showed something. Let's hope he keeps it going.

 

Can I toot my horn a bit because I really almost nailed the final score in my prediction. I said 26-24 and it ended up 26-23. I'm just saying.

 

TE CJ Fiedorowicz was a star last night. He came up big for Houston down the stretch and it was awesome to see especially since people have had their fun bashing the guy over the last couple of years. The TE position as a whole was pretty good with Fido and Ryan Griffin combining for 9 catches for 116 yards and a TD.

 

The biggest catch didn't go to either Fido or Griffin and not even DeAndre Hopkins who led the Texans in catches with 9. It was Lamar Miller's catch and amazing run for the touchdown that got the Texans within a TD of the Colts. It was 3rd and 7 at the Colts 10 when Brock hit Miller at the seven with a dump off pass as Miller was running left to right toward the sideline. When, suddenly, he reversed his field and ran back toward the middle of the field and he crossed in front of at least 7 Colts defenders but the O-line was hustling and they gave Miller some nice blocks as he cut the ball up field and into the end zone for the TD when it looked for all the world like Miller would be tackled for a 3 or 4 yard gain and put the Texans in a 4th down situation. That TD not only got the Texans within 7 of the Colts but it saved time on the clock because Houston didn't have to run a make or break 4th down play. Instead, the Texans got the score AND there was 2:47 left on the clock. Plenty of time if the defense could make a stop. The only bad thing was the Texans had to burn a time out on the drive when there was some confusion on a play call but it didn't end up hurting them in the end.

 

Now, I said that the biggest catch of the game wasn't made by a tight end but the 2nd biggest catch was. The Texans defense did, in fact stop the Colts on the ensuing possession after Miller's TD. In fact, in the four offensive plays the Colts ran it was +2 yard run for Frank Gore/time out, false start on Indy, sack of -7 yards on Andrew Luck/time out and -1 yard run by Frank Gore. This is where that extra time out would have come in handy but no use crying over spilled milk at this point. So, the Colts let the clock go down to the 2 minute warning and then they punted to Houston. Tyler Ervin took the punt in a gutsy move with a Colt defender in his face and returned it 6 yards to the their own 47 with just 1:50 remaining. Brock hit Lamar Miller with a short pass and a good run after the catch for a 16 yard gain. Houston snapped the ball with 1:22 left and Brock then hit Fido with for an 11 yard gain down to the Colts 26. The clock was still running and when Houston got the ball snapped there was just :54 left in the game. it was then Brock threw probably his best pass of the season hitting Fiedorowicz up the middle at the Colts 8 splitting two Colts defenders who went down on the play. Fido took the pass and took the ball the final 8 yards for the TD that ended up tying the game.

 

The momentum continued with the Texans stuffing the Colts at the end of regulation and in overtime when Indianapolis won the coin toss electing to take the ball to begin the OT period. Houston's defense stopped the Colts on 5 plays forcing a punt. Osweiler was still hot as the Texans began their first and only OT possession at their own 33 after Tyler Ervin made an even gutsier punt return that he fielded at his own 16 and returned to the 33 to set the team up in decent field position. Brock hit Fido for 9 up the 42 followed by a pass to Miller for 10 to the Indy 48. A run for no gain was next followed by yet another pretty pass from Osweiler to Jalen Strong who made an even prettier catch for 36 yards down the Colts 12. Brock took the next snap and scooched over to the right hash mark to set up Nick Novak's game winning field goal with 8:13 left in overtime.

 

Too bad the first 52 minutes or so the game was so boring and frustrating because the last 16-17 minutes was a hoot. Lamar Miller really came through for the Texans last night. He ended up with a total of 149 yards rushing on 24 carries with a TD and added another 29 yards and a TD on 3 catches. Got to give the defense some love too as they stepped up at the end of the game when it really counted to stop the Colts offense cold. It shouldn't have been this hard to beat the Colts but maybe this team has found that little something to build upon going forward. I love happy endings, don't you? Remember kids, it's wrong to put style points on a win. Let's all just be happy Houston is still leading the AFC South with a 4-2 record instead of being tied with Tennessee at 3-3.

Do you think there are enough story lines to keep this week interesting. This thing is just dripping with drama. How Houston stole Broncos incumbent starter, Brock Osweiler, away from the Broncos because John Elway sort of low balled him in contract negotiations when Osweiler became a free agent.

 

Or how about former Texans head coach and current Broncos head coach Gary Kubiak. What even more juicy about this situation is adding Broncos defensive coordinator in Denver and Kubiak's DC in Houston Wade Phillips who became the interim head coach when Kubiak was fired. How about that? Or how about the fact this week will be the first time Koobs is back on the sideline after being sidelined the past two weeks with "migraines". I put that in quotes because of symptoms of a stroke at halftime of a Colts-Texans game at NRG Stadium in 2013. It was later reported that Kubiak didn't suffer a stroke but they seemed to be saying it was as close to being a stroke without it actually being a stroke. Two weeks ago after the Broncos got pounded at home by Atlanta Koobs was complaining of severe headaches and taken to the hospital. The headaches kept him sidelined through last week's game against San Diego in which Special Teams Coordinator Joe DeCamillis acted as head coach for the first time in his career. The Broncos offense missed Kubiak who is also their play caller and the offense sputtered against the Chargers despite the return of Trevor Siemian from a shoulder ailment.

 

A bit of a sidebar, it's pretty obvious Kubiak has issues going on in his head. I'm no doctor but two similar incidents, the last one being far less severe than the one in Houston shows a pattern. I'm sure the latest trauma was less severe because he's on meds, maybe a blood thinner to help protect him but if he's got issues with blood clots that's no laughing matter.

 

There are plenty of storylines to go around and that's for sure. Some of them don't even involve Broncos-Texans connections. How about Houston probably getting CB Kareem Jackson back? Jackson has been out since a hamstring injury forced him to miss the last two weeks. Jackson's return is quite welcome as Houston is dealing with a bunch of injuries to their starting DBs like Jonathan Joseph, Kevin Johnson and Quentin Demps.

 

This is back to back weeks that Houston has played a prime time game. Of course last week's Sunday night game featured 3+ quarters of lousy football from the Texans followed by a furious 4th quarter comeback to tie the game and send it to overtime followed by a stop of the Colts in overtime and game winning field goal drive. Hopefully, Houston can rekindle the "good Texans" alter ego and keep the "bad Texans" buried deep enough that it doesn't rear it's ugly head at all against the Broncos. In games with tough defenses this year Houston has fared really badly. The Patriots shut them out and the Vikings kicked them around like they were nothing. Hopefully, Houston has learned a little something so they can avoid being dominated by the Mile High Bullies Club.

 

Here's the latest injury report and it's sort of encouraging to see only 4 "did not participates" and the list of "limiteds" is growing. That means the Texans are close to getting some players back on the field. It sure is disheartening to see such a long list. You think Bill O'Brien is just copying his mentor Bill Belichick by throwing all those names on the injury report? Bill wouldn't do that, would he? Would He? HUH?

 

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/article-2/Thursday-Injury-Report-Texans-vs-Broncos/2adb3575-c704-46da-9264-9c5363e4548b

A good injury update is always welcome and I just so happen to have one or two.

 

1. It is confirmed, CB Kareem Jackson, will play Monday night.

 

2. Will Fuller will also return to the lineup Monday after having missed 2 games with a pulled hamstring.

I should have gone ahead and done it, I should have made a prediction but I honestly knew in my heart Denver would beat the Texans and I guess I just couldn't put it in black and white. Why? I don't know but there you have it. So, now Houston is 4-3 but they are still leading the AFC South by a game but aren't we all getting just a little tired of watching Brock Osweiler choke? I mean really, 41 pass attempts and only 131 yards passing? The final stat line for Brock was 22 of 41 for just those 131 yards with no TD's and no INT's. Brock also fumbled 3 times losing one of them. He lost one when the ball just slipped out of his hand when he was attempting a pass. Where was the accurate Brock we saw in preseason. THAT guy gave me hope that Houston would be okay. Better than okay, I thought Houston would be one of the better teams in the NFL but not so much. Denver has a good defense, one of the best in the NFL, but Brock couldn't complete even a simple dump off pass to a back without throwing the ball behind him making it damn near impossible to catch. I am so tired of Brock having a 3rd and 4 and throwing a 1 yard pass that is immediately stuffed by the defense. You have to hit a guy on the run or throw the frigging ball 5 yards. Simple math, get the ball past the chains. Now, it's not all Brock's fault, he had some passes dropped, Will Fuller, but by and large Brock stunk up the place. Is Brock intimidated or scared? Kind of looks like it. We've seen him pass the ball pretty well but on the road against a good team, he just plain stinks. Maybe it's Bill O'Brien's fault. Maybe he's not the quarterback guru we thought he was. I don't know but I know one thing the comeback against the Colts wasn't a springboard for the season. It didn't get Brock going and get this team on a roll. It was just another big thud on the road. The Texans defense tried like heck but after so many 3 and outs you just can't overcome and inept offense. Texans GM Rick Smith is looking like he saddled Houston with another expensive loser at QB and he isn't getting better, he's getting worse. He did okay with Matt Schaub who played pretty well for a few years but the steady decline of Schaub gave way to the 3 headed loser squad of last year of Ryan Mallet, Brian Hoyer and Case Keenum with a little TJ Yates thrown in and now Brock Osweiler is bumbling around for the Texans. I wonder if Houston is destined to go 8-8 this season. Brock can win at home but he stinks to high heaven on the road. Maybe I should lighten up on Osweiler. After all he hasn't faced chopped liver on the road. He has faced the Patriots, the Vikings and now the Broncos. Every single team is well above average on defense. Maybe it's just that Brock isn't good enough at this stage of his career to know how to beat the good teams. After all, he's only made 14 career starts. Seven last year and seven this year. If we're going to give Brock a pass based on inexperience then we need to blame the coaching staff and Bill O'Brien in particular for Brock looking like total crap. Instead of signing Brock to a 72 million dollar deal maybe the Texans should have saved their money and instead of drafting Will Fuller in the first round they should have taken, say, Paxton Lynch who was available. It's hard to tell just seven games into the season. Especially when Houston is leading the division and is a game over .500. I'm just saying. You have to wonder just when the Tom Savage fans out there are going to start calling for him because they are tired of these lame performances by Brock. I would be interested in seeing what the Houston media is going to say about this latest belly flop by the Texans. Will they light up Brock, as they should, or will they excuse another poor performance because the defense was tough? At some point, if you're going to be good, don't you have to show up against the good teams? Unlike 8 days ago when Brock found something to redeem himself at the end of the game and overtime there was no redemption last night. There was just a great big Texans sized turd laying on the field in Denver. I really thought the Texans would be better than this but as I said in the preseason, it's all up to how well Brock plays. To paraphrase the Verizon commercial from a few years ago, "Do you like me now?" Well, do ya?