2019 Houston Texans Season

The Texans surprised me. After looking like total garbage during the preseason I figured the Saints would put a beatdown on the Texans. It didn’t happen at all like I thought, in fact, I am quite proud of the game they played, and should have won. I blame Romeo Crennel for the loss. With just 37 seconds left in the game the Texans offense walked off the field with a 28-27 lead. 35 seconds later Wil Lutz kicked the crap out of a football and made a career long 58 yard field goal for the 30-28 win.

 

Years ago teams used to go into what was called their “prevent defense” which essentially meant that the linebackers and DB’s played way off to prevent a big play. What this usually meant was it gave the opposing QB the ability to pick apart a defense and march his team right down the field for a score. It was uncanny how many times a defense tried to “prevent” the other team from scoring and failed. Teams that shut down the other team’s offense with their regular defense abandoned that defense for the prevent and they subsequently walked off the field losers. The prevailing joke was the “prevent defense” actually prevented teams from winning. With six seconds left in the game and the ball at midfield Crennel had his defensive backs playing with a 10 yard cushion instead of making it hard for New Orleans to complete a pass. It was a free 10 yards that Drew Brees happily took advantage of. A quick 9 yard pass that didn’t take but 4 seconds off the clock from start to a finish that allowed the Saints to call time out with 2 seconds left on the clock. Yeah, Crennel has to eat the blame sandwich for this loss. The players did their job but their DC failed to put them in a position to close the door on the Saints. If you say coaching doesn’t matter in the NFL this would be Exhibit A in my rebuttal. I just saw where Houston is making CB Aaron Colvin the scape goat. He gave up that 9 yard pass to Ted Ginn Jr that set up the winning field goal but if you watched the game every one of the Texans DB’s were playing off. Colvin is being punished for Crennel's mistake.

 

Houston will get a chance at redemption this Sunday when they host Jacksonville who lost their QB Nick Foles to a broken collarbone. Foles likely won’t be back until Week 12 or 13. This is an opportunity for Houston to begin to take control over the AFC South. Let’s hope they take advantage of the opportunity.

 

One note. Carlos Hyde and Duke Johnson combined for 140 yards of the Texans 180 yards rushing in the game. Desean Watson got the other 40 yards. The thing I missed during preseason was the fact that Hyde is wearing #23, Arian Foster’s old number. It’s nice to see 23 eating up chunks of yards again!

Good grief the Texans O-line is bad. Last year the Texans led the NFL is allowing their QB to be sacked (62 times) and they are well on their way to equaling or passing that mark in 2019. In two games Deshaun Watson has been sacked a whopping 9 times. Over a 16 game season that would be an average of 4.5 sacks a game which added up to be 72 sacks. Good Lord, I hope that young man survives the season. That isn't even taking into account the times he is getting hit. Despite Watson's woes the Texans got a narrow 13-12 win thanks to a goal line stop of Leonard Fournette by S Justin Reid on a two point conversion attempt at the end of the game that would have given the Jacksonville Jaguars a 14-13 win. Instead the Texans make their own luck with that stop to go along with a lot of nice stops made by the Texans D today. I'm not sure if it was the Jags defense that posed so many problems for Houston's offense or it was just the fact that the Jags lived in the Texans backfield most of the day. To be fair, the Jags blitzed a lot and Houston didn't keep anyone in to help block very often. Carlos Hyde and, to a lesser extent, Duke Johnson gave Houston a pretty effective rushing attack. Hyde had 20 carries for 90 yards (4.5 YPC) and Johnson added another 31 on 6 totes to give Houston 121 yards by their backs. Watson spread the ball around targeting 7 different receivers but only throwing for 159 yards for the game. The Jags decided to blitz the crap out of Watson and the O-line just couldn't handle all the rushers Jacksonville brought for much of the game. This pressure made the Texans offense a lot less dynamic than they were against New Orleans 6 days ago. Houston is 1-1 now as is the rest of the division except for the Jags who are 0-2. This coming week Houston will have to travel to Los Angeles to take on the Chargers who are likely is a bad mood after being beating the Detroit Lions today.

Today's game should be interesting at very least. I don't believe there is any way Houston's offense can look as lame as they did last week. The O-line had a terrible game and you have to hope to goodness that Deshaun Watson can survive all 16 games this season behind this bunch. I think the Texans have two good linemen, LT Laremy Tunsil and C Nick Martin. I think the jury is still out on RT Tytus Howard but the guard play needs to get better. The Texans defense was tough last week on Jacksonville allowing only 10 points despite the Jags having a ton of possessions because of the ineffectiveness of the offense. In Week 1 they played well enough, well almost well enough, to beat the Saints who still had Drew Brees. It's the Chargers I can't figure out. Last week against the Lions they got beat by a team that, on paper wasn't as good as them. The offense was held to just 10 points but in Week 1 they beat the Colts in overtime putting up 30. Houston could be walking into a trap in LA this afternoon. I want to do my best Admiral Akbar and yell, "It's a trap!" but I'll be the Texans know they are in for a rough afternoon if the offense doesn't play better. Both teams are looking for their offenses to rebound but I'm thinking the Texans defense is a tick better than the Chargers unit. I'm going straight up homer here and I am saying Texans will win. I am not predicting a score for this one because, quite frankly, I have no clue. GO TEXANS!

Last week’s game was disappointing offensively to say the least. The limp noodle Texans offense looked like crap and it all started with Deshaun Watson. #4 had a bad day at the office. What we’re all hoping is that was just that, a bad day. The 1-3 Atlanta Falcons limo into Houston and the way the defense has been playing if Houston’s offense can just get up and score 3 or 4 times that should be enough to send Atlanta home unhappy and wondering how playoff team sucks this bad! Go Texans!

Just when you thought that the Texans were dead and buried, they hang 53 points on Atlanta. Deshaun Watson with a career day throwing for 426 yards and 5 passing TD’s, Will Fuller with a career day catching 14 balls for 217 yards and 3 TD’s. It was a great rebound week for the Texans after losing a heartbreaker the previous week to Carolina. The Carolina game was a bad game for the Texans offense and especially for the O-line and Watson who seemed to be getting sacked every other play. In reality he was sacked 6 times but he was hit a lot. Against the Falcons Watson had a much better day. For the first time all season Watson was not sacked one time. Kudos to the O-line for finally giving Watson a clean pocket and Watson rewarded the line’s effort with a career best day as a QB. The defense wasn’t as dominant as they had been in previous weeks but a lot of the yards and points they gave up were in the 4th quarter as they played a less aggressive style of defense trying not to give up a big play.

It wasn’t all sugar and spice for the Texans as they trailed the Falcons 17-16 at the half thanks to a missed extra point by Ka’imi Fairbairn but they came out hot in the 2nd half scoring 17 unanswered points in the 3rd quarter. It was a great rebound game for Houston and they remain tied for the AFC South lead with Indianapolis with identical 3-2 records. It’s unfortunate for the Texans that Indy went to Kansas City and beat the Chiefs on Sunday night. That was a very unexpected outcome to say the least. This week the Texans host those darn Colts at NRG Stadium to see who will own first place alone in the division. The Colts have always been a thorn in the Texans side since the day the Texans franchise was born. Peyton Manning then Andrew Luck and now Jacoby Brissett is keeping the Colts an annoying presence. It’s not really Brissett. He’s not a dominating QB in the vein of Manning or Luck but he’s not making a lot of mistakes. What is keeping the Colts viable is a damn good defense. A defense that was good enough to hold the mighty Chiefs offense to 13 points. The hope is that all things are pretty equal except the QB position and Deshaun Watson is the difference in the game. Houston needs to win at home and put together some wins in a row. Right now, 2 in a row would be awesome!

The blowout win over Atlanta last week was a really nice win, especially coming off a disappointing loss in Week 3. Houston now has two wins in a row after besting the Chargers and Falcons but now they have a Chiefs team that is likely just a little ticked off after they lost to the Colts last with Indy holding their high powered offense to just 13 points. The Chiefs are a little banged up right now and they likely won't have their best WR Tyreek Hill for the game. Hill was limited in practice all week and he is listed as questionable for today's game. I would think that after breaking a collarbone they will want him to be a full go in practice before they let into a game. (Update: Hill will be active for today's game. I am still not starting him until I'm sure he's 100% on my fantasy team)

 

KC will also likely be without WR Sammy Watkins who is listed as doubtful with a pulled hamstring. In all KC will be without 5 starters in the game and QB Patrick Mahomes has been nursing an ankle all week. Houston has only 3 players listed no worse than questionable for the game. Taiwan Jones, Kenny Stills and Jonathan Joseph are dealing with hamstring injuries and I would be surprised if they play. The only Texan officially out for this game is backup OL Greg Mancz who is in concussion protocol.

 

If Houston has a chance to beat KC this week is a prime opportunity. Even if Tyreek Hill plays, I don't see him as a big factor. Houston will have all their weapons except Kenny Stills but that still leaves both RB's, Carlos Hyde and Duke Johnson and their best WR's in DeAndre Hopkins, Will Fuller, Keke Coutee and DeAndre Carter. They are solid at TE with Jordan Akins and Daniel Fells. KC still has a really good defense so I am not under the delusion that the Texans are going to hang 53 on KC like they did Atlanta last week but they should be able to score. I'm saying the Texans will win today. I am more confident saying that than I am that the Astros can bounce back and beat the Yankees tonight.

The Texans have real road warriors over the last month beating the Chargers in LA and then last week they beat Kansas City in KC! Houston is 3-1 over the last month and 4-2 overall. This week, in about 15 minutes actually, Houston takes on the Indianapolis Colts in Indy. The Colts have a really good defense but their offense is sort of the type of unit that does just enough to get it done, at least in the 3 of the 5 games they've played this year. Houston is riding a wave of momentum fueled in no small part by the victory by the Astros last night. It seems that Deshaun Watson has become good friends with Justin Verlander and the Texans team wore Astros jerseys when they traveled to KC yesterday. Jacoby Brissett has been solid in replacing a retired Andrew Luck but with the Texans O-line playing really well the past few games it seems they have finally got a unit together that can run block and pass protect. The Texans line has not allowed a sack in the past two games and quite frankly that might be a first for the Texans! I have a lot of confidence in the Texans and I really believe they are going to win the game today. Sit back and relax and enjoy a good football game. It will be a great break from the stress of watching Houston clinch its spot in the world series! Not to mention the hangover celebrating the win!!! Go Texans!!!!

...And that’s why I don’t make predictions any more .....

The Houston Texans play the Oakland Raiders in around 5 hours. No sooner than that game ends then Game 5 of the World Series will begin. Today is all about Houston. It's a Houston day and, to be honest, if had to choose between the Texans and Astros today, I'm sorry, I'm choosing the Astros. This game for the Astros is way bigger in importance than the game the Texans are playing. If the Texans lose today I'll be like, "Eh, no biggie. That's Karma rearing its ugly big head." I'm superstitious as heck and intellectually I know luck, Karma, gris-gris, however you want to express it really doesn't have any power in events, I'm still going with the Astros to win. If this was Jeopary I would select "Houston Sports Teams" for $2000 Alex. The answer would be 'Team you really prefer to win on October 27th, 2019. And my response would be, "Who are the Houston Astros, Alex?" Goodness gracious I hope I'm right!!!

 

That said, I'm still pulling for the Texans. The team should be recovered from all the wounded feet that were shot by themselves in the loss to Indianapolis last week. They are playing a team that is playing much better than they really are in the Raiders. Oakland is sporting a somewhat surprising 3-3 record so far so Houston can't play this game wounding themselves with a 9-mil or their Glocks. They will need to play a clean game and if they do there should be no reason for the Texans not to win this afternoon. Of course, if the Texans do win I may hyperventilate myself into a coma out of sheer anxiety over the Astros game!

 

One cool thing that could, and maybe should, happen is all the fans at the Texans game stick around because the Texans will be hosting a watch party for the Astros game right there at NRG Stadium. That would be on top of the watch party at the Juice Box. It's a Houston day today and I hope it all ends with Houston fans happy as can be!!!!

Very soon now, about 15 minutes, the Texans (5-2) will play a big divisional game against the Jacksonville Jaguars (4-4). Last week the Texans got a big win over a much tougher than I thought Oakland Raiders team. The Texans suffered a big loss however. JJ Watt tore a pectoral muscle and he is lost for the rest of the season. After winning 3 straight Defensive Player of the Year awards the past 4 seasons have seen Watt play a whole season once, last year. It's a shame because Watt is such a great player and, even more important, such a great person. Houston has built a great defense in their front seven. How do I know? Well, the Texans defense hasn't suffered a bit after trading Jadeveon Clowney to Seattle and the defense continued to excel after went down in the first half of the game. The Jaguars have suffered losses to. In the offseason the Jags paid big bucks to get Nick Foles who was lost for a big chunk of the season. At the trade deadline the Jags traded away CB Jalen Ramsey to the Rams. Truth be told, Ramsey hadn't played since the dust up between him and head coach Doug Marrone. It was frustration over not challenging a play Ramsey was sure would go in his favor but Marrone, likely on the advice of the folks in the press box who saw the replay, didn't challenge the play. Ramsey acted out even bumping Marrone in scene that was just wrong. Ramsey was wrong and he pouted about claiming to have a bad back which kept him out of subsequent games until he was traded. Miraculously, Ramsey was good to go for the Rams. His selfish behavior gets my nomination for NFL dickweed of the year.

 

The Texans are strong on offense and the front seven has been good if not great. The back end has been devastated by injuries but they continue to persevere. The Jags have a strong team headlined by RB Leonard Fournette. QB Gardner Minshew has been a pleasant surprise. Houston won the first game back in September in a super close game ending with a 13-12 final score. Division games are harder just because of the team's familiarity with each other. It starts early today, as a matter of fact, the opening kickoff just happened. So, I'm outta here. Enjoy the game!!!

Today's game wasn't nearly as competitive as I, and a lot of people, thought.If the Jags had won, or even if Garnder Minshew had played well Doug Marrone would have had a QB controversy on his hands because Nick Foles can come back next week after missing 8 and 3/4 games after nursing a broken collarbone in the first quarter of the first game of the season. Looks like Foles will get his job back after Minshew wilted under the pressure of the Texans defense. The offense was efficient. The passing game wasn't overpowering but the Texans kept moving the chains. It was the Texans run game that carried the day led by Carlos Hyde's 160 yards rushing on just 19 carries. The only thing Hyde did wrong was carry the ball on the inside instead of the sideline side as he ran 60 yards for a spectacular TD only to get the ball knocked loose around the 4. The ball rolled into the end zone for a touchback. Houston was leading 19-3 at the time and another score would have put the game away considering the dominance of the defence. It didn't matter, a few plays later Houston picked off Minshew around mid field and returned the all to the Jags 5 and Houston got the knockout blow they were looking for.

 

Houston assumed the lead in the AFC South thanks to the Steelers win over Indianapolis. Tennessee also lost so Houston made up ground on the whole dang division! Oh yeah, this was the first trip for a game in London England. Needless to say, I believe they like jolly old England. Cheerio, pip-pip and all that rot. Next up for the Texans will be against Baltimore in Baltimore. The Ravens are playing the Patriots tonight. It remains to be seen if that's a good thing or a bad thing. At least Houston got one win this week.

The Texans play a pretty big game against the Baltimore Ravens this week in Baltimore. Both teams are leading their respective divisions, both have strong defenses and both have dynamic QB’s leading their teams. Both teams are coming off big wins with Baltimore owning the more impressive win as the Ravens defeated the Patriots in Prime Time making the Patriots look, well, human. The Texans beat a mediocre Jaguars team that was the last dance of Gardner Minshew in 2019. Nick Foles will be back this week to resume his role as savior of the Jags. We will have to see how that works out.

The Texans have a tremendous amount of injuries to their secondary and they are adding and rearranging their roster to fill the gaps in the secondary because of all the injuries. I guess I’m spoiled because I go to the Cowboys website a lot and their writers are all about information. It’s not just the fact a move/s were made, they explain the reasons why moves are made and, in most instances, give facts or stats to back up their assertions. The Texans website isn’t about journalism its about video and social media. If there is a personnel move made it is reported in a two line blurb and that’s it. The Texans website just this week announced that Houston has picked up CB Vernon Hargreaves on waivers after he was let go by the Tampa Bay Bucs. John McClain of the Houston Chronicle gave a reason why a 2016 1st round pick was let go, he had not met expectations the Bucs had with a player chosen with the 11th pick in the first round of the draft. I’ve been looking at the stats and he wasn’t bad playing for then head coach Dirk Koetter in 2016 and 2017. His 2018 was cut short when a should injury in Week 1 landed him on IR. In 2019 Bruce Ariens took over as head coach. Despite starting the first 9 games of the season for Tampa Ariens benched Hargreaves in last Sundays game claiming a lack of effort. On Tuesday Hargreaves was put on waivers and Wednesday the Texans claimed him. To me, I think it’s a case of a head coach and a player not seeing eye to eye. The player hasn’t been terrible, in fact, the Pro Football Writers of America (PFWA) named him to their All Rookie Team. A first round pick out of Florida, he should be able to come in a contribute right away.

Another CB of note that the website has given no background on is Gareon Conley. He was chosen with the 24th pick of the 2017 draft by the Oakland Raiders coming out of Ohio State. Current Raiders GM Mike Mayock racked him the 2nd best CB in the 2017 draft when he still worked as a draft analyst for the NFL Channel. Ironically, Mayock became the Raiders GM in 2019 working with head coach Jon Gruden. In 2017 Conley missed most of the season due a shin injury. In 2018 through the first 8 games Conley was a total bust. He was bad in coverage and worse at tackling. After an injury caused him to miss a couple of games, while he was rehabbing, he rededicated himself to playing his position and in the second half of the season became a true shutdown corner. As concussion in Week 15 ended his season but not without high hope going forward. In the first game of 2019, a Raiders win over Denver, Conley was inadvertently kicked in the head by teammate Jonathan Abram. Conley was on the turf for more than ten minutes and he was eventually carted off the field and taken to the hospital. It turns out it was mostly precautionary as Conley was released the next day and he played the next week against Kansas City. Conley’s release may have had something to do with a personality clash between either Gruden, Mayock or both. Either way, the Raiders picked up a 3rd round 2020 pick for Conley and Houston got what has been a good pickup for them at a position of need. Conley and Hargreaves join Bradley Roby and Jonathan Joseph as former first round picks manning the Texans secondary. The Texans player personnel department appears to have done a wonderful job of not only filling holes in the Texans secondary but filling those holes with possibly better players than they lost. Sometimes a player needs a change of scenery to kick start a career. We’ve all seen a thousand times a player struggling with one team goes on to excel with another. Certainly Conley appears to have benefited from the change from Oakland to Houston. Hopefully, Hargreaves will benefit too. We’ll see how the secondary does against Lamar Jackson and Ravens on Sunday.

Go Texans!!! Kick the Ravens' a**es!!!

There is really nothing you can say about the whuppin’ the Texans took from the Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens are good, good enough to beat the previously unbeaten New England Patriots last week so losing is no disgrace. Losing by 34 is a bit embarrassing but you can’t help but think the game would have unfolded differently if the gutless refs who are in charge of replay had correctly overturned a non-call in the 1st quarter when the score was still 0-0. DeAndre Hopkins was clearly interfered with on a 4th and 2 at the Ravens 33 and for some reason the call was not changed to acknowledge the fact the defender tackled Hopkins before the ball got to him. The NFL has been gutless in making corrections to calls, and non-calls, involving pass interference since the rule was instated as a reaction to the egregiously blown calls in the Saints-Rams NFC Championship game this past January. The replay officials that have looked at the challenges seem bound and determined NOT to change calls made on the field even when it’s justified. The NFL looks bad and everyone has seen it and commentators have seen it and commented on it to the point the NFL League Office and the NFL Head of Officiating look like complete jokes.

 

Apparently, the Jaguars getting Nick Foles back wasn’t the answer to the Jags problem. The Colts kicked the stuffing out of them yesterday. What that means is the Colts and Texans are tied for first place in the AFC South at 6-4. First place will be on the line next week when Houston finally gets to play a game at home when they host Indianapolis. The Texans are going to need to suck it up because the final six games are no joke. After the Colts the Texans play the Patriots, Broncos, Titans, Buccaneers and finally the Titans. Four of the last 6 games are at home with Houston having to travel to Tennessee and Tampa.

The Texans kick off Week 12 tonight. Coming off the embarrassing loss in Baltimore last this team just be a little salty wanting redemption for last week. They also have some payback for the Indianapolis Colts who beat them 30-23 in Week 7 in Indy. This is a big week because not only do the Texans need to stop the bleeding in the W/L column they need a win to take sole possession of 1st place in the AFC South. Currently Houston and Indy are tied at 6-4 so a win tonight provides some separation and this late in the season it could be even bigger a win going forward. Both teams have challenging schedules but next week Houston will face the New England Patriots at home. Who knows how the game the Patriots and Cowboys will go Sunday but Dallas has a real opportunity to take advantage of a recently offense challenged Patriots. That's next week, this week Houston needs to focus on beat the Colts. Last week the defense had a lot of trouble with Lamar Jackson, mainly with Jackson's ability to use his legs to make things happen. Houston also had issues with poor tackling which is not like the Texans. The Colts beat Jacksonville pretty bad last week but they lost RB Marlon Mack for the season in the process which may compromise the Texans bread and butter, the run game. The Texans got cheated by a terrible non-call on a pass interference on a 4th and 2 in Ravens territory. Going up 3 points or even 7 may have changed the course of the game but we'll never know now. Houston plays better at home than on the road so far this season and the next 3 games are at home. The hope is that Houston will begin a 3 game winning streak tonight.

It’s time to give some props to the Texans. They have shown to the world and, more importantly, to themselves that they belong in the playoff conversation as a legit contender. Houston may only be 8-4 on the season but this win over the Patriots on Sunday night will go a long way toward bolstering their confidence now that December has entered the room. They haven’t wrapped anything up yet because the Tennessee Titans are right on their heels at 7-5 and they just put a whuppin’ on the Colts to take sole possession of second place in the division. Both teams have 4 games left and two of them are against each other. Houston hosts the struggling Broncos while the Titans have to go to Oakland to face a slumping Raiders team. The steam from this past Sunday night’s win should propel the Texans over the Broncos who can’t seem to get out of their own way.

 

The Texans, on the other hand, have been pretty consistent. They also have good wins over the Chiefs, the Chargers and of course the Patriots. They were just seconds away from beating the Saints in the season opener. The only bad loss was the 41-7 drubbing the Ravens put on the Texans two weeks ago. It appears that nothing is going to stop these Ravens unless the injury bug gets them but, there is no reason to believe that Houston can’t rise up and upset the Ravens if it comes right down to it. We’ve seen way too many times that what the pundits say should happen has nothing to do with what actually takes place on the field every week. If you look at the standings the Patriots and Ravens are tied with 10-2 records and Houston and Kansas City are tied with 8-4 records. Houston is clearly a top 4 team in the AFC and that’s no fluke. You want a fluke? How about the Cowboys leading the NFC East with a 6-6 record? The other NFC division leaders are NFC West teams San Francisco and Seattle at 10-2, NFC North has Green Bay at 9-3 and the NFC South has the 10-2 Saints. The Cowboys are not considered a threat to win a Super Bowl at this point and there is no guarantee they will even make the playoffs. Houston is all about being a contender and that’s without JJ Watt, most of the defensive secondary they started the season with and O-line issues that don’t seem to want to go away.

 

The only thing I’m pissed at the Texans about is how they let the Patriots James White go off on them in the 4th quarter of the game. With the yards gained running and receiving to go along with a rushing TD and a receiving TD it cost me a win in my fantasy football league this past weekend. Oh well, I’ve been up and down all season in fantasy but that loss cost me a spot in the playoffs. Thanks Romeo Crennell for playing prevent defense in the 4th quarter. That defense prevented me from making the playoffs.

I just don't understand this Texans team. They beat a New England Patriots team and get smoked by the Bronco's? The loss to the Broncos puts the Texans in a tie with the Tennessee Titans for the division lead and these two teams play each other twice in the next three weeks and at the very least Houston will need to split these games and win the Week 16 matchup with Tampa Bay. This week is in Tennessee for the outright division lead. Maybe the Texans can win on the road but given the inconsistent nature of this team it appears to be a hit or miss proposition.

The Texans beat the Titans in Week 15 and unbeknownst to me they played the Tampa Bay Bucs yesterday. On Saturday? Imagine my surprise when I found out there were actually three games played yesterday and I had already missed one. I actually missed the one I would have wanted to see! Houston beat the Bucs 23-20 thanks in large part to the Bucs themselves. Jameis Winston threw 4 INT's and the Bucs added a lost fumble to the 5 turnover total. Bradley Roby got one of those picks and he took it to the house for a pick 6. Offensively, the Bucs outplayed the Texans gaining 435 yards of total offense to Houston's 229. Houston got short fields and played good D when they had to to pull out the game. The win was a big one as Houston clinched the AFC South and it just remains to be seen if the Texans will be the 3rd or the 4th seed in the playoffs. All the divisions have been decided all that remains is to sort out what the seeding will be. New England clinched their 11th straight division title with a win over Buffalo yesterday now the Patriots will be sitting back hoping Cleveland can beat the Ravens. The Browns did it once already in Baltimore so, even though the Browns got embarrassed by Arizona last week, they could still pull out a win. Buffalo is the only wild card set in the AFC and they other wild card is up in the air between Pittsburgh and Tennessee. Tennessee hosts New Orleans today while Pitt travels to New Jersey to play the Jets. You'd have to give the advantage to the Steelers based on matchups but, you never know what will happen on a give Sunday. Way to go Texans! Beat Tennessee next week at home and head into the playoffs on a roll!!!

All three were on NFL network. I couldn't see any of them.

The Texans went into the season finale with nothing to lose. They had clinched the AFC South just before Christmas so the game with Tennessee was really meaningless to them. The game was not meaningless to Tennessee. A win over Houston then the Titans earn a spot in the playoffs. Houston didn't care about Tennessee, you could tell by the six starters who were inactive Sunday and by the way they benched Desean Watson and played Carlos Hyde very little. AJ McCarron got his first start as a Texan and he didn't do bad considering he was playing with one arm tied behind his back with all the players that sat out that included DeAndre Hopkins. McCarron might have had Will Fuller if not for the pulled hamstring he's dealing with. I like Fuller when he plays but when you miss half the season with soft tissue injuries you aren't doing your team any good. Fuller has got to have the worst hamstrings in the history of the NFL. If it's me, I'm targeting a new WR in the draft like LSU's Ja'Marr Chase or Justin Jefferson or Oklahoma's CeeDee Lamb. Somebody good will be available in low to mid 20 range when Houston drafts next April. Of all the people who didn't play last Sunday Fuller is the only one who wouldn't have played even if the game meant something. The defense was hampered too without Bernardrick McKinney and the Texans lost both CB Bradley Roby and Jonathan Joseph to hamstring injuries. The Texans should beat the Bills with all their pieces back in place. The only question mark is Fuller. A week of rest and recuperation for the players who got a break last weekend will do them a world of good. I think the Texans did the right thing sitting the players they sat because the playoffs was the most important thing. The Texans are home in front of a very vocal crowd and there seems to be nothing to keep them from playing a really good game. The Bills are no pushovers but Houston should win the game. Nobody is really afraid of the Bills running game but they seem to make do very well thank you. You cannot take the Bills for granted, after all, they have the same 10-6 record the Texans have. Hope the Texans start the new year off right with a win. Don't forget, the AFC Wild Card round is on Saturday with the Texans-Bills leading things off at 3:35 PM followed by the Titans-Patriots at 7:15.

I’m glad the Texans won. They finally showed up after halftime. Desaun Watson put the team on his back and JJ Watt stepped up too.

 

I am glad for the Texans but I can tell you I hope somebody else broadcasts the game because Joe Tessatore and Booger McFarland are terrible. I’d rather Joe Buck and Troy Aikman. Or Jim Nance and Tony Romo. Porky Pig and Elmer Fudd would be better than the ESPN pair.

Man, Those long time Bill's fans must be shaking their heads and wondering what did they do to deserve this kind of playoff bad juju. They watched two DL crush Watson, watch their guys fall down, and then watch Watson loft a pass , which set up the game winning OT field goal. There's some bad JuJU around that team come playoff time.

The Texans did it. For an entire half of the game it didn't look like they would, in fact, it looked like they were going to lay another colossal playoff egg like the one they laid last year against Indianapolis. The got down 21 zip in the first half on the way to a 21-7 loss last January. One year later the Texans floundered around for the first half and found themselves down 13-0. After trading possessions at the start of the 3rd quarter Buffalo took a fumble by DeAndre Hopkins on his first reception of the game Buffalo kicked another field goal to extend their: lead to 16 zip. At the midpoint of the 3rd quarter Houston finally started playing some football. The Texans offense finally started clicking and they drove to the Bill's 20. Deshaun Watson ran the 20 yards powering his way through 3 tacklers for the last 5 to score the Texans first points of the game. Watson followed that up with a 2 yard run for the 2-point conversion which cut the Bills lead in half as the 3rd quarter came to an end. Houston got a fumble recovery to start the 4th and they drove down to the Bills 23 where the drive stalled. Houston's Ka'imi Fairbairn nailed a 41 yard field goal to make the score 16-11 in favor of the Bills. After a 3-and-out by Buffalo Houston got possession at their own 26 after a punt by the Bills. All Houston did was drive the ball down the field on an 8 play 74 yard drive that ended with a 5 yard pass to Carlos Hyde and 2-point pass to Hopkins that gave Houston their first lead of the game at 19-16 with 4:37 left in the game. Buffalo had an 8 play 14 yard drive when they turned the ball over on downs. If not for a 15 yard personal foul on Buffalo the Bill may have tied the game on this drive. Houston got the ball with 1:35 left in the game on the Bills 39. You figured Houston could run out the clock but they got very conservative and Buffalo had all 3 of their time outs left. Houston went 4 and out and the 4th down play was aggravating to say the least. Buffalo had 5 D-linemen stacked between the Texans guards as they figured Houston was going to try a quarterback sneak. Watson should have seen the alignment and checked out of a play. A quick slant to Hopkins or Kenny Stills would have given the Texans a first down and iced the game. But, Watson didn't change the play and the Bills easily stuffed the QB sneak so the Bill had one last shot with just 1:16 left in the game on their own 30. Josh Allen ran for 20 yards to midfield on 1st down to midfield. Buffalo converted two 3rd and 10 plays to get down to the Texans 29. The Bills were unable to move the ball any further and they kicked a 38 yard field goal to tie the game and send it into overtime. The Texans and Bills traded possessions in overtime until Houston took the ball on their 2nd possession in overtime at their own 17. They drove the ball 73 yards in 9 plays to the Bills 10. Houston picked up yardage in chunks as the drove the ball down the field. A 27 yard pass and run to Hopkins, a 37 yard catch and run by Duke Johnson on a 3rd and 18, a 10 yard pass to Kenny Stills and a 37 yard pass to TE Jordan Thomas to cap the drive. Fairbairn kicked the 28 yard field goal that gave the Texans the win. The good thing that helped Houston was that Tennessee beat New England last night which means the lowest remaining seed will have to play Baltimore which means Houston will travel to Kansas City to play the Chiefs. Good weekend for the Texans which I hope continues next week in Kansas City.

 

I see a lot of posts that disparage Bill O'Brien. They want to see him fired because they believe he is a bad coach. O'Brien has been coach of the Texans for six seasons now and they have gone to the playoffs 4 of those six seasons. He missed his first season because he just didn't have that much talent. The team did improve from 4-12 the previous season to 9-7 barely missing the playoffs. In 2017 Houston got Deshaun Watson in the draft but between Week 8 and Week 9 Watson tore his ACL and was done for the year. The 12 losses exceeded the 7 losses total between 2014 and 2016. The past 2 seasons the Texans have been to the playoffs and they have won the AFC South 4 of the six years he's been head coach. O'Brien learned the pro game coming up through the Bill Belichick regime working his way up from offensive assistant to OC and the Patriots went to the Super Bowl with O'Brien as the OC. O'Brien actually turned the Penn State program around. A program racked by the child abuse scandal that got the Nittany Lions banned from bowl games for 4 years and a loss of 40 scholarships. Despite all that O'Brien turned the program around actually winning multiple Coach of the Year awards in 2012. When he took the Texans job in 2014 the Penn State was well on its way back to being a legit Big 12 contender. Do the Texans need work? Yep, there is no doubt but, there is no doubt the Texans have a lot of talent to build around. O'Brien became the defacto GM back in June and he's made some nice moves that helped improve the Texans roster. Laramy Tunsil, Kenny Stills, Bradley Roby are amoung the additions to the roster. The Texans have the duo of Carlos Hyde and Duke Johnson which makes an interesting dilemma for O'Brien next off season when the Texans should get RB Lamar Miller back. Before then the Texans have to make a trip to Kansas City for a divisional round playoff game. My point is maybe we should appreciate what we have. There are sure a lot of other teams that would like to have the success the Texans have had.

3 out of 4 ain't bad. I was right about the Packers, Titans and 49ers winning last week. If I was a betting man I would have won a bunch of money. The only game I missed on was the Texans-Chiefs and after the 1st quarter it sure looked good didn't it? 24 zip but the lead wasn't nearly big enough as the Chiefs roared back to take a 28-24 lead into halftime. For all intents and purposes the game was over then. The same thing that had plagued the Texans all year, a spotty defense, let the Texans down big time. It wasn't all bad defense, KC is really good and that offense is difficult to stop. I think Houston had a good defensive game plan, as pointed out by Jim Nance and Tony Romo, the Texans copied the defense New England used in the 2019 playoff game which the Patriots won. Play man on the receivers with a single high safety and rush everyone else. The trouble was, Houston's personnel aren't as good as New England's was in that playoff game. The thing that helped Houston to that early lead were dropped passes, at least 3 on 3rd down by the Chiefs and a blocked KC punt and a fumble recovery when Houston punted to KC which gave the Texans the ball at the Chief's six. It looked like Houston had it made but then the breaks started going KC's way. After a KC TD Houston had to punt on their next possession but Bill O'Brien rolled the dice and tried a fake which was stopped just a half yard short. KC got the ball near midfield and scored yet again. From this possession the dropped passes by KC ceased and the Texans defense failed to stop the Chiefs again until the score rolled up to the final tally of 51-31. The Chiefs set all kinds of records against the Texans defense in what turned out to be a rather embarrassing. Scoring 31 points in a playoff game is pretty good except when the opponent scores 51. The defense needs some serious upgrade to their pass rush which would help out their secondary immensely.

 

Earlier this week on 97.5 ESPN on the drive time show, The Blitz, host Fred Faour and AJ Hoffman ripped the Texans in general and Bill O'Brien in particular. Generally speaking Fred and AJ don't have much good to say about Houston sports franchises but this was a venom filled indictment of O'Brien and the McNair family for allowing O'Brien to continue. Faour said that yes Houston has made the playoffs 4 of his 6 years as head coach but none of those teams has the juice to really be a threat to actually contend for a Super Bowl. It is Faour's contention that as long as O'Brien is head coach/GM the Texans will never be anything but mediocre. He compared O'Brien to Marvin Lewis who won a lot of games for Cincinnati and made the playoffs almost every year but the Bengals never won a single playoff game. O'Brien's teams have won playoff games but they haven't been able to advance past the divisional round of the playoffs. There are a lot of fans who agree with Faour's opinion. I would be more prone to compare O'Brien to Jason Garrett whose had very limited success in the playoffs in his ten years in the NFL. The defenses in Garrett's tenure failed the Cowboys in the big moments way too often and it seems the Texans are on that same path. The question that will not have an answer until a change is actually made is, how long will the McNair family continue to support O'Brien if he can't get the Texans in position to win a championship? Just how patient will they be?

 

It's now the off season and all Texans nation can do now is look forward to pre-draft activities like the college All Star games, the scouting combine and and college pro days. The draft is an entity all to itself and is closely followed by undrafted free agent signings, OTAs rookie camps and mandatory mini camps all leading up to training camp. The NFL is a 24-7 365 business but right now the games are over for the 2019 season and we won't have them again until September.