2019 Houston Texans Season

[eagle eye]

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!

[eagle eye]

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.

[eagle eye]

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!

[eagle eye]

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!

[eagle eye]

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!

[eagle eye]

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.

[eagle eye]

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!!!!

[eagle eye]

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

[eagle eye]

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!!!!

[eagle eye]

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!!!

[eagle eye]

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.

[eagle eye]

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.

[eagle eye]

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

[eagle eye]

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.

[eagle eye]

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.