Hit Me: Questions About The Houston Texans

How it feels? Nauseating. Absurdly tough opening schedule aside, I never thought the Texas would start the season in a three game hole. I wouldn’t say I’m panicked yet, but I’m getting there.

Yes, I think the Texans can beat the Colts on Sunday. Even though the Texans have only done it once in twelve (12) tries, I think the Texans have a shot. It’s the home opener, and the Colts have been dealt a very bad hand in terms of injuries.

FO has him as barely above average with a poor catch rate (%52)

I’ll say what I said before last year’s draft: The Texans could take nothing but DBs for the next two years, and I’d have no beef with the strategy. In terms of position of need, the Texans need help in the biggest way at the following positions:

1. CB
2. FS
3. DE
4. LB

I think the offense is in pretty good shape right now, but the defense alternates between mediocre and awful (save Super Mario and DeMeco).

Desperate to be sure, and I don’t see them rolling over on Sunday. They’re reeling; still, they haven’t shown any quit. Look for the Texans to fight like their season depends on it (because, not to be alarmist, it really does).

I know Tim gets busy, so to help him out, I’ll answers some of these.

Amobi Okoye
It’s true that Amobi is having sort of a sophomore slump, but I wouldn’t put it all on him. I think he a bigger body next to him. He and Travis Johnson are essentially the same size, and have a similar game. Unfortuately, with both barely breaking 300, they can give up a lot in terms of size to opposing O-Lines. This year, we drafted Big Frank Okam out of the University of Texas. He’s a very large 6’5" 350ish type DT. I would love to see him get more repetitions in the trenches next to Amobi, because he has the type of game that would compliment the quicker Okoye. The season, like Amobi, is still young. It will be another handful of games to see if he has indeed taken a step back, or if he just having trouble getting out of the blocks, so to speak.

Matt Schaub
The bad news is that he looked like dog crap in the first two games. Very poor decision making and when he did go to the right receiver, the throw sailed high. That being said, last week he looked like the Matt Schaub that had us Texans fans geeked last year. He was able to move the ball well (307 / 3 TDs / 0 Ints) and was on target for the most part. What changed? Well, he went back to using his TE Owen Daniels and his Possesion Receiver Kevin Walter on third downs. Made a world of difference. He looked confident against a pretty good J-Ville D, so we can only hope that he continues to build on that. I expect him to finish the season as the starter.

Duane Brown
He had a very good showing in the preseason, but struggled mightily against his first two regular season opponents (Pittsburgh and Tennessee). He, like Matt Schaub had a bounce back game against Jax. He’s a solid player who is taking every game in stride and improving week by week.

I’ll help Tim field some of these…

It’s hard to say that the defensive unit has digressed when they weren’t very good last year either. If you take a look at the numbers, the Texans finished the season 24th in the league in total team defense. As of today, the Texans are sitting in the 25th spot. In fact, they are allowing nearly the same ypg (07 – 344.2 / 08 – 341.0).

Defensive stalwarts like DeMeco Ryans and Mario Williams are still two of the best at their posistion; the problem is that really don’t have any help. Although we’ve burned countless draft picks on the D-Line, the only one with pass rush ability is Mario. Throw in a patchwork secondary filled with castoffs and youngsters and you can see why there hasn’t been a marked improvement.