Texans first ever regular season win....against the Cowboys 19-10 Texans first ever shutout....against the Cowboys. 18-0
Beat down to the third power. Carr looked solid, Babin with the strip on Testaverde was huge, Dunta play well despite being picked on early and covering Keyshawn, and Peek was everywhere. I gave a verbal lashing to my brother-in-law all night long.
...as for the Cowboys Henson looked good other than the mistake with the int at the goaline; similar short-armed throwing style as Carr but not as good of an arm. Julius Jones was impressive carrying the ball with cutbacks and he is very quick, although he did not display very good recieving skills. And Pete Hunter, whom people were mentioning all throughout this thread as a player, was taken to school all night.
The beginning was awesome..it was fun. Metrolightrail is nice. The Cowboys sucked..I don't know if they were even trying lol.
Great game. Hollings better figure out how to hold on to the ball. It hit the dirt three times and he lost one of them. Carr looked terrific as did Robinson. Babin, once he got the feel of it, looked good and Peek is going to really be fun to watch in pass rushing situations. The guy is just a beast.
Players that impressed me on the Texans: Robinson - Showed some great hussle. What impressed me much more than the batted balls was the open field tackle where he got juked but got his arm out and swept the guy. That was a key play, and he stuck with it enough to make the play. Bruener - Guy looked SOLID out there. That fumble by Hollings that he recovered was a real hustle play. I gotta think stuff like that will really solidify him at the starting position unless there is an injury. Carr - Guy looked light years ahead of his rookie season in terms of confidence and decision making. Never really got rattled, stayed in the pocket and didn't hold on to the ball too long, and showed he could really improvise on that great TD toss. In fact, the only throw he didn't complete was the one that was batted at the scrimmage. Highly impressive. I also thought his short passes looked like that had much better touch on them than last season when he would throw lasers if he was attempting a 5 yard pass or a 50 yarder. Players that irked me on the Texans: Hollings - His potential is obvious. He's quick, and gets to the outside like lightning. But the fact that he seems completely incapable of breaking tackles is bothersome since our O-line is not so good that they will open huge holes inside. After the defense realizes his only real money move is bouncing outside, they will be waiting for him out there. Unless he starts running a little stronger up the middle, I don't see him being a feature back. The fumble issue could be a HUGE problem too...but he might have just had a bad game. I don't remember that being an issue last year in his short time. Was that a concern for him out of college? Anderson (RB) - I know he got hurt and has been out of football for a while, but he seemed highly tentative and I am not seeing the potential that I have been hearing about from training camp. I think he gets cut. Tackling in general - Some eye-sore bad tackling at various points in this game. Several times a Cowboy's player would get hit behind the line of scrimmage, and manage to get back to the line for no gain, or maybe even get a couple yards. At one point, Julius Jones was hit about 3 yards behind scrimmage, and ended up turning it into a 7 yard gain. Several players had a shot at him, and didn't wrap him up. That needs to improve. I really liked the playcalling in this game. Good mix. Cowboys players that impressed me: Henson - This will end up being an excellent trade for the Girls. They don't have to worry about another Hutchison. Henson looked very confident and showed great touch in his short time. I was laughing on his first drive when they called all running plays and didn't even let him throw. I thought maybe his practices had been weak and they didn't want him to embarass himself. I was wrong. Even with the INT, he looked great and I am quite confident he will be the starter by years end. Maybe even at the beginning of the season if he continues to throw like tonight and Testeverde continues to suck like he did. R. Lee - VERY quick and had a knack for making our guys miss. Looks like a solid pickup for the Cowboys (or was he with them last year?). Unfortunately, he will have to share time with the only other Cowboy that impressed me tonight.... J. Jones - Cowboys look like they will be validated on skipping S. Jackson and going with Julius Jones. He is very solid, and difficult to bring down. But despite his apparent size, he has great footwork and hops around enough to dodge tacklers. Nice draft pickup. First quarter was very encouraging for the Texans. Defense looked solid, with Robinson shining. And offense really impressed me. That was without our best RB on the field. This looks like a really well balanced team. As a general comment, I REALLY REALLY REALLY hope the defensive pass interference calling is juts overly harsh to clean things up for the regular season. If they are this sticklerish on week one, a lot fans are going to complain since it slows the game down something fierce.
Oh yeah, wanted to comment on Babin. His pass rushing abilities are obvious, and I can see how he racked up the sack totals in college...but he is going to have to start defending the run better if he wants to keep that starting role. Several times they ran right at him and he didn't even really get a hand on him. I have no doubt this aspect of his game will improve. The forced fumble was great, and that little spin move of his to the inside seems like it could be very effective if he doesn't telegraph it. Overall, I think it appears as if the Texans drafted very well. Lord looked decent on defense, so he could turn out to be a good gamble.
You're right. I keep getting him and Earl mixed up. I know Earl was a second day pick, but the expectations for him are a little higher. Wasn't he 4th round?
Thanks for the great game updates guys. I was unable to see the game, so any other impressions of the game would be greatly appreciated.
Speaking of Earl, I can't wait to see him play. He was one of the biggest hitters in the NCAA. And I disagree with you assesment of Babin in the run defense.
WOW! What a great game! First Shut out baby! Ride em CowGirls! Carr: He just looked fantastic out there tonight. 7-8, 89yds, and a 1 TD! That's just amazing! He nearly perfect. Our D looked great tonight, there were times where they seemed over welmed against the run, but they eventually put it together to keep the Cowgirls out of the inzone. The Girls were, IIRC, 0-2? in the Redzone while the Texans were 4-5. I hope they can turn more of those field goals into TD's in the future, but still. They were points and weren't Turnovers like the Girls did a couple of times in the Redzone. Babin's speed and that spin he made tonight to get the sack/strip that gave us the football was huge. I am really liking the guy on our line, even though he didn't seem to handle the Run very well. I don't doubt that he will fix that part of his game. Also, Wand was great tonight. He did a great job of protecting the pocket. The Texans looked great tonight. A real Football team. The CG's looked like crap, and did their best to not get shut out. But damn, our safeties played damn well tonight. GO TEXANS! 19-10......18-0 BABY! Beat em Cowgirls!!!!!!
I just got back from the game. I was even on TV on KHOU news, when they were talking about security... They showed me being patted down (probably b/c I'm brown! ) Anyways, I was SURROUNDED by Cowboys fans, including my buddy. Damn did I have fun rubbing this win in their collective faces!
I just got back from the game too, It was amazing They somehow messed up my groups tickets and had reissued them to other people and after fighting for almost 2 hours, our group or 13 got to take up on the luxury suites for the rest of the game. We missed a lot of the exciting action in the beginning, but it was still a great time. GO TEXANS
I enjoyed what I saw of the game, wish I coulda seen the first units out there a lil more. The preseason is always a tease. For the cowboys, the secondary is going to be a concern all season, even when Woodson come back. The pass rush didn't impress me at all either. Eddie wasn't out there long but he looked like his usual self(blah). I'm not sold on Vinny as the starter but we'll see, maybe he'll surprise. I think it'll be harder for them to make the playoffs again this season. For the texans ... wasnt impressed with hollings. I'll believe the texans have a good passing game when I see it during the reg season, still hate the conservative o gameplan. D looks stout again. Will be in the hunt for a playoff spot but I dunno if they'll make it this year..
THE COWBOYS ARE A JOKE A FRAUD I TELL YOU. The texans went 5-11 in the toughest division in football last year and lost to the Titans,Colts and the Pats by a combined 9 points at the end of last year. They have upgraded their d-line, and their secondary. Added depth and don't have any major gaping holes in their lineup. The cowboys on the other hand still have a question mark even after letting that scrub carter go. (read between the lines lol), and your big offseason addition was a broken down eddie george (3.3 ypc last year) and a reciever who is highly touted but hasn't done much since leaving the Jets. You have a better shot at the playoffs because you play in the NFC (L)east. The whole conference only has 4 or so quality teams, and your division has 1 quality team (ok damn good) in phili, a washington team that has proven time and time again that you can't buy a team, the giants who will be horrible and Dallas, a 6-10 to 8-8 team disguised by the fact that they play in a weak ass conference. The texans are the best team in texas this year and I'm calling it now, we'll go 8-8 or 9-7 which in our division (and everybody may finish 8-8 or better this year) is better than the 8-8 you hope to achieve
Anyone who wants to contribute a critique of Seth Wand's play will earn the everlasting gratitude of good old nyrocket.
It was a nice game dem Texans played! I was really impress with Babin & D.R. , the 2 rookies that played well against the Cowboys 1st team! Carr looked sharp & the O-line protective him well! It also help open holes 4 Hollins, who ran well, but NEEDS 2 protect the ball better ( 3 fumles) !
Thanks for the breakdown since I know you didn't have to do it. I appreciate it. I saw like 2 or 3 plays of Henson, and he looked like he could be a good QB, getting it to guys where only they could get it. But he still needs some more work. I saw his INT occur before he even threw it and I was just hoping he didn't throw it that way. But he still looked ok...in 2 or 3 plays. Stats looked good, except for the INT of course. Reshard Lee is my training camp player for this year. I think he was an undrafted free agent last year that we picked up. I think he left college early because he family needed money or something like that, so I was kind of rooting for him anyway. However, the little bit I saw of him last preseason, he showed the same thing you mentioned: the ability to make guys miss. Unfortunately, he messed up his knee and was done for the year, but the Cowboys made sure to get him on the practice squad. I kind of hope we can do a 3 man rotation with EG, JJ, and RL. Good news about JJ. Since I've seen nothing from him, it is good to see what he brings. It sounds like both he and Reshard can make people miss and hopefully George can play a little better so we can have a kind of thunder and lightning thing, or whatever you call it. The Cowboys secondary sounds like it was eaten up, probably along with the rest of the D, but I kind of expected that. I would have been thrilled if we made it through preseason with our secondary playing well. However, I think the main reason they are getting torn up is experience. Pete Hunter has got the tools to be a nice CB, but he doesn't know how to play it correctly. I think he played safety in college and when he did play CB in the NFL, he played in the slot or something like that. This is all new to him, so he will probably get burned a lot, maybe even into the season. But the optimist in me says that Parcells and the rest of the coaches will work with him to improve his techniques. Better for him to get burned now than week 9 of the season. Even if he can't do it, I think we got some guys who are also physically gifted who could do the job with the experience. Plus, I don't see how we could do any worse than Mario Edwards. I'd like to see how he does now with the new emphasis on pass interference. Tony Dixon is a big concern for me, though. While Pete Hunter is replacing Mario Edwards, Dixon is "replacing" Darren Woodson. That scares me. Even if he learns quickly and plays well for his standards, he will be a weak link in the D. The pass rush kind of worries me too, although I think the other starting DT, Carson, didn't play and they've been pretty high on him. We still should have gotten something though with Wiley, Ellis, and Glover on the line, our quick LBs, and Roy Williams. All I saw were the sack numbers, which actually didn't really exist for the Cowboys, but did they even pressure or knock Carr down? That was a concern last year and it often left our secondary at a disadvantage, which doesn't need to happen again, especially since we got better, or so it seems. Looked like we had a lot of penalties as well. I know I got tired of reading "illegal formation" and "false start." I guess that kind of gives the idea of who came to play and who didn't. Although I guess the scoreboard gives a better indication of that.
