The running game came alive Sunday, and the Texans rode Ron Dayne’s 122 yards and a touchdown to an ugly win. While this was a desperately-needed victory for the Texans, word has come down that star cornerback Dunta Robinson is out for the season after suffering a devastating knee injury. The doctors have apparently told Dunta that his hamstring completely came off the bone. Not to understate it, but um… ouch. And a bigger ouch to an already below-average Texans secondary.

Trouble on the horizon for the secondary
Coach Gary Kubiak and General Manager Rick Smith are going to have to work some magic during the bye week. Drew Brees and the Saints are coming to town, and Brees has returned to form. He absolutely TORCHED an excellent Jaguars defense for 445 yards passing and 3 touchdowns. That does not bode well for the Texans without their stud cornerback.

How about that running game?
Ahman Green looked great until he pulled an Ahman Green. He had a nice touchdown and a 53-yard screen pass reception early in the game and then came out hurt… AGAIN! Adimchinobe Echemandu only got two carries, but he wasn’t needed because Ron Dayne erupted for 122 yards and a touchdown. In total, the Texans ran for 178 yards, but let’s not get carried away. Oakland is a terrible, terrible team and their defense was 30th in the league against the run coming into the contest. You can bet it won’t be so easy against a New Orleans team on the rise.

Credit for the offensive line
Despite giving up far fewer sacks this season, the offensive line has taken a lot of heat - and rightly so. The run blocking has not been good, and Matt Schaub has been getting beat up in recent weeks. Well, I guess the big guys up front were tired of being called soft. They were tired of being blamed for the running game problems… and they were very upset that fans and observers were accusing them of not sticking up for their quarterback last week against San Diego. They most definitely channeled that anger and frustration toward the opposition this week. The line pushed around the Oakland D-line all game long, protected Rosenfels well, and didn’t give up a sack. Credit where it’s due today - the offensive line played a great game.

Sage Rosenfels shows is worth… and his place on the team
Rosenfels had an okay game. Had he lit the Raiders up, you’d have the pre-requisite morons in Houston calling for him to be the starter… but he is what he is. A great backup quarterback. He did a good job managing the offense, and made a heck of a play on the long touchdown pass to Andre Davis - but he’s not cut out to be a starter in this league on a permanent basis. Can we all please realize and accept this? Matt Schaub should be rested and healthy after the bye week, and he is the unquestioned starting quarterback. To argue otherwise is simply ridiculous. That said, the Texans might actually have the best and most capable backup quarterback in the NFL. No doubt he could start for a few teams this year - but his strength is as a backup, and he excels at it.

Weekly reference to the defensive line:
I can pretty much just copy & paste any other week’s commentary of the Texans’ defensive line in this place. They got some decent pressure this week, but still only managed one sack against a team that has given up 22. Mario Williams had one tackle, and didn’t seem to make any kind of an impact - but Kubiak usually says he grades out well on game film. I have no reason to not believe the coach, so I’ll just say “Mario didn’t seem to do very much” with the understanding that he may have somehow done a lot that we couldn’t see.

One thing the line did do this week that they hadn’t done previously - commit several stupid penalties. Amobi Okoye and Anthony Maddox each had one, but hey - a win is a win. The line got bullied for 153 rushing yards, and only got the aforementioned one sack. Luckily the pass defense was much better this week, getting three interceptions (and should have had more).

You win the turnover battle, you win the game
No, it doesn’t always work out that way, but far more often than not it does. After hemorrhaging 11 turnovers in the last two games, the Texans settled down and only committed one - a bad interception by Sage Rosenfels. We could sit here and speculate about how Kubiak fixed the turnover problems during the week in practice, or how the players had a renewed focus - but let’s just call it what it is. The Raiders are the cure for whatever ails you. The Texans played a bad team, and they won the game. That may sound like I’m not giving them enough credit - but that’s not true. Good teams beat the teams they should beat. Houston wasn’t able to do that against Atlanta on the road, but did the trick against Oakland… and they did it without several of their biggest weapons. That’s a huge positive for this team going into the bye week.

Relax. Recover. Reload.
Oh, merciful bye week, you’re finally here. The Texans should return at full-strength on November 18th, and boy are they going to need all they help they can get. The Saints are roaring back into the playoff hunt. After their terrible start, check out some relevant stats from their last four games:

Week 9
Jaguars 24
Saints 41

Drew Brees: 445 yards passing, 3 TDs
Saints: 103 yards rushing

Week 8
Saints 31
49ers 10

Drew Brees: 336 yards passing, 4 TDs
Saints: 102 yards rushing

Week 7
Falcons 16
Saints 22

Drew Brees: 219 yards passing, 2 TDs
Saints: 91 yards rushing

Week 6
Saints 28
Seahawks 17

246 yards passing, 2 TDs
Saints: 121 yards rushing

Yikes. Those are seriously good offensive numbers against some teams with a better pass defense than the Texans. Of course, with the Texans - attitude and preparedness is going to play a bigger role in this game than statistics. They’ll know going in that the Saints are going to be the favorites, and that Brees will be licking his chops against a secondary minus by FAR their best player, Dunta Robinson.

With Matt Schaub, Andre Johnson, and Ahman Green all assumed to be ready to go, the Texans will be able to give New Orleans their best shot. You can bet Kubiak will have the fellas ready to treat this game as the beginning of a whole new season. They’ll be playing in front of a sellout home crowd, coming off a win, and ready to take on a brutal schedule the rest of the way.

We’re really going to see what this team is made of the last seven games. At this point in the season every single team left on the schedule, with the exception of Denver (who is still a tough team to play) is a legitimate playoff contender. If the Texans can post a winning record in these last seven games, the season would have to be considered a success. Whether or not they can achieve that, we don’t know. But with this team you can be assured - it won’t be boring.

Please visit www.HoustonDiehards.com for much more!

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