 Just when the Texans seemed to be garnering some national attention and respect around the league, they gave it all back Sunday against the Colts, rolling over for a 38-15 loss. After an encouraging start, the Texans went limp on offense, and got slapped around like children on defense. Peyton Manning easily picked apart the Houston secondary, and the Colts ran the ball with ease. Sure, the Texans faced much stiffer competition this week, but Houston has certainly improved enough to at least make a game of it. Instead, it wasn’t even as close as the blowout score indicated.
The Texans reverted back to their old ways.
In all phases of the game, the Texans inexplicably did all the things that have haunted them all season long. Sage Rosenfels faced his toughest competition yet, and instead of vindicating the “give Sage the starting job” crowd, he showed why he’s been a career back-up. Simply put: inconsistency. Sage threw three interceptions, and was not able to lead the Texans on offense save for the impressive opening drive and a garbage time touchdown pass to Andre Johnson.
On defense, it was ugly. Very ugly. In a game that was totally meaningless to the Colts, Peyton Manning absolutely owned the Texans, throwing for 311 yards and three touchdowns, while completing a fantastic 28 of his 35 pass attempts. Peyton made it look easy against what we thought was the best Texans team that has ever played in Indianapolis.
Bad play-calling also made an unwelcome return.
Late in the first half, with two time outs at their disposal, the Texans had the ball near mid-field down 24-7. Clearly, they needed to get at least a field goal to get some positive momentum going for the second half. Instead, they played scared. Fearful of Manning getting the ball back, the Texans ran the ball three straight times, then Rosenfels threw an incompletion to end the drive. Afterwards, the Texans were lucky enough to recover a Reggie Wayne fumble and still had the opportunity to get a field goal before the half, but Kris Brown missed it wide right.
In the second half, while way behind - the Texans continued to go to the running game. Of course, a strong running game is probably the thing that all teams believe is the cornerstone of an effective offense - but at some point you have to look at the scoreboard and try to score as quickly as you can. The Colts not only scored at will, but they also ate up huge chunks of clock… so even if the Texans would have been able to run the ball well in the second half and score as a result of it, the Colts would have dominated the clock. The Colts won the clock battle handily, 35:45 to the Texans’ 24:15.
The strong defense from last week evaporated.
Even though the blizzard was outside the warm comfort of the RCA dome on Sunday, the Texans defense found a hole, and went into deep hibernation. The Colts rolled up an astounding 458 total yards, which is even more embarrassing for Houston when you consider that 1 - again, the game was totally meaningless for the Colts, and 2 - the Colts were nursing a huge lead in the second half. Those facts and numbers add up to what amounted to a complete no-show by the Houston defense.
Mario Williams was able to pull Manning down for his now NFL-leading 14th sack of the season, but that was just about the lone bright spot. In addition to poor team play, Travis Johnson didn’t make any new fans in Houston this week as he had two stupid personal foul penalties that cost the Texans huge in terms of yardage and momentum. Rookie cornerback Fred Bennett has had a very impressive first season, but Reggie Wayne torched him for 10 catches, 143 yards, and a touchdown.
Rosenfels falls back to Earth.
When Sage marched the Texans down the field for a touchdown to start the game, Texans fans were ready for a breakout game for the quarterback and the franchise. Three interceptions, and a lot of bad decisions later, everyone had cooled their heels. Rosenfels is still the best, most capable back-up quarterback in the NFL, and there’s no discounting how he had previously led the Texans to a 3-0 record as a starter in 2007. But today, against a team far, far better than any of the teams he had previously beaten - he simply had a bad game.
Hopefully, the predicatble fan groundswell to give Sage the starting job will begin to realize that a 3-0 record against two bad, and one better than average team is not enough to take Matt Schaub’s job away from him. That said - you also can’t permanently indict Sage for one bad game against a great team. If Rosenfels starts next week, he’ll have a chance to redeem himself against the Jacksonville Jaguars - a team that is playing perhaps the best football in the entire NFL in recent weeks.
Rosenfels vs. Schaub will be a big off-season topic.
Sage has already proved himself worthy this year, but if he looks good in a win against the Jags it should leave no doubt that he has earned a shot to enter 2008 on equal footing with Schaub. Schaub’s salary probably wouldn’t allow such a scenario, and Kubiak is going to back him to the end - but next year won’t be about ‘getting better’ in Houston. Next year’s going to be about having a winning record, and making the playoffs. Rosenfels has proven invaluable to this team, and if things go south quickly for Schaub in 2008 - he may get his chance regardless of Schaub’s health.
Buckle up, the Jags are steamrolling to the playoffs.
Nobody’s playing better football than the Jaguars right now. Coming off a rousing road win in Pittsburgh last week, they took care of business at home against the Raiders on Sunday, pummeling them 49-11. Jacksonville’s always been a solid defensive team since Jack Del Rio took over as head coach, but now they have a suddenly-scary offense, led by David Garrard and a phenomenal 1-2 punch at running back with Fred Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew.
In Week 6, the Jags slapped Houston around like a bunch of high-schoolers, 37-17. The way both teams played today, it doesn’t seem likely that the outcome of the Texans’ season finale will be much different. Houston will once again be adorned in their Battle Red uniforms, and have a chance at an 8-8 record, which would be the best in franchise history. If the Texans can’t get motivated by that game, in that setting, against their bitter rivals - then really, what kind of team do we have? We’ll find out next week. The smart money says that Houston will play much better than they did against the Colts, but getting a win over Jacksonville will be a tall order.
Let’s hope Houston can leave fans with some positive feelings going into the off-season. After next week, it’s going to be a long, long wait until September.
Please visit www.HoustonDiehards.com for much more Texans commentary, and the 2006 Draft Tracker!
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