Our Houston Texans defeated the Oakland Raiders on this Sunday by a final score of 23-14. Our record improved to 4-8 on the year as a result. This was a nice road win for our Texans and it really gives us momentum as we head home and prepare to do battle with the surging Tennessee Titans. First lets talk about this win over the Raiders... Offensively, not a good day passing the ball obviously. David Carr only threw for 32 yards and we had -5 NET passing yards. This is something we need to work on, it's hasn't been great the past couple weeks so we'll have to work on this. David Carr didn't really have his best day. He had a fumble with 2 minutes to go before the half and the Raiders recovered, luckily our defense stopped them their. Then, he fumbeled on a sack again right before the half and the Raiders took it all the way back for a TD, the same thing happened earlier in the season against Tennessee. Then, the play right after the second fumble he got sacked and the ball came out and luckily he fell on it that time. David has to do a better job holding onto the football when he gets sacked. David also got sakced I think 5 times today. Some of this is on the offensive line, some of David not throwing the ball in time. So again, the passing game and David protecting the football better is something we need to work on. In terms of the running game, it was great today. Wali Lundy did a nice job, he had 9 carries for 33 yards and also a 3-yard TD run. Who really impressed me is the guy I have been wanting to see again, Ronnie Dayne. My hat goes off to this kid, he did an extremely good job running the ball today. 95 yards on 18 touches, he was running with a purpose today. We can now use him more in our backfield in the future. I said earlier in the year that I thought we had 3 solid backs on this team with Lundy, Dayne and Gado and it looks more and more like that every week. Great job running the ball today. Defensively today against the Raiders, I can't say enough. Hell of a job. This defense plays their asses off week after week and is a very solid unit. A very young, solid unit. We got 5 turovers on of the Raiders today, which really excites me. You know, we have been playing solid defense for several weeks now but we couldnt seem to get the turnovers. The started coming the last couple weeks and we really got them today with 5. This is one hell of a defense and they will only continue to get better and better. Talking some about our turnovers we got, C.C. Brown knocked one out on the first driver and Petey Faggins returned it all the way, 58 yards for the TD, that was really huge. In the second quarter, Dexter McCleon picked off a pass from Aaron Brooks, we got our third turnover in the 4th quarter when McCleon stripped Oakland's Williams and DeMeco Ryans plopped on it. And Finally, our fifth turnover of the game came when Mr. DeMeco Ryans picked off Aaron Brooks with :12 seconds remaining to give us our 4th win of the season. DeMeco Ryans just continues to excell and the kid is just a beast. He continue to play tremendous week after week and he's a rookie. He's got one hell of a future ahead of him, he's already becoming a leader and I just can't say enough about his play. He is certianly a strong canidate for Rookie of the Year in my mind. Mario Williams looked like he played solid. Again, he continue to play injured with that foot so just the fact that he's playing impresses me, and he did some good things today and he's also obviously got a tremendous future ahead of him. Overall defensively, I just can't say enough- another great game for them, this time with 5 turnovers they went out and got. I do want to talk briefly about Special Teams. Chad Stanley's first punt was a nice one, but the ones that followed were not. He, again, just seems to be having a bad year and it may be his age catching up with him, I don't know, but he's been a solid punter for us for 4 years so let's take it easy critizing him, h'es going through some rough times and we'll see how he fairs. I think he can still be productive. Kris Brown missed his first FG attempt of the game then came back and knocked down 3 stragiht, that was very encouraging. I like Kris and it was good to see him hit 3 in a row today, all crutial FG's too. He should get a game ball in my mind. Finally, Jerome Mathis. Wow. Welcome back Jerome we have missed you. Hsi first kick return could not have been worse, he dropped the ball in theendzone then made the poor decision to take it out and got ramped at the 4 yard line. Then, to start the second half, Jerome took it 87 yards down the field down to the 3 to set up the Lundy touchdown run. Wow. He is extremely fast and he is one of the best returners I have seen, we just need to keep that boy healthy. Great job Jerome. Overall, we played sloppy at times today, espically in the passing game offensively. We also had some more of the dumb penalties, flase starts, holdings and an unnesscary roughness penalty on CC Brown and the Raiders capilized on it and scored, and this is just something we need to do better on the road. However, we did two of things you must to do win. Run the ball and play defense. The ol' fashion way boys. We certainly, again, did a great job in both those areas and now we're 4-8, head back home to Relaint to play host to the surging Titans who are coming off 2 unbeliavable wins, but I'll talk more about this in my post tomorrow. Nice road win today, we have now doubled our win total from last season, and we still have 4 games left and can accomplish a whole lot in these next 4. Great job cheering us on today fans. My hat goes off to you brave soles who showed up in Oakland today cheering us on, you are braver than I. I'm sure you folks at home were cheering us on too, great job. GO TEXANS !
Nice post. I just can't say enough about DeMeco. He is just sooooo gooooooood!! If DeMeco doen't get at least DROY this year, there's something seriously wong with NFL. And in Feb., he should be in Hawaii playing football. GO TEXANS!!
