If the Texans' objective in New Orleans was to make the Dallas Cowboys overconfident, it was a job well done.
There's no way the Cowboys can watch tape of the Saints' 38-20 victory and take the Texans seriously entering Saturday's nationally televised game at Reliant Stadium.
A second consecutive wretched performance against the Saints has left a lot of Texans fans on the ledge because they believe it's a harbinger of what's in store when the regular season arrives.
Even though it's still preseason, the third exhibition is the most important. Coaches treat it like the regular season before resting most of their starters in the last preseason game.
A victory over the Cowboys would reverse the despair of being a Texans fan this week.
"I better not have to appeal to them on anything," coach Gary Kubiak said Sunday. "If they watch this film and feel good about what we were doing, then something's wrong.
"We're going to spend a lot of time (Monday) in this (meeting) room and talk about some issues that we have - talk about preparing to play games, talk about doing the little things to win.
"We've got the right guys, and they'll come back and play better this week."
The Texans couldn't play worse on defense. Not only did they allow 409 yards, including 198 rushing, they let New Orleans convert 50 percent of its third-down plays and 100 percent of its fourth-down attempts. The Saints controlled the ball for 40 minutes.
The Saints are the Super Bowl champions. The Cowboys are Super Bowl contenders coming off a victory at San Diego.
"We're going to play an excellent team, and our (starters) are going to play at least three quarters," Kubiak said. "Most everybody in the league approaches the first three quarters of this game like it's regular season. We'll see where we're at. We need to respond. We need to play a lot better."
Kubiak mentioned a few defensive players - second-year free safety Troy Nolan, rookie cornerback Kareem Jackson and rookie defensive tackle Earl Mitchell - in a positive light.
Nolan had five unassisted tackles and a sack on a blitz. Mitchell was part of the inside rotation and had two tackles.
Unlike some of his players who pointed out that as bad as the New Orleans performance was, it was still just a preseason game, Kubiak doesn't make excuses.
"I never look at it that way," Kubiak said. "It wasn't good. We got pushed around. Some of the things that went on in that game, it wasn't good. Our attention to detail, our effort at times -it's not near what it needs to be for us to get ready to play Indianapolis (in the regular-season opener). Obviously, we've got some things to fix and some issues to attend to, and we'll do that."
The turnaround better start with the defense.
"We have to stop the run," Kubiak said. "That was the biggest regression.
"And we couldn't get off the field (on third down). I don't think we tackled very well in space. It was just too easy for them to stay on the field. I don't think we were doing anything wrong scheme-wise. I just don't think we executed what we were supposed to be doing very well."
Our Dmen were looking straight ahead........not down to find the little mutha..........that must have been our problem..............Gosh, if we only had a smaller D
