Official Texans @ Saints Thread, 08/16/2008

[Keith]

The thread for any game-related posts as the Texans close out their week in New Orleans to take on the Saints in the Superdome.

[gunslinger57]

JJ's off to a flying start.

[Arky]

JJ's off to a flying start.

Hehe.... Oy...

Saints convert FG:

Saints 3, Texans 0

[gunslinger57]

Brown seems to enjoy the one cut offense a bit.

Still trying to figure out how Matt fit that throw in to Kevin.

[gunslinger57]

Touchdown Texans!

Jason David's as popular as hurricanes in NO at the moment.

[Arky]

Brown seems to enjoy the one cut offense a bit.

Yep, they're getting good yards on Winston's side.

TD to Walter!

Texans 7, Saints 3

[Arky]

Dang, turn around, Jacques.

[gunslinger57]

C.C. goes for the knockout shot there. Nice separation hit.

[Arky]

Nice break up by CC (I can't believe I said that).

Saints go for the FG.

Texans 7, Saints 6

[Arky]

TD Leach!

Texans 14, Saints 6

2's and 3's are probably gonna start seeing action, now..

[Arky]

Bush hurdles for 6.

Texans 14, Saints 13

[Arky]

K Brown FG good.

Texans 17, Saints 13

1's are staying in longer than I thought....

Schaub looking sharp - piling up some nice stats...

[Arky]

Colston pushes off for 6.

Saints 20, Texans 17

edit: score holds up till halftime.

[Arky]

Taylor runs it in for 6.

Texans 24, Saints 20

[Arky]

Brunnel to Dudley - short pass for 6.

Saints 27, Texans 24

Game is a defensive struggle (sarc).

[Arky]

Slaton puts a headlock on a roster spot.

Texans 31, Saints 27

[edo783]

JJ seems to be digging a pretty deep hole with all of the mistakes.

[Arky]

Final Score:

Texans 31, Saints 27.

Offense looked impressive - defense didn't.

No Darius Walker - perhaps they had a change of plans and will give him some PT next week?...

Ugh, Jacoby... it's preseason but he needs to get it together...

Brink OK - didn't embarrass himself

Chris Brown still healthy after a few carries...

Some good individual plays on defense. Not a good game for Jacques Reeves....

Welcome to the NFL Antwuan Molden.

[Arky]

JJ seems to be digging a pretty deep hole with all of the mistakes.

Yep. But way too early to give up on him. Kubes and Marciano will shape him up (or woe is him).

[barrett]

Brown looked very good. The guy can run the ball and fits the offense well. I just fear he may be a tease since it seems inevitable he will get hurt.

Taylor is big, strong, fast, and just runs straight. He doesn't even seem to look for a hole. He can be effective as a chain mover, but I don't see at all the talk of him as a feature back. Looks to have a Rueben Droughns ceiling at best.

Slaton looked awesome outside and between the tackles. Now I want to see him against guys who will have a job next month.

[jaimeg]

Brown looked very good. The guy can run the ball and fits the offense well. I just fear he may be a tease since it seems inevitable he will get hurt.

Taylor is big, strong, fast, and just runs straight. He doesn't even seem to look for a hole. He can be effective as a chain mover, but I don't see at all the talk of him as a feature back. Looks to have a Rueben Droughns ceiling at best.

Slaton looked awesome outside and between the tackles. Now I want to see him against guys who will have a job next month.

Time to see Slaton and Walker with the first team and not as third down backs. I guess I can do without Chris Brown not because of yesterdays game but because I don't trust he can be healthy for 16 games. I'd rather go with the potential of these young guys and then determine if we need to draft a running back next year.

[Bigtinylittle]

Jacoby Jones has two problems. One, he is spooked. I think he's afraid of getting hit on the returns and is showing it. Two, he doesn't seem to be football smart. He made two serious mistakes on punts last night. On the fumble he lost focus because he was too zeroed in on the defender coming down. The second big mistake was not fair catching the punt which landed outside the ten yard line. Unless I'm mistaken, the rule of thumb is fair catch anything outside the ten because for each yard the ball lands outside the ten, the greater the chance that it will trickle down to the goal line. Which is exactly what happened.

I think at this point it would be best to remove Jacoby from punt return duties. If you look at his return average after he came back last year, it won't be a big sacrifice. Let him focus on his receiving duties. He is very raw in that area too. I'm not sure he has the maturity to get better, but he has the chance to be a good number 2 reciever if he works hard at it. Right now I think he's no better than number 5.

Schaub didn't surprise me. He showed again that he's very accurate and very smart. His biggest weakness by far is lack of mobility. But last night that was not a problem because he got no real pressure the whole first half. If he gets anywhere near that much protection this year, and if he stays healthy, he will have an impressive season.

Slaton looks like a good pick. He unlike Jacoby, he seems really football smart.
I don't think he has much power, but he's shifty enough to have some effectiveness running up the middle. That has surprised me.

Brown ran more than well enough to make the team. He looks like he has more power than Taylor and probably makes better decisions. He seems a bit faster too. I think right now he is our number two back and if Green has lost anything Brown could pass him up.

Our D-line looks no better than last year. I guess it's too early to write it off, but I'm not feeling optimistic. And when we blitzed things didn't go any better.

I'm guessing Cook gets released. If he doesn't I think Walker goes to PS. I think that's a safe move because I'm doubting that another team will pick him up.

I wouldn't be surprised if Weaver gets released too. I don't think he is totally healed. I heard an interview last week where he said as much. He also implied that he would never be 100% again. If Cochran passes him up it will surprise me if Weaver stays. I don't see how we can pay six million for a backup. I know we will have to eat a lot of cap money, but I don't think anyone expects him to be here for more than one more year anyway, so basically we would be adding about three million or so extra dead money and saving 3 million on what his non-guaranteed money would be this year. Maybe we could do something with that money.

In the little time Brink was in, he showed good poise. He definately makes the PS.

The Saints defense got good penetration into our backfield way too many times on running plays. I hope that's only because our new line is still jelling, but it has me worried. At least it wasn't as bad as last week, though. Last week it was horrible.

[Mike]

Nice job by Schaub and the offense. Kevin Walter deserves to be a starter.
Matt had nice timing and touch on his throwns, good protection from the O-Line. Duane Brown again solid.

We need to get some pressure on the opposing QB's. Yikes, that is starting to concern me more than anything. Our CB's (Reeves and Moulden) need to get their heads turned on the ball. That is a good passing offense, but we need to get to some pressure. Colvin again MIA. I wonder if Chaun Thompson gets some snaps with his hand down over the next two games.

Demps and Brown were OK, not spectaular or bad. Diles blew a coverage for a long pass to a TE.

Slayton looked good and I thought Taylor was OK as well.

Alex Gibbs is one intense coach. Two rushing TD's in the red zone is a start.

[nero THE zero]

According to Kubiak's presser this afternoon, Slaton will be running with the 1's on Friday.

I have a feeling he will be splitting duties with CT. If we went into the season with a RBBC of Brown, CT, and Slaton I wouldn't be too disappointed.

[HPF Bob]

I was unimpressed with the running game until garbage time. I think too often the Texans are trying to run a stretch play outside instead of looking for a cutback lane. Watched the Broncos blow the Cowboys off the ball repeatedly after the Texans game and I was saying to myself "THIS is how you do that". Gibbs can teach the O-line but the runners don't seem to have this yet.

Passing game was superb and imagine how much better it can get with AJ in there. Give Schaub time to throw with weapons like AJ, AD and Walter running by people and we won't need to run the ball all that well.

The defense made a great stop in the first possession but did little to impress the rest of the night. Reeves looks like a bust. There was very little pressure on Brees although the Texans didn't try anything fancy upfront, knowing the Steelers and Ravens are watching. Our secondary got pretty much picked apart, although props to Ceandris for saving us four points that made a big difference in the final score.

Slaton looked good, even in blitz pickup, but it would be a mistake to overwork this guy. Keep him fresh so he can make some big plays.

Mario says he doesn't take it personally when Reggue Bush plays well - but I do. Mario needed to slam his little smurf ass to the turf a few more times.

[TheMatrix31]

Didn't get to watch the game, but good to hear that Slaton is playing well. Boy, we're gonna need him this year, especially when the inevitable happens.

Not good to hear Jacoby struggling. Did David Anderson play?

[RunninRaven]

Anderson played and continued to look good. Had one reception of note where he caught the ball in step and sort of stumbled between two defenders. The stumble threw the defenders off a bit, expecting him to go down, I think. Instead, he managed to get up off his knees a split second before the DB got there and juke the guy. He ran another 15 yards or so after the catch before another defender caught him from behind. He had a few other decent catches as well, as I recall. Did nothing to hurt his cause and plenty to help it.

[TheMatrix31]

I wonder if Jacoby could play bad enough to get cut? If so, and we kept Anderson, who would the fifth WR be?

[nunusguy]

Slaton looked good, even in blitz pickup, but it would be a mistake to overwork this guy. Keep him fresh so he can make some big plays.

Mario says he doesn't take it personally when Reggue Bush plays well - but I do. Mario needed to slam his little smurf ass to the turf a few more times.
With his razzle-dazzle hurdle over Reeves into the EZ but 24 total yards on 7 rushes for < 3.5 yards per carry, typical Bush performance, i.e., mostly hat, very little cattle. I dunno, but I suspect ESPN plays that TD all week but fails to mention his meager rushing effort from the los. A descent corner like D-Rob would have torn him in half had he tried that crap on him.
Meanwhile Slaton really impressed. Oh I know he was playing against the reserves, but then he also had reserves blocking for him. This weekend in Irving will really be interesing to watch as Slaton gets some snaps with the 1st unit against the Cowboys outstanding defense.
This Slaton had quite a college career and was rated close to McFadden among backs coming into hisr final year in school, but then he went off the radar. Had some injuries and the defesnes supposedly keyed on him which caused his Draft stock to plummit. I dunno, did we finally get lucky with a running back and get a steal in the third round ? Time will tell.