He only had something like 12 catches coming into today. I figured with OD out we'd see a lot more of Foster as a receiver.

Marciano strikes again.

Squibby kickoff is fielded by the Bears at their 49. Oy.

-------------------------------

Forte for about 2.

Forte is caught by Barwin for no gain. 3rd and 8 coming up.

Cutler's pass goes for big gainer but they throw the flag for Cutler being past the LOS..... illegal pass on Bears, personal foul on Texans offset..... 3rd and 9 coming up.... Bears to challenge the illegal forward pass ruling.... 2:30 left in the half.

Play stands, Bears ball at midfield.

Cutler scrambles for 12. Ball at the Texan 39.

2 minute warning.

We really miss Cushing's physicality and especially his sideline to sideline speed.

Swing pass to Forte goes nowhere. 2nd and 10 coming up.

Cutler's pass is INT'ed by Kareem! Texans ball at their 28 with 1:16 left.

Pass to AJ does not connect. 2nd and 10 coming up.

Foster caught in the backfield for big loss. -9 yards. 3rd and 19 coming up.

Foster for 3. Texans have to punt with 59 seconds left in the half.

Punt is fair caught by Hester at the Bears 31. Flag down. Holding on Bears backs it up 10 more.

We are getting no pressure.

Cutler scrambles for 19.

Pass over the middle to Davis is dropped, inc. 25 seconds left in the half.

Deep pass to Forte off his hands inc. 3rd and 10 coming up.

Pass to Hester only gets about 6.

Time runs out.

Halftime:

Texans 10, Bears 3

Halftime stats:

Passing: Schaub 9/17, 49 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT's

Rushing: Foster 17/85, Forsett 4/27

Receiving: AJ 4/35, Foster 4/13

Tackles: KJ/Barwin 3 each, Manning/JJo/Mitchell 2 each

TOP: Texans 18:13, Bears 11:47

1st downs: Texans 10, Bears 4

3rd down efficiency: Texans 3/8, Bears 1/5

Red zone: Texans 1/2, Bears 0/0

Turnovers: Texans 2, Bears 4

Penalties: Texans 1/15, Bears 1/10

Total Yards: Texans 161, Bears 99

We're rushing four and not blitzing at all. I haven't seen Mercilus on the field yet other than ST.

Still, if you aren't getting pressure you shouldn't also be leaving huge lanes for the qb to scramble. Either get to him or stay in your lanes.

That's sort of why I was lamenting not having Cushing on the field.

We have over 100 yards rushing in the first half. The Bears' leading rusher by far is Jay Cutler. Run the ball, protect the ball and we win. It is that simple.

Now the Bears are without their leading rusher. Wow.

Hester brings the 2nd half kickoff back to the Bear 24.

-----------------------------

Campbell in at QB for the Bears.

Forte for 7.

Forte for about 7 or 8 more. Ball at the Bear 38.

Forte for no gain. 2nd and 10 coming up.

Pass to Marshall goes for 4. 3rd and 6 coming up.

Pass to Marshall goes all the way to the Texan 41.

Forte for no gain or loss of 1.

Pass to Spaeth goes nowhere. 3rd and 10 coming up.

Short pass to Marshall goes for 5. Bears to punt.

Punt is downed at the Texan 3. Texans ball.

Schaub's pass out in the flat inc.

Foster for loss of 1. 3rd and 11 coming up.

Foster for about 4. Texans have to punt.

Hester fields the punt and gets minimal gain..... Bears ball at their 38. Nice punt.

Forte for 1.

Screen pass to Marshall goes inc. 3rd and 9 coming up.

Campbell scrambles for about 5.... Bears have to punt.

Martin fair catches the punt at the Texan 15. Texans ball.

Foster for 1.

Schaub's pass is off the mark to AJ, inc. 3rd and 9 coming up.

Pass to KW only gets 7. Texans have to punt.

Oy, Jones' punt only goes to the Bears 48. Bears ball.

Forte for 2. About 5 minutes left in the 3rd quarter.

Flags presnap. Offsides Bears. Makes it 2nd and 13.

Deep pass to Marshall complete to the 10 yard line.

Forte for 5. 2nd and goal from the 5.

Forte for no gain. 3rd and goal coming up.

Campbell can't find a home for his pass and throws it away, inc. Bears to go for the FG.

Gould's 24-yarder is good.

Texans 10, Bears 6

1:55 left in the 3rd quarter.

Martin brings the punt back all the way to the Bear 48 but flag is down..... Holding on Texans places the ball at the Texan 11.

------------------------------

Foster loses 1 or 2.

Pass to KW complete for 23. Ball at the Texan 32.

Foster around right end for 7.

End of the 3rd quarter.

On 2nd and 3, Foster for loss of 1. 3rd and 4 coming up.

Timeout Texans.....

------------------------------

On 3rd and 4, Schaub is sacked. Texans will have to punt.

Punt is downed at the Bear 38. Bears ball.

Pass to Marshall gets 9.

Bush rushes for 20.

Bush for about 4.

Campbell's pass is nearly caught, nearly INT'ed but inc. 3rd and 6 coming up.

Pass to Marshall is broken up by JJo. Bears to go for the FG.

Gould's 48-yarder hits the goal post, no good.

Score remains:

Texans 10, Bears 6

11:40 left in the game.

Short pass to Graham goes for 3.

Pass to KW off the mark, inc. 3rd and 7 coming up.

Pass to Graham, can't hang on, inc. Texans have to punt.

Hester fields the punt and is stopped at the Bear 14 yard line. 10:41 left in the game.

Missing Daniels is really hurting us. We are missing his ability to attack the seam vs the cover 2.

Forte for almost 5.

Pass to Marshall gets 5.... flag is down....holding on Bears, 1/2 the distance... Ball at the Bear 9.

Pass to Spaeth goes for 6. 3rd and 9 coming up.

Pass to Forte off the mark, inc. Bears have to punt.

Punt goes out of bounds near midfield. Texans ball. Excellent field position, now do something with it...

Foster for 5.

Foster for 7. Flag is down.... Facemask on Bears +15..... Ball now at the Bear 27.

Foster for no gain.

Foster goes around right end for 5 or 6 but flag on the Texans for holding. Ball is now at the Bear 37. 2nd and 21 coming up.

Short pass to Foster only gets 2. 3rd and 19 coming up.

Timeout Texans....

Pass to Graham goes for 11. Texans to go for the FG.

Graham's 42-yarder is good.

Texans 13, Bear 6

4:49 left in the game.

Demps being healthy has helped our special team a lot.

Hester brings the ensuing kickoff back to about the Bear 25. Bears ball.

--------------------------------

Pass out in the flat nearly INT'ed but inc. 2nd and 10 coming up.

Short pass to Spaeth goes nowhere. 3rd and 11 coming up.

Deep pass to Davis goes inc. Bears are going to punt.

Punt rolls to the Texan 33. 3:35 left in the game.

Foster caught for loss of 3.

Foster for no gain. Timeout Bears. 2:47 left in the game.

--------------------

On 3rd and 13, Foster goes for 1. Timeout Bears. Texans will have to punt.

--------------------

Punt goes out of bounds at the Bear 37.

2:35 left in the game.

Swing pass to Forte goes for -2.

Pass to Hester goes for short gain but flag down. Holding on the Bears -10. 2nd and 23 coming up.

2 minute warning.

On 2nd and 23, pass to Adams goes for 7. 3rd and 16 coming up.

Pass to Marshall goes for 8. 4th and 8 coming up.

Campbell's pass over the middle is inc. Texans take over on downs.

1 minute left in the game.

Texans kneeling it...

Final Score:

Texans 13, Bears 6

Nice, nice....

Time to kneel it out.

Defense did great tonight.

8-1. Yeah Texans.

Job well done.

Two teams are 8-1. Ours is one of them.

Did you ever think we were going to be able to say that?
That was a big win. :)

Win or lose, this was the type of game where you throw away the stat sheet and tell your team just to keep everything in front of you and limit the mistakes which is why Houston won.

They didn't let a key turnover beat them and they kept Hester bottled up, forcing the Bears offense to score points to beat them. Once Cutler left the game, it was all about keeping the Bears from scoring a touchdown.

Game balls go to Dobbins and Manning, who were making plays all over the soggy sod.

We kkep our 1-1/2 game lead on Baltimore and two-game lead over New England for the #1 seed and getting the #1 seed means we won't have to play a playoff game in slop like this (just our home sod slop but that's a different rant).

Big question now is how many players will show up on the midweek injury report with "flu-like symptoms" after a game like this.

Good, character-building win.

I was quite sure we were going to win this one but I wasn't quite ready to bust out my pre-game prediction. I'd like to save those for greater challenges.

I should add that only one of those teams is in the AFC.

Good post game article by Kuharsky:

Texans silence 'Chicago this, Chicago that'

---------------------------

Preliminary spread for Texans vs Jags next Sunday is a whopping Texans by 16......

I love it when I'm wrong about the Texans losing a game, and I was definitely wrong about this game. But had I known it was going to be played during the passage of an Alberta Clipper, I probably would have been even more pessimistic about our guys coming out of Chi-Town with a W. However the great Wade Phillips (and he is a great defensive coach, no doubt about it), and his troops were up to the challenge, again. After all, with our WCO and ZBS the Texans really are a finesse offense, and the environment including field conditions and weather was not in the least bit favorable to their game.

I like how Texans offense and defense played tough in harsh conditions on the road to win a low scoring game.

That was an excellent team win against a very good team playing in their element.

Should help team maturity and confidence going forward.

No fumbles was pretty amazing.

Daniel Manning had a super game.

Dobbins did pretty good as well.

Very happy to be surprised with a W. Didn't exactly have this one pegged as one, so I will take it.

A little puzzling that Kubiak threw the ball as much as they did in the 1st half, as it was obviously not working well. Tough to throw in wet, windy conditions, but both coaches took a while to figure that out. I was a little worried in the 2nd half, as with Cutler out, I assumed they would lean on Forte more (which they did), as that was the blueprint for this game.

On to the Hags. Hopefully, this is a yawner, and we can have alot of substitutions in the 4th Qtr, and get thier feet back under them.

I love how the announcers decide on their story angles before the game and then just stick with it. Collinsworth would not let drop that the Bears OL was bigger than the Texans front 7 (which is the case with every OL and DL in the NFL). He made about a dozen comments about their effective double teams (and used the telestrator multiple times as well).

Meanwhile, back in reality the Bears RBs ran 19 times for 73 yards as part of a 6 point performance for their offense.