Ervin downs the ensuing kickoff in the end zone, touchback. Texan's ball at their 25.

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

L Miller for 3.

Pass to Hop gets 9 and the 1st down.

L Miller goes left for about 6.

L Miller up the gut for 6 and the 1st down.

L Miller for 4. Brings up 2nd and 6. About 4 1/2 minutes left in the game.

L Miller for no gain. 3rd and 6 coming up.

Flat pass to Grimes goes for about 10 and the 1st down. Ball at the Chief 35.

Blue gets 4. Chiefs use a 2nd timeout.

Blue gets nabbed for loss of 1. 3rd and 7 coming up. Chiefs use final timeout with 3:52 left in the game.

Deep pass goes inc but flag is down on the Texans for hands to the face. Chiefs opt to back'em up 10. Brings up 3rd and 17 at the 42 yard line.

Pass to Hop gets very close to the 1st down..... It's gonna be 4th and 1. Texans to go for the FG.

Novak's 43-yarder is good.

Texans 19, Chiefs 9

2:56 left in the game.

Special teams play has been terrible...back to usual.

Hill takes the ensuing kickoff all the way back for 105 yards but a flag is down.....Holding on Chiefs......Ball is placed at the Chief 12 yard line.

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

Pass to Kelce gets 3.

Pass to Conley get 10 and the 1st down. 2:13 left in the game.

Pass to Ware gets 14.

2 minute warning.

Pass to Kelce gets 8.

Pass to Maclin get nice gain to the Texan 37. 1:32 remaining.

Pass over the middle goes inc but flag is down....PI on KJ. Ball is placed at the Texan 25.

Pass is good for 10 to Maclin. 1:23 left in the game.

Pass in the end zone to Kelce is too high, inc. 2nd and 10 from the 15 coming up.

Flags presnap....false start offense, -5. Makes it 2nd and 15 coming up.

Another false start offense, -5. Makes it 2nd and 20 coming up.

Pass to Maclin gets about 12. 3rd and 7 coming up.

Pass goes over everyone in the end zone, inc. Chiefs will go for the FG with 52 seconds left.

Santos 30-yarder is good.

Texans 19, Chiefs 12

49 seconds left in the game.

DHop fields the onside kick and hits the turf. Texan's ball.

Texans kneeling it.

Final score:

Texans 19, Chiefs 12

Not pretty but it's off to New England @ 2-0 ....

I'm happy to point out all the team's many draft day misses but it looks a lot like they hit with Fuller.

This is probably the worst OL the team has ever put on the field. Still, you have to commit to running the football.

I don't know whether the coverage teams blow or whether their guy is just that good. Our guy taking a knee in the end zone was the best return I've seen in three years.

I would like to think that the defense will cause some serious problems for a third string quarterback.

Like Arky says it's not pretty, but it's great to finally beat the Chiefs.

I don't expect an early line to show up for Texans vs. Patriots on Thursday for a while.... Studio guys on CBS were talking like Belichick will go after a free agent QB for a quick cram session since Garoppolo went down. Might not see a spread till Wednesday or even Thursday morning....

I never put anything past Billicheck...So we have to bring our A game no matter who's at QB...

The modern NFL is built on big plays. Defenses are so good they are just easier to beat with a few giant plays per year. It is nice to finally see us enter the big play era. Fuller is a perfect compliment to Hopkins, as they both help each other out with the coverage the other faces. Hopkins can't be permanently doubled because Fuller demands a saftey's attention, and Fuller gets a few chances a game to run by 1-on-1 coverage because of Hopkins.

Also, I am glad that I was right about Jacksonville still being terrible. So many people had bought into the idea of them being good that I started second guessing myself. But no, they still stink.

I've been watching quite a bit of the Jacksonville game. They are terrible. Later I'll go watch the fourth quarter of the Titans game to find out what the hell happened beyond the Lions just being the Lions.

Indy is somehow still in the game in Denver.

Oh, and two upcoming opponents take the field tonight.

The NFL is not a sport where young, below average teams automatically get better. The Jags played a historically bad schedule in a terrible division last year and won 5 games. They don't have a single great player on the roster, and their coach is a defensive guru who has put garbage defenses on the field for his whole head coaching career. And that was somehow spun into a breakthrough team.

They drafted an awful lot of talent. It may take a while for it to come together, or it may never. Anyway, right now they are terrible. They're 0-2, just like the Colts.

Everyone who consistently drafts high drafts a lot of talent. The problem is there are reasons why those teams consistently draft high, and rarely does a bad organization just accumulate enough talent to overcome their demons. Usually it takes a transcendent player or a new coach to change the attitude. I see neither in Jacksonville so I expect there issues will continue to overcome their inevitably increased talent.

And no sooner do I say that and here come several books giving the Texans a 2.5 pt edge over New England....

You can draft high as often as not and consistently f up the drafts. Oakland's coming away with Carr and Mack in the same draft just serves to underscore what slapdicks they usually are in the war room. Jax's 2016 haul was awesome on paper. Maybe a future coach will figure out what to do with it once they settle in Toronto or London or Mexico or wherever they end up.

Some idiot the other day was trying to say that BO is the worst QB in the division. I don't think he's all that great yet but he may this year become the best of the four. Not too high a bar but still.

That's kinda amazing since they don't know who will be playing QB for them.
Actually do they even have their QB on their roster at this time ?

In limited action for both I'd definitely take him over Bortles. Marriota is a pretty big unknown. Luck is such a good soldier he is getting wasted in Indy by the 3rd worst front office in football (ahead of Jax and Ten). Luck had waited so long for a contract he should have just played out 2 more years and gone to a team not run by a coked up idiot.

I guess that's Vegas' acknowledgement that Bellicik is all that matters in NE.

Yeah, just speculating here but the oddsmakers may have already concluded that rookie Jacoby Brissett (NC State) is about equal to any street free agent (Whitehurst, etc) that they (New England) may bring in. Very surprised that the oddsmakers have thrown a line out there..... I've seen them keep a game off the board right up until the day of the game many times with a lesser questionable QB situation.

Also, IIRC, New England as a home underdog has some kind of really nice record which I'm sure will come out in the next few days (and I will post it once I see it).... Not a good position for the Texans to be in since it puts them up against a really favorable New England winning trend.....

I think Osweiler looked better than Week 1. The OL seems to be able to pass block even if they still aren't much at run blocking. They have to figure out some Red Zone plays that will click and depend less on Novak for points.

Somebody order Ervin not to run out kicks from the end zone or field punts inside the 10. The way the rules are now, the odds are better to just catch the ball securely and take a knee.

It is so much fun watching all Crennel's weapons (well, except Cushing) creating havoc all over the field. The idea of going to New England and putting that on a rookie or a guy just brought into camp on a short week is going to be fun because we can send the heat from so many directions.

We have a two-game lead over the Colts and the "surprising" Jaguars. This game was a guaranteed L and now we have a legit shot at winning it so tell the guys to pin their ears back and just have fun with it.

Brisket is going to be dead meat by the time we're done.

Bob, do you still think Fuller is Jacoby Jones 2.0?

Yes, he damn near dropped that long pass play with no defender causing it to happen. Take that away and he had a pretty ordinary day. But I was going to take the high road this week until you brought it up.

I also noted another defensive foul on Kareem "Holding, Defense, Number 25" Jackson, but, again was trying to take the high road.

Thanks, Barrett, for reminding me. ;)

"If you don't count his great plays it turns out he's pretty average."

Speaking of average, the only can't win I saw on the schedule when it was announced was on the road in New England. If the Texans can't go up there and beat the Patriots' version of TJ Yates then they really aren't going anywhere anyway. I wonder if they'll bring Gronk back for the game. I haven't really been following that.

So you're just going to keep doubling down on how wrong you are? I don't know what's more funny between that and you thinking that not mentioning Fuller was gracious.

I will give you this Bob, Fuller and Jacoby Jones have the same number of 100 yard receiving games in their career.

Found this in another forum but have no reason to doubt it to be true:

So, that is the trend the Texans have to overcome if they are to leave Foxboro with the W.....

All things NFL suffer from small sample size because of the tiny amount of games, so statistical analysis in the NFL suffers compared to other sports. Additionally, NE's overall record since 2001 is 182-58, which is better than 12-4 on average. And under Brady they are 92-15 at home.

So in a very small sample size of 12 games, NE is slightly better as a home dog than they are overall, and they are slightly worse than they are at home overall.

I suppose that's one way to look at it. Using your numbers:

182-58 = 75.8% win percentage

12-4 = 75% win percentage

92-15 (Brady@home) = 86% win percentage

Yes, 11-1 or 10-2 are small sample sizes but they do represent trends. 5-3 or 12-10 or 148-127 are not really trends - those are more like coinflip results.....My point is, people will wager large amounts of money on trends and trend bettors will be all over New England on Thursday....

And I guess another factor here is most of New England's recent outstanding numbers have been compiled with Brady and Belichick running the show. Garoppolo was looking like he could carry the load no problem but now, we will probably see Brissett and his numbers are essentially 0-0 (with a nice relief job yesterday)....

I wasn't totally dismissing the numbers, just pointing out that they are basically equally great at home no matter what the point spread says.

Now if you are betting the line, than the 11-1 ATS is a huge deal since being better than .500 ATS is tough. If you are trying to pick a winner, all you need to know is NE at home.

Plus the small sample size like I said. We are talking about 12 total games spread across 16 seasons, and with Brady out, there is not a single player from over half of those teams playing in this game. So you would be picking winners of Thursday's game based on things Willie McGinest and Deon Branch did a decade ago.

Bottom line is NE is hard to beat at home, but obviously a 3rd string QB makes that easier.

Aside from needing to account from the expectation that the Texans offense should improve as the season continues, it should be much easier to beat the Patriots in Foxboro in September than in January.

As it looks now, granted just two weeks into the season, regardless of Thursday's outcome, these are very likely two of the AFC's playoff teams. A Texans win could serve to not only improve their playoff seeding (beating a conference opponent) but also might help them stay away from that road trip back there in the playoffs.

The offense has been interesting to watch... lots of 3-WR shotgun sets. With all the new players that are key to making it work (Osweiler, Lamar, Fuller, even Jeff Allen), I have optimism this unit will become very productive once they become more cohesive and comfortable with the system. And I have to hope that Duane Brown will someday return healthy (remember back in the spring when he said he would be ready week 1??) and solidify the pass pro and improve the rushing to the left side.

Sure, no disagreement here. I think the trend bettor just sees the fact that 11 out of 12 times as a home dog, historically, the New England organization has got the job done. And 10 out of 12 times, they've walked away the straight up winner - a trend the Texans will have to overcome. So, just sayin', it will be a big fat ostrich feather in their cap if they (the Texans) can pull it off....

One thing to add to this.

I was listening to the radio today and they mentioned that this is only the 3rd time since 2006 that NE has been a home underdog. The other two were against Peyton Manning's 1st Broncos team, and against the Bengals after NE was killed by KC in 2014 (the famous "on to Cincinnati" game). So the other 10 games in the 10-2 trend are all over a decade old.