L Miller for no gain.

L Miller for about 3. Brings up 3rd and 7.

L Miller for a couple. Texans will let the clock run and call a timeout with 14 seconds left in the game. Texans to punt.

Punt is brought back to the Titan 25. 4 seconds left.

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Titans try to lateral but have no success... game over.

Final score:

Texans 27, Titans 20

I'm not sure if playing in the worst division in football helps or hurts us. Obviously it helps us get to 9 wins and the playoffs on occasion, but the bar is set so low that we can be consistently mediocre and rarely pay for it. Then we show up with today's effort against a real team and get housed.

We have a long way to do before the Texans could be considered an elite team but 3-1 at the quarter post is nothing to sniff at. Now things should get a little tougher.

Yikes, look at the AFC South standings............

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Fuller's punt return was the difference (obviously). Perfect timing on giving him an opportunity in that role. The other 59+ minutes of the game was two teams with execution problems....

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Pats get shut out at Gillette by the Bills. For some reason, I find that amusing.....

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Probably won't see a line on the Texans vs. Vikes until after the Vikes play their Monday nighter. I'm guessing Vikes by 6-7.....

At Minny, then Indy here, and then MNF @ Denver. Yep coming up it's gonna be a real tough stretch.

Bradford and Simien are the QBs of the two winning teams we face in that stretch. Obviously both are backed by great defenses, but both should be close games that we are in.

As for the Colts, at some point they just need to be looked at as a bad football team. They couldn't get to 10 wins in last year's pathetic AFC south. They are 3-6 in their last 9. They got run off the field by the Jags in the first half on a neutral site. They might be the worst run franchise in the NFL. They are propped up by tanking in the right season. I honestly think all other 31 teams would have got more out of 5 years of Luck.

I think 2-1 is really possible with this stretch.

Thanks Arky for the commentary. I had to miss most of the game live as my son was pitching today, and the last bit of the 4th quarter I had to watch with no volume.

Some questions I have though... why was Ervin returning the next punt after Fuller just took one to the house?

Why did BOB punt instead of going for it with like 4 mins on the clock? Sounded like the OL was often overmatched, the team is missing Watt... just punt it and make an iffy Titans offense go at least 80 yards for the TD.

How was that Titans punt flagged?

How does Hopkins only have like 3 targets until late in the game? Sounds like BOB's playcalling was hot out of the gate, but then it wasn't?

I think that was just a one-off. On the play, Ervin and Fuller were both back there which is (I think) kinda rare in today's NFL (2 deep). Punt returners take shots and IMO, Fuller will probably be used in "situations" to avoid the unnecessary collisions..

I think you mean the 4th and 1 where Prosch got stood up short of the 1st down. I'm guessing OB felt they could get a yard, keep the drive going, burn more clock - i.e., aggressive .... Punting it (conservative) sure looked like the better option after Prosch got stood up...

The blocked punt (10:12 left in the game)? Refs screwed up. I believe the whistle blew during the snap thus the blocked punt/return for the TD was nullified. The ref explained it that the Texans had 12 men on the field (whistle) yet goes on to say the 12th man DID get off in time so "no foul". "Replay the down", unfortunately for the Texans.... On replay, looked like Hal was closest to the sideline and while a couple of Texans were running off, Hal got off the field the fastest because he was closer to the sideline. The other "runners" saw Hal get off then stopped and lined up.... I believe the whole sequence fooled the ref standing beside Ervin who threw the flag...

Jeez, I dunno. It looked like he was receiving a lot of defensive attention and coverage on him was tight for the most part. Oz's two INT's came from trying to get DHop involved to the point of almost forcing passes his way. Even the announcers mentioned that it was rare to see Hop get out-maneuvered on some of those passes...

The Titans made some adjustments. Brock started getting inaccurate with the pressure coming his way.....

I'll take this 3-1 for the first quarter of the regular season, not that we have a choice.
But we won the games we were supposed to and split the tough ones (Chiefs & Pats). So it could have been a lot worse though I admit we missed a real opportunity and didn't take advantage of it when we went up against the Pats 3rd string rookie QB.
Now with this road trip to Minny we are going to really get into the meat of the schedule and see what we've got.

One of the INTs was just a really bad throw. Hopkins had the guy beat and Osweiller just underthrew it by a few yards. But a few of the other passes did look forced.

Gotta root for the Vikings to have a nice, comfortable win tonight vs. the Giants on MNF. Need to have them fat and happy when the Texans visit next Sunday.....

Man, that Minnesota front 7 is strong..... The DB's are pretty dang good, too... Hopefully, Oz makes it out of the game alive.....

That's what I was thinking while watching the game last night. Didn't watch it all, just the first half.
The Viking for sure have an impressive, strong defense, but the offense is not among the leagues strongest. With the heat their pass rush will be putting on Brock I sure Brown is back at LT for this game.

Bradford reminded me of David Carr at his best, a bunch of short, possession passes, not much of a running game, not much in the way of deep threats. The Texans will have to be at their best in tackling.

The Vikings D is very, very good. I'm still not convinced they are an NFC elite team but they may very well be. The Panthers and the Cardinals seem to have a lot of problems.