Official Texans vs. Saints Fake Game Thread, 8/25/2013
 

Sunday gameday.

Lots of praying in Houston churches this morning... praying for the Texans to stay healthy.

Our first pre-season game sans Meyers and Tillman. If you think they suck, just listen to the Fox crew today.

Hoping Foster stays off the field. There's really no reason for him to face contact yet.

I'm expecting the Texans to lose since they usually do at the SuperDome although we won there the very first time in 2002.

We should see a lot of the first-teamers today.

Schaub - a couple of good passes, a couple of bad passes on the Texans first possession. Drive stalls and Lechler pins the Saints inside the 5.

12:26 left in the 1st quarter.

Saints go nowhere and have to punt. K Martin returns the punt for a TD but it comes back because of a block in the back on Harris.

Nice run by Tate. Looked like the old Tate there.... 39 yards.

Tate finishes off the drive with a short run for the TD.

Texans 7, Saints 0

5:51 left in the 1st quarter.

Texans tack on a 48-yard Bullock FG with 13:41 left in the half.

Texans 10, Saints 0

You may notice it is Quessenberry and Brooks as the first team OGs. Newton's already given up a sack. Now the Saints get an 80-yd TD drive on two plays. They can score quickly. 10-7 Texans 2nd.

Brees connects with Thomas for a 51-yard TD.

Texans 10, Saints 7

12:07 left in the half.

Shiloh Keo is almost as bad as Matt Stevens.

The guards look fine. Newton looks horrible. I've been hoping this RT problem would sort of fix itself but that doesn't seem to be happening.

Bullock hits a 55-yarder.

Texans 13, Saints 7

8:26 left in the half.

Saints answer with their own 51-yard FG.

Texans 13, Saints 10

3:44 left in the half.

Bullock starting to look pretty good. Tate and Johnson too.

Wonder who second RT in the game will be?

Schaub just doesn't seem to be "accurate" any more... Completion % is always OK, but so many passes are always just a little off making the receiver do flips to make the catch....

I thought Schaub has looked very good but been let down by his receivers too often. Martin may be a bust.

Still a real problem.

Saints, with McCown at QB, drive down the field and score on a 14-yard TD pass to Stills.

Saints 17, Texans 13

1:14 left in the half.

Texans hurry down the field for 21-yard Bullock FG.

Saints 17, Texans 16

Halftime.

Saints waste no time getting down the field - with a PI on Harris along the way. 8-yard pass to Tanner for the TD.

Saints 24, Texans 16

14:08 left in the 3rd quarter.

I'm happy to see that kick coverage, secondary play and red zone defense are all in mid-season form.

Texans drive down but (Karim) can't punch it in from the 1 on 4th down. Score remains:

Saints 24, Texans 16

7:58 left in the 3rd quarter.

Whoa, great play by NT McClain chasing down the speedy back.... Play comes back on holding anyway...

TJ looks great.

Lemon makes up for a dropped TD pass by catching one over the middle for the TD. 11 yards. Nice drive by TJ.

Saints 24, Texans 23

1:12 left in the third quarter.

This is our three part plan to fool our competition on where to attack and keep the fans from being overconfident.

Saints drive down the field and Tanner receives the 15-yard pass from Griffin for the TD.

Saints 31, Texans 23

10:58 left in the game.

These slapdicks didn't throw the ball into the end zone once this game.

And this place is a goddamn cemetery.

Nothing of note the rest of the way......

Final Score:

Saints 31, Texans 23

TJ definitely more impressive than Schaub tonight. Wouldn't it be great to have a QB like Yates with just some mobility ?

The schaub-led(and Foster-less) offense had 280+ yards and 16 points in a half. Schaub just doesn't wow because all of his best plays involve an on time read and delivery.

I'm not a Schaub-hater, he does have redeeming qualities, but I was relieved that he didn't get OD killed with that little pass over the middle that was a good 5 feet behind Daniels who had to turn around and was squarely smacked by the NOLA safety. But IMO TJs passes tonight were pretty crisp and consistently accurate.

That incompletion is on Schaub because it's not a well thrown ball , but OD gets himself popped by juggling the ball across the middle of the field. The ball is thrown away from contact. But any time you are bobbling the ball in the middle of the field the defense will have time to catch up and pop you. A cleanly caught ball puts him on the ground before they get there. I put a big hit on the QB when he throws high or late across the middle.

TJ played well. But Schaub played far better tonight and moved the offense up and down the field even with a number of catchable passes being dropped.

Again, 281 yards, no TOs, and the only redzone appearance without a TD was when they kicked a FG with time expiring on 1st down. That is fantastic production (and with no Foster or Hopkins). The only reasonable concern on the whole 1st team offense is RT (and maybe LG, Jones had some highs and lows).

I am trying my best not to complain about preseason play-calling, but it is really, really hard.

One of the less obvious playcalls that bugged me: I had a tough time swallowing the call on their second drive... it was a little after Ben Tate had the 39-yd run. Schaub then hit Garrett Graham for an 8-yd pass setting up a 2nd-and-2 from the Saints' 20-yd line. Offense is rolling... time to play fake and throw to the end zone? Nope. 2-yd handoff. Texans got the 1st down and even scored on the drive, but it typifies the sort of killer mentality the playcalling is missing on this offense.

Boy did you have this one right. And Fox's halftime show is painful to watch.

I can see both sides. I think it would have been helpful to take a few more shots when the bullets are live, but I see the logic in not showing too much.

The playcall that I didn't get was kicking the fieldgoal at the end of the half. It was little more than an extra point so I can't believe they thought Bullock needed the work. Seems like running an offensive play there would have been much better gametime experience than a chip shot field goal.

I didn't catch the name but there was a DT wearing #91 who was impressive in the second half. Granted, it's against 2s and 3s but he was pressuring in the backfield a lot. Since the DTs in this defense are supposed to just plug the middle, I thought he had a great game.

I'm ready to cut Lemon. When you get a wide open look in the end zone, you *must* catch the ball. I know he scored later but he wasn't catching anything tough.

Dennis Johnson was better than the first two games but I'm still not sold. I did see one good cut out of him but, otherwise, I still don't see why he's considered ahead of the other UDFAs.

Schaub's throws lacked zip. That was part of his problem at the end of last year. His throws seem to take forever to reach the receiver and, in the meantime, the coverage adjusts. Yates looked the best of the three today.

Is anyone besides me a little sick that the Battle of Texas is going to be played with most of the first string sitting out the game or making a token appearance? Texans-Cowboys needs to be the third game of the pre-season, not the last one. It's the only exhibition game where I really care about the outcome.

I don't know how I forgot about the play but I failed to take into account the pass that went right through Lemon's hands in the end zone. So there was one.

I get that it's preseason and I get that Foster is not playing but I would really, really like to see a greater interest in getting into the end zone from the red zone demonstrated by everyone involved.

I don't know if its good or bad news but there was a 2nd one that OD dropped in the end zone.

Outside of the return of Cushing, I just don't see any progression from the starting units of a year ago. And last year wasn't good enough to win deep in the playoffs.

And why the heck was it a smart move to keep Watt off the field yet, hey, let's throw the ball to Andre Johnson a million times and let some Saints players take shots at his knees? Would have much rather seen what Lestar Jean could have done with those first half targets.

Oh, and while Keyshawn's return was nice, his role in the passing game needs to really diminish once Hopkins is back. Safety play was lacking, right tackle is a mess... and now I am rambling about a fake game. Ugh.