Official Texans vs. Lions Game Thread, 10/30/2016

[Arky]

Pass to Tate goes for loss of 1.

Pass to Riddick (?) gets 2 but flag is down....block in the back on the Lions, -10. Makes it 2nd and 21 at the Lion 11 yard line.

Riddick for 3 or 4. 3rd and 18 coming up.

Stafford pressured, throws it to Riddick who comes up short of the 1st down. Lions will have to punt.

Ervin fumbles the punt out of bounds at the Texan 40. Texan's ball.

10:14 left in the game.

[Arky]

Ball marked at the Texan 35.

L Miller goes for 8.

L Miller for about 8 more and the 1st down. Ball at the Lion 49.

Blue powers for 10 and the 1st down.

Quick pass to Hop gets 8. Ball at the Lion 31.

Blue goes to the 12 yard line! Nice run! 1st and 10.

Blue for almost 3. 2nd and 8 coming up from the Lion 10.

Blue goes to the 1 yard line but flag on X for holding.... Makes 2nd and 18.

Pass to B Miller gets about 10. 3rd and 9 coming up.

Oz gets sacked. Texans will go for the FG.

Novak's 36-yarder is good.

Texans 20, Lions 10

4:09 left in the game.

[Arky]

Lions bring the kickoff back to the their 45 yard line. Lion's ball.

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

Pass to Jones gets 11.

Screen to Riddick goes for big gainer. Ball at the Texan 21.

Pass to Ebron broken up by McKinney, inc. 2nd and 10 coming up.

Stafford pressured, has to throw to quick, inc. 3rd and 10 coming up.

WR screen to Tate only gets 5. Lions to go for the FG with about 3 minutes remaining in the game.

Prater's 34-yarder is good.

Texans 20, Lions 13

2:53 left in the game.

[Arky]

The ensuing kickoff is onsided.... Texans get it. Texans will have the ball at the Lion 44.

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

L Miller for 3. Lion use a timeout (#1).

L Miller for about 11. Lions use timeout #2. 2:42 left in the game.

L Miller for 6. Lions use their last timeout. 2:37 left in the game. 2nd and 4 coming up.

L Miller to the Lion 18 and the 1st down.

Texans kneeling it out...

Final Score:

Texans 20, Lions 13

Cya in 2 weeks....

[barrett]

Great win. After the Lions missed the FG in the first quarter the TOP was Lions 9:06 and Texans 2:04.

The rest of the way it was Texans 31:54 and Lions 16:56. That is some serious domination that was reflected in the score and yardage during that part of the game.

Our defense ate up the short passing game. In a game they trailed all day, I don't think Stafford threw a ball 15 yards past the LOS all day. I'm glad we made him pay for it.

5-3 at the bye is great, even if we haven't looked great a single time yet. Hopefully, this is a sign of things to come, and it's hard to not see 5 wins in our 2nd half schedule.

[nunusguy]

Originally Posted by barrett

5-3 at the bye is great, even if we haven't looked great a single time yet. Hopefully, this is a sign of things to come, and it's hard to not see 5 wins in our 2nd half schedule.

It is a great feeling going into the bye at 5-3, with a chance to regroup and have 2 weeks to heal some wounds & injuries.
But winning 5 of the last 8 games is not to me the slam dunk you seem to see ?

[HPF Bob]

Nunu, I agree. We still haven't had even a pulse on the road yet and 5 of the last eight will be road games.

Home and home with Jackassville looks promising. The other two home games are San Diego and Cincinnati, both teams better than their W-L records.

The remaining road games are Oakland, Green Bay, Tennessee and Indy. We have had a good history with the Raiders who, despite a 6-2 record, have won a lot of extremely tight games. That might be a key game for us as to whether we are actually improved from last year or just spinning our wheels.

[HPF Bob]

BTW, notice how much shorter the threads are when we're winning a game? The TEs were a big factor and the bye week comes at a good time to heal up some sore players.

[Arky]

Originally Posted by HPF Bob

BTW, notice how much shorter the threads are when we're winning a game? .....

Ya, not one in-game comment during the game. First time I think that has happened. I was starting to feel rather monkish....

Strife and turmoil bring the comments. Success, not so much........

[chuck]

Originally Posted by HPF Bob

BTW, notice how much shorter the threads are when we're winning a game?

Well, I deliberately refrained from posting and Big Texas must be in the hoosegow again so that's forty, maybe fifty percent of the people who reliably post in any given game thread week to week.

My only two thoughts of any consequence are a) how much longer are qbs going to continue to pick on Bouye like he's some sort of scrub and b) how much longer is Aboushi going to spend the games inactive.

[barrett]

Originally Posted by HPF Bob

Nunu, I agree. We still haven't had even a pulse on the road yet and 5 of the last eight will be road games.

Home and home with Jackassville looks promising. The other two home games are San Diego and Cincinnati, both teams better than their W-L records.

The remaining road games are Oakland, Green Bay, Tennessee and Indy. We have had a good history with the Raiders who, despite a 6-2 record, have won a lot of extremely tight games. That might be a key game for us as to whether we are actually improved from last year or just spinning our wheels.

We should be favored in every home game. We should be favored in Jacksonville. We should be slightly favored in Tennessee. The Raiders game is not a true road game, we play them in Mexico City. That should be a pick em at worst.

Heavy Favorite - JAX, JAX,
Favorite - SD, CIN, TEN
Pick em - OAK
Slight Underdog - IND (who knows what they'll be by then)
Underdog - GB

If we can't win 5 of those games we stink.

If anyone wants to give me O/U on 9.5 wins today I'll take the over. We have shown for 3 years in a row we don't beat great teams but we almost always beat the bad to average teams.

[barrett]

Originally Posted by HPF Bob

BTW, notice how much shorter the threads are when we're winning a game? The TEs were a big factor and the bye week comes at a good time to heal up some sore players.

All 3 TEs looked good. Blue also looked great. If he doesn't fumble like last week, he has value as a late game back.

[HPF Bob]

Originally Posted by chuck

and b) how much longer is Aboushi going to spend the games inactive.

Oday.......

[Keith]

Ya know, if the Texans wanted to involve the TEs this much in the passing game as they did against the Lions, you'd think they would invest a decent draft pick in one. Relatedly, Stephen Anderson is a dynamic receiving target... I don't have the snap counts handy, but he seems to be behind Brian Griffin, which I just don't understand at this point.

AJ Bouye is going to get paid this offseason. He has been a revelation. And consider, too, these past couple games he's been doing it with Corey Moore as his safety. I can't believe I'm typing this, but I can't wait for Demps to play again in Moore's spot.

Looking at the next 8, outside of a road game at Green Bay, it's tough to say whether there are any teams decidedly better than the Texans. The Chargers, Bengals, and Raiders are all easily capable of throttling this team, but none of them seem consistently good enough to bank on. A 4-4 record seems like a minimal, reasonable expectation, and there is no doubt 9 wins takes the AFC South.

[chuck]

Originally Posted by HPF Bob

Oday.......

By the way, I know you're a big fan of Helen Reddy and Vikki Carr and, I assume, the Andrews Sisters, but are you a fan of Anita O'Day? Because she used to tell a joke about an appearance she made at the Newport Jazz festival, something about her not being able to go on quite yet because it wasn't that time o'day.

And if Minnesota loses tonight then, let's face it, I win the survival pool. Again.

Which is outSTANding because, let's face it, I'm obviously never going to win anything else.

[HPF Bob]

Chuck, I don't know if Keith is still dispensing HPF t-shirts for winning the contest since he isn't hosting it anymore.

Come to think of it, I think I picked Minnesota also which would be my second strike.

Did you give up your season tickets, Chuck? It looks like we could have a New England-Dallas Super Bowl in Houston this year which is going to mean scalpers will have a field day.

As for Ms. O'Day, she's a little before my time. The lady singers I grooved to in my day were Olivia Newton-John and ABBA. The day it really hit me how old I had become was when I saw Cheryl Ladd doing ads for menopause meds. That felt like a dagger.

[chuck]

Yeah, I gave up my tickets years ago which is one reason I now feel free to be so smug.

[Warren]

Originally Posted by Keith

Ya know, if the Texans wanted to involve the TEs this much in the passing game as they did against the Lions, you'd think they would invest a decent draft pick in one.

Not that it's time to look ahead to April, but since you mentioned it, 2017 is shaping up to be a strong draft for TEs...