Posts Tagged ‘Indianapolis Colts’

Texans Slaughter Colts 34-7

Sunday, September 11th, 2011

The Texans managed to put together the most dominant half of professional football I’ve ever seen by going up 34-0 in the first half against the Manning-less Colts. The Texans dominated on both sides of the line, Mario Williams got his first sack as an outside linebacker and Ben Tate got his first career touchdown. And Jacoby Jones took a punt return 79 yards for a touchdown, turning what was a rout into a full-blown slaughter.

Alas, there was also the second half, where conservative play-calling and some bone-headed turnovers let the Colts get on the board and prevented the Texans from padding their lead.

Matt Schaub was 17 of 24 with 220 yards. The two interceptions are slightly deceptive, as the first one was a freak tip off Andrew Johnson’s fingers.

I expected the Texans to win this game, but I didn’t expect it to be a laugher. The offense is still plenty potent, but the defense is radically improved from last year’s league-worst unit. Tate’s 100+ yard game proves that last year wasn’t a fluke, and yes, the offensive line is that good at opening holes, with or without Arian Foster (who sat out the game with a tweaked hamstring).

if they can harness the intensity of the first half and avoid the miscues of the second, not only will they make the playoffs (especially in a weekend AFC South), they should actually be able to make some noise there. Of course, Texan fans felt that after last year’s opening day victory over the Colts, so we’ll see how they do against a murder’s row of an early schedule that has them visiting New Orleans, Pittsburgh and Baltimore in the first six weeks of the season.

But all in all, I feel very good about my bet with Dwight.

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Texans 34, Colts 24

Sunday, September 12th, 2010

The Texans didn’t just beat the Colts today, they beat the Super Bowl runner-up decisively. A few random observations from watching the game.

  1. Peyton Manning is still a better quarterback than Matt Schaub, but today the Houston Texans were a better team than the Indianapolis Colts.
  2. After watching last season’s aerial pyrotechnics, who would have believed that the Texans could reinvent themselves as a power-running team?
  3. As I mentioned at the end of last season, Arian Foster is the real deal. 231 yards, three touchdowns, seven yards a carry average? Those are just sick, video game numbers. Under the ridiculous assumption that he would continue to average that for the entire season, that works out to a total of 3,696 yards rushing. I would be quite shocked if he doesn’t end up being the Player of the Week.
  4. The reason he racked up such big numbers is that Houston dominated the line of scrimmage, opening huge holes for Foster to plunge through. For many years the offensive line was one the Texans’ most glaring weaknesses; if this game is any indication, this year it should be a strength.
  5. The defense seemed almost as dominant, consistently getting pressure on Manning throughout. You have to hand it to Manning: he managed to put up a gaudy 433 yards passing despite Mario Williams and Antonio Smith giving him a close, personal look at the Reliant Stadium turf throughout the game. Then again, he had to put up such numbers, because the Colts running game was getting stuffed and they constantly had to play from behind. And the Texans did all this without suspended NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year Brian Cushing. If the Texans can get this level of effort in the trench game, they are a no-questions asked playoff team this year.
  6. Manning still has much better timing and chemistry with his receiving corps than Schaub has with his (at least beyond Andre Johnson).
  7. This is just one game, and it’s a long, long season. But barring major breakdowns or injuries, the Texans have the potential to be one of the elite teams in the NFL this year.

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