2011 Texans Watch-Beating Up The Browns

In front of the second largest crowd to ever watch a Texans game since the franchise started in 2002, they not only gleefully got to see them beat up the Cleveland Browns 30-12, the 71,511 people in attendance at Reliant Stadium were witnesses to Texans history.

The watched the Texans play old school smash mouth football on both sides of the ball as Arian Foster and Ben Tate eclipsed the 100 yard mark for the second straight game and combined for a Texans record 261 yards rushing on 40 carries.  

Foster in addition to rushing for 124 yards also became the all time Texans leader in career rushing touchdowns with 24 when he scored on a 19 yard run in the second quarter. 

The defense wasn't going to left out of this party as they rudely welcomed Colt McCoy back to Texas by sacking him four times and pounding him into the Reliant Stadium turf eight more times as the Texans built a 24-3 halftime lead.  

Rookie Brooks Reed got two of the sacks, and the Wade Phillips coached defense held Cleveland's offense to 172 total yards.  It was the third consecutive game the Texans have held an opponent under 200 yards of total offense and their defense is quickly climbing the NFL ranking charts despite losing Mario Williams for the season.  

Imagine how good this defense would be with him playing in it.

The now 6-3 Texans are three games over .500 for the first time in club history, and the news got even better when the Traitors lost to the Bengals in Nashville, which increased the Texans lead in the AFC South.

The Texans head to Tampa to take on the Buccaneers next Sunday and that should be a fun game to watch.

2011 Texans Watch-Next Up,Cleveland

After subduing the Jacksonville Jaguars to move to 5-3 on the season and maintain their AFC South Division lead, the Houston Texans begin the second half of the season tomorrow by trying to build on their momentum from that win against the Cleveland Browns. 

It'll be the first time former Longhorn quarterback Colt McCoy will be playing football for pay inside the Lone Star State and the Texans definitely want to disappoint all his family, friends and Texas Exes in the stands at Reliant Stadium and send them home with a loss.

As for whether Andre Johnson will play, that's already been decided.  He's going to sit out this game as well.  They want to make sure Andre's healthy for the stretch run and I agree with that approach. because after the bye week the schedule starts getting tough with games against Atlanta, Cincinnati, and Tampa Bay before the bye week.

Hopefully the Texans will handle their business on Sunday and beat the Browns. They will definitely need to put some distance between them and the Traitors before that season ending game at Reliant on New Year's Day that could possibly be for the division title.

Go Texans!

2011 Texans Watch-Texans Treat Fans To Win Over The Jaguars

It was Battle Red Day at Reliant Stadium and battle was exactly what the Jacksonville Jaguars gave the first place Texans for most of the game.  

After the Texans took the opening kickoff and marched 80 yards in 12 plays to take an early 7-0 lead after the Matt Schaub 2 yard scoring run, they had a tough time scoring for the rest of the first half.

In the second quarter a Matt Schaub fumble after a sack was returned to the Texans 8 yard line and led to the first Jacksonville touchdown and a 7-7 tie at the half after Neil Rackers missed a 46 yard field goal that would have given the Texans the lead heading into the locker rooms

But the Texans defense stood tall for the third consecutive week and stepped up their play in this grind it out battle.  They kept the pressure on Jacksonville rookie quarterback Blaine Gabbert, sacking him once and picking off two of his passes to halt Jaguar drives. 

The offense finally woke up and joined the party as the Houston NFL ballers finally took control of this game in the second half.   Arian Foster rushed 33 times for 115 yards and the Texans took another step toward their first AFC South title by forging a hard fought 24-14 victory to move to 5-2 in conference play and 3-0 for the first time in AFC South Division play.

The next game for the 5-3 Texans is a Sunday match up with former Longhorns quarterback Colt McCoy and the Cleveland Browns at Reliant

2011 Texans Watch-Texans Face The Jaguars

Another upcoming football Sunday, another AFC South rival.

This time it's the Jacksonville Jaguars who come into Reliant Stadium on a high note after upsetting the Ravens on Monday night. The Texans are coming off a successful trip to Nashville that resulted in them beating the Tennessee Traitors 41-7.

But when it comes to the Jaguars, throw out the records.  The Jaguars are one of the few teams in the league since they entered the NFL in 2002 that the Texans have had success against in the AFC South, beating them nine times.

I'd feel a lot better with Andre Johnson on the field, but he's being held out of this game in order to give that hamstring he injured against Pittsburgh more time to heal.  To be honest I'd rather have him 100% healthy for the stretch run and the playoffs if they finally do what they need to do and make it.

The Texans have enough talent and defensive firepower where they should win this game and the next against Cleveland before they go into their bye week.  but then again I'm talking about my local NFL franchise that has a penchant for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.   

The Texans-Jaguar games have been close, down to the wire football games and it will probably be the same this Sunday.