Texans Playoff Edition - First Win Ever

The atmosphere at Reliant Stadium was electric to say the least. Houston fans celebrated the city's return to playoff football with vigor. Texans fans are notoriously late entering the stadium despite pleas from Texans mothership to be in place before kick off. On Saturday, Texans heeded the pleas and the place was rocking.

The Bengals elected to defer at the coin toss giving the Texans the ball first.  Jitters seemed bother both teams early on.  On the first play, Arian Foster almost lost the ball and then he followed it up with a false start.  Coach Kubiak replaced Foster with Ben Tate on the third play apparently to calm him down.  Foster would reenter the game shortly there after.  TJ Yates also appeared to have the jitters as his first passes were off target.  The Texans ended up punting on the first possession.

When the Texans went over on defense, the crowd went to work too.  The Bengals and Andy Dalton appeared to have some jitters too and ended up punting.  On their second possession, aided by a 52 yard pass interference call on Grover Quin, the Bengals put up the first points to make it 7-0.

At this point I a little uneasy feeling.  The Texans put a quick end to my uneasiness though.  The Texans answered the touchdown on the ensuing possession.  The key play was an Owen Daniels catch for 21 yard and a 15 yard roughing penalty added to end of the play.  Set up at the Bengals 20, Arian Foster went to work.  Three consecutive rushing plays for yards of 8, 4 and 8 for the TD. Foster definitely settled down by now.

The teams exchanged field goals and it appeared the half may end tied at 10.  The Bengals still had time to move the ball and at least try to get into field goal range.  In one instant the game changed in favor of the Texans.  Dalton dropped back to pass and rookie JJ Watt snagged the ball right out of the air and returned it 29 yards for a TD.  All I can remember is seeing him running the opposite direction and thinking "Please don't fall, please don't fall....touchdown!"  As if the crowd needed nothing more to howl about, the play sent Reliant Stadium into complete pandemonium.  For good measure, Watt sacked Dalton to end the half on an extremely high note.

From then on it was pretty much all Texans.  The defense held star rookie AJ Green in check with 47 yards receiving.  1000 rusher Cedric Benson ran only for 14 yards on 7 carries.  As the Bengals were throwing more to catch up, Benson sat on the bench for the other two backs which are considered better pass blockers.  The Texans forced three Dalton interceptions.  Offensively the Bengals were stuck in mud.

The Texans put up TDs in each quarter to make it a final of 31-10.  In the third, it was a beautiful 40 TD pass to All Universe WR Andre Johnson.  Johnson did a double move that faked Adam Jones out of his jock to get wide open for the reception.  Foster finished off the scoring, with a 42 yard scamper down the sideline.  The Bengals had an opportunity to knock him out of bounds but they didn't make much of an effort to.

Man of the Match
Arian Foster - 153 yards, 24 carries, 2 TDs
Without a doubt, Foster carried the team to victory.  Having Andre Johnson back definitely took some defenders out of the box.  Johnson proved a dangerous weapon with his 90 yards and a TD.  But Foster was the work horse with 182 yards total offense.

Key Play of the Game
Obviously, JJ Watt's INT returned for a touchdown.  With the score tied at 10 going into the half, Watt swung the momentum to the Texans in one quick play.

Next up the Ravens in a divisional round match up.  Go Texans!  Bring on the Ravens!

First Ever Playoff Edition

I fell down on the blog. In the midst of the greatest season ever, I failed in my goal to weekly chronicle my opinions and happenings of my beloved Houston Texans.

There is just not enough time in the day to do what I want in addition to working. I used to work graveyard shift and that's where I did most my writing. Now I work almost exclusively on the day shift and to many eyes watching what I do.

So this is my first entry in a while.

The Houston Texans limped through the season losing player after player to injury. None bigger than losing Matt Schaub for the season to a Lisfranc broken bone. Schaub isn't the vocal leader of the team. For the most part though, as Schaub's play goes so do the Texans chances. Schaub was having a fine season as a ball control specialist. We already knew Schaub could put up big numbers. Most of the time, due to the defense, he had to. This year he didn't and the Texans still put up big points in some games.

The big losses besides, Schaub, were to Mario Williams, Andre Johnson and Arian Foster. Ask any casual fan to name a Texans and odds are at least two of the previously mention is one. For good reason, they are the top Texans guns.

Injury be damned. Here we are with the first ever Texans playoff game and in hours hopefully the first Texans playoff victory.

My expectations are Texans are going to not deviate from running the ball as they have been all season. With Andre Johnson healthy, look for the occasional shots down field. Remember that Johnson was putting up big numbers with rookie TJ Yates throwing to him against the Falcons. I think more of the same happens here along with the tight ends hitting the seams in zone coverage.

Defensively, I expect mass chaos thrown at the Bengals and Andy Dalton. I hope for a couple of early turnovers lead to short fields for Yates. Nothing can get a team up in a hurry and the crowd into it like turnovers.

I also hope the crowd is loud and proud from before kickoff. Make it loud to keep Dalton having to use more time to call plays and difficult for the line and WRs to hear the count.

I could go into more detail but I'm keeping in generic. There are better websites out there for pregame analysis. I like to do post game analysis.

Here we go, Texans! (Yuck that's the steeler chant)

Bring on the Bengals! Bring on the first playoff victory.