Tag Archives: Houston Texans

Red’s NFL Picks – Week 5

“Football is not a contact sport; it’s a collision sport. Dancing is a good example of a contact sport.”

Duffy Daugherty

Apparently, Duffy never went into the mosh pit.

Red Rates Himself – Last week 4-2. For the season 18-6.

Your Fox(boro)trot Pick of the Week: Patriots over Cowboys. Okay, this game is actually in Arlington, but it might as well be in the friendly confines of Foxboro as far as the Patriots are concerned. The Patriots seem to be untouchable right now and Red expects that to last for another 4 or 5 games before they start to come back to earth. The Cowboys on the other hand have so many problems that Red doesn’t know where to start or how to stop grinning. If Red’s Texans are going to stink, the smell is slightly assuaged by an even bigger odor wafting down from the Metroplex. Don’t over analyze this one. The Pats are just better than everyone else right now and will lose only if they beat themselves. The Pats have been scoring at will, but at 49.5, Red likes the under this week. New England 31 Arlington 13.

Your Texas Two-Step Pick of the Week: Colts over Texans. This is painful for Red, but he has to call them as he sees them. As weak and pathetic as the Colts look(1-3), as sorry as A. Luck has been (31st in Total QB Rating ahead of only Alex Smith), as tired and old as Andre Johnson looks (0 receptions in last 2 games), as porous their bottom-tier defense looks (27th ranked), as non-existent as their rushing attack seems (more fumbles than touchdowns), and as ready for the picking as they will ever be, Red still can’t go there in the face of a Texans team that just plain sucks right now. Maybe Arian Foster will come around, maybe quarterback play will be acceptably mediocre, maybe the once-vaunted defense will show some spine, maybe the loss of the number 2 and 3 receivers won’t kill the passing attack, but that is a lot of maybes for a team that is lost in the woods.  This is a Pick ‘Em right now. Red picks the Colts. Indianapolis 13 Houston 9.

Your Do the Hustle Pick of the Week: Giants over 49ers. This week’s triple-forward time zone hex game is an easy pick even without the latent longitudinal bias working in favor of the Giants. The Niners are last in the league in passing offense. The NFL is a passing league. ‘Nuff said. Still Red wouldn’t touch Giants minus 7 with a 100 yard pole. New Jersey 27 Santa Clara 10.

You’re It Takes Two to Tango Pick of the Week: Bengals over Seahawks. Bengals want to play with the big boys – well, they get their chance this week. Red Rifle desperately needs a big game in a big game against a big time opponent. Check, check, check. Red calls the Bengals eking one out in the NFL Game of the Week. When the Bengals win this one, watch out – Red will call the Bengals to go 13-3 and may have to file an amended pre-season Superb Owl prediction. Cincinnati 29 Seattle 27.

Your Pennsylvania Polka Pick of the Week: Eagles over Saints. Saints proved they could beat a crippled Cowboys team last week. This week they face an Eagles squad that may finally be getting some legs underneath it.   A Chip Kelly team is not going to remain in the bottom quartile of NFL offenses for the entire season. This could be the break out game. However, if the Eagles cannot beat the Saints at home, then watch out, the whiskey bottles will be flying in Philly. It’s a hefty 49.5, but take the over, over, over. Philadelphia 45 New Orleans 27.

Your Can-Can Pick of the Week: Jaguars over Buccaneers. This week’s Shit Bowl feature two regular denizens of these Foul Floridian Fecal Fights. Who will stink worse this week, Blake Bortles or Jameis Winston? Red can only feign interest for so long.   Child proof the house lest ye be tempted to add some Drano to your Margarita to end the misery if you dare watch more than 5 minutes of this one. Jacksonville 17 Tampa Bay 13.

Houston Texans Update

We have good news and bad news for Houston Texans fans.

The Good News: After beating the mighty Tampa Bay Buccaneers (who were the BNL worst team in football last season) the Houston Texans are now in first place in the god-awful, pathetic excuse for a professional football division that is the AFC South.

The Bad News:  After beating the mighty Tampa Bay Buccaneers (who were the BNL worst team in football last season) the Houston Texans are now in last place in the god-awful, pathetic excuse for a professional football division that is the AFC South.

Brian Hoyer Named Starting Quarterback for Texans

Feisty Brian Hoyer has been named the Houston Texans starting quarterback for the season opener with the Kansas City Chiefs.  Hoyer, who has been much-maligned by the Houston sports radio crowd, will get a chance to prove it on the field.  While everyone talks about the importance of the QB position, it probably won’t matter who Coach Bill O’Brien has taking snaps unless there is a marked improvement in the offensive line.  Since the dismissal of Chris Myers and the failure of Sua’filo to emerge as a legitimate starter, the O-line is in relative turmoil inside the tackles.  The main reason the Cowboys were a playoff team last year was because they have spent capital and precious draft picks on offensive linemen and now sport one of the best units in the NFL.  The Texans had a similarly excellent line only 4 seasons ago and it carried them to the playoffs twice.  With a journeyman quarterback and Arian Foster out for the foreseeable future, 2015 could be a long year for the Deep Steel Blue, Liberty White and Battle Red clad fans at NRG.

At least, Hoyer understands the situation.  After the pathetic offensive performance in Saturday night’s preseason game against the Broncos, Hoyer said, “I think at this point there’s definitely things that need to be corrected and get fixed. But I don’t feel poorly about where I’m at. I don’t know if I’d say I feel great. I think we have a long way to go as an entire offensive unit, myself included.”

Hoyer will definitely need to improve on last year’s line with the Browns.  Read it and weep, Texans fans.

Rank
Comp. pct. 55.3 32nd
TD-Int ratio 0.92* 31st
Total QBR 39.8 30th
Yards per att. 7.6 9th

NFL Releases 2015 Shedules

The NFL released the 2015 Season schedules on Tuesday.  As usual the Texans get short shrift in prime time and late afternoon national TV games and in scheduling in general.  The Texans have not a single 3:30 start and have all of 2 prime time games – one of which is the mandatory Thursday night game against the Colts at home and a Monday night game at the Bengals.   Plus, there are home games on the weekends before and after Thanksgiving (difficult for Red to attend because of travel, family, etc.).  At least there aren’t home games around Christmas.  All in all, a pretty pathetic schedule.

Here is the Texans Schedule:

Sunday, Sept. 13 KANSAS CITY CHIEFS Noon CBS
Sunday, Sept. 20 at Carolina Panthers Noon CBS
Sunday, Sept. 27 TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS Noon FOX
Sunday, Oct. 4 at Atlanta Falcons Noon CBS
Thursday, Oct. 8 INDIANAPOLIS COLTS 7:25 p.m. CBS/NFLN
Sunday, Oct. 18 at Jacksonville Jaguars Noon CBS
Sunday, Oct. 25 at Miami Dolphins Noon CBS
Sunday, Nov. 1 TENNESSEE TITANS Noon CBS
Sunday, Nov. 8 BYE
Monday, Nov. 16 at Cincinnati Bengals 7:30 p.m. ESPN
Sunday, Nov. 22 NEW YORK JETS Noon CBS
Sunday, Nov. 29 NEW ORLEANS SAINTS Noon FOX
Sunday, Dec. 6 at Buffalo Bills Noon CBS
Sunday, Dec. 13 NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS Noon CBS
Sunday, Dec. 20 at Indianapolis Colts Noon CBS
Sunday, Dec. 27 at Tennessee Titans Noon CBS
Sunday, Jan. 3 JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS Noon CBS

Let’s go up the road to Arlington. How did the Cowboys fare? As usual, the team that has won exactly 2 – count ’em 2 – playoff games in the last 20 years gets all the goodies.  The Cowboys have 5 prime time games to go with 6 national TV late afternoon games (including Thanksgiving) – only one of which (against Seattle) is actually time-zone related.  That  means 11 of the 16 regular season games for this absolutely mediocre franchise will be nationally televised. And they play on Monday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.  It wouldn’t be so bad if this didn’t happen every year.  Jerry Jones must have some awesome pictures.

Here is the Cowboys schedule – I hope they  go 5-11.

Week 1: Sunday, Sept. 13, vs. New York Giants (6-10), 7:30 p.m. (NBC)

Week 2: Sunday, Sept. 20, at Philadelphia Eagles (10-6), 3:25 p.m. (FOX)

Week 3: Sunday, Sept. 27, vs. Atlanta (6-10), noon (FOX)

Week 4: Sunday, Oct. 4, at New Orleans (7-9), 7:30 p.m. (NBC)

Week 5: Sunday, Oct. 11, vs. New England (12-4), 3:25 p.m. (CBS)

Week 6: Bye week

Week 7: Sunday, Oct. 25, at New York Giants (6-10), 3:25 p.m. (FOX)

Week 8: Sunday, Nov. 1 vs. Seattle (12-4), 3:25 p.m. (FOX)

Week 9: Sunday, Nov. 8, vs. Philadephia (10-6), 7:30 p.m. (NBC)

Week 10: Sunday, Nov. 15, at Tampa Bay (2-14), noon (FOX)

Week 11: Sunday, Nov. 22, at Miami (8-8), noon (FOX)

Week 12: Thursday, Nov. 26, vs. Carolina (7-8-1), 3:30 p.m. (CBS)

Week 13: Monday, Dec. 7, at Washington (4-12), 7:30 p.m. (ESPN)

Week 14: Sunday, Dec. 13, at Green Bay (12-4), 3:25 p.m. (FOX)

Week 15: Saturday, Dec. 19, vs. New York Jets (4-12), 7:25 p.m. (NFL Network)

Week 16: Sunday, Dec. 27, at Buffalo (9-7), noon (FOX)

Week 17: Sunday, Jan. 3, vs. Washington (4-12), noon (FOX)