Pyrrhic Victory May Have Texans Dialing Casey’s Number More Often

http://www.playerpress.com/articles/pyrrhic-victory-may-have-texans-dialing-casey-s-number-more-often

Could Winning Shift Houston Fans’ Allegiance Again?

Houston, it should be known, is a city which suffers from multiple personalities. It should be little surprise that this malady has long affected the way the city’s fans view their football teams.

The city is home to two major universities, for example, which at various points have competed for or won national titles in a number of sports—Rice and the University of Houston.

Yet even during the time period when the Cougars were winning football championships in the Southwest Conference, if you were to ask a Houstonian who his favorite college football team was, you’d be more apt to get an answer of “Texas Longhorns” or “Texas A&M Aggies.”

The same has held true with pro football for years: the city had its die-hard Oilers fans, its equally die-hard Cowboys fans, and its Yankees.

(“Yankees” are those carpetbagger fans—most of them snake-oil salesmen, no doubt—who back any team other than the current Houston or Dallas NFL franchises, with the lone exception being fans of the Tennessee Oilers/Titans).

It’s only to be expected in a city which has grown so fast, so quickly, that there be a wide diversity of allegiances. But Houston seems to be the only major city which has never really seen fan loyalty solidly in favor of the home team.

Dallas has grown equally fast, but you won’t see that many “Texans” bumper stickers on cars while you’re stuck in a traffic jam on I-20.

As an unbiased journalist, of course, I’ve had the chance to watch the way Houston’s fans have swayed back and forth over the course of the last half-century.

The reason for Houston’s divided allegiance goes way back to the birth of pro football—which, as any native Texan knows, was in 1960, when the Oilers and the AFL were born, and the Cowboys debuted in Dallas with the NFL.

Many Americans in general, and football-crazy Texans in particular, never gave the Oilers due credit for winning the first two AFL titles—because it wasn’t the NFL. They instead opted to follow the Cowboys, who posted an 0-11-1 record in Tom Landry’s first season at the helm.

But as the 1960s devolved into mass anarchy socially, the Cowboys and Oilers moved along divergent paths.

The Oilers were in contention a few times after those first couple of seasons—They lost to, ironically, the Dallas Texans (later the Chiefs) in the 1962 title game. But they eventually became fodder for everyone else, especially after the merger of the two leagues.

The Cowboys, meanwhile, stuck with Landry and became one of the most successful franchises in history.

Along the way, Houston’s fans of the two teams became readily recognizable.

Cowboys fans liked country music; they were born-and-bred farmers who just happened to wind up in the Big City. They didn’t hold with no high-falutin’ No.1 draft picks—after all, they didn’t need any because they had the best record every year.

And once Roger Staubach gave them a Super Bowl to savor, they became impossible to live with.

“Messkins,” as most of us referred to our Hispanic brethren at the time, tended to be Cowboys fans, because Dallas played a couple of pre-season games in Mexico City and developed a Spanish-language network to cater specifically to our permanent touristas.

Oilers fans tended to be a little more urban. They listened to—and worse yet, frequented—discos.

They wore ties, even when there wasn’t a funeral or wedding to attend. They drank vodka twists and dined on things you didn’t prepare by barbecuing.

Having the Oilers in town was a status thing. When you needed to entertain a client, you took them to an Oilers game to watch the client’s home team beat the crap out of Houston.

That changed in 1978 when Bum Phillips and Sid Gillman worked a deal to land Earl Campbell, and Luv Ya Blue was born.

Suddenly, it was the Oilers fans who relished being countrified, while Cowboys backers were seen as sophisticated snobs. (Except for the Messkins, who maintained their allegiance to the Cowboys and were seen as decidedly unsophisticated.)

The Oilers were Gilley’s, and the rodeo, and the Battleship Texas, and the delightfully bouncy Derrick Dolls; Cowboys fans frequented pubs rather than beer-barns, voted for Democrats, and their cheerleaders posed for smut magazines.

The departures of Phillips and Campbell signaled an end to that era, and once again, the fans switched.

Although the Oilers returned to prominence briefly during the Warren Moon era, for the fans, it just wasn’t the same.

And when Bud Adams, may he rot forever, announced plans to move the team to Tennessee unless he could get a better Astrodome—why would anyone want to replace a perfectly-good 30-year-old stadium that had the fewest seats in the league, anyway?—suddenly there were no more Oilers fans.

A few of the most die-hard sort continued to follow the—it’s hard to say it, even now—Titans, but many former Oiler fans gave up the ghost and became Cowboys fans.

When Tennessee went to the Super Bowl, all the old Oiler fans knew in their hearts the players did it for them.

The city’s Cowboys fans had two years of smugness in which to gloat, in both English and Spanish, and win every sports-bar argument with Oilers fans.

Things changed again when Bob McNair, frustrated at not getting a franchise in the NHL, decided that well, maybe football was a better sport—something most Texans already knew—Houston had a team again and began trying to cultivate fans.

It hasn’t been easy.

Texans fans tend to be a little more dispassionate than were their Oiler forebears. That’s a good thing, because it means most of them don’t have ulcers after watching the team struggle for most of its short tenure in pro football.

They’re loyal to their team, but when the Texans blow a lead late in the game, or get stuffed on fourth-and-one with 29 seconds remaining—well, it’s all Bud Adams’ fault: if only he hadn’t taken OUR team away …

Interestingly enough, the number of true Cowboys fans in Houston hasn’t really changed all that much during the Texans’ woeful formative years. Perhaps that’s because Tex Schramm sold the team to Jerry Jones, and Jones brought his own flamboyancy to a team which was at one time as predictably low-key as it was predictably good.

Houston fans like to think of themselves as blue-collar types, even when they’re not. Thus, they don’t take well to T.O., but absolutely adore Andre Johnson.

It will be interesting to watch the Houston fans during the 2009 season. Most football gurus are saying the Texans should finally reach the playoffs.

Will Houston’s fans shift allegiances again?

The city’s more upscale residents, for example, are known for being bandwagon riders; they flip-flop every election based on who the major networks tell them is going to win.

Could a lot of pre-season predictions have them painting their children’s faces Battle Red and Steel Blue instead of Blue and Silver?

Even the city’s Yankees could admit their own Rust Belt allegiances and switch, should the Texans catch fire. Some of them are even sporting those bumper stickers which read “I Wasn’t Born in Texas, But I Got Here As Fast As I Could!”

But even if the Texans have as good a year as the predictions are making out, there will still be that cadre of die-hard Cowboys fans in the area. Every store in town sells as much Cowboys merchandise as it does Texans stuff.

“Dynasty” Predictions Don’t Fit HoustonTexans–Yet

Some other posters here at Bleacher Report have hinted at it, while others have boldly proclaimed it.

Are the Houston Texans on the verge of becoming pro football’s next great dynasty?

Give owner Bob McNair’s management team credit: GM Rick Smith and head coach Gary Kubiak have assembled a lot of the right elements. The trick will be bringing those elements together to translate to success on the field.

When you compare what the Texans will be fielding in 2009 with some of the great NFL dynasties of the past, the parallels are there.

Great NFL dynasties always feature a strong head coach who players trust implicitly. I have been impressed by the way Kubiak has imprinted so much of his personality on this team.

Like the legendary Vince Lombardi, Kubiak doesn’t brook dissension. I’ve reviewed a lot of footage of the Texans and have scanned a lot of quotes from the team’s players during Kubiak’s tenure, and one thing which has stood out is the way players talk about their coach.

Even when it’s obvious they disagree with him, you hear things like: “…but he’s the coach, so we’re going to do it his way.”

Players who dissent don’t stay long in Houston.

The other part of the coaching element is called “genius.” It’s way too soon to apply that term to Kubiak, of course, but he has the coaching pedigree.

He learned from a legend in Mike Shanahan, and has taken Shanahan’s ideas a step further. He has assembled a staff of bright young minds, including Shanahan’s son Kyle.

Under Kubiak’s tutelage, the Texan offense has gone from being Dull Central to the league’s third-best in 2009.

His version of the West Coast offense has refined the magic Shanahan created in Denver during the John Elway era (when Kubiak was the backup quarterback) by creating what I’d call a “plug-and-play” element—that is, if one offensive star gets stuffed, you simply shift emphasis in another direction.

The next element of great NFL dynasties: a great quarterback. No one is going to use Matt Schaub’s name in the same sentence with that of Joe Montana, Bob Griese, Terry Bradshaw or Bart Starr—yet. He’s missed too many games in his first two seasons because of injuries. Quarterback durability is a key to building a dynasty.

Schaub has many of the tools needed to be a dynasty quarterback. He’s big, he’s mobile, he reads coverages well (an essential element of the West Coast offense) and he is good at hitting ‘em where they ain’t, to borrow a baseball adage.

What he needs to develop—and can only be learned through experience—is patience and good decision-making, the two key factors in avoiding turnovers.

Houston’s remaining offensive weapons mirror many of the great dynasties.

They have the league’s best wide receiver in Andre Johnson, a clutch pass grabber in Kevin Walter (one fellow blogger referred to him as a “Red Zone vulture,” which I have to rank up there as one of the best new sports cliches I’ve ever heard), a couple of speed demons in Andre Davis and Jacoby Jones, and a tight end who knows how to find the end zone in Owen Daniels.

Steve Slaton is an exciting running back with explosive speed. The Texans still need to develop a RB who can pound the ball for guaranteed gains in short-yardage situations, but Slaton’s abilities give Houston the balanced attack it has never had before.

The offensive line isn’t up to dynasty standards yet, only a couple of years removed from giving up the most sacks in the league. Success breeds reputation, however: don’t be surprised if that line starts getting more accolades as the skill positions roll up bigger numbers.

The two key players there are youngsters: second-year LT Duane Brown and rookie C Antoine Caldwell.

The biggest factor making the words “dynasty” and “Texans” mutually exclusive is the Houston defense. Great NFL dynasties have it, Houston doesn’t.

To be sure, it’s not because the Texans haven’t been working on that. Six of their last seven first-round draft picks have been defensive players.

What the Texans do have, at this point, is a collection of young defenders who seem to get better each season.

Defensive end Mario Williams last year justified the Texans’ gamble in making him the No.1 pick over Vince Young and Reggie Bush. MLB DeMeco Ryans is a born leader, and the rapid development of LB Brian Cushing and DE Connor Barwin, this year’s top two draft picks, has wildly exceeded the team’s expectations so far.

New defensive coordinator Frank Bush brings another dynasty element: physicality. You don’t think about the Steel Curtain without wincing, and that’s the kind of play Bush encourages.

 If the mix of veterans and youngsters the Texans have assembled in the defensive backfield can make opponents start thinking twice about throwing the ball, Houston’s defense could make rapid improvement.

The last pieces of the puzzle in building an NFL dynasty are cohesiveness and continuity. Tom Landry’s Cowboys, Chuck Knoll’s Steelers, Shula’s Dolphins and even Lombardi’s Packers were all teams built patiently through the draft rather than overnight successes.

McNair has been patient. The Texans have concentrated on player development in each of the last two seasons, spurning the chance to grab big-name free agents who could have made an immediate impact.

The mistakes of inexperience have played a big role in keeping the team out of the playoffs in Kubiak’s first two campaigns as the head coach—but if you’ll review those seasons, you’ll see the Texans rarely make the same mistake twice.

The 2009 campaign could be the payoff year for Houston. It typically takes three seasons for a player to get fully attuned to the pro game, and if you’ll review the roster, there are a LOT of guys entering their third season with the team.

Even if Houston enjoys the success predicted for it this season, it’s far too early to call what the Texans have assembled a “dynasty.” That is something proven over several seasons.

But all indications are that it’s possible the 2009 campaign could see the start of a dynasty.

Secondary Remains Texans Biggest Question Mark

As the pre-season predictions continue to drift in, the Houston Texans find themselves in a position they’re not really used to: entering training camp as the favorite to win their division.

It’s cause for high hopes for Houston’s long-suffering football fans. It’s been years since a Houston professional football team has been picked to win much of anything.

The Texans admit it’s nice to be highly regarded—but they’re taking a cautious approach to it all.

“As a player, you enjoy when people say positive things about you or your organization,” defensive tackle Frank Okam said; when told many pundits are comparing the Texans with last year’s Arizona Cardinals. “I hope we can finish with a better record than Arizona did last year. But it’s really about getting to the playoffs, getting to the Super Bowl and winning the thing.”

Head coach Gary Kubiak says his crew will enter camp July 31 better, but they’re still not satisfied.

“We’re a better team,” he said at the conclusion of the three-day mini-camp June 17. “We’re more competitive than we were last year and that’s important because when you’re competitive your team gets better.

“I told the guys this morning, I talked to them for 20 minutes and I said, ‘You know we can talk about playoffs; we can talk about this, we can talk about that. The bottom line, we’ve got to talk about improvement. Because if we improve, we improve on what we’ve been doing, then we should be in line to reach our goals.’ So the focus needs to stay on us.” 

The Texan offense was prolific last season, and enters the 2009 campaign with little change—read that as “more experienced.” It’s on defense where the team took its biggest strides in the off-season, with Frank Bush replacing Richard Smith as the defensive coordinator and off-season moves as well as draft picks bolstering the front seven immensely.

The biggest question mark for the Texans will be in the defensive backfield, where veterans like Demarcus Fagins and Glenn Earl have moved on to other teams.

Can the addition of veteran safety Nick Ferguson, draft picks Glover Quin and Brice McCain, and second-year strong safety Dominique Barber solidify around All-Pro Dunta Robinson and third-year man Fred Bennett?

Ferguson said it’s not necessarily the secondary personnel who will make the big difference.

“Well, the reason I think is going to be better is for three things,” he said during the organized team activities in early June. “Frank Bush is our defensive coordinator. We have David Gibbs as our coach. And the acquisitions we made in the offseason.”

Just about everyone who has seen top draft choice Brian Cushing and second-round pick Connor Barwin has been impressed, and the acquisitions of DE Antonio Smith, LB Cato June and Okam are making the front seven anchored by DE Mario Williams and MLB DeMeco Ryans look pretty stout.

 Bush’s style calls for a more aggressive front seven, allowing the DBs to make plays rather than site back in zone coverage.  Barber thinks just the change of style will answer questions about the secondary.

“I think people are going to see a completely new defense this year with us wreaking havoc and causing turnovers and getting the offense the ball back,” he told the team website. “Coach Bush is bringing back the old days of flying around back there and making plays. You have to track and trust the guys next to you and know that he knows his assignment and what he has to do.”

Barber said it’s a gambling style of defense, but one that focuses on multiple defenders flying to the ball.

“We are going to make mistakes, but it’s about continuing to go out make another play and backing each other up,” he said. “If someone misses a tackle, there should be 10 other guys right there and have that person’s back.”

Gibbs, whose Kansas City Chiefs DBs were among the league leaders in pass defense 2006 and 2007, is enthusiastic about his group.

“I like my group,” Gibbs said after one OTA workout. “I think they’re a bunch of guys who have been beaten up, who’ve probably not played as well as they should.

“It’s nobody’s fault, whether it’s coaching or players. Their job is to play good on Sundays and my job is to make them play good on Sundays, and if they’re not playing good, then obviously, it goes back to the coach.” 

“Git ‘Er Dun” Attitude Makes Houston Texans’ Receiving Corps Unique

It began in the mind of Sid Gillman in the 1960s, when he made the San Diego Chargers the most pass-happy team in the old AFL.

It evolved into “Air Coryell” with the St. Louis Cardinals and later evolved again with the Chargers under head coach Don Coryell. 

Al Davis lifted the idea and took it to Oakland, where John Madden used it to take Kenny “Snake” Stabler and the Raiders to a Super Bowl.

In San Francisco, Bill Walsh further refined it to create a dynasty in San Francisco with Joe Montana, Jerry Rice and Dwight Clark.

It received its name in the early part of that dynasty when Bill Parcells’ defense-minded Giants shut down the 49ers in the 1985 playoffs. Parcells quipped, “What do you think of that West Coast offense now?”

Several of Walsh’s protégées tinkered with the offense to create their own unique variants. One of them, Mike Shanahan, took the Denver Broncos to the Super Bowl twice with it.

One of Shanahan’s protégées, Gary Kubiak, brought it with him when he was named the head coach of the Houston Texans—and Shanahan’s son, Kyle, now tinkers with it on his own as the team’s offensive coordinator.

The tinkering Kubiak and the younger Shanahan have done to the West Coast Offense certainly qualifies it for a new nickname, especially since Texans are notorious for eschewing anything from the Left Coast.

Given Kubiak’s workmanlike, no-nonsense philosophy and the way the Texans have taken to it, you could rightfully call it the Git ‘Er Dun Offense: a collection of blue-collar players who shun fanfare as a distraction and simply take care of business.

Indeed, it is the personalities as much as the system which make the Texans’ offensive attack so successful.

Wide receivers around the NFL, for example, tend to be flashy types. They are the rock stars of pro football, the guys who do the fancy dances in the end zone. Paparazzi follow them around, and they are sometimes as famous for the trouble they get into as for the trouble they create for opposing defenses.

Things are a little different in Houston, where the receiving corps seems like a perfect fit for the city’s blue-collar philosophy.

Start with the best wide receiver in the NFL, Andre Johnson. Where other premiere wideouts hold their own press conferences to campaign for more face time, Johnson avoids the “me-me-me” temptation.

Johnson lets Kubiak call the shots and he catches the ball. That’s what works—Johnson had 115 catches last season, best in the NFL.

“He’s going to call the play, and you’re going to run it,” Johnson told ESPN after one game last season.

“He’s just plain to the point. He’s not going to complicate things. We’re going to run what we’re going to run.”

On a lot of other teams, a player like wide receiver Kevin Walter would spend a lot of time on special teams or the practice squad, if he made the team at all.

Walter is not the fleetest wide receiver, but Kubiak gave him the chance to earn a starting job, and Walter has made the most of it—leading the team in catches (65) in 2007 when Johnson went down with an injury, and grabbing 60 more passes, including eight touchdowns a year ago.

In an interview with ESPN prior to the start of the 2008 season, Kubiak compared Walter to longtime Broncos wide receiver Ed McCaffrey.

“We got to have guys that go out there and dig out safeties and stuff in the run game,” Kubiak said. “What happens to guys like that, who people say is like this or like that, they find a way to make up for it. Kevin, in his career, has become such a technician at what he does, that if he’s like a tenth of a second here or there speed-wise, he’ll find a way to make it up.”

Walter reminds this writer of another guy with less-than-blazing speed who used a nose-to-the-grindstone philosophy to become one of the best in the league—Fred Biletnikoff. He’s not afraid to throw a block, he’s not afraid to run into traffic, and he makes the tough catch without a lot of fanfare.

Andre Davis would likely be a starter on a lot of other teams—and if he wasn’t, you’d hear a lot about it. With the Texans, he’s found a role he’s comfortable with.

“I want to continue to go out there and help the team in any way I can,” Davis told the team’s Brooke Bentley. “Andre and Kevin are the starters, and they have played great for us the last three years that I have been here. I want to go out there and push those guys.”

Davis says the depth of talent in the Texans’ receiving corps—which includes the dynamic Jacoby Jones and David Anderson, another “hands” man—gives the team a lot of options in presenting looks to opponents.

“We all understand that we have different skill sets and we accept the roles that we are in, but we are never satisfied with that,” he said. “With the great things that we did last year, we have to continue to work on reducing our turnovers this year.”

For the first few years of their existence, the tight end position for the Texans was essentially a sixth offensive lineman—which, given QB David Carr’s release time, wasn’t a bad idea.

That changed in 2006 when the team drafted TE Owen Daniels, a converted wide receiver.

Daniels gave the Texans a new dimension by becoming a tight end that could be a pass-catching threat.

He parlayed that into 70 receptions and a spot in the Pro Bowl in 2008.

Daniels was a holdout during the team’s recent minicamp after signing a one-year tender offer, but is expected to ink a lucrative long-term arrangement at some point before the season starts. Nonetheless, his goals remain workmanlike.

“We are sick of being just a middle-of-the-road team,” he said in an interview during the organized team workouts preceding mini-camp. “We want to take that next step and get to the playoffs.

“We have a lot of guys who are going to catch passes and get the ball in their hands,” he added.

“As long as we are unselfish about it and as long as we are getting yards and putting points on the board, I don’t think any of us really care who is getting the ball. It’s always a good thing to have as many weapons as you can.”

 

The Colts Are Still the Team To Beat, but the AFC South Is Anyone’s Race

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The Indianapolis Colts still hold the pole position in the AFC South, but the other three teams in the race have the capability of taking the checkered flag.

It won’t be sleek new aerodynamics, fuel efficiency, or revolutionary suspension which makes the difference, however: like an Indy-car race, the 2009 NFL campaign will depend on who has the best driver, and the best pit crew.

A year ago, the Tennessee Titans posted a 13-3 record to edge Indianapolis out for the title after five straight division titles for the Colts. The Titans are the only other team to have won the division since expansion in 2002.

The 2009 season, however, could be the year the league’s toughest division gets even tougher.

No one expects the Jacksonville Jaguars to fold up shop in mid-season the way they did in 2008.

Despite a quarterback brouhaha brewing, the Titans remain a force to reckon with because of their defense.

And many pundits expect 2009 to be the breakout year for the Houston Texans.

Here is a quick rundown of what the division’s four teams did in the off-season, and their pluses and minuses entering summer camp next month:

 

INDIANAPOLIS COLTS

Jim Campbell takes over as head coach of the Colts following the retirement of sure-fire Hall of Famer Tony Dungy, and he’s got his work cut out for him.

Several members of Dungy’s staff followed their mentor into retirement as well, which didn’t sit well with some members of the team.

So long as QB Peyton Manning is healthy, of course, the Colts would be considered the team to beat in the division, even if all the other roster spots were filled with the Little Sisters of the Poor.

Manning has magic: he’s proven it time and time again, and until another quarterback steps up and proves his mojo is better, three-time league MVP Manning remains the King.

Manning hasn’t been happy in the off-season, however, saying in a published report he’s unhappy about communication with the team’s front office.

Colts owner Robert Irsay told the Associated Press that retired offensive coordinator Tom Moore and offensive line coach Howard Mudd, Manning’s brain-trust, will return to the team in an as-yet-to-be-determined role to make Manning happy.

More ominous for Colts fans is the fact that Manning won’t have Marvin Harrison to play with any more.

The 37-year-old Harrison, who with Manning formed the most productive aerial duo in NFL history, was released by the team Feb. 24 in a move to save the team his $13 million salary, and many expect he will announce his retirement.

Indianapolis also has some lingering injury issues to worry about to RB Joseph Addai and kicker Adam Vinatieri.

 

TENNESSEE TITANS

Quarterback Vince Young isn’t a happy man.

Young told a Baltimore radio station if he can’t win back his starting job, he’d just as soon move on to another team. Young suffered a knee injury in the 2008 season opener and Kerry Collins stepped in to lead the Titans to a 13-3 mark.

Head coach Jeff Fisher has said Young will get his chance to earn the job back, but Fisher is known as a very conservative sort who doesn’t like to tinker with success.

One area he doesn’t have to tinker with too much is the Titans’ running game—Charles Johnson and LenDale White.

The productive duo attached the moniker “Smash and Dash” to themselves after teaming for more than 300 rushing yards in a win over the Chiefs last season and combined for more than 2,000 yards rushing and 24 TDs.

Fisher isn’t impressed with their self-nickname, however, adding his own tongue-inh-cheek suggestion to the Associated Press:  “Dumb and Dumber.”

Another area Fisher doesn’t have to tinker with is on defense: Tennessee has arguably the best defensive backfield in football, and even with the loss of premier DT Albert Haynesworth, who signed with the Redskins in the off-season, the Titans look solid.

 

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS

No one would have anticipated the Jaguars’ collapse in 2008; the team began the season as one of the favorites in the division and in some quarters were expected to reach the Super Bowl.

Then a string of injuries first slowed, then stopped, the Jags in their tracks. The team lost six of its last seven games to finish 5-11.

Coach Jack Del Rio enters a hot-seat season with quite possibly still the league’s best running game and a solid run defense—but a weak passing game and a suspect pass defense.

RB Maurice Jones-Drew is now the workhorse for the Jags following the release of steady Fred Taylor, and Jacksonville is looking to rookie Rashad Jennings to step into Taylor’s shoes as a platoon runner.

The Jags picked up WR Torry Holt in the off-season, giving QB David Garrard a worthy target for the first time in a couple of years.

Jacksonville lost safeties Gerald Sensabaugh and Pierson Prioleau, leading tackler Mike Peterson and sack man Paul Spicer.

Del Rio, whose forte has always been defense, will be looking for solutions when training camp opens. The addition of Holt will give the Jags a two-dimensional attack they’ve lacked, and if the defense gets reorganized, the Jags could return to prominence in a big hurry.

 

HOUSTON TEXANS

The key personnel losses by the Colts and Jaguars have a lot of experts saying this will be the Texans’ year—and there is a lot of evidence to back that claim.

The Texans had the league’s third-best offense overall in 2008, and their biggest challenge will be avoiding turnovers and getting into the end zone—two factors that killed them in 2008.

QB Matt Schaub and his receiving corps, including Pro Bowlers Andre Johnson and Owen Daniels, are entering their third season together.

Coach Gary Kubiak now has sophomore running back Steve Slaton to keep opponents guessing. Figure Houston will score some points.

Houston may have found the ringer in the 2009 draft in linebacker Brian Cushing, who has impressed not only the Texans coaching staff but a lot of outsiders as well.

The defensive line, led by Mario Williams, has made vast improvement over how it began last season—when the Texans couldn’t stop the run—and second-round draft pick Connor Barwin could give the Texans two guys on the edge to make opposing quarterbacks nervous.

The biggest question for Houston will be whether or not the Texans have found the right combination of defensive backs.

Venerable Nick Ferguson was picked up as a free agent at one safety, and the Texans drafted a couple of talented youngsters in Quin Glover and Brice McClain to add to perennial All-Pro Dunta Robinson and steady performer Jacques Reeves at the corners.

The whimsical adage holds that old age and treachery overcome youth and stamina every time. The Texans may prove that wrong in 2009.

Texans Counting on Top Draft Picks To Give Them Killer Instinct

They’ve got the players.

They’ve got the battle plan.

Now, the only thing the Houston Texans need to become a force in the National Football League is a killer instinct.

It’s the one intangible of the NFL which separates a playoff team, especially a Super Bowl team, from the rest of the pack.

Lack of a killer instinct is what destroyed fan support for the Oilers and led to Bud Adams taking his team to Tennessee. Development of killer instinct is what later put that team into the Super Bowl.

You have to be able to put opponents away when you get them down.

You have to be able to walk on crappy opponents.

You have to be able to at least hold your own with foes who are as talented as you are.

The Texans don’t have a real good track record when it comes to delivering the coup de grace.

Houston started the 2008 season 0-4, including losses to the Jaguars and the Colts in games the Texans should have won—had they been able to close things out after getting a lead.

They had to struggle to beat the Dolphins and Lions in games they should have easily won.

They finally demonstrated a little killer instinct in a 35-6 rout of the Bengals Oct. 26, prompting the Chronicle’s John McClain to gush:

“The Texans got a weaker opponent on the ground, put their foot on Cincinnati’s throat and twisted…”

Then Houston embarked on a three-game losing streak, later losing to the lowly Raiders to cost them a shot at a winning season.

The fans know the Texans need that ruthlessness. They still remember the city’s greatest humiliation, that 1993 playoff game against the Bills when the Oilers ran up a 28-3 halftime lead only to lose it 41-38.

As one fan, coytexan, observed on a bulletin board at the team’s website:

“Until we get that killer instinct we will never see our full potential.”  

Offensive lineman Chester Pitts expressed his concern after the Texans ran up a 21-0 lead in the first quarter against the Lions, then had to hang on to win it 28-21:

“It’s a matter of everybody having the confidence that we can go out and set a team down,” he told USAToday.

Offenses get you leads; defenses make them stand up. Developing a killer instinct requires a defense that maintains its intensity even when the final score doesn’t look like it will be in doubt.

When they embarked on building their 2009 squad, head coach Gary Kubiak and general manager Rick Smith went hunting folks who could give the team that sense of ruthlessness.

First-round draft pick Brian Cushing and second-round choice Connor Barwin may be the answer.

“…starting with Brian Cushing—funny, we interviewed him in Indianapolis. I asked him if he ever relaxed,” Smith told Texan TV’s Brooke Bentley on Draft Day. 

“He said, ‘Not very often, coach.’ We just love what the kid stands for, how he loves the game. He is all business, and that’s what we need.”

Both Cushing and Barwin bring a new level of intensity, Kubiak said.

“I think you will see that (Barwin) is an intense competitor as well,” he said.

“We like both of them. If you can get athletes that are intense and add that to your group, I think it really enhances your ability to play good defense.”

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It’s a lot of responsibility to put on young shoulders, but if the two rookies are able to bring that intangible to the Houston defense, the Texans could have the breakout year they’ve been expecting for so long.

 

 

 

 

Texans Sign Anthony Hill, Kris Brown

 

The Houston Texans on Wednesday announced they signed rookie tight end Anthony Hill, but did not immediately confirm a newspaper report stating the team had signed kicker Kris Brown to a four-year contract extension.

 

Hill, a 6’6″, 265-pounder from North Carolina, was taken in the fourth round and has impressed the coaching staff during organized team workouts and mini-camp with his receiving skills.

 

“He’s caught the ball really well,” head coach Gary Kubiak said in a news release. “I think that’s kind of been a surprise for us. He knows what he is doing route wise.

 

“He’ll get better just through repetitions and understanding exactly the pro game and that type of thing. I think that’s been a bonus,” Kubiak added. “We knew we were getting a physical player, but I think it’s been a bonus that he can run routes pretty good.”

 

A Houston native, Hill finished his North Carolina career with 79 receptions for 852 yards and five touchdowns in 37 games. He completed his career with a 10.8 yards-per-catch average.

 

The Houston Chronicle on Wednesday also published that Brown, the team’s all-time leading scorer, has signed a four-year contract extension.

 

Last season, Brown set franchise records in points (124), field goals (29) and field goal percentage (87.9). His career-high field goal percentage was tied for second best in the AFC. 

A 10-year veteran, Brown signed with the Texans before the team’s inaugural 2002 season as a restricted free agent from the Pittsburgh Steelers. Along with guard Chester Pitts, Brown is one of two players to have appeared in every game in franchise history.

He is the Texans’ all-time leading scorer with 661 points.

 

 

Talent at RB Makes Texans’ Kubiak One Happy Camper

 

Have the Houston Texans found the tough-yardage back they’ve wanted for so long?

 

Not yet, says head coach Gary Kubiak—but when training camp starts July 31, he’s not exactly going to be moaning over the lack of talent.

 

“It’s hard to tell, but they all have the ability to run the ball and have the foot quickness,” Kubiak said in the team’s daily media circular. “But you find out a lot about backs when you put pads on and start picking up blisters and taking that pounding every day. So come July 31st, we’ll find out more.” 

 

The Texans will enter pre-season with last year’s pleasant surprise, Steve Slaton, firmly entrenched as the starter. From there, however, it’s up for grabs.

 

Veteran Chris Brown, the former starter for the Titans, has the credentials to win at least one backup job: he’s the physical type of runner the Texans need in the red zone—but injuries have daunted him the last two seasons.

 

Ryan Moatsturned some heads late in the 2008 season with some gutsy play as well, and Kubiak said the third-year man out of Louisiana Tech “had a good camp” during the OTAs and mini-camp.

 

In the off-season, the Texans picked up former Colt Clifton Dawson and rookie free agents Arian Foster and Jeremiah Johnson. Kubiak says all three of them have a chance to make the team, and the pre-season will be their chance to step it up.

 

“…when you look at the young guys, you know I think it’s really going to be important who kind of stands out,” he said. “ Because it’s going to be so competitive, Jeremiah has to get going right now. But we’ll have to see. Obviously, we entered the draft and we did not draft a back, but I think we’ve got some good guys in there with Foster and Johnson and Dawson, so we’ll see how it pans out.” 

 

Of the backups, Foster has the edge in size, Brown has an edge in experience, and Moats may have the edge in speed.

 

Slaton, in a feature story at the team’s web site, said he’s pleased with the help, but expects more from himself entering the 2009 season.

 

“I know more of what the coaches want and what the coaches need and what I need to do to get the yards that I left on the field last year and get them back.,” he said.

 

“The first year is the biggest learning year you are going to have. I think I learned a lot from the veterans being on me and the coaches being on me. (Now), I can step my game up more.”

 

Slaton mentioned the biggest adjustments for the youngsters will be making the transition from a run-oriented college game to the pass-oriented pro style.

 

“You have to make sure you protect the quarterback,” Slaton said. “In my case, I didn’t block that often in college. It’s definitely a skill you need to get on the field.”

 

Foster said he is pleased with his progress thus far, but knows he still has a lot to learn.

 

“I feel like (the Texans system) suits my attributes very well,” he said. “They are a one-cut system; I’m a one-cut back. I’m big. I’ve got hands out of the backfield and they utilize their running backs out of the backfield. I’m just looking to fit in somewhere.”

 

Johnson said he feels he has something to prove after a shoulder injury in his senior year at Tennesee left him an undrafted free agent.

 

“I am hungry,” he said. “…I had a second-round grade in college as a junior—and I am just hungry. I feel like I deserve to be in this league. I am going to work every day to prove myself.”

 

Johnson, from Oregon, said he’s going to have to get used to the Texas heat but he’s getting used to it, and is taking a mental approach to success.

 

“The first practice I was kind of blowing up because of the heat,” he said. “I’ll be a student of the game. I’ll go in the film room and look at a lot of film and correct myself and study the playbook.”

 

 

Computer Game Rekindled My Love for Football

One of the drawbacks of having been in the press box for so many years is that you miss out on so much of the fun of being a fan.

 

Even when you follow a team on a regular basis and quite naturally gravitate toward rooting for them to win—it is SO much more fun to write about a winner, let me tell ya—there’s no cheering in the press box, or in your stories.

 

In my case, I eventually reached the point where I simply didn’t care about sports any more. (Yes, yes, I know: That statement is anathema for sports fans to see in a blog, but bear with me here!)

 

When I shifted gears in my journalism career and moved into the managing editor’s office, I pretty much quit following sports altogether.

 

I found other subjects to become equally passionate about—politics, for example. I became a truly vicious reporter on education issues (I won a National Newspaper Association award for Best Coverage of Education) and developed an ability to read between the lines that truly annoyed certain folks in Austin.

 

I got so good at it, in fact, that I got myself fired and blackballed from the newspaper business: I exposed too much of what the politicians are up to. But that’s another thread, and I have my own web site for that these days.

 

Unable to find a job in the news business, I found myself forced to take a position with the world’s largest retailer—and slowly but surely re-discovered that deep down, I was still a sports fan.

 

Interestingly enough, it was a couple of computer games that re-kindled my love for sports.

 

Now, I’d grown up playing and loving every sports game that came along. There was Statis-Pro Baseball, of course. I have been a stat freak from the age of nine, when my Dad first taught me to keep score, and I’ll put my baseball scoring skills up against anybody’s.

 

Statis-Pro also had a great basketball game, and then a football version as well. I hated the football version because all of my brothers knew that I loved to call blitzes and would unerringly burn me with draws and screens.

 

Avalon Hill also came out with some sports simulations: an Indy Car game, a horse racing game, I think we even had a track and field game from them at one point.

 

But once I found myself a civilian again, throwing bags of dog food around for a living, I got bored in my off-hours. Then one day I found a copy of Madden Football.

 

I believe it was the 2004 version that finally got my interest with one particular feature: the ability to create your own franchise and build it from scratch. Since I’m a Photoshop pro, I was even able to customize my team’s uniforms and logos. The San Antonio War Chihuahuas were born.

 

You may not have heard of the Battle Dogs, of course—but they won the Super Bowl in 2010 and 2011, and made it to the NFC Championship in 2012 with stars such as QB Trevor Johnson, the NFC’s leading passer, and Ivan Samchuk, the All-Pro middle linebacker. We set league records for rushing offense and total offense.

 

As the owner/GM/head coach, I reconfigured the Alamodome to hold 75,000 and packed the stands.

 

Since I like simulations, there was no joystick involved. It was my brain against the computer, and I became gleefully convinced that I’m smarter than the machine.

 

Alas, when I upgraded my computer, I could no longer play the 2004 version. And later versions of the Madden game are designed for joystick freaks; they have eliminated the franchise-building feature. What good is a game you can’t customize?

 

Another product by the same company came along and rescued me, however: NFL Head Coach (2007). It’s another one I fell in love with because it’s a simulation: you have to out-think your AI opponent, and it doesn’t matter how fast your thumbs are.

 

Despite what the news media tells you, Gary Kubiak signed as the offensive coordinator of the Texans, not as the head coach. David Carr got traded off before the 2007 season started, and Matt Schaub made it to Houston a year early.

 

And a series of brilliant offseason moves before the 2007 season allowed Houston to get not only Mario Williams, but Reggie Bush as well, as picks No. 1 and No. 3 in the 2007 Draft (New Orleans wouldn’t trade No. 2, and took A.J. Hawk).

 

The success was not immediate; the Texans went 9-7 in their first season of the Dave Mundy era, and it really wasn’t until the 2008 season that Dave’s brilliant defensive schemes, combined with Kubiak’s offensive expertise, paid dividends with a 14-2 campaign.

 

Three straight Super Bowls followed before Hurricane Rita fried my hard drive and I had to start all over from scratch again.

 

Alas, EA Sports has never put out a new PC version of the Head Coach game, but in the meantime, I found I’d rekindled my love for at least one sport.

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