Official Texans vs. Giants Game Thread, 9/23/2018
 

The 0-2 New York Giants visit the 0-2 Houston Texans this Sunday in a noon matchup on FOX. The Giants are coming off a 20-13 road loss to the Cowboys on SNF while the Texans are coming off a 20-17 road loss to the Titans. The Texans are 1-3 all time vs. the Giants. Both teams are 0-2 ATS. Should be a real whiz-banger.

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TV = FOX (channel 26 local), noon CST, Sunday Sept 23, 2018

Announcers = Kenny Albert, Ronde Barber

The line = Texans by 6 to 7

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Other Sunday viewing in the Houston area:

CBS (late) = LA Chargers @ LA Rams, Ian Eagle, Dan Fouts

FOX (late) = Dallas @ Seattle, Joe Buck, Troy Aikman

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Prime time:

TNF = NY Jets @ Cleveland (NFLN)

SNF = New England @ Detroit (NBC)

MNF = Pittsburgh @ Tampa Bay (ESPN)

Whatever is happening with Clowney, there has to be more than what's on the surface (i.e. from local reports). Regardless, Clowney is expected to play on Sunday, and that is a good thing. The Giants are a terrible team.

This is a good test for Watson since this is not a game where he needs to find that gamebreaker on every snap to win. Understandable he might feel that way on the road in the opener against the Pats. But he and the Texans ought to know that they just need to give the Giants enough time and space in this one to bury themselves, because they will. The Texans lose this one if Watson turns the ball over too often.

I'm expecting the front 7 to get more pressure this week, too. They have not been bad so far in spite of what others may think, but they are also capable of more than they've shown. Clowney is a difference-maker, so having him play will obviously help.

Interior OL play hasn't been too bad. Hopefully the OTs show improvement in Week 3. The run game overall has been decent, probably a reaction by opposing DC's to contain Watson's willingness to extend plays and throw deep.

Watson's play this year reminds me a little of what Case Keenum tried while he was here. Keenum matured in the time since, and I have to believe Watson will too, and very soon. Still have 14 games left, and 8 of them at home. Aside from road games at Jacksonville, Denver, and Philadelphia, the Texans are lucky to have what seems to be a relatively easy schedule this season.

Inactives:

Keke Coutee, WR
Sammie Coates, WR
Kayvon Webster, CB
Peter Kalambayi, OLB
Roderick Johnson, T
Carlos Watkins, DE
Joel Heath, DE

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Liberty White Out day

Texans take the opening kickoff and get into the red zone but fail to get six. Settle for a Fairbairn 23-yard FG.

Texans 3, Giants 0

10:10 left in the 1st qtr.

Texan defense hitting hard but can't stop the Giants as they roll down the field capped by a 15-yard Barkley TD run.

Giants 7, Texans 3

4:10 left in the 1st qtr.

The Giants offense that just rolled us has been terrible for 2 weeks. I was hoping we could get well in this game, but I guess that's how the Giants look at us.

Rosas adds a 44-yard FG on the Giants 2nd possession.

Giants 10, Texans 3

11:49 left in the half.

3 false starts in a half at home. And then Watson runs around and holds the ball for 10 seconds before getting crushed on a 3rd down sack. And he's way out of the pocket when he gets sacked. You have to throw the ball away at some point. We're not seeing any growth in his willingness to let a play go.

Terrible offense again...

OBrien must have a short memory...

The Oline sucks...pocket passing is a no go...

Outside of Fuller none of the receivers can create separation...
Every team presses our receivers without any respect...

There is no such thing as NFL football without pocket passing.

O'Brien looks like he's already lost the locker room, but calling pocket passes are not one of the dozen reasons he looks dumb right now.

JJ Watt guessing and jumping up field was great when he was so athletic he ran around blocks and made plays. Now that he isn't that athletic he just runs himself out of plays and leaves us to be gouged.

There is so much wrong with this team it is hard to know where to start.

I enjoy watching Texans DL cover Giants receivers. That's always a good time.

Rosas add another 30-yard FG. Giants scoring on every possession so far.

Thank JJ Watt for keeping them to a FG.

Giants 13, Texans 3

4:35 left in the half.

I am referring to the traditional drop back pocket passer. Deshaun Watson does not have the experience nor the offensive line to drop back and go through his reads...

Roll outs, play fakes and even a little more TE involvment in the passing game would help.

So, football success CAN exist without the traditional pocket passer...

Let's just be clear. The Giants are TERRIBLE.

I haven't felt this way watching the Texans since the dark days of David Carr - that everyone else, even the shit teams, are playing NFL football but the Texans appear to be playing another sport entirely and it's hard to say just what it is. It's like watching five year olds play soccer, they just don't demonstrate any real understanding of what the objective of the game is.

The Giants are beating us with all these wild creative routes. Their guys keep turning in and going over the middle!

Manning hits Ellison for a 16-yard TD.

Giants 20, Texans 3

1:20 left in the half.

Hey theres a TE

No it can't. You can go play action all day long (and we have). But on 3rd and long you have to be able to throw the ball from the pocket. Deshaun Watson can do that. In fact as I'm typing he did exactly that with a 30 yard rope down the seam. He's not a gimmick QB and when he fails on basic football plays, it's not because we should be running nothing but non-traditional offense.

I might hit a number of buffets for a month and take Davenport's job.

Texans somehow sneak in a FG right before the half. Fairbairn hits a 28-yarder.

Giants 20, Texans 6

Halftime.

Rollouts are not gimmicks...

Its a way to make your QB a weapon with both his arm and his legs...while MOVING the pocket...

No one said he wont ever be able to only that he does not have the experience to make ALL the reads and go through his progressions. I believe he will one day be great...however standing in the constantly collapsing pocket staring down DHop has not proven successful yet.

And BTW even Matt Schaub used to complete deep passes with 30 seconds left in the half down 2 scores while the defense is playing over the top...

They've moved the pocket constantly and called play action repeatedly. They're doing it as often as you reasonably can. Also calling a few passes from the pocket is not in our top 100 problems right now.

And the biggest reason the pocket is collapsing is he holds the ball. He is the most pressured QB because he takes almost twice as long to get the ball out. Today he has added to that by throwing ground balls on half the throws that do come out on time. He is playing awful. He was great last year. I expect him to be great again. But HE is the problem with our offense right now. It's not the WRs or the OL or the coach or the play calls. It's the QB who still doesn't have 10 career games and looks lost since coming back from his knee injury.

Eli is 12/14, 175 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT, 142.6 rating.

Watson is 8/15, 136 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT, 84.3 rating.

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Barkley is 10/69, 6.9 avg, 1 TD

L Miller is 8/8, 1.0 avg

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Giants 14 first downs.

Texans 8 first downs.

Well you are entitled to your opininon but we will have to agree to disagree...I believe this is mostly on Obrien...then a terrible Oline...and then receivers who gain no separation...then Watsons inexperience...

I was team Obrien all last year but with the talent and lack of production...it has to be on Obrien...he cant seem to put the pieces together...

Fairbairn connects on a 54-yard FG.

Giants 20, Texans 9

8:41 left in the 3rd qtr.

Just 4 more FG's to go!

O'Brien could be fired tomorrow and it'd be well earned. He came into the year with the team totally unprepared.

But how you can watch Watson play football and not think he's a huge source of the problem right now is denial of the highest order. The ground balls he's throwing to WRs with no pressure has nothing to do with coaching. He's clearly not right yet. Whether it's mental or physical or the fact he blew out his knee 11 months ago, who knows. But he's bad right now.

54 yard FG splits the posts and a KO tackle inside the 10. At least special teams showed up.

Watson hits Fuller on a 6 yard TD pass.

Texans going for 2......

2 point shovel pass to L Miller doesn't work.

Giants 20, Texans 15

7:37 left in the game.

One more stop, defense....

Giants drive down the field and score on a 7 yard pass to Shepherd.

Giants 27, Texans 15

2:08 left in the game.

Texans get a garbage time TD with 1 second left in the game. 4 yard pass to L Miller.

Giants 27, Texans 22

Texans will go to 0-3. All three losses by 7 or less.

They weren't ready for the season opener and 3 weeks later didn't look any less unprepared for the home opener, but realistically what's the earliest time they could dump O'Brien given the contract extention they gave him prior to the beginning of this season ?

If McNair's handling of Capers, Casserly, Smith, and Kubiak is any indicator, I'd say by week 10 of 2024.

Early line has the Colts as a 2½ pt favorite over the Texans next Sunday.

I know who I'm going with. Until further notice, I'll be picking against the Texans...... It would just be a very Texan thing to pull the upset over Indy, get everyone's hopes up and then fall on their face the next week on national TV (SNF vs. Dallas). Or..... they could just skip the whole upset thing and start the season 0-5.....

Some perspective on the Texans and how bad they are. The 3 teams who have beaten us are about to drop to 1-5 against the rest of the NFL with the Pats about to lose to the Lions.

The only team I've seen that looks anywhere near as lost as the Texans is the Cardinals and that includes the Jets, the Cowboys, the Raiders and, yes, the Browns.

This is what is making me shudder. How bad is this team?

I'm watching a bit of this Giants/Eagles game and it's so embarrassing that we lost to this Giants team. They might go 1-15. That was a gimme that we gave away.