Official Texans vs. Dolphins Game Thread, 10/25/2018
 

Week 8 finds the 4-3 Texans hosting the 4-3 Dolphins in a TNF game. The Texans are coming off a 20-7 road win over the Jags and the Dolphins are coming off a 32-21 home loss to the Lions. The Dolphins are somewhat banged up and expected to start backup QB Brock Osweiler. Overall, statistically, the Dolphins are average to mediocre however, they do share the league lead in INT's with 11.

The Texans are 7-1 all time vs. the Dolphins.

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TV = FOX/NFLN (channel 26 local), Thursday 7:20 pm, October 25, 2018

Announcers = Thom Brennaman, Troy Aikman

The line = Texans by 7½

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Sunday viewing in the Houston area:

CBS (early) = Denver @ Kansas City, Kevin Harlan, Rich Gannon

FOX (early) = Washington @ NY Giants, Kenny Albert, Charles Davis

FOX (late) = Green Bay @ LA Rams, Thom Brennaman, Troy Aikman

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Other prime time/national:

Sunday Morning = Philadelphia vs Jacksonville (London) (8:30 AM CST; NFLN)

SNF = New Orleans @ Minnesota (NBC)

MNF = New England @ Buffalo (ESPN)

Worth noting is that after this Thursday night game, the Texans have exactly one game (Denver) over the next 23 days. This should be good news for the Hamstring Club (Fuller, Coutee, etc.).

Hope it is good news for D'Onta Foreman, too. RBs with achilles injuries though are not usually cause for much optimism.

I think Thursday games benefit us because of Watson. He is outside of normal and because of that short prep hurts when you play against him. Hopefully we can win this one just like Jacksonville. Get a lead and play conservative on offense. Miami isn't good enough on offense to win unless we give them help, so design the game plan around not helping (no turnovers, no allowing fake punt conversions to teams not good enough to convert on their own). And please convince Watson that Clowney is going to murder Osweiller so there is no need for him to run over any LBs this week.

Dolphins strike first as Drake scores on a 12 yard run.

Dolphins 7, Texans 0

4:58 left in the 1st qtr.

How do you blow a call on a FG? There's a grand total of like 3 things to look for and like 7 refs looking. You know one guy is looking for nothing but contact on the center, and he makes up a helmet to helmet hit. An official should lose his job on that. That's not a mistake, it's incompetence.

Texans answer with a nice drive capped by a 2 yard run by L Miller.

Texans 7, Dolphins 7

31 seconds left in the 1st qtr.

After Reid INT's the Brockster, Watson hits Thomas on a 13 yard TD pass.

Texans 14, Dolphins 7

14:14 left in the half.

Dolphins get a 37-yard FG by Sanders.

Texans 14, Dolphins 10

2:57 left in the half.

Texans open the 2nd half with a TD drive capped by a 2 yard TD pass to Thomas on 4th and goal. Big run by L Miller during the drive.

Texans 21, Dolphins 10

11:34 left in the 3rd qtr.

I don't like to complain about the officiating but this is pretty fking brutal.

Dolphins get a TD on halfback pass to Drake. 28 yards.

Texans 21, Dolphins 17

5:03 left in the 3rd qtr.

A quick answer by the Texans. 73 yards to Fuller.

Texans 28, Dolphins 17

4:21 left in the 3rd qtr.

I was hoping OB wasn't going to turtle up. Nope, not yet.

41-yard FG by Sanders closes the gap.

Texans 28, Dolphins 20

36 seconds left in the 3rd qtr.

Watson buys time, finds Hop, TD. 49 yards.

Texans 35, Dolphins 20

14:49 left in the game.

Sanders hits a 46-yard FG for the Dolphins.

Texans 35, Dolphins 23

11:26 left in the game.

After a very long PI call, Watson hits Hop for the 2-yard TD pass.

Texans 42, Dolphins 23

7:34 left in the game.

Watson having a much welcome statistical game....

Final score:

Texans 42, Dolphins 23

Nice win but there were some concerning injuries..... Hopefully, they all get some R&R before and after the Denver game....

The blown TD call before half is a rules issue as much as an officiating one. The 'rules expert' could barely explain it on TV. The NFL needs to hire a technical writer because the rule book is atrocious and every year you find another rule nobody can understand. Not to mention they are watching replays on the field on a portable screen instead of making the calls in front of a bank of UHD 80" TVs at league headquarters like they should. I am not ever surprised by a blown replay call due to the NFL process.

The offensive PI call on Hopkins was pretty bad but they just appear to choose a few random times a season to call offensive PI, and Hopkins beats up DBs so I don't mind a random call going against him on occasion.

The FG call was awful because as I mentioned, the officiating mechanics should prevent that call from ever being blown.

But the most worst was when they brought the teams out of the tunnels to redo the kneel down to end the half because of illegal procedure on the OT. That's maybe the most tone deaf unaware call I've ever seen. They even conferred in a group for like 30 seconds before deciding to do that. I would swear those guys had never seen a football game in their lives to make a meaningless call like that.

And Watson was awesome. That's writing the book on how to be crazy talented while managing the game against an inferior opponent. I barely saw him hit all night. The threat of his running carries our average run game and makes it great. And the downfield passing attack was back. That was a near perfect win from our guys.

He was hit once, apparently. The OL was great today, pass, run, both. Let's see where we are with Fuller. It makes no sense how that guy is literally always the football fastest guy on the field.

Miami is not a good team, but that's why you need to kick their ass.

It's pretty rare for the fans of the winning team to complain much about the referees, but that has to be an embarrassment for the league to have that level of incompetence in a nationally televised game. I mean, sure, for the Titans-Texans game I expect the F crew in the booth, the window lickers in zebra stripes, and a single-camera broadcast. But not on TNF.

Blowing that offsetting call on Hopkins' nut-grab is just a brutal #RefShow call. MLB umpires need to be reminded of this often, and these days NFL refs do as well: fans aren't interested in you. They are interested in the players and their teams doing superhuman things. Hopkins is not immune to getting a OPI call from time-to-time, but that wasn't it, chief. Fireable decision.

The penalty on the long-snapper, leading to the Dolphins getting an extra 4 points. Fireable decision. Whatever that bullcrap was just before halftime. Fireable decision. Heck, I was at the game and didn't fully understand the re-kick of the kickoff to start the game (and what an omen that was). And the tuck rule non-fumble on what was a backwards pass... what a mess.

The NFL is an entertainment product. And that was the most entertaining Texans game (by far) this season. And yet fans nationwide are treated to a RefShow that makes it easy to turn off the TV at critical times (start, just before halftime ads, and during marquee highlight reel plays) for what was a fun NFL game.

About the game itself...
The much-maligned OL has shown improvement the last couple weeks. Are they good now? Maybe not, but I will say this... I think they really were dealt an unfair set of circumstances at the start of the season. First, it was a newly formed unit, and they had very little game snaps to learn each other together. They also lost Henderson from the first game, making that desired cohesiveness even harder to achieve.

Second, the new unit had not worked much with a game-version of Deshaun Watson behind them. I think it is easy to forget how hard it is to block for a guy with Watson's maneuverability and escapability to extend plays. Without any measurable experience as a unit protecting a mercurial guy like Watson, it can be hard to know where he is. The eyes are up front, not in the back.

I fully understand the fear of not wanting to expose starters in the preseason to injury, but this 2018 preseason was an obvious blown opportunity to let the OL gel with each other and with their QB. Perhaps had the Texans better utilized the preseason games, the offense would not have started so slow and with an 0-3 record.

I would like someone to explain to me how it is possible the Texans DL (mostly Clowney and Watt it seems) are called for neutral zone infractions so frequently. I did not play DL as a youth, so I'm sure it seems to be an oversimplification to just check yourself along the line of scrimmage pre-snap. And yes, I know the line is straight but not always straight, yada yada… but c'mon... really?

Injuries... Fuller's is just going to be a tough blow if it's an ACL. If it's not, then I wish he could figure out how he can get his body to better hold up to an NFL grind. Clearly he's a first round talent, which is an embarrassment of riches when D-Hop is the WR1. And Coutee being inactive again is disappointing, too. Need healthy targets.

The injuries to the corners is getting downright scary now.

Cunningham hurt, too. When I didn't see him on the field, I first thought he was (deservedly) benched. Just not having a good season. I think it was Keyes who came in for him... and he had an immediate and positive impact. McKinney is just okay as a starter. Miss having Cole.

Remaining schedule is so favorable overall. Only 1 game in the next 23 or days. Only home games inside the division left. Could be favored or very close to it in 7 of the last 8 games? I mean... wow. Yet for a team that has lost at home to the Giants, can't overlook anyone. But in a watered down AFC, a ticket to the playoffs is all you need and the Texans seem poised to punch that ticket.

I really hope Fuller is ok. Now that the deep passing game is clicking he becomes one of the most important guys on the team.

Last thing I'll say on officiating. The NFL will protect the officials on bad calls like they always do, but they should truly fire someone for the illegal procedure on the half ending kneel down. For both teams to have to come out of the locker rooms to re-kneel down shows no awareness that it's an actual football game.

Yea Watson & the offense found their groove in the second half last night and put on a fireworks show probably not seen since they blew-out the Titans in NRG last year. But woke up to the bad news of near certainty that Fuller is gone for 2018 with an ACL.

According to FootballZebras, the league might be willing to fire incompetence midseason now. Not sure how strong the NFLRA is though.

Also worth noting from last night's ref assignments, also from FootballZebras, bolding is mine:

Will Fuller is done for the year. I feel awful for the guy. All ACLs kill me (I had my own a few years back), but the offense finally starts clicking and it looks like he's ready to really take off, and now this. Hopefully he's ready to go long before camp and the rehab somehow helps with his upper leg muscle issues.

Early line has the Broncos as a 2½ to 3 pt favorite over the Texans next Sunday. Gametime is at 3:05 pm on CBS.....