Official Texans vs. Saints Game Thread, 8/22/2009
 

It's football time in Houston once again.

Should be an excellent test for the new defense.

If you're headed out to the game, consider making a song request by emailing gamedaymusic@houstontexans.com.

Filed under things maybe only I care about: The Texans are a perfect 2-0 against the Saints in the preseason with both wins coming at the Superdome. Here's guessing our preseason czar Gary Kubiak keeps that record unblemished.

Austin viewers can find it on cable channel 12 (KNVA) again. I don't think they have it in Hi-Def.

Gametime!

Saints kick off. AD brings it out to about the 27.

Texans moving the ball.... face 4th and 3 at the Saints 40...

Texans go for it and fail but personal foul on the Saints gives them a 1st down. Ball at the NO 29.

Ball currently at the NO 13...

Dump off to David Anderson from the 8yd line goes for the score!

Texans 7, Saints 0

Saints receive kickoff and setup at their own 29.

Saints rollin' down the field. Ball currently at the Texan 15...

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Mario on a sack puts the ball back at the 14... Kubes to challenge that Brees fumbled before being down ... bad challenge methinks...

Dang, ball is ruled an inc pass - no sack.... ball at the 10....

Next play, Brees hits Pierre Thomas all alone for the TD

Texans 7, Saints 7

Saints kickoff. AD brings it out to the 24.

Slaton has a couple of nice gains...Texans moving the ball.... currently at midfield

End of 1st quarter...

Drive stalls - Texans to punt.

Turk's punt goes into the endzone - Saints ball at the 20.

Saints rollin' again... ball currently at the Texan 41..

1st down Saints at the Texan 31.

Saints at the Texan 10.

1st and goal Saints at the Texan 6.

3rd and goal at the 4. Saints 3 for 3 so far on 3rd down.

Adibi pops the receiver and breaks up the 3rd down pass attempt.

Saints to go for the FG. FG is no good!

Score remains:

Texans 7, Saints 7

Texans first teamers still in....

1st down Texans at their own 36.

On 3rd down, pass is ruled incomplete... Texans to punt.

Not much on the punt return. Saints ball at their own 24.

And boom, just like that, Bell takes it all the way - about 45 yards for the TD on a run.... Run defense not so hot today..

Saints 14, Texans 7

Orlovsky in. Nice pass to DA for a 1st down. Ball at the Texan 43. Saints to challenge the spot.... Play is upheld...

Dreesen, nice catch to the Saints 36. 2 minutes left in the half..

Eeew... Dan-o throws a pick. Saints ball at their own 44...

Saints run out of time and elect to go for the FG from the Texan 4. FG is good.

Saints 17, Texans 7

2 seconds left in the half.

Our LBs are not looking good. And our Safeties suck. We need to do a serious upgrade of the safeties next off season. And I mean top two picks need to be middle of the defense guys.

Fred Bennett cannot tackle worth a flip, anything else I am missing?

Oh yes, this is preseason and it does not matter.

Halftime
This is really looking bad. I am really hoping that Cushing makes a tremendous impact on this defense next week. We let this guy Bell just misuse and abuse us. Okam has been getting blown up on the run plays. I have not even seen Deljuan. Is he playin? What about Okoye? It seemed as if all the life was sucked out of them when the sack was over turned.

It wasn't like they were doing that good before the sack. But after wards they got worse and worse. We are getting blown away on the ground by a passing team. It was if Payton saw something during practice and just decided to exploit it.

Quinn, welcome to the NFL. Colston just misused him those last few minutes.

And Orlavsky, what in the world were you thinking?

Halftime Stats:

Passing: Shaub 11/16 97 yds, 1 TD; Orlovsky 2/3 29 yds, 1 INT

Rushing: Slaton 6/30, Brown 4/5

Receiving: AJ 4/38, many with 2 catches

Tackles: Ryans 6, M. Williams/Wilson/Quin 4

Time of Possession: Texans 15:02, Saints 14:58

Yes he looked terrible. where was Ferguson?

Saints receive the 2nd half kick and bring it out to the 30.

On 3rd and 8, Barwin gets the sack! Saints have to punt.

JJ fair catches at the Texan 35.

Great sack Barwin. Keep it up

Nice catch (then pop) by JJ brings the ball out to the Saint 44.

3rd and 7 for the Texans.

PI on Saints gives the Texans a 1st down. Ball at the Saints 25.

Dan-o throws a nice touch pass to AD for a 25 yd. TD.

Saints 17, Texans 14.

Much better....

The fade to ADavis looked great. He definitely has potential. If Kubiak can just keep his head straight and deprogram all memories of Detroit then we may have a solid backup

Texans kick off. Saints bring it out to the 26.

Defense gets good pressure and Saints go 3 and out.

Punt is fair caught by JJ at the Texan 28.

Texans go 3 and out. Texans to punt.

Turks punt is fielded by Harper who brings it all the way back.... Taunting penalty by the Saints to be enforced on the kickoff. 79 yd return.

Saints 24, Texans 14

Boy, our second team special team did a pretty poor job on punt coverage letting NO take it all the way. NO leading 24-14.

Orlosvsky's arm is pretty strong, 11 of 14 , 1 TD, 1 int right now. Martinez making a few good catches. Texans back to the 4 yard line..

JJ's nice return on the ensuing kickoff is nullified by holding. Texans ball at their own 33.

Casey with a nice catch for about 21 yards.

Martinez with a nice catch for a 1st down.

Moats for about 9. Ball at the Saints 25.

On 3rd and 4, short pass to Martinez is good for the 1st down. Ball at the Saints 11.

Short pass to A Hill puts the ball at the Saints 2.

Texans to go for it on 4th and 2 but Dan-O is swarmed. Saints ball at about the 19.

Well atleast our second string defense is doing better, no first downs for complete 3rd quarter for NO second string offense. now into fourth quarter.

nice 60 yard punt by Turk rolls out on 1 yard line. we need a turnover and points now. of course its preseason.

4th quarter.

Saints go 3 and out.

Saints punt is covered up by JJ. Penalty on the Saints gives the Texans the ball about their own 42.

Texans go 3 and out - have to punt.

Turks punt makes a left at Albuquerque and is out at the 1 yard line.

On 3rd down, Harrington runs for the 1st down but is shaken up. Timeout.

Brunell in.

1st and 10 Saints at their own 29.

Late hit by DelJuan on Brunell puts the Saints at the Texan 45.

Saints to the 6. 1st and goal.

Saints run it in for the score even after being penalized.

Saints 31, Texans 14

This was the sorriest game from all areas, offense, defense, and special teams, that I have ever seen from Kubiak's Texans. I know NOLA had the top rated offense last year, but we made their defense look like it was #1 too. I was at this game. I can vouch for what I just said. I am so steamed, I think I had better just let it go at that.

JJ brings the kick off back to about the 20.

Texans go 3 and out and punt. New Orleans ball at their own 34.

Penalty puts the ball at the Texan 49.

Deep pass is caught at the 1.

Saints punch it in.

Saints 38, Texans 14

Brink is in. Texans at their own 20.

Texans get a couple of 1st downs. 2 minute warning.

Texans now at midfield. Martinez impressing.

I was at the game also. Pretty much left a steaming pile on the field tonight. The first team defense was just whipped and punched in the mouth repeatedly.

PI on Saints puts the ball at the 8.

Saints intercept on the next play.

Saints kneel it out.

Final Score:

Saints 38, Texans 14

Bah, it's bad luck to win all your preseason games anyway....;)

9 long days till the Monday night game against the Vikings....

The first team defense is worse than ever. The offense is going to need to score 50 points a game.

Negatives first.
Orlovsky is no good. He may be a serviceable backup for us, but we payed way too much for a guy who has no chance of becoming a good starter. He is clumsy. He struggles with his back pedal, with rolling out, with handoffs, etc... His arm is fine, and he can be coached about throws like the pick he threw, but he is just plain clumsy.

And yes our Safeties suck in all facets and we are soft against the run right now. Hopefully TJ and Cushing can help in that area. Right now we are very small at LB. And Fred Bennett has a Jekyl and Hyde thing going.

As for positives, the offense looked very good besides penalties. I am not too concerned about that in the preseason. Jacoby looked very good. Barwin has fantastic hands and seems to have learned more pass rush moves in one year at DE then most guys do in a career. Okoye was active. Really the whole DL looked good if we can get a LB to fill. And all of our WRs looked good. And we appear to have finally learned how to run a screen.

Next week will tell far more. I hope we see Molden.

That is how I see it also. Our LBs and Safeties are not filling in. When the DL is penetrating you have to fill in. We did not. Plus we are not a good tackling team right now.

http://www.inthebullseye.com/archive/2009/20090822.html

Wow, a chuck sighting. Were you there tonight?

And Arky, thanks as always for the comms.

The announcers mentioned Molden during action at least a couple of times last night.... I never saw him. I think they were mistaking Glover Quin (#29) for Molden (#28)...

How worried should we be by last nights performance given its just a preseason game and not even the semi-meaningfull 3rd preseason game at that ?
Well what is really worrisome to me is the play of the interior Dline. I saw
one running play up the middle by the Saints where Okoye was tossed aside like a rag-doll, and Okam (who made some plays last week in KC), was hardly a factor.
And here's my question: unless they were thinking about trading OD, why would the Texans use their 5th round pick on yet another TE instead of drafting a DT, even if they didn't feel he was worth a 5th round pick ? Maybe
they still didn't realize the problems they had at DT ? Well I'm thinking they realize that this morning. That 3rd preseaon game is a week from Monday,
and it's looking like it will be a truly meaningful preseaon game this year, one way or the other.

paine and barrett,

I'm curious why you both thought the D line played well last night. I saw a line that was getting gashed right up the middle for 6-8 yards on first down virtually every play. I agree that the linebackers and DBs need to come up and play the run better but your D line needs to make some of those plays themselves and at least, not get pushed around like they did. While I get your comment about the second levels filling in, were both of you envisioning a defense where the primary run stopping would be provided by Demeco and Eugene Wilson? That seems like a recipe for disaster.

It was a Preseason game for NOLA too, yet they operated on all cylinders, and seemingly executed to perfection. The fact that we gave up a big play in all 4 quarters is just not acceptable anytime.

The other thing about being at the game was all the gleeful Saints fans in my section having such a good time at our expense. I'll be some time getting over that. You don't like to be humiliated in your own stadium. :mad::mad:

Almost everyone on this board wanted the DL playing forward, penetrating, and aggressive. They did this last night. The problem is that when you shoot gaps you are shooting yourself out of the play as often as not. That's why not many DL play to shoot the gaps. At least not with both DTs. Yet everyone was excited that Bush promised this style. And from what I saw last night, the DL was in the backfield often against both the run and the pass.

The problem is that the LBs MUST play downhill against the run if your DL is going to penetrate. Specifically they must fill the gaps. They must take on and shed blocks from the FB or pulling OL. Our LBs are not made for this. They are all small and they all struggle when blocked by OL. Especially Demeco. He will struggle if we play like this. He is too small to deal with OL.

We must hope that Travis Johnson is back soon. He is not a great DT, but he is our best in terms of standing his ground in the run game. We must also hope Cushing can get healthy and provide good size at the point of attack. Without both of these things happening we will be in trouble on defense even before teams start exploiting our secondary. Honestly, with our personnel we may be worse off in this scheme than the one we played last year. Our only hope is to play from ahead and pressure the QB in a big way.

So I think for what is being asked of our DL (penetration), they did a fine job last night. I just don't think we have the back 7 to support that kind of defense.