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.