The upcoming Oakland game
 

Time to start looking ahead to the next game.

McFadden has had some fumbling issues so far and JaMarcus Russell has been less than stellar.

The Texans blew a golden opportunity to go 2-0 in the division and 2-1 overall. As it is, win against Oakland and they even their mark at 2-2 and that would be just 1 game off what most projected, i.e. 3-1.

This game could be a just-what-the-doctor-ordered-game. For which team, remains to be seen.

Texans favored by 9 to 9.5.

Announcers = GUS JOHNSON (yeah, I'm screaming :p) and Steve Tasker

http://www.the506.com/nflmaps/2009/04-CBS.html


Other interesting games this weekend:

Titans vs. Jags
Jets vs. Saints
Cowboys vs. Broncos

I really think it could be Kubiaks butt if he loses Sunday to the Raiders in Reliant ?
The Tenneesse win was Kubiak pulling the proverial rabbit out of the hat trick after the embarassing and deeply disappointing home-opener, then he blew
his opportunity for real redemption by losing to the Jags here and going 0-2 at home and in the division. Remember this month was supposed to be the underbelly of the Texans schedule.
And this is really all on him - his offense was not ready to play vs the Jets as if he (Kubiak) had never even heard of a 3-4 ? And then his hand-picked rookie DC has failed miserably in his adapabiliy and resiliance in correcting lethal errors of the defense.
People like Gary, he's a native-son & an Aggie and all of that, but I just don't know if he's got it, got what it takes to be a successful HC in the NFL ?
I dunno if he's not smart enough, not strong enough and confidant enough in his own convictions to make difficult personnel and/or coaching changes when the situations calls for it, or what ?

Keys to victory?

Make JaMarcus uncomfortable. The guy sucks, just force him to make big mistakes.

Don't get burned in the secondary, whether it be on the run or the pass.

Stay healthy, and don't do stupid shit.

We NEED this win. We should have started out the season 4-1. We've already got two losses.

Stop the run, or at least the huge plays, and we win. Russell is not going to beat you through the air (watch that happen now :rolleyes:).

This SHOULD be a confidence builder game for the D. Key word is SHOULD. The Houston Cardiac kids have fooled us before, hopefully, they won't do it again this weekend. Russell is brutal, but DMac, despite his fumbles is pretty damn good, couple with Bush and Fargas, we have 3 more RB's licking their chops. I expect to see Pollard in the game quite extensively with marching orders to STOP the RUN.

I would prefer of Pollards orders were to play in position and not give up 61 yard rushing touchdowns for over pursuit.

I personally think the Raiders are going to win. I just have this feeling.

This game has me worried for a number of reasons. One, the above mentioned Rb's that the Raiders have. Any of the 3 could put up monster numbers against our run defense. Second, and for the life it baffles me, but I have a feeling that Andre Johnson will be totally ignored this game. When he isn't making plays, I worry about us winning.

One thing that we have going for us is Jamarcus Russell. This guy is terrible, but if anyone can make him look like Peyton Manning, it is our defense. If we put them in 3rd and long, we may have a shot if Jamark stays true to himself.

Even the worst offensive teams shine against the Texans. Sure, we may escape with a win but I expect another high scoring game by both offenses. Is it safe to assume that we will finish with a losing record if we end up losing to the lowly Raiders?

Well dadgum, have you completely thrown in the towel PK? We DO need to be ready though, because they will have every bad tendency of ours programmed, so Bush needs to drill the heck out of his guys to stay in their gaps and not freelance too much. Memo to Schaub - Dare I mention this, Oakland has another Ryan coached defense!! I hope you are ready for this one.

I will say Texans - 31
Oakland - 28 in a close one!

It is safe to assume that, if Kubiak doesn't pull the rabbit out of the hat, the players are going to start to quit on him like they did Capers. Kubiak knows this, so for that reason, if none other, he will have them ready to play ( I hope )!

I must say I've started to wonder this. In many ways, I'm starting to think he's the offensive equivalent of Dom Capers. A good man who works hard and actually knows one side of the ball pretty well, but ultimately doesn't seem to be able to process the enormous amounts of info a head coach must and then develop a winning plan from it. He and Capers both seemed to have suffered from similar shortcomings. Both were completely at a loss as to how to improve one side of the ball (albeit different sides), neither were able to make quality in-game adjustments and were prone to be exploited by creative coaching on the other side, dubious clock management, and (possibly my favorite) the occasional sideline camera shot where both have been standing there with a look of complete befuddlement on their faces.

No, but I am close. If they loose to Oakland then I might be done with Kubiak / Smith.

I can go further and say I will be done. Simply put, in today's NFL, it doesn't take 4 years to know what you have in a coach. You generally know almost immediately (see Ryan, Rex; Singletary, Mike; etc.). I've also basically rejected the idea of a "learning curve" for your head coach. While I might be willing to excuse a couple of mistakes in the first year, after that, it's not a "learning curve," it's simply who you are and most likely, who you will continue to be. It boggles the mind that people still give Kubiak a pass in year 4 because of this purported "learning curve." That's absolute nonsense. This is who he is. Finally, as an aside, I seem to recall reading somewhere that Kubiak is already one of the more senior head coaches in the NFL now.

I'll be done with Kubiak. Not so with Schaub. He's the fourth-ranked passer in terms of efficiency in the NFL. He's a guy we could win with if our defense could put forth a reasonable effort.

Jacques Reeves didn't even get through warmups today at practice. He injured his hand and was taken off to be examined.
*
Based on Gary Kubiak's comments, Brice McCain could start at cornerback instead of Fred Bennett and Bernard Pollard could get John Busing's playing time.
He also said practice squad D-linemen Jesse Nading and Tim Jamison will be evaluated in practice and could end up on the active roster for Sunday's game against the Raiders.
http://blogs.chron.com/sportsjustice...s_back_to.html
**
Nading and Jamison are both DEs so who might be out ? My guess would be Barwin for one because he went off of the radar once they started playing for real in September.

Well, we'll have the worst offense in Oakland against worst defense with Texans, atleast so far this year. Hopefully our defense will start to improve now and our offense will continue its more or less good play, ie new coalches and players will get their act together. I hope Reeves and Pollard can help the defense as well in the secondary. If we can play consistent, avoid the turnovers and stupid penalties likely will win.

Will Demps... we need you. Are you still in the waiver wire?

Dang! Hang in there man. I don't know if I can handle starting over again for the 3rd time in this franchise's short history.

STOP the long 3rd down completions (and runs) !!!

These are the only things that have kept us from being 3-0, if not 2-1.

However, the fact that we have so much potential is what is so bad. We could easily be a playoff team. Especially with the way our offense is looking. Kevin Walter was a man on a mission Sunday. I hope to see more of that against the Raiders.

P.S. I think we should start to use the pass to set up the run. Forget this run the ball down their throats crap. Our O-Line just cannot get it done. Get these guys to start respecting the pass, and then throw them off guard with your explosive back.

There is no reason our Offense shouldn't look like New Orleans.