The upcoming Oakland game

[Arky]

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 ) 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

[nunusguy]

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 ?

[TheMatrix31]

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.

[TexanJedi]

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 ).

[WMH]

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.

[kravix]

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

[Joshua]

Originally Posted by nunusguy

I dunno if he's not smart enough?

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.

[popanot]

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com...ry/rumor-mill/

But Russell's epic struggles to start the season can't go on forever, and if they don't stop in Houston this week, it's fair to wonder when the downward spiral will stop.

A matchup can't get any easier than the Texans. Houston is the last-ranked defense in the league, is 27th in the league in yards per attempt allowed despite playing a rookie (Mark Sanchez), a 36-year old (Kerry Collins), and a David Garrard.

Oakland's running game was supposed to carry the team, but it has been mediocre at best.

Russell is making life difficult on everyone in Oakland, but the Texans make life easy for explosive opposing running backs. Houston is last in the NFL in rushing yards allowed and rushing yards per carry allowed. McFadden needs to carry his team, just like Chris Johnson and Maurice Jones-Drew did against the Texans.

That's sad...