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Houston Texans, Year Eight
Year Eight of the Houston Texans begins this Sunday with a home game against the Jets, so it's time for my sixth annual preview of the team (previous annual previews are here). Largely ignored amidst the inexplicable interest over...
2008 Weekly local football review
(AP Photo/LM Otero; previous weekly reviews are here) Texas Tech 39 Texas Longhorns 33 As predicted, the top-ranked Horns (8-1/4-1 Big 12) were not able to run the table through four straight games against top-10 ranked teams. The loss...
Houston Texans, Year Seven
Year Seven of the Houston Texans begins this Sunday with a road game against the Steelers, so it's time for my fifth annual preview of the team (previous annual previews are here). Largely ignored amidst the ubiquitous mainstream media...
Chasing rainbows
I enjoy watching football games, but I have never been able to understand the mainstream media's fascination with pre-season football practice. I mean, really. Is there anything more boring than football practice? Well, maybe pre-season football games, but that's...
2007 Weekly local football review
(AP photo; previous weekly reviews here) Texans 42 Jaguars 28 The Texans (8-8) beat the Jaguars (11-5) junior varsity team to achieve their first non-losing season in the team's six year history. The difference in this one was two kickoff...
2007 Weekly local football review
(AP Photo/David J. Phillip; previous weekly reviews here) Texans 28 Buccaneers 14 The Buccaneers (8-5) had the incentive of being able to sew up the NFC South Division title with a win over the Texans (6-7) on Sunday afternoon at...
The Sherman hiring
Well, Texas A&M Athletic Director Bill Byrne's "nationwide search" for a new head coach to replace Dennis Franchione took a couple of days and extended all of about 100 miles southeast of College Station as A&M hired Houston Texans assistant...
2007 Weekly local football review
(AP Photo/Phil Coale)(previous weekly reviews here) Jaguars 37 Texans 17 The conventional mainstream media wisdom coming into the Texans' (3-3) game this weekend at Jacksonville (4-1) was that the Texans' lagging rushing attack would be revived by the return of...
"Just comes naturally?"
I used to think that former Texans QB David Carr is a nice fellow who just doesn't have the gumption to be a top-flight NFL QB. But now I'm wondering if he is simply a nice fellow who isn't very...
2007 Weekly local football review
AP Photo/David J. Phillip Texans 20 Chiefs 3 Pinch yourself. The Houston Texans have won three straight regular season NFL games (previous weekly summaries are here). The Texans (1-0) took advantage of four turnovers and a tepid Kansas City offense...
Houston Texans, Year Six
Rejoice! The seemingly unending National League Football pre-season is over! It's Year Six for the Houston Texans and the fourth annual preview of the Texans since this blog began back in 2004 (previous previews are here). Thankfully, this past off-season...
Who was that guy who used to wear no. 8?
With the opening of the Texans' pre-season training camp, the players are being asked about what it's like not to have David Carr quarterbacking the Texans for the first time in the team's history. Carr is already on record as...
Rating the NFL owners
SI.com's Michael Silver rates the owners of the 32 National Football League teams, and Texans' owner Bob McNair comes in a respectable seventh: Like [Redskins owner Daniel] Snyder, McNair is an aggressive, personally invested owner who desperately wants to field...
David who?
Stephanie Stradley, who did a good job of blogging the Houston Texans last season as the "Texans Chick" over at the Chronicle, is now blogging over at the NFL Fanhouse. She passes along this interesting item regarding Texans' star wide...
The importance of the images of war
Following on recent posts here and here on the seemingly intractable problems in Iraq, this David Carr/NY Times op-ed comments on the efforts of the U.S. military to control the publication of images of injured or killed soldiers from the...
This is the high road?
What was that about David Carr taking the high road about his divorce from the Texans? Check out the following remarks from this ESPN.com article: As the losses and sacks kept piling up, football stopped being fun for David Carr....
Lopez on McNair's Carr miscalculation
Following on this weekend post on the end of the David Carr era for the Houston Texans, John Lopez -- who for my money is the Chronicle's best sportswriter -- provides this column that provides the type of insight (i.e.,...
The end of the Carr era
The David Carr era of the Houston Texans came to a merciful end yesterday as the Texans released Carr, the team's first NFL draft pick in its five year history. I didn't agree with the Texans decision to take Carr...
The curious attraction of the NFL Draft
This earlier post noted the institutionalized fanaticism that is involved in the recruitment of big-time college football players. But that fanaticism is really nothing compared to the obsession that many professional football fans will indulge over the next several weeks...
The final verdict on David Carr
Dave Berri over at the Wages of Wins blog has posted his final ratings for NFL quarterbacks for the 2006 season (related blog post here). The final rating is further confirmation that the David Carr saga is over in Houston....
The legacy of great Colts quarterbacks
Although I have long had my doubts that Texans' QB David Carr is a top flight NFL quarterback, I must concede that the deficiencies in the Texans' offensive line have really not given him a fair chance to develop his...
2006 Weekly local football review
Texans 14 Browns 6 Despite having no effective passing game, the Texans (6-10) rode a strong second half rushing performance from rookie RB Chris Taylor and another spunky defensive effort to beat the Browns and fulfill my pre-season prediction that...
There is a football game in Houston today?
That was the question that one of my sons asked me incredulously yesterday. With the Texans generating no positive buzz in their hometown, not many folks really care much about watching or talking about the Texans. Thus, casual fans such...
2006 Weekly local football review
Patriots 40 Texans 7 Just when you thought it was impossible for the Texans (4-10) to stoop any lower, the Texans' offense rolled over and played dead against the Patriots. This one was over by Sunday morning brunch as the...
2006 Weekly local football review
Titans 26 Texans 20 Unless you are a hardy soul, it would be a good idea to avoid sports talk radio this week in Houston. It would have been bad enough given that jilted no. 1 draft choice Reggie Bush...
A silver lining in David Carr's cloud?
Let's just say it's been a bad week for Texans QB David Carr. First, he was horrible in the Texans' win over the Raiders last Sunday, registering -5 passing yards. The local media has been all over him. To make...
2006 Weekly local football review
Houston Cougars 34 Southern Miss 20 The Cougars (10-3, 8-1) won their first Conference USA football championship in ten years with a Friday night win over Southern Miss (8-5, 7-3) before a raucous crowd of 32,000 at Robertson Stadium...
2006 Weekly local football review
Texas Aggies 12 Texas Longhorns 7 In the signature moment of Dennis Franchione's mostly rocky tenure at A&M, the Aggies (9-3, 5-3) rode a magnificent defensive performance and an already legendary 16-play, almost 9 minute, 88-yard fourth quarter TD drive...
2006 Weekly local football review
Texans 13 Jaguars 10 If I didn't know better, I'd think that the Texans (3-6) have the Jaguars' (5-4) number. In a game that stands for the proposition that you don't have to play great offensively to win when the...
2006 Weekly local football review
Giants 14 Texans 10 In a game that set offense back to the days prior to development of the T formation, the Giants (6-2) hung on to beat the Texans (2-6) as neither team could muster 300 yards total offense....
Gil Brandt on David Carr
Texans QB David Carr gets the NY Times treatment this week as the local team prepares to be hammered by the Giants this Sunday in the Meadowlands. Former Dallas Cowboy personnel director Gil Brandt, who knows a thing or two...
2006 Weekly local football review
Titans 28 Texans 22 The Texans (2-5) returned to earth with a thud after last week's unlikely victory over the Jaguars as Titans and former Longhorn hero Vince Young threw and rushed for a TD in a game that the...
2006 Weekly local football review
Texans 27 Jaguars 7 Where on earth did that come from? In a game in which no one gave them much of a chance of staying close, much less winning, the Texans (2-4) played the Jaguars to a standstill for...
2006 Weekly local football review
Cowboys 34 Texans 6 As expected, it was men against boys as the Texans (1-4) went down without so much as a whimper against the Pokes (3-2). The Texans defense played well for a half as Houston actually led 6-3...
2006 Weekly local football review
Texans 17 Dolphins 15 Well now, that's a relief! In an entertaining but not particularly well-played game, the Texans (1-3) won for only the third time in the past 21 games as the Dolphins (1-3) could not convert a questionable...
2006 Weekly local football review
Ohio State 24 Texas Longhorns 7 Ohio State came into Austin on Saturday night and won the season's first big game by playing as exceptionally as Texas did last year in Columbus. The Horns did not play badly and would...
Institutionalized scapegoating
Two news items at the end of this week reflect the festering cauldron of resentment toward business in American society that government is manipulating to advance its troubling regulation-through-criminalization policy. First, there was the news that New York's Attorney General...
Houston Texans, Year Five
Has it really been only a year since the pre-season review of the Texans' 2005 season? Look at all that has transpired over the past year: The Texans had a disastrous start to what was considered a promising 2005 season,...
John McClain can't help himself
Given the largely meaningless nature of NFL pre-season football, I'm holding off on posting my annual pre-season blog post on the Texans until the first regular season game is close at hand. But given the Chronicle's blanket coverage of the...
Throw them all in the clink
As noted earlier here and here, the practice of backdating stock options is fundamentally a disclosure issue. However, that has not stopped federal prosecutors from criminalizing the practice as new indictments are now announced almost daily. In this typically lucid...
The WSJ gets it right on the BetOnSports case
After being oddly slow in objecting to the prosecutorial abuses of businesspeople that have resulted in this, this and this (among many others), the Wall Street Journal ($) editorial page finally gets it right in this editorial on the outrageous...
Sending bad messages
It's hard to imagine that the federal government could have sent worse signals to foreign investors in US markets and businesses than the ones that it sent over the past week. First, there was the latest news about the NatWest...
How not to treat friends
First, federal prosecutors heavy-handed tactics generated a political firestorm with one of America's closest allies over the NatWest Three case. Now this: In a sharp escalation of their crackdown on Internet gambling, United States prosecutors said yesterday that they were...
Bye-bye Reggie; Hello Mario
Although perhaps not always fulfilling, things are certainly always interesting over at Texansville. In a stunning development, the Texans ignored conventional wisdom and threw today's National Football League draft into chaos by signing North Carolina State defensive end Mario Williams...
2005 Weekly local football review
49er's 20 Texans 17 The Reggie Bush Bowl came to a successful conclusion for the 2-14 Texans as a field goal with 5 minutes left in overtime lifted the 4-12 49er's to the victory. The Texans can now get on...
2005 Weekly local football review
Jaguars 38 Texans 20 The 2-13 Texans got a leg up on the 3-12 49er's in next weekend's Reggie Bush Bowl in San Francisco as the Jags scorched them for 21 points in the final quarter to put this one...
2005 Weekly local football review
Texans 30 Cardinals 19 Now that we know that the Texans' draft picks are not all that bad, the Texans (2-12) went out and set up a January 1st "Reggie Bush Bowl" in San Francisco against the 49ers by beating...
2005 Weekly local football review
Titans 13 Texans 10 Texans kicker Kris Brown made his contribution to the Reggie Bush sweepstakes today as he missed not one, but two, field goals in the closing minutes to ensure that the Texans (1-12) remain in position to...
2005 Weekly local football review
Texas Longhorns 70 Colorado 3. Just as this special Texas Longhorn football team exorcised the Stoops Curse earlier this season, the Horns annihilated Colorado and freed Longhorn fans everywhere from the nightmare of the 2001 Big 12 Championship game in...
2005 Weekly local football review
Chiefs 45 Texans 17 After beating the spread in the past three games, the 1-9 Texans took a dive in front of a national television audience in the ESPN Sunday night game as their nightmare season continued. This one was...
Richard Justice said what?
Chronicle sportswriter Richard Justice says some of the darndest things. Take the following quotes from today's column on the current state of the hapless Houston Texans: "The Texans are respectable. They're coming close. They've got four 2-7 teams left on...
The David Carr dilemma
The Houston Texans face a vexing decision with regard to quarterback David Carr, the team's first draft pick in its existence -- whether to pick up an $8 million option to retain Carr's services over the next four seasons? In...
Charlie Casserly said what?
Chronicle sportswriter John Lopez has a good column today regarding the poor personnel moves of Texans' general manager Charlie Casserly that have been primarily responsible for the Texans' disastrous season this year. Included in the article was the following quote...
2005 Weekly local football review
Texas Longhorns 62 Baylor 0. The Longhorns (9-0; 6-0 Big 12) relentless march to the BCS National Championship Game against USC continued on Saturday as the Horns barely broke a sweat in racing past undermanned Baylor and Miami took care...
2005 Weekly local football review
Texans 19 Browns 16. That's a huge sigh of relief that you are hearing from the South Main area as the Texans (1-6) avoided the real possibility of a 0-16 season with their win over the equally hapless Cleveland Browns...
2005 Weekly local football review
Texas Longhorns 52 Texas Tech 17 Texas QB Vince Young didn't really have all that good a game, yet Texas (7-0) rolls over formerly undefeated Tech (6-1), anyway. The fact that Tech is arguably the second-best team in the Big...
2005 Weekly local football review
Despite this, football was still noticed in these parts over the weekend. First, the good. Texas Longhorns 45 Oklahoma 12 Dr. Vince Young found a cure for the Stoops Curse -- it's called "Give me the ball and get out...
What's really going on over at Texansville?
Kevin Whited over at blogHouston.net has this interesting post chronicling the trial balloons that are being floated out of the Houston Texans' camp these days as various coaches and management figures attempt to deflect criticism for the team's absolutely horrendous...
2005 Weekly local football review
Pittsburgh 27 Texans 7"Houston, we have a problem." After an absolutely awful performance in Week One of the NFL schedule, the Texans outdid themselves in their home opener by rolling over and playing dead to the Pittsburgh Steelers, 27-7. This...
2005 Weekly local football review
Two local quarterbacks had very different tales during the first full week of college and pro football of the 2005 season. Texas Longhorns 25 Ohio State 22 In a magnificent early-season game between two storied college football programs, Texas' WR...
Houston Texans, Year Four
As the fourth season of the Houston Texans begins this Sunday in Buffalo against the Bills, Houston professional football fans no longer consider the Texans an NFL expansion franchise. As a result, it's now put up or shut up time...
2004 Weekly local football review
Browns 22 Texans 14 In an effort to compete with the Aggies for the most uninspired effort of the holiday season, the Texans laid an egg against the hapless Browns in the final game of the 2004 season. The loss...
2004 Weekly local football review
Texans 21 Jaguars 0 The Texans defense laid the wood to Jags' QB Byron Leftwich in holding the Jags' offense to 126 total yards and the Texans' much maligned offensive line sprung RB Dominick Davis for 150 yards rushing and...
2004 Weekly local football review
Texans 24 Bears 5 In a game played in -10 wind chill conditions, the Texans' defense beat up on an utterly incompetent Bears offense as the Texans beat the Bears at Soldier Field in Chicago. The sixth win is the...
2004 Weekly local football review
Colts 23 Texans 14. The Texans actually made a game of it against high-powered Peyton Manning and the Colts, but Manning methodically picked away at the Texans defense for six 4th quarter points to salt this one away for the...
2004 Weekly local football review
Jets 29 Texans 7. After leading 7-6 at halftime, the Texans folded in the second half to allow the Jets to win easily. In another miserable performance during a season of inconsistent outings, Texans' QB David Carr (12/25 for 157...
2004 Weekly local football review
Texans 31 Titans 21. My younger son and I went to the Texans game today with a couple of friends and we all enjoyed an entertaining game. The Texans began the game in a coma and found themselves trailing 21-3...
2004 Weekly local football review
Packers 16 Texans 13. On ESPN Sunday Night Football, the Pack handed the increasingly hapless Texans their third straight loss on a last second field goal despite the fact that they were down to their third string running back and...
2004 Weekly local football review
Colts 49 Texans 14. In a game that was not as close as the score indicates ;^), the Texans reinforced the fact that last week's debacle at Denver was no aberration. Peyton Manning toyed with the Texans secondary as he...
2004 Weekly local football review
Broncos 33 Texans 13. After a month of strong performances, the Texans looked absolutely awful against the Broncos. The offensive line play was horrible, and David Carr -- who does not throw particularly well under pressure -- was mediocre (22/41...
2004 Weekly local football review
Texans 20 Jaguars 6. In their most impressive overall performance to date, the Texans beat the Jags decisively at Reliant Stadium in Houston. The Texans actually should have had another TD except that Jabbar Gaffney somehow fumbled the ball out...
2004 Weekly local football review
Vikings 34 Texans 28 (OT). Down 21-zip midway through the third quarter, the Texans came charging back to tie the game at 28 behind a gutty performance from QB David Carr and extraordinary efforts from WR's Andre Johnson and Derick...
2004 Weekly local football review
Texans 30 Raiders 17. With the Stros winning the Wild Card playoff spot at the Juice Box downtown, the Texans did their part at Reliant Stadium to make Sunday a very good day for Houston sports fans. David Carr easily...
2004 Weekly local football review
Texans 24 Chiefs 21. In the biggest upset of the young NFL season, the Texans took advantage of a Trent Green blunder that resulted in Marcus Coleman's 102 interception return for a touchdown to edge the Chiefs at Arrowhead on...
2004 Weekly local football review
Lions 28 Texans 16. "Uh-oh" is the barely audible sound that you will hear emanating from Reliant Park this week. Not only did the Texans lose their second straight, but they once again showed the inconsistency that could really make...
2004 Weekly local football review
Given the over-analysis of football that takes place in Texas, I am going to institute a brief review of each local team's game from the past weekend with links to more thorough analysis: Chargers 27 Texans 20. In their first...
Houston Texans, Year Three
Lest you think that the only baseball and the Stros are the only sports subjects addressed on this blog, we bring you a review of the first weekend of college football. I generally ignore football until the National Football League...
McNair is on a Serious Roll
Bob McNair, the majority owner of the NFL's Houston Texans, is an old friend and a wonderful man. Bob and the Texans just completed a masterful job in leading Houston's hosting of the highly successful Super Bowl XXXVIII, and now...
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