We all saw the debacle Sunday. This team is in trouble going in to the playoffs, and while the sky is not falling – there are legitimate, reasonable reasons to think the Texans are headed for disappointment come January. Rather than go over that embarrassing loss from Sunday (which I witnessed in person) I’m just going to get to the heart of what the problem with this team is. Though the defense shares plenty of blame in this, for the purposes of this entry I am going to focus on the offensive problems. I may hit on defensive woes later in the week, but that doesn’t do much for my Christmas joy.

The Texans have positioned themselves nicely all season to force the AFC playoff field to go through Houston to get to the Super Bowl. That home-field advantage is something every team strives for, but in recent history it hasn’t been an indicator of who makes it through to the title game.

Whether the Texans secure the home field advantage with a win in Indianapolis next week is becoming less and less relevant with every passing week. I’ll take a team playing their best ball of the season over playing at home in the playoffs every day, and so would everyone else.

So yes, I’d love to see the Texans win Sunday and have the potential to host two playoff games on the way to the Super Bowl, but I’m not nearly as concerned with that as I am concerned with, you know, how badly this team is playing right now. Do you really think it matters if the team we saw against Minnesota (or anytime in the last month or so) plays the Broncos or the Patriots in Houston, Denver, New England, or on Jupiter? The result will be the same no matter what – a serious beatdown.

There’s a lot of talk that places the blame squarely on Matt Schaub’s shoulders for the awful game Sunday, and while he certainly shares in that – he’s not the biggest problem. The biggest problem, as it has been most of the season – is the offensive line. The run-blocking is good once in a while, it’s below average most of the time, and it’s absolutely TERRIBLE once in a while – and a LOT more lately.

RT Derek Newton hasn’t been what the Texans had hoped. It doesn’t really matter that he was never supposed to be the starter. Rashad Butler was hurt in the preseason, but by then Newton had already taken the starting job away from Butler. Newton is clearly, at BEST, a swing tackle who just isn’t starting caliber. He’s young and still raw, and sure he can get better – but this team is in win-now mode and can’t wait around for him to become a starting-caliber player. Antoine Caldwell has been awful at right guard, and eventually lost his job to rookie Ben Jones, who has now been splitting time with fellow rookie Brandon Brooks. Left guard Wade Smith is inconsistent, and having his worst season as a Texan. Right now the Texans can only count on two guys on the offensive line with Chris Myers and Duane Brown. After that, it’s just bad. To me it really is that simple.

As far as Schaub goes, he’s certainly not playing well. But he’s not (and never was) the kind of QB who can make plays on his own. He needs the run game to be clicking. He needs to have the legitimate threat of a running game. He needs to have a nice, comfortable pocket from which to throw the ball (which he has had all season). A lot of fans seem to think because he’s a quarterback, that once in a while he should be able to “call up” the abilities of any “style” of quarterback. No, he can’t run. No, he can’t be elusive in the pocket and save a broken play. No, he can’t throw the deep ball well. What he can do, when matched with a coach like Gary Kubiak, is be DEADLY in the intermediate passing game, and KILL teams with in the play action game. He excels at both of those elements, but every game has its own context, and when there is no run game – he won’t be at his best.

The Texans can win with Matt Schaub. But they can’t win with him if there is no running game. When the running game isn’t working, he can’t just suddenly transform himself into a different type of quarterback. That’s why the Texans were able to sign him for what is a fairly reasonable amount of money for a plus NFL quarterback. If he could do all those other things that fans inexplicably expect him to be half the time, he’d be making Drew Brees money.

So yes, he’s got some share of the blame. He’s missed an alarming amount of open guys in the last third of the season, even with an occasional running threat. Sunday he looked so bad at times that I was convinced the receivers were running the wrong routes. My biggest fear about Schaub is that this problem will eat itself. Meaning, Gary Kubiak is already calling games as thought he doesn’t completely trust Schaub as much as he had in the past. If he continues to not make plays, Kubiak may tighten the reins even more. That kind of strategy might work in the regular season, but in the playoffs it will be a disaster.

All of that leads to this. Can the Texans fix this issue now, right before the playoffs start? Of course not. There isn’t an in-season fix for something like this. They are who they are, but that doesn’t mean they can’t win. It doesn’t even mean they can’t win the Super Bowl. But if that’s going to happen, the ONLY way it’s going to happen is with home-field advantage, for other guys on defense not named JJ Watt to start being consistent playmakers, and for the offensive line to at least, improve. They cannot be the dominant running team they were in their current state, but they can be better than what they were against the Vikings. The Texans obviously aren’t as bad as they were against Minnesota, but they’re not as good as they were when they were reeling off big wins early in the season either.

At 12-3, all is certainly not lost. There’s still plenty of reason for excitement, hope, etc. It sound silly to even say that with the record this team has, but there is NO WAY you can ignore how well other teams in the AFC field are playing right now. I’ll take “hot” over “home” every single day… but if the Texans can’t get it together and win in Indianapolis on Sunday, they’ll have neither.

The Texans notched another familiar style of win today. They were largely unimpressive on offense, notching only one touchdown. The defense didn’t get entirely gashed, but struggled at times, saved by big plays by J.J. Watt. Same ol’, same ol’. It certainly wasn’t a resounding win, but they were up against a 9-4 team trying to secure a playoff spot and they won by two scores. Oh, and AFC South champions for the second year in a row, thank you very much.

The Texans’ offense continues to play in a way that I can’t help but call anything but “alarming” headed toward the post-season. Most of the season the offensive line has been inconsistent, and it seems like lately it’s been trending more downward than up. They did put it on the Colts in the 2nd half in the run game when the game was still in doubt, so I do give them credit for that. Andre Johnson is a one-man wrecking crew as a wide receiver, and the Texans aren’t getting much of anything from anyone else save for Owen Daniels. The Texans are so weak at WR right now that DeVier Posey got significant snaps. Kevin Walter only had two catches and I noticed him on the sideline a fair amount. I’ll have to check his snap numbers once those stats hit the web.

Arian Foster again struggled early. It’s more because of the offensive line, but he still seemed to not be “the same guy” he has been in the past as far as breaking tackles and getting that last extra yard. That all changed in the second half, when Foster was his classic late-game self, ripping off big chunks of yardage, staying in-bounds to keep the clock rolling, protecting the ball, and so on. Dominant late-game performance by Foster to put the game away.

The defense didn’t struggle as mightily as it had in recent weeks, but it did once again give up another huge play. The most encouraging thing in this game defensively was that the Texans got good pressure on Andrew Luck all game long, and it wasn’t just from JJ Watt. Houston finished with five sacks, three by Watt, one by Antonio Smith, and one by Connor Barwin, which was just a gift of him being in the right place at the right time. The Colts ran the ball better than you would hope they would, but their offense benefited from Texans’ penalties greatly, especially in the first half. Had the Texans played the game “cleaner” it wouldn’t have been nearly as close.

Matt Schaub had a typical “workman-like” performance. He wasn’t great, but he got the job done. Schaub and Gary Kubiak were smart to feed Andre Johnson all game long, as Andre was often inexplicably single-covered by Vontae Davis. That, and Schaub just doesn’t really have any other weapons to target these days other than 80 and Owen Daniels. Most importantly, Schaub didn’t miss several throws as he has lately, and he took care of the ball. The Texans once again did not have a turnover.

Next up, the absolute MONSTER Adrian Peterson and the otherwise not-so-good Minnesota Vikings come to town. Peterson is looking to break the all-time single-season rushing record this season, and keep the Vikings in the wild-card hunt in the NFC. The Texans match up well against Minnesota, but in no way will that be an easy game. Houston will look to continue their march for home-field advantage in the AFC playoffs. If the Patriots lose to San Francisco on Sunday night, Houston will have a chance to clinch the home-field outright.

Player of the game – defense – Haha do you need to ask? Watt may have actually had his BEST game of the season.

Player of the game – offense – Andre Johnson found himself single-covered a lot, so naturally he had a big game. Arian Foster wasn’t far behind though, as he had a monster second half to close the game out.

Play of the game – Tough to pick against Bryan Braman’s speshul teemz trifecta of a blocked punt, recovered punt, and touchdown. Big play at a big time, though the defense promptly gave it right back on a Luck to T.Y. Hilton touchdown.

Houston now sits at 12-2, still firmly in control of whether they have home-field advantage in the AFC playoffs. The Ravens lost yet again, and now it looks more and more likely that the Texans would not have to play both the Broncos and Patriots if they are going to go to the Super Bowl, it would only be one of them. But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves.

It was ugly from the start.

I had the Texans losing this game, but never thought it would be this bad. Good lord.

The good news is, that for all the overreaction this game will cause by Texans fans and NFL media, it really is just one game. In all likelihood the Texans and Patriots will cross paths again if the Texans are going to make a deep playoff run. Let’s hope that old NFL adage that “it’s tough to beat a good team twice in one year” holds up.

Not feeling especially well tonight (not related to the game tonight, no) so I’m going to have to leave it at that. Go ahead and react here if you like.

This was a crushing loss, yes. The Texans were out-everything’d, obviously outplayed. So, so overwhelmingly outcoached. More later in the week when I’m feeling up to it.

After the quietest, most uneventful week of build-up to a Texans vs. Titans game ever, Houston rather easily handled Tennessee and clinched a playoff berth.

It was an impressive win by the Texans, though it needs to be said that the Titans are a god-awful football team right now. How they have won four games this year, I have no idea. They pretty much hit all the bad notes of a bad team. Poor play, REALLY poor coaching, awful decision-making by skill players, dropped passes, they turn the ball over in bunches, and at times it looks like they aren’t giving full effort. I mean, they are BAD.

But as the cliche goes, you have to play whoever they put in front of you. The Texans did what they were supposed to do. They put the screws to a bad team on the road, and whatever struggles they had – they weren’t enough that the game was ever in doubt.

Matt Schaub continued the way he played in Detroit. Statistically he did well, he took decent care of the ball, but missed a few easy throws. Once again, as it has been for a few seasons now, it’s clear the Texans can win, and win big with him. Schaub spread the ball around today, completing passes to eight different receivers including, comically, himself. Matt Schaub is now 15-1 in his last 16 starts. Crazy.

For the first time all season, Gary Kubiak felt the need to give Arian Foster a bit of a break. Or it may have been a case of Kubiak going with the “hot hand” at the running back position. Foster and Justin Forsett split carries down the middle at 14 each, with Ben Tate working his way back in with 3 carries. Foster looked a little beat up in this game, while Forsett bounced around and hit the holes quickly. Two decidedly different runners, and today it was more Forsett’s day than Foster, with the Texans totaling a “fair” 125 yards rushing.

No turnovers for the Texans’ offense against Tennessee. They played another possession-heavy, clean game, holding the ball on offense for 33:48 (seemed longer than that, didn’t it?). One point of concern though, is 11 penalties for 97 yards. That just needs to stop, like now.

Houston’s defense seemed to be closer to form today, despite the considerable injury issues they are facing on that side of the ball. The defense took advantage of bad quarterback play notching five sacks (JJ Watt, Barrett Ruud, Antonio Smith, Whitney Mercilus twice) and SIX turnovers overall. Jake Locker threw three interceptions (Glover Quin, Tim Dobbins, Darryl Sharpton), and the Texans recovered three fumbles (Dobbins, Mercilus, Smith.)

The Titans still hit a few more big plays than you want to see this defense give up, but with all the injuries and only giving up 10 points, hey – no big deal. Five sacks and six turnovers is domination. Chris Johnson had only 51 yards rushing, and half of them were on one of his 13 carries. The Titans were plagued by WR drops, as well as some heady individual-effort plays by Texan defensive backs.

Brice McCain ended the game in a walking boot, and the Texans were already without Johnathan Joseph and Alan Ball. Sounds like Rick Smith has some work to do this week. Brandon Harris had his ups and downs in this game, and Roc Carmichael had mostly downs.

All JJ Watt did today was record yet another sack (15.5 on the season), another tackle for loss (28 for the season), another pass defensed (15 for the season), and throw in a forced fumble.

The Texans now move to an incredible 11-1 on the season. They are 6-0 on the road, and continue to win games in all ways possible. Blowouts, shootouts, overtime, short weeks – it’s just been an incredible ride. Now comes the toughest game on the schedule, especially if they are not healthier in the defensive backfield. The Patriots are ROLLING right now, and can absolutely obliterate you on offense. Monday Night Football should be a lot of fun next week. We’ll have to keep an eye on the Texans’ injury situation, and the weather. The (very) early weather looks like mid-high 30s, light winds, and only 20% chance of precipitation.

Hurry back, Johnathan Joseph. Please.

Sadly, I barely have the strength to type this.

The Texans, for the second week in a row, did not play well. Their defense was god awful against the pass. Matt Schaub didn’t have a straight-out horrible game, but he was not good. Missed throws all over the place. Shayne Graham is, was, and will continue to be terrible. Gary Kubiak called a questionable game, and was downright awful in overtime. I didn’t even like the way Wade Phillips called the defense. The team had just played almost five full 15-minute periods on Sunday. They were missing their best defensive back against the most dominant receiver in the NFL.

And yet, they won. Again. This team is all heart. ALL heart. Thanks to some questionable play by Detroit, a free touchdown from the referees and Jim Schwartz, and some straight up luck in overtime – the Texans are 10-1. Somehow.

Shayne Grahahm. If you follow me on Twitter, read this blog, or listen to Battle Red Radio, you know I’ve wanted this guy gone pretty much all year. Gives you nothing on kickoffs, and can only make the easy field goals. Suddenly today – touchbacks! But was there anyone – ANY Texans fan – ANYWHERE – that thought for one second he was going to make that 51-yarder in overtime? I sure didn’t think he had a shot. Most of that falls on him, but a lot of that falls on Gary Kubiak for going UBER conservative at a time where the offense was shredding the Lions. YOU CANNOT PLAY FOR A LONG FIELD GOAL WHEN SHAYNE GRAHAM IS YOUR KICKER. YOU CAN PLAY FOR A LONG FIELD GOAL IF YOU HAVE A GOOD KICKER. But, it turns out that 1 – the Texans don’t have a good kicker, and 2 – the kicker they do have IS SHAYNE GRAHAM!!!

*deep breath*

Shayne Graham is at best not good, or just plain terrible.

Okay, I’m done. (He’s terrible. I hate kickers.)

The defense is officially a problem. I know they were missing Johnathan Joseph, but it’s clear we’ve got some issues going forward. The team can probably continue to win against average or good quarterbacks, but against a great QB, the Texans would have gotten destroyed today. SO much blitzing, and blitzing like they did today (because they didn’t get there on blitzes) will KILL us against Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger, or Tom Brady. That said, Wade probably doesn’t blitz that much against those guys.

On Thanksgiving Day, I’m thankful for free touchdowns like the one Justin Forsett scored. I did not know the rule that ended up giving the Texans a touchdown, and neither did any of the people I text messaged about it. It was an insane combination of: 1) The referees not blowing the play dead. 2) Forsett not giving up on the play. 3) Jim Schwartz, like me, not knowing about the rule that his team can’t benefit from an automatic scoring-play challenge if he throws a challenge flag himself. Man, is that ever a stupid rule. But thank goodness it’s out there… uh, for now and now only.

Hey, it’s Turkey Day, and even though we are having ours tomorrow – I’m going to have some more beer and watch some more football.

More on this game soon. Plenty more. But for now I need to recover from that game.

TEN and ONE, and man it feels good.

This, though? This does NOT feel good. h/t SB Nation

Now that some time has passed and I’m able to return to normal physical functionality, it’s time for some more legitimate thoughts on Houston’s thrilling/maddening 43-37 overtime win over Jacksonville on Sunday.

First, let me make it clear – I am not freaking out about how this team barely won. I am beyond thrilled the Texans are 9-1. I am elated that the Texans won a grind-it-out defensive struggle last week, and then turned around and won a shootout on Sunday. THAT is a great football team. THAT is versatility. But I do want to focus on some defensive concerns, which I think are legitimate going forward.

Defensively, what went wrong?
Someone asked safety Danieal Manning the same question after the game, and his answer was honest and/or alarming. I’m paraphrasing, but it was to the effect of “we didn’t prepare for Chad Henne, we prepared for Blaine Gabbert.” This is kind of what I figured from the start, but a team with the talent and coaching like the Texans shouldn’t have to spend all week preparing for Chad Henne to beat him. Henne played out of his mind but there’s no way the Texans should not have been able to make adjustments in-game and at halftime to be able to handle him.

How much of this was the Texans playing “flat” or underestimating the Jaguars? I don’t know. I don’t think it was that much. Sometimes teams (and units within a team) just have bad games. That certainly seems to be the situation in this case. After the Green Bay game and now this game against Jacksonville, the Texans should absolutely be painfully aware that just as they can beat any team, they can lose to any team.

Secondary partied like it was 2010
Perhaps the most terrifying part of Sunday’s defensive struggles was the secondary play, specifically safeties Manning and Glover Quin. Manning is typically a sure-tackler, but his plans to shoulder-tackle Justin Blackmon resulted in disaster. Quin gambled and lost more often than not on Sunday. Kareem Jackson reminded us why he was a whipping boy for so long, but I’m not going to overreact to a bad game by him in the same way I haven’t overreacted to how much he’s improved in 2012.

Scary reality – without JJ Watt, the Texans don’t have much of a pass rush
With the rest of the league apparently now realizing that you just have no choice but to burn two blockers on JJ Watt, nearly at all times, it should put the Texans in a good position to generate a consistent pass rush. With Watt taking up two guys, Wade Phillips needs to be able to count on one of Brooks Reed, Connor Barwin, Whitney Mercilus, and Antonio Smith to get some pressure on the quarterback. Instead, there just isn’t much of a pass rush when other teams focus on Watt. Sure, Wade loves to dial up the blitzes and will continue to do so – but it’s gonna be tough to beat teams led by great quarterbacks if you can’t generate a pass rush with four guys. Peyton Manning might be the best of all time at beating the blitz. Tom Brady and Ben Roethlisberger do it regularly. This is a problem if someone does not step up. Barwin and Reed, so good last year – really need to step it up. Like, REALLY.

Daryl Sharpton, hello, we’ve missed you
Daryl Sharpton is a guy I really like, and a guy I think can seriously help this team. I just figured it would be next year. After all the time he’s spent hurt over the last year, I did not expect him to contribute much in 2012. Whoa now, this dude came to play on Sunday. All Sharpton did was come off the bench for seven tackles and three assisted tackles. He had at least one tackle for loss, and was HITTING some guys. If he can stay healthy he is a HUGE boost to the suspect ILB group post-Brian Cushing. Bradie James and Tim Dobbins have played better than I expected them to since Cushing was injured, but Sharpton, when healthy, is the best of those three.

Now we all hold our collective breath as CB Johnathan Joseph gets an MRI on a sore hamstring. With a four-day turnaround until the Thanksgiving tilt with Detroit, I’d put J-Jo’s chances of playing at just about .01%. That means we are in for a dose of Kareem Jackson covering Calvin Johnson, with tons of safety help (unless Wade Phillips has lost his mind). Sounds like the best-case realistic scenario is that Joseph misses this game, but takes advantage of the long layoff in time to return against New England. No J-Jo against the Patriots – well, I’m not going to even think about that.

I really don’t want to write about this game, mainly because my entire body hurts right now.

The Texans thrilled (and irritated) us with a 43-37 win in overtime against what is arguably the worst team in the NFL. The defense was a complete and total disaster. A disaster. It’s definitely a concern, but let’s hope it was a one game anomaly.

Nothing like playing four full quarters and a full overtime before turning around and playing again in four days on the road.

Play of the game – when Daniel Manning knocked Blaine Gabbert out of the game, and Chad Montana entered.

I’m now going to lay motionless, face down on the rug for a while.

“Enjoy” the win, everyone. I’m spent. I’m done.

Please pardon the tardiness of this update. It took me a while to float back down to Earth.

If there was any doubt left in anyone’s mind whether the Texans are true Super Bowl contenders in 2012, it is now gone. The Texans went into Chicago on the national stage, and beat them in the rain, the wind, and without a few important players. They went into Chicago hearing all about how the Bears defense is the best in the NFL, how they excel at forcing turnovers, and how tough and physical they are. Well, all that may be true currently, and it was certainly true going in to Sunday night – but by the time the Texans put the final touch on a 13-6 victory, a different truth had been realized.

The Texans’ defense was more physical, more focused, tougher, nastier, and flat out BETTER than the Bears. The Texans were supposed to struggle in the “Bear weather” since they are so used to the comfort of Reliant Stadium (yeah, try the heat in Houston during camp, Bears. Just try it).

Instead, former Bear Danieal Manning spearheaded the defense to an absolutely phenomenal effort. Manning kicked off the four turnover performance with a bone-jarring shot on Bears’ tight end Kellen Davis. Three more turnovers would follow, and the Texans were able to prevent big plays all night. Brandon Marshall did haul in a 45-yard catch, but when it counted most – the Texans weren’t having it on defense. It actually seemed to me that the Bears never legitimately challenged for a touchdown in this game.

You can certainly chalk up some of Chicago’s offensive struggles to the fact that they lost QB Jay Cutler in the first half to a concussion. But Cutler was GOD AWFUL before he left the game, so let’s not kid ourselves that Cutler was off to a hot start and would have pulled the game out for the Bears. Tim Dobbins saw to it that Cutler would spend the second half out of the game after a controversial hit to the head on a play where Cutler delivered a forward pass while over the line of scrimmage. I need to watch the play again, but on first glance it did look like an illegal hit to me. He hit Cutler in the head, and I’m not sure why it matters that Cutler was already beyond the line of scrimmage – it seemed like a helmet-to-helmet hit, and on top of that – it seemed like a late hit to boot.

Whether it was legal or not, Dobbins has to realize how coddled the QBs are in the NFL, and he had PLENTY of time to put a shoulder on Cutler rather than hit him in the head. I’m not saying I AGREE with the league rules and how they call these things, but I’m saying that players need to be aware. No matter what interpretation of any rule regarding the location on the line of scrimmage – if there’s a QB involved, you just can’t hit the guy in the head – and you can’t do it even a shade too late. It’s just the reality of the NFL.

Kareem Jackson notched his fourth interception of the season, and suddenly he’s not just improved – he’s actually playing great football. Teams have hardly been throwing his way lately, and last night he showed great awareness on his interception – something he almost NEVER displayed in the past. The Texans’ secondary as a whole played one hell of a game against the Bears. Brandon Marshall got his plus-100 yards, but the bottom line is Johnathan Joseph did not get dominated, and he did not allow Marshall in the end zone. Houston’s safety play was just, well, wow. Manning an Quin can make a legitimate case for being one of the top safety tandems in the NFL.

The offense, as expected, struggled mightily. But Arian Foster took toughness to a new level last night. He was getting battered all over the place. The Bears were pounding him, tackling him hard, and he just kept going and going. Against the Bears turnover machine of a defense, Foster ended the night with 34 touches, and protected the ball perfectly. On his touchdown catch, I can’t say enough about what a great play Foster made. First of all, the Bears covered Foster pretty well. I believe it was Lance Briggs on the coverage. Foster didn’t get a whole of separation, and Matt Schaub threw a FANTASTIC pass to put Foster in a position to make the catch and touchdown. What’s important here, is that the catch he made is NOT the kind of catch I “expect” Foster or any running back to make. But, he made it, he pulled it in, he controlled it all through the catch, got it over the goal line – touchdown. Amazing play.

So now what? The Texans are early 16 point favorites at home against the Jaguars next week. They could suffer an emotional letdown after a signature franchise win Sunday night, but let’s be honest – even if they do let down, all you really need to do to beat the Jaguars is play hard, and play smart.

Gary Kubiak has quite a challenge in front of him to keep the Texans playing at a high emotional level. It may help that the Colts are only two games back, and the Broncos are clearly rising in the West. Houston still has four of their last seven games on the road, including at Detroit on only four days rest on Thanksgiving, a Monday night trip to New England, and two games against Andrew Luck and the aforementioned Colts. Indianapolis is not only in the Wild Card hunt – they are almost a lock to make the playoffs at this point because of how bad the AFC is this season. They will likely need those games for playoff positioning. Let’s also not forget that Houston will host Adrian Peterson and the Vikings in the second-to-last game of the year. My point is – there’s a loooong way to go, and with Denver and Indy rising, the Texans cannot rest on their laurels, even if it’s human nature to do so.

Player of the game, offense – Arian Foster. I could post his numbers here, but that’s not what this is about. He “willed” that offense forward all night Sunday, and he still rolled up good numbers against a legitimately GREAT defense.

Player of the game, defense – Danieal Manning. He set the tone early with a huge fumble-forcing hit, and added an interception later. Against his former team, he was incredible.

Play of the game – Foster’s touchdown, for the brilliance of the throw, the catch, and the maintained possession. Couple that with the way the defense was clearly not going to give up ANYTHING to the Bears, and you might even go as far as to say it put the game out of reach. That’s how good this defense is.

The Texans and Bears, both at 7-1, are headed for a nationally-televised collision course on Sunday night. If you’re like me, you are BEYOND excited about this game.

We will probably get a few of these questions answered Sunday night:

How will the Texans fare against a team that likely won’t abandon the run early?

The Texans have done fine in the cold before – but if there is also rain and/or wind, how will they hold up given the fact that they so often play in perfect, controlled conditions?

How will Matt Schaub perform late in what I’m thinking will be a very close game in the fourth quarter?

Can the Texans continue to protect the ball as well as they have (best in the NFL) against the team that has caused the most turnovers in the league?

Now that we are halfway through the season, the injuries are starting to pile up. Houston is going to be without stellar backup running back Ben Tate again this week as he continues dealing with a hamstring issue. Starting nose tackle Shaun Cody is out with a rib injury. The local paper says it’s broken ribs and an punctured lung (ugh), but Cody himself denies this as he and the team refer to it only as a “rib injury”. Tate is a significant loss, especially against a team like the Bears. Cody was already splitting snaps with Earl Mitchell almost right down the middle, and now Jared Crick figures to get some additional work in the middle as well.

Along with Tate, the most concerning injury issue for the Texans is tight end Owen Daniels, who is a game-time decision with a very painful hip injury. Daniels is having a career year this season and is a big part of what makes the offense go. His backup Garrett Graham is certainly more than capable, as is fullback/tight end James Casey. It’s hard to say that Daniels won’t be missed, and I would NOT say that – but the Texans have excellent depth at that position and losing Daniels would not be the reason they lose the game if it goes down that way.

Kevin Walter sat out practice earlier in the week with a groin issue, but practiced on Thursday and Friday. He is a full go for Sunday night.

One other quick note – *groan*. We have two 7-1 teams about to bash heads on national TV Sunday night… and what got by FAR the most attention from the NFL media this week in relation to the game? Well, of course, it was Bears cornerback Charles Tillman’s unborn baby. WILL HE PLAY? WON’T HE PLAY? WHEN IS THE BABY COMING!? This was worth a mention in one sentence on talk radio, one tweet on Twitter, and one throwaway line in an article online or in the paper. Instead, everyone went CRAZY FOR TWO DAYS! With that, I’ll stop. It’s not worth more than the few letters I’ve now put to it.

Finally, Arian Foster ate some chicken. SO HE IS NO LONGER A TRUE VEGAN AND NOW WE NEED TO FREAK OUT ABOUT THAT!!!

Two 7-1 teams, and three thousand tweets and articles about an unborn baby and a guy who ate a piece of chicken.

Seriously, I will not be surprised when Arian Foster retires in his prime just to get away from being hounded by people who want to know what he’s eating, why, and then wait awkwardly for him to respond when they make a terrible joke about it.

Yeah, it’s been a rough week – and now I’ve successfully taken it out on you. Sunday night can’t come fast enough!

After the game, Mario Williams was his typical affable self. He’s just a good guy. People in Houston might dog-cuss him now for reasons I can’t put my finger on, but he was as even-keeled as ever after a 21-9 loss to his former team.

And… that’s probably part of the problem. Mario kind of shrugged his way through the postgame press conference Sunday, and if you were watching and listening in a vacuum, you’d have NO IDEA his team actually lost by double-digits.

The reasons why Houston made little or no attempt to re-sign Mario Williams are obvious. There’s no way he would’ve granted the Texans a MASSIVE discount to stay in Houston, nor should he. That’s one. Two, is that they were able to see how they could do without him, and they were DOMINANT. So it was an easy choice.

HOWEVER – could part of the reason also be because the Texans just didn’t think much of his play? Well, I wouldn’t have thought so – but if you watched the game Sunday, you saw the Texans did not go out of their way to give Derek Newton a lot of help in defending against Mario. Newton was inconsistent, as he has been most of the year, but for the most part he handled Mario fairly well. Mario took advantage of a dumb mistake by Newton to get his one sack, and he stuffed the run a couple of times but in NO way did he have the big time type of game I expected him to have.

So that’s about all I want to say about Mario Williams from here on out. He came back, he got booed (though not as lustily as I expected) and the Texans sputtered to a 12-point victory. The end. Best of luck to Mario going forward.

Back to the game. Houston is now 7-1 and continues to be firmly in control of their playoff destiny. After the off week, Houston came out flat on offense, and at times looked shaky against the pass on defense.

Houston’s defense was truly in “bend but don’t break” mode, as Ryan Fitzpatrick was able to hit receivers on short and intermediate routes with some regularity between the 20-yardlines, but when it came time to prevent touchdowns – the Texans gave up nothing. Giving up nine points to any NFL team is a great defensive performance, even if it doesn’t seem so great on the stat sheet.

JJ Watt did his thing, notching another sack and hitting the quarterback on what seemed like every other passing play. Connor Barwin and Whitney Mercilus each added sacks as well, as the pressure on Fitzpatrick was often unrelenting. Houston STILL has not given up a rushing touchdown all season. Despite having some issues against the run, they continually are able to force teams to rely on their quarterback. When you have that kind of defense, you’re gonna win games.

On the offensive side of the ball, the Texans I’m sure weren’t pleased with their own performance. Looking at the statistics, there isn’t much to complain about. Arian Foster apparently had flu-like symptoms Saturday night and Sunday morning, but still managed 111 yards and a touchdown on 24 carries. Matt Schaub had 268 yards passing, and Andre Johnson went over 100 yards receiving. But the running game was once again inconsistent, even against one of the worst defenses in the NFL. I have not looked at coaching film yet this week, but at first glance Houston was hurt by their guard play once again in spots.

Of course, let’s not forget all those penalties. Houston got dinged for seven, which has surprisingly become just about par for the course this year. We also have to continue to be concerned about Houston’s speshul teemz. Just god awful yet again, despite a nice punt return by Keshawn Martin. More on the specials later in the week. Let’s just say I… have some additional thoughts.

Player of the game – Offense – I kind of think Schaub deserves it here but I am rolling with Andre Johnson this week. He had eight catches for 118 yards, and was held on a no-call for what might have been a long TD catch. He certainly had the guy beat. Johnson is getting more “possession” type throws his way, but he’s making the most of them. I’d like to see him stretch the field more, but if we are playing the “take what the defense gives you” game, I’m fine with that, because it’s working.

Player of the game – Defense – Guess who? It’s JJ Watt. As I said, when he wasn’t getting sacks, he was PLASTERING Ryan Fitzpatrick all over the field. He was affecting plays, wrecking offensive linemen, and setting up other guys to succeed with his relentless play. Best defensive player in the NFL this year, and it’s not even CLOSE.

Play of the game – The touchdown pass from Matt Schaub to Garrett Graham with 11:32 remaining in the fourth quarter. The Texans punched their red zone ticket on third and goal from the five, and though there was plenty of time left – Houston’s defense meant this game was out of reach for the Bills.