You also need guys that can accelerate and create separation. None of the other guys can do that. Andre opens everything up. He goes deep and takes two DBs with him, including the top CB and sometimes the best cover S as well. That opens up the underneath for everyone else. When he's gone, Jacoby or Walter are blanked by that #1 corner and the safeties are free to play zone and can help on almost anybody. Jones is the only one that you can even try a deep route with, but he's poor as a playmaker. Walter is a pure possession receiver that's only worthwhile for his blocking when AJ isn't creating a soft underneath zone for him. He's having his most unproductive season in 5 years. Mason hasn't given us a thing. 3 catches in the past 5 games. OD is fine, but isn't going to break into the Witten-Gates tier like we once hoped he might progress into. Casey exploded for 126 yards against NO....and has 14 yds since. Without Johnson, our passing game is reduced to swing passes. And this is why it's critical we draft a fly route speedster in April.
Certainly he's valuable and we're more dangerous with him... I just said we're not dead in the water without him. We still have receivers who can run downfield routes... and a lot of the separation we generate is based off play-action, bootleg, and crossing routes rather than just pure speed. Vickers getting healthy becomes a priority as well... we can run the ball at any of these next three teams regardless of whether or not they know its coming... and he helps make that possible.
You can't replace AJ, he just makes the entire offense that much better.....man.....I hope it is just a light strain. DD
I thought it was a little tounge-in-cheek... "Only one team has never been on our glorifed national stage of Sunday Night Football..." Well, if you wouldn't stop putting the same teams on every single year... some of them regardless of how they do the previous year (Cowboys, Giants, Redskins), the Texans would have already had an appearence. Certainly they could have gotten one after their 9-7 season. How are all those Cheifs Sunday Night games working out for them this year? Ah well, I don't really care. They will certainly get one next year... but it will probably be a road game they won't be favored in. The real prize is when they come to Reliant. THAT will be the loudest the stadium has been yet.
Besides the fact that we've never been on Sunday Night Football, just basically ran down the standard list of things that have been mentioned already... Yates is first QB ever from UNC to start a game All the injuries we've had. Taking advantage of a division without Manning Could win 3 or all 4 of the remaining games... and make a serious playoff run. Will certainly be on SNF next season... but could be on NBC sooner if they make the Super Bowl. And Madonna will be the half-time show performer... in Indianapolis... double-ugh.
Me too. I'm Curious about what Costas said. Enjoying everything online. http://www.nfl.com/videos/houston-texans/09000d5d824bcc3a/Texans-postgame-press-conference
Just got home from the game and finished re-watching the game. At the game I thought there were about 7 bad calls, and watching the telecast verified that 5 of them were bad. This is two weeks in a row now where we've been getting screwed by the refs and I'm tired of it. I won't be able to get any work done tomorrow at all, waiting on Dre's MRI results...
There are two ways to go about getting screwed by refs calls... complain about it till the league aknowledges they f'd up.... or get on more national TV games where refs seem to amp up there game to avoid making embarassing calls viewed by everybody across the nation.
They should complain to the league on the "fumble." Replay missing that one in my mind was inexcusable.
Boy the Atlanta Newspaper didn't think too highly of the Texans. They felt Atlanta should have rolled over the Texans, but their coach thought very highly of the Texans. I'm glad they pulled out the W. As for Johnson, this is really going to hurt this team if he's out long term again. They need him out there based on the offense. Don't get me wrong, Texans have weapons they can use, but Johnson is the key for Houston for the playoffs. Defense is great and all, but they need to be able to score against elite defenses and Johnson is key for that.
