Peyton is going to be licking his chops with a rookie CB on the other side. I hope we win. Colts 24 Texans 17. Show me something Texans.
you will start seeing some VY love after the texans go 1-2 with losses to the colts and cowboys. dont deny it you know its going to happen.
With OD alone I feel like we would've made the playoffs. That dude is smart and well on his way to being a Clark or that other TE from the Cowchicks.
What do you guys expect from Foster this game? I took him in a fantasy league. Hope he doesn't let me down. If we can get a 2-1 start after the first 3 games then I will be very pleased.
How I see it: Colts have serious problems on the OL. They have not drafted offensive linemen well at all (Hello Cowboys?) and it shows: since 2007, their ability to run the ball has regressed badly. They are worse than the Texans in this respect. It remains to be seen if the underachieving Texans' DL can exploit this weakness as the key will be the play of the interior defensive linemen. They have to get a rush inside right into Peyton's face. It will be tough as Peyton gets the ball out very quickly, they have very good receivers and Peyton isn't easily fooled. I expect Kareem to get tested early and often. I also expect Peyton to play with a chip on his shoulder because that SuperBowl loss really burns in his gut. Texans have yet to show they can run the ball consistently. This would be the game to do this but they also didn't address their OL problems in the offseason so I expect to see a continuation of what I saw last year. The Colts' defensive is smallish but fast and if they can ignore the run, they are dangerous. Unlike others here, I do not enjoy watching Matt Schaub throw 40+ times a game. The Texans' DL needs to make a statement here and get to Peyton. The Colts have OL problems and looked awful all preseason. In fact, there was talk of not playing Peyton in order to keep him from getting hurt. If the Texans' DL can exploit this weakness and control the line of scrimmage, I can see them picking up win #2 against the Colts come Sunday.
Colts are always tricky, since their weakness on O (running the ball) is our strength on D (containing the run). Their strength (passing) is our weakness, especially the deep ball. I don't think this a game where Cushing's absence is a killer - he's more crucial when facing the likes of Chris Johnson or Reggie Bush. Plenty of targets in their receiving corps, and with Wayne maybe starting to slip a little, Dallas Clark is the biggest concern for us. Of course, Peyton finds your weakness and kills you with it. If Garcon or Collie gets an edge on someone, that's where he's going. Would've been nice to have Shobel helping out with pressure. On defense, they aren't frightening. Keep Freeney under control and we should be able to roll on them. Both games last year should have been wins, but we had that maddening habit of playing flat 2 quarters out of 4. No Sage or Brown to blame Sunday. Hopefully Slaton and his WD40 hands stay on the sideline. After that, it rests on the Texans playing like big boys both halves of a game. Would love to see that this year.
I'm a huge Texans fan. I want them to win so freakin' badly... I'm going to go waaaaaaaaaaay out on a limb here and predict the Colts will beat the Texans on opening day. The Texans are without their (arguably) best defensive player and are starting a ROOKIE at CB. The Colts have Peyton Manning.
Offensive wise I don't think we'll have a difficult time scoring on pace with the Colts or scoring more. I think where we win the game is defense. If we can get to Manning early and pressure him we will win becuase there run game isn't that strong and there OL is kind of depleted. I just hope Manning doesn't exploit the fact we have 1 rookie CB and one CB who only has 2-3 yrs experience.
Unfortunately, our D-Line aside from Mario has been a pathetic sight to see. 25th in the league last year in sacks, with Cody being our only change (2 career sacks in 67 games played). Cushing was responsible for 5 of our 30 sacks last year, so his absence will be felt in the blitz.
Ya i know we're not at the top in sacks last season thats y i didnt mention we need to sack him. We need to put pressure on Manning and not give him time otherwise hes going to pick us apart and we'll lose.
I think we will have similar offensive (and defensive) stats for this game with the only difference being that the colts get TD's while the Texans get FG's. As per usual, turnovers and red-zone inefficiency will be our downfall. Colts 28 Texans 16
If we can get pressure on Peyton early and often, I can see this game going much the way the Cowboys preseason game went. When you give Peyton time to throw, he will absolutely tear any defense in the league apart slowly and painfully. However, he has shown a tendency to get rattled if he feels like his O-Line isn't giving him the protection he needs, and he will throw some lame ducks up there to avoid taking a big hit. I think this entire game hinges upon our pass rush. We need Frank Bush to pull out all the stops, and throw some exotic blitzes at Peyton.
If it counts for anything, the Colts were handled by the Bears two years ago in their season opener, and then struggled to a 14-12 win over the Jaguars last year in the opener. We've also been on the verge of beating them 3 out of the last 4, if not for meltdowns/choke-jobs. Then there's the fact that we've been manhandled the last two opening games. So, I have no idea what to expect Sunday.
i don't know whether i prefer Texans being up 17 or trailing by 4 going into the 4th. ugh, the wait is killing me.
Am I the only one whose thinking our CBs are not as weak as a lot of you are making them out to be? All camp/pre-season we've heard the Texans say Glover Quin will be known as a shutdown corner after this season. People keep saying we have a rookie CB like it's a horrible thing.. I kind of look at it as, hey our 1st round pick is good enough to start for us from the first game on. He must be alright.
