ROCK THE VOTE!!!

As election day nears, I encourage everybody to take part in their civic duty and vote...

It only takes a minute to vote all of your Houston Texans into the 2009 Pro Bowl. Let's get these guys to Hawaii. They deserve it!

Week 9: Rumblings and Grumblings

Riding a franchise record three game winning streak, the Texans travel to the Metrodome Sunday to take on the Minnesota Vikings. Here is what people are buzzing about:

-Apparently, the Texans are not as bad as most people think. NO SHIT!!!

-If you didn't already know, Andre Johnson is a flat out stud.

-It seems as though the Texans are finally starting to receive the respect we all believe they deserve. At least from Minnesota, that is.

-Look for Jacoby Jones to have a good day in the return game against a team which has allowed 3 punt return TDs already this season.

-Seen as a weakness at the beginning of the season, the acquisition of of key veterans and the return of a friendly face has rejuvenated the Texans' secondary.

-I've already got multiple Texans on my fantasy squad, and maybe you should too.

Did I mention how much I LOVE Andre Johnson?

Getting Up to Speed on the 2008 Season

What a time to be a Texans fan! If you're like me, then you came into this season with lofty expectations. And why not? After a gratifying 8-8 season it seemed as though the years of agony suffered supporting the laughing stock of the NFL was finally starting to yield a return. The offense no longer dormant, the defense no longer porous, we were on our way to the top of the mountain! And then, it happened...

The 2008 season did not start off the way I had dreamt it would this past summer. The Texans walked into a buzz saw when they visited the Pittsburgh Steelers to start the season. Anyone who watched the game knew what happened. The Steelers dominated the trenches on both sides of the ball. Their 3-4 defense wreaked so much havoc that I was praying Schaub would get up with every hit he took. On the brighter side, Andre Johnson got off to a good start with 10 catches for 112 yards, a potential foreshadow for what was in store this year. Mario Williams carried the momentum from an impressive sophomore campaign into the opener with 2 sacks of Ben Roethlisberger while looking unblockable for most of the game. After the dust settled, the Texans peeled themselves off the Heinz Field turf with a 38-17 loss. As an optimistic Texans fan I, like many others, had no problem absolving the team after this tough road loss against a perennial contender as long as we rebounded in our home opener against the Baltimore Ravens...

The Texans were then forced to take a premature bye week as Hurricane Ike rolled into Houston, postponing the game and causing severe damage to Reliant Stadium. Their were talks that they might not get to play their home opener at Reliant. Luckily that did not turn out to be the case, but the bye week meant that the Texans would have to play an unprecedented 15 straight weeks to close out their season.

As if that weren't enough, the next team on the docket for the Texans were the South division rival Tennessee Titans. One must always respect a Jeff Fisher-coached team, but I, like many others, had no idea what we were in store for. Another week, another dismal performance as the Titans trounced the Texans 31-12. The disappointment lies less in the loss as it does in the showing. The defensive front of the Titans gave Matt Schaub fits all day as he finished the day with 3 interceptions to go along with being sacked 3 times. This is when the "here we go again" chants officially began buzzing in my head.

Week 4 pinned the Texans up against the Jacksonville Jaguars in yet another road game against a South division foe. This time, however, the Texans we all expected before the season began decided to grace us with their presence. Houston traded punches with Jacksonville for 4 quarters. Schaub topped 300 yards passing and threw 3 touchdowns as the Texans looked like the better team for 47 minutes. Unfortunately, the defense was unable to shut down Jacksonville on a critical fourth down late in the 4th quarter as Garrard converted and later led his team into the endzone forcing overtime. As we see many times in the NFL, the Jaguars were the first team to get possession in the extra time and consequently gained enough yardage to set up a game-winning 37 yard field goal. Unlike the first two games where the Texans were clearly outplayed, outcoached and outmatched, this one seemed to sting a little bit more simply because we had the taste of victory on the tip of our tongues only to squander a golden opportunity in yet another late game Texans loss. 0-3 was not the way I had projected the season to start out, but their was still a ton of season to go. Next up, the Indianapolis Colts at home. If there was ever a time the Texans needed to show me something, this was it...

It seemed as though we had found every way to lose during the course of the young season. In week 5, the Texans showed their fans a new definition of pain. Playing without Schaub, who was sitting due to illness, Sage Rosenfels was given the challenge of leading us to our first victory of the season. Having dominated the Colts for 3.5 quarters in every facet of the game, the Texans were 4 minutes away from their first win of the season. The impressive fashion with which the Texans had handled the Colts made it all the more difficult to watch what transpired in the game's final moments. Sage had led the squad admirably after the Colts got off to a quick 10-0 start. A 27-0 run had fans feeling good about the team for the first time all year. A couple of ill advised turnovers by Sage opened a window for the Colts who took advantage scoring a miraculous 21 points to steal the game along with the hearts of Texans fans everywhere. I've been a witness to bad losses by our club in the past, but this one was almost too much to handle. If I had been in public during the game, someone was probably getting their ass kicked. This was it, the lowest of lows, the pitfall of another disappointment of a season. We were staring the first pick in the draft right in the face. But all of a sudden, it happened...

HOLY SHIT, WE WON A GAME! It only took five tries, but we finally got a win under our belts when we defeated the suddenly not-so-terrible Miami Dolphins in the friendly confines of a patched up Reliant Stadium. Although we tried to give the game away when Eugene Wilson fumbled a game-clinching interception back to Miami giving the Dolphins an opportunity to take the lead with just over a minute to go, Schaub was able to overcome the unwarranted home field boos and score a game winning TD run as time expired. It was not the prettiest victory, but for those of us who have been watching this team through the tumultuous times (pretty much since 2001) we could tell that this might have been the start of something. I don't know what, but it was definitely not nothing. In any case, we were 1-4 and had the world at our finger tips. This was a new Texans team, no matter what the mass, uninformed media said. All that stood in our way of our first winning streak of the season were the lowly Detroit Lions...

Now, this is more like it! The Texans followed up their first win by jumping all over the Detroit Lions 21-3 in the first half. Everybody on the offensive side of the ball got in on the action as Schaub finished the game with 267 yards and 2 TD passes to Owen Daniels. Andre Johnson caught 11 balls for 141 yards and both Steve Slaton and Ahman Green punched one in on the ground. The game also marked the return of CB Dunta Robinson from a yearlong hiatus as the result of a horrific hamstring/knee injury. With the emotional leader of the Texans back on the field and a shiny new two game winning streak to show off, things were finally starting to look up for us, for real this time...

Just when we were searching for another confidence boost, in stroll the all-defeated Cincinnati Bengals. This one was not even close. Jacoby Jones set the tone early with a 73 yard punt return for a touchdown, his second of the young season. Schaub was a nearly perfect 24-28 for 280 yards and 3 TDs and Andre led us with 11 catches for 143 yards in what had seemed to become a trend this year. Death, taxes and a dominating effort by Andre Johnson. The defense stepped on the neck of the overmatched Bengals and did not let up until the game was over. Mario notched his 7th sack of the season and Dunta picked off a pass making him the Texans' all-time interception leader. It was nice to see us wrap this one up early for a change. It was also nice to see the team dominate in every facet of the game. The offense looked prolific, the defense looked substantive, the special teams looked ethereal. We had secured our first three game winning streak in franchise history in a total team effort, one which many of us had expected since the strong finish of last season. If there is a common theme that Texans fans must adhere to if they are to survive this emotional roller coaster, it is: "better late than never."

That's where we currently stand. The spark is back and the only thing that stands in the way of our second .500 record in team history is a trip to the Metrodome to take on Adrian Peterson and the Minnesota Vikings. As a Texans fan, I know I must learn to temper my expectations, given our history of torment and heartbreak. At the same time I feel a sense that it is only a matter of time before this team blows by whatever expectations I set for them, no matter how measly or absurd, on their way to limelight and into further uncharted territory. I am just happy that I am along for the ride :)

Stay tuned for my Texans/Vikings matchup preview, as well as other rumblings and grumblings from around the Texans universe...