Rant and Rave

The following post, 7 years in the making, was submitted by guest author, Texans fan Adam:

Let me preface this rant with the following: I am a Texan, rain or shine I will have my gear on every Sunday ready for kick off and will show my colors proudly to every band wagon jumping Cowboys fan who takes the “Americas Team” defense to explain why they root for the Boys despite growing up 700 miles from the Dallas City Limits.

Watching the Colts game last Sunday it was clear, that game summed up exactly where our young franchise is after 7 years of building: Prolific Offense and a talentless Defense who more importantly plays with no heart.

DEFENSE

The discrepancy in talent on our Defense has become so absurd that Mario, Demeco, and Dunta has might as well stay at home because their efforts do not matter. Opposing Offenses simply pick out their target of the day, be it Reeves, Faggins, etc… and go to town.

In 7 years I have never had a sense of indifference watching our young franchise, but watching our Defense turn in gutless after gutless effort week in and out has taken the excitement of watching the Texans away from me. Look, I realize we don’t have grade A, B, or even C plus talent but that doesn’t mean our guys shouldn’t be flying across the field and making hits. We miss tackles, blow assignments, and have started making critical penalties. We get no pressure on the defense, outside of Mario are guys don’t get in the same zip code as opposing QBs. When opposing QBs come to down I guarantee they are planning on negotiating contract extensions for the following Monday.

Texans fans have suffered through years of losing season but always had the hope that our team was headed in the right direction and improving, watching our D I have no faith that we can ever improve to the caliper of Defense needed to win in this league.

Matt Schuab took a dirty helmet to helmet his last year in San Diego that took him out of the line-up and Jared Allen takes out Schuab’s knee and season this year, and our Defenses’ response is absolutely nothing. No pride, no coming to THEIR QBs defense, just continuous gutless efforts.

If it’s not clear what I’m looking for just think back to this years game against Cincinnati; their defense was simply over matched, Schuab and Andre were to much and we scored at will. However, the whole game I was cringing from the hits they were putting on Andre, they may have been overmatched but they were going to play at 110% until the game was over. In the end that’s all you can really ask for from your team.

Offense

One phrase sums up our Offense- Walk Softly and Carry a Big Stick. Since the inception of our young team, Texan fans have had to listen to constant ridicule about our offense and the David Carr years certainly didn’t help. However, through those tough years Texans fans saw promise in some of our young players and knew it was a matter of time before it all came together, and this year that promise of a prolific offense has come to fruition. A quick run down of the Offense:

Owen Daniels – Maybe the most rewarding player to watch, for the past 3 years Texans fans have been saying it: just wait, this guy is the real deal and today he is a legitimate Pro Bowler…O D is the prototypical new Tight End, great hands whose not afraid to take a hit over the middle of the field and he works relentlessly on his blocking, he needs to take some time to work on his TD dance, his current one is weak, because its only a matter of time before he becomes a regular in the end zone

Andre – If you don’t know what 81 is all about then pack up and move to Canada, you don’t deserve American Football…Best Receiver in the NFL

Leech- Maybe the most undervalued unselfish player on the team who plays with HEART, if this guy could play both ways I guarantee a few QBs and Receivers would be making trips to the Hospital

Slaton- Might as well be the 2nd coming of Jesus for Texan Fans, we have waited for a running back since the D. Davis days and we finally have one, he may always need a physical back to take over in certain situations but in the modern 2 RB scheme the NFL has adopted we have our feature back

O- Line- IMPROVEMENT IMPROVEMENT IMPROVEMENT…our improved running games tells all you need to know, we are getting better each game. We still give up some key sacks and have more work to do but our O-Line has given no reason to doubt they will get to where they need to be.

Kris Brown- Ice Cold Pro Bowl Kicker...after watching the Bills lose on a missed FG makes you appreciate have Brown in a Texans Uniform

Schuab- Ignore all the fair weather Houston fans calling for Sage, this guy is the real deal, and when he has been healthy he has shown it, it started out rough this year but responded by setting team records, he has the respect of his team mates and wants to lead this team. Injuries have become a problem, given dirty hits have been the cause of both his stints on the IR the past two years its still worrisome, and if our Defense took some pride and hit someone back to defend our QB maybe we wouldn’t have this concern but more on that later.