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Aug 26, 2007 Andre Johnson, Athletes who don't stab people, Dan The Assassin, DeMeco Ryans, Dunta Robinson, Owen Daniels is a big ol' Pimp, Preseason 2007, Secondary issues are primary, Super Mario, The Schaub Experiment, Winner winner chicken dinner
I’m not gonna lie. I was cheering and yelling at the television as if last night’s game really mattered. Considering I have no special feeling for the Governor’s Cup (I mean, he’s not even my governor), I can only chalk this up to some combination of seeing the team play well and hating the Cowboys.
And they did play well, especially the first team, in all three facets of the game.
OFFENSE
Matt Schaub is rapidly making his signing look like the smartest thing this organization has ever done. Which, I realize, is not saying much–kind of like calling him the prettiest girl at Flathead Valley Community College–but still. He is poised in the pocket. He can make all the throws from all the possible drop distances (as well as rolling to either side). He can avoid sacks with his feet. He gets rid of the ball in short order. And so on, and so forth. In short, he’s doing absolutely everything we could have hoped for. Plus, he has a totally awesome first name.
I was also thrilled with the WR play of Andre Johnson, Apostrophe Davis, and (of course) Jacoby Jones. AJ flashed speed and nice open field moves on one catch, then turned around and showed his amazing strength/size combination on the TD grab. Without jumping that route, I can think of only one or two CBs in all of football who might have stopped him on that slant. Apostrophe looks like he is completely fine with playing the role of slot guy/3rd WR, which is perfect for what he brings to the table. JJ has done absolutely everything and then some to win the role of WR2 (leaping TD grab/end around speed), PR (breakin’ off a little somethin’ somethin’ twice), and defender of the free world (he could totally catch bin Laden).
Batman looked great. Power runs, toss plays, that huge off-tackle gain… so this is what it’s like to have a real running back. Weird. I like it. The Dallas announcers can make all the Ahman-is-old jokes they want. When push came to shove, he run the ball right at them and–with the help of some good blocking–took them from first to fourth in average rushing yards allowed this preseason. I’m still calling 1100 yards and 8 TDs this year.
Speaking of the blocking, I thought the o-line looked very good in run blocking and above average to good in pass blocking. We knew Dallas was going to throw more bodies (and faster bodies) at us than we’d seen so far. The unit was able to pick up blitzers and/or slow them down enough to keep Matt Schaub upright for all but one play. In fact, that one sack wasn’t even on a blitz so much as it was a blown assignment where Burnett came free. Sure, you have to credit a lot of that to Schaub’s ability to avoid sacks and whatnot, but it was still a good performance all around. And it was nice to have Chester Pitts back.
Owen Daniels and Jeb Putzier played well, too. And that’s all I feel the need to write about TEs.
DEFENSE
Super Mario, baby. Sure, I am probably putting too much emphasis on this one game. I’ll even stipulate to that. But here’s the thing: I am only a fraction of the importance on this good performance as people were putting on his two previous games. If Chicago and Arizona were proof that Mario is a piece of shit bust who should probably just go play in traffic, last night’s game supports my notion that he is the greatest athlete ever to play any sport anywhere in the world. The truth, as always, is somewhere in the middle. Still, by my count (though I haven’t gone back over the tape closely) he had 3 tackles, 2 assisted tackles, a sack, and at least one hurry. More importantly, though, is that he did a lot of this from the LDE spot, which physically he is probably better suited for.
DeMeco and Dunta continued to shine. D-Rob was the third man to the clusterhump that missed TO on the touchdown, but he otherwise had the Dallas headcase on lockdown. DeMeco was in on 8 tackles. What else is new?
Other defensive notables included Jamar Fletcher, who had a nice defense of a quick pass to the slot man, Jason Babin, who had five tackles and a big sack (as opposed to ND Kalu’s 1 tackle and virtual anonymity), and Danny Clark, who should be the damned starter at SLB.
SPECIAL TEAMS
JJ. Punt return TD. Again, he flat ran past people like he was a created player in a video game. I am currently petitioning the wife to let me name the new child, boy or girl, Jacoby. She seems unreceptive.
Matt Turk averaged 39.7 on his three punts, pinning two inside the 20 with one of the boots going 51 yards. TEP hit one 32 yards, yet somehow managed to avoid today’s roster cuts.
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August 26th, 2007 at 10:20 pm
The new background looks great.
Are you saying Davis is the #3 WR and Walter is #4? Based on what I’ve seen, I’m not even sure why Walter is a consideration? He must have Kubiak photos or something.
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August 27th, 2007 at 6:25 am
If Kubiak were going solely on performance, Davis would be WR3 and Kevin would be 4. Of course, Charlie Adams would still be on the team and Bethel Johnson would have been sent packing.
I’d say, as of now, it’s JJ at 2, Walter as the true 3, but with Davis getting reps at 3.
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August 27th, 2007 at 9:39 am
Kubiak still claims Walter is the #2 WR. What the hell does a guy have to do to get a promotion?!!!:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/fb/texansfront/5085175.html
Despite scoring touchdowns on a 91-yard punt return and a 19-yard touchdown reception Saturday, rookie receiver Jacoby Jones is still playing behind veteran Kevin Walter.
“Kevin’s our starter, but he (Jones) is going to be on the field,” coach Gary Kubiak said. “Kevin’s had a fine camp, and he’s earned that job. But it’s pretty obvious that No. 12 is going to be on the field a lot.”
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August 27th, 2007 at 9:43 am
I just want to vent about how the pregame was in HD and the game was SD. And ABC went one step further by also showing in-game news and weather in HD. Not that I really want to see Spencer Tillman in any greater detail, but considering all of the fans for both teams that live in Houston, come on. Many of the other teams are broadcast in HD in preseason. I hope CBS isn’t as lame for the regular season.
Also, despite all of the Cowgirls fans that claim this isn’t a rivalry, it is. Houston is trying to gain respect after so many years of sucking and “almosts” with the Oilers, and Dallas is trying feel important again after Aikman and Co. have all retired. The towns are a few hundred miles apart and hate each other. The game DOES matter. You LOST. Stop pretending you don’t care.
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August 27th, 2007 at 10:17 am
Brent,
It’s hilarious. Coming into the game, all the talk was about how they were going to kick our ass because we couldn’t handle their amazing blitzing defense.
Of course, now that we won, it’s “just preseason” and “doesn’t matter.” If that’s true, why were their starters still on the field in the fourth quarter (long after ours had been pulled)?
Besides, who ever heard of an in-state matchup that wasn’t some sort of a rivarly?
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August 27th, 2007 at 11:23 am
And it’s even more ironic to hear people claim that Dallas was only running the vanilla stuff, despite the fact that Denver is pissed after last week when Dallas planned for the game and threw the whole playbook at them.
I was at Baylor in the early 90’s surrounded by a bunch of those Dallas corksuckers (like Matt Mosley), so I’m pretty familiar with their poor attitudes towards Houston. Better luck next year, bastages.
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August 27th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
Nice post.
Anyway you can get your old webstyle back? I have to admit that I liked how clean and modern it looked. The black, to me, is a little harder to read.
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August 27th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Only we could completely ream another team and still not get a headlining article. One of the top videos on espn.com right now is “Tony Romo highlights vs. Texans: Romo and Terrel Owens connected for a TD in preseason loss to Houston”.
What? Why does anybody give a damn about the one pass he didn’t drop? How about “Jacoby Jones highlights vs. Cowboys: Jacoby Jones single-handedly makes Dallas’ special teams and secondary look like a bunch of chumps”.
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August 27th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
I’m with Steph. The old format was much easier on the eyes.
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August 27th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
Re: the formatting. The XML for the old format is all jacked up and some of the graphics are no longer where they are supposed to be, so it doesn’t work. It was between this one and a smaller, blue version of the old one. (Which I might still try.)
This one is a little busy, I admit, but it feels so modern and new.