Texans pass on Pass. Please pass the peas.
Aug 29, 2007 2008 Draft, Chad Stanley, Dan The Assassin, Jon Abbate, Matt Turk rules, Michigan Wolverines, Offensive (punch)Line, Posts that list too many players, Preseason 2007
The team made two player moves yesterday, one surprising and one not so much. First, despite the fact that (a) he’d played pretty well, (b) Jon Abbate is nursing a bum bodypart, and (c) he’s not Jameel Cook, the team released RB/FB Patrick Pass.
I want to hope that this means Abbate is going to make the team (or, at the least, that we are going to keep a fourth RB) and that we will not have to deal with another year of Cook screwing things up. I suppose we’ll find out soon enough, like right around the same time we find out if Chad Stanley made some sort of deal at the crossroads with Jerry Jones and traded his eternal soul for the chance to punt in Houston in 2007.
The other move–the unsurprising one–was that Charles Spencer was put on the PUP list to start the season, meaning he will have to miss at least the first six games. According to Kubes, however, “it’s still a pretty long shot that he plays this year, but who knows.”
Spencer will (theoretically) be ready for Opening Day 2008, regardless of how this season turns out for him. If doctors determine that he’d be better served by not playing at all in ‘07, I am fine with that. That said, and coupled with the dearth of first round quality secondary talent next April, it would not bother me one bit if our first pick was Jake Long, Michael Oher, or Sam Baker.
The other question-marked positions (starter at SLB, C, and DT; survivor at P) should be sorted out some time between now and the fourth of never at this rate. Answers were supposed to come yesterday, then Friday, and now Saturday. My predictions are still Danny Clark, Steve McKinney, Anthony Maddox (though Travis Johnson has impressed me this preseason), and Matt Turk. Of course, the last one in that list is the only one that really matters, as that’s the only battle where the loser deserves to be shot in the face gets released.
The best part about all of this, though, is that it means we are only 11 days from a game that actually means something.
Texans v.2.0… not exactly bug free
Aug 11, 2007 Athletes who don't stab people, Chad Stanley, Chocodiles, DeMeco Ryans, Jacoby Jones is unheralded, Jason Babin, Jon Abbate, Matt Turk rules, Posts that list too many players, Preseason 2007, The Fred
Ugh. That sucked.
I know, I know… it’s only the preseason and it’s only one game. And I know there were plenty of bright spots. For instance:
- Jacoby Jones. Wow. WOW. As a return man and as a WR, Jacoby lived up to the hype. If not for Ricky Manning’s penalty-inducing contact, JJ would have had a sweet TD to cap off his great night. If he isn’t our WR2 on opening day 2008, something will have gone very wrong.
- DeMeco Ryans. He was only in for limited action, but Ryans had his nose in the middle of everything. I saw NOTHING that would suggest a decline this year or any kind of sophomore slump. This guy is for real.
- Sage Rosenfels. Sure, he’s the backup, but he moved the ball well and spread it around. As a security blanket goes, we could do a lot worse. His line–16/26, 138 yds, TD–was all you could have asked.
- Jerome Mathis. He’s back. At least, it looks like it. He flashed that serious straight-line speed that made him a Pro Bowler not too long ago.
- Jason Babin. I would have bet you $50 that he wouldn’t be on this list. I would have lost. Babin flashed great chasing speed coming from the backside and an ability to shed blocks and make the play from the frontside. He played like (gulp) a first-round draft pick.
- Jon Abbate. They didn’t mention on the radio, so I have no idea if people held up five fingers at the start of the 4th quarter. What they did mention was that Jon was blocking extremely well and he even caught a pass. Man, I hope this guy makes the team.
- Zac Diles. I really expect this guy to make an impact on special teams this year. Nice intensity, nice motor. He also played well as a true LB near the end of the game.
- Matt Turk. One booming punt (58 on the fly) and one nice pin-point punt in the fourth (downed at the 11).
- ND Kalu. If Weaver isn’t ready to go in week 1, I am suddenly feeling a lot better about the prospect of Kalu filling in for him. Maybe work Babin into the strongside rotation, too. I’m breathing a little easier.
- Kick returners. Mathis, Bethel Johnson, and Andre Davis all looked good running back KOs. That said, if Mathis is indeed healthy, there is hardly a need to keep one of those other two, let alone both.
Still, in the end, we walked away with a big fat L. Which is what happens when you crap the bed. In the middle of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, we had such craptacular performances as:
- Jordan Black. He played positively awful, which would explain why the Chiefs fans called him “Turnstile.” I know I said David Carr caused a lot of his own sacks, but putting Jordan Black at LT will make the beating Sandy took look like he was wearing a red jersey in practice.
- Sam Gado looked like he had tunnel vision and cement shoes. This is not really what I am hoping for from our RB3.
- Bradlee Van Pelt looked like a third string QB–for a Special Olympic team. 1/7, a fumble that led to a TD, and a strange fascination with throwing to Joel Dreessen, which worked exactly zero times.
- Jamar Fletcher played passably decent as a nickel but got beat in standard coverage and Fred Bennett got completely lit up on the drive that ended with Ayanbadejo’s TD.
- Chad effin’ Stanley managed a whopping 35 yards on his vital 4th quarter punt, because he likes to make me throw things around the den. He also lucked out with a great roll on his first punt, making it look better in the box score than it actually was. Surely to god, this type of performance will get him his release sooner rather than later. I hate him.
- Earl Cochran had the bonehead running into the kicker penalty that kept Chicago alive with two minutes left, leading to their game winning FG. Nice one.
- Ron Dayne. I’m not sure how our short-yardage back can run three straight times for more or less zero gain. That was ugly. You know… Ron… you are a big (fat) dude. Maybe you could, like, lower your shoulders and actually deliver a hit. Just a thought.
This is not setting well. With 10 minutes to go, I was almost positive we had the game won. With 5 minutes to go, I was still optimistic. It all seems… um… familiar. And I don’t like that feeling.
OK. Breathe. I’m keeping myself positive. This was a fluke. It was all the fault of Van Pelt (or Stanley). The Colts have lost 10 of their last 11 preseason games. Etc.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have nine beers to drink in rapid succession. NFL Football is back, baby.
UPDATE: I should mention that these notes were the product of the radio broadcast, NFL Gamecenter, and the live blog at BRB. Which is to say they are subject to revision once I watch the recorded replay tomorrow morning. Also, I still hate Chad Stanley.
High five
Aug 10, 2007 Amobi Okoye is 20, Athletes who don't stab people, Batman, Jon Abbate, Preseason 2007, Super Mario, The Schaub Experiment, Undrafted Free Agent watch list
Sure, it’s only preseason. Sure, we’ll only get to see The Schaub, Batman, Manchild, and Super Mario for a few plays. But it’s football. Texans football. So… like I said… GAME ON!
One player I am curious to see tonight is Jon Abbate. The story is well-documented–Abbate, a linebacker at Wake Forest, left school early to enter the draft, but tore a hamstring at the combine (and was considered too short to boot), so he went undrafted. Abbate signed as with Houston, still planning on making the team as a linebacker. However, when Jameel Cook’s knee injury was slow to heal, Abbate was asked to make the switch to fullback, a position he hadn’t played since high school.
With that kind of attitude, it’s easy to get behind Abbate. And Jon invites all Texans fans to get behind something even more special.
As he has done in every game for the past year, Abbate plans to begin the fourth quarter of Saturday’s Houston Texans-Chicago Bears preseason game by holding up five fingers. Wherever football takes him, it’s still about remembering his younger brother, Luke. It has been that way since Valentine’s Day 2006, when he died in an automobile accident on his way home from lacrosse practice. He was only 15.
[***]
[Texans fans], too, are invited to join in, should they choose.‘I hope they do,’ Abbate said. ‘We’ll see what happens. This is definitely a community like Winston-Salem. It could carry over. I hope it does. If not, I understand. My family and I will do it until my career is over with.’
While I won’t be at tonight’s game, I want to echo Stephanie. Please hold up five fingers at the start of the fourth quarter. Hopefully, the people around you will do the same and something pretty cool will happen at Reliant Stadium tonight.
(You know… in addition to beating the Flying Grossmen.)
Oh, here’s the YouTube video detailing the whole Abbate story.
The opposite of intelligent and informative
Aug 10, 2007 Athletes who don't stab people, DeMeco Ryans, Houston Chronicle, Jon Abbate, Training camp 2007
Chron.com has given some fairly good coverage of training camp on a daily basis this year, which is nice. The short info snippets in each daily entry have provided some blog fodder and (more importantly) some nuggets of insight that you probably can’t get without being at practice. For that, I commend them.
But the video in the Day 13 roundup… well, I can honestly say I am dumber for having watched it. Why is Anna-Megan bouncing up and down at the beginning? Why is McClain hugging himself throughout? Why did they spend half the video telling us that they were going to do a video with Jon Abbate? Why are the telling us the same stuff about Schaub v. Carr that we’ve heard for the last two weeks? My head is spinning.
*****
I want to thank everyone who commented on the DeMeco Ryans story, as well as The Big Lead, Roll Bama Roll, and USA Today.com for linking to it. Getting the additional traffic was nice, but getting that story out there was even better. I also want to say that I am disappointed in Matt Mosley at ESPN (I refuse to link) for telling me he was going to blog about it (when it looked like DeMeco had passed up the chance to donate) and then not following through (once it became a feel-good story). I should have known he was only looking for some reason to blast us.
