Ugly, but not tragic

That's how I feel about the New England Patriots 42-14 drubbing of the Texans last night on the increasingly irrelevant Monday Night Football.  There's no way to sugar-coat it for Texans fans: Your team looked awful.  Inept in almost every area of the game.

Some thoughts:

 - This Texans team is not quite as good as everyone thought they might be.  Looking at their schedule their best win was over Denver, in Week 2 BEFORE Peyton Manning's arm was back to full strength.  Chicago is probably not even going to be in the playoffs as fast as they're falling.

 - It's easy to blame Schaub, but the offensive game plan was weak and that offensive line might as well be playing touch football.  Not that Schaub doesn't share some of the blame.  Good quarterbacks do well under pressure, average QB's struggle.  Schaub struggled.

 - The Texans run game is struggling right now.  I think that's partly due to poor O-line play, and Arian Foster channeling a little bit of CJ2K in his running style, trying to over-lean and cut everything back. I've made jokes about his diet dragging him down.  I don't really think it's his diet, but I do think something is wrong.

 - The Texans team spends too much time worrying about things that really don't matter.  From Connor Barwin driving a Prius, to the design of letter jackets to a host of other things, while the Texans are playing around it's pretty clear that the Patriots were studying film. This needs to change if the Texans want to be an elite team going forward.

 - The New England Patriots' plan for dealing with the Texans' pass blocking was basically to hold the Texans' D as they jumped up in the air. It was funny listening to everyone on the MNF broadcast call the Patriots' plan brilliant while the footage was clearly showing Patriot O-linemen grabbing fist fulls of Texan jersey.

 - What this loss does do is make next week's game against Indy very crucial. If the Texans win out, they receive home field throughout the playoffs no matter what.  If they lose another game (assuming the Patriots win out) then they fall to the 2nd or 3rd seed, or worse.  It's certainly not panic time, but Texans fans would be forgiven if they decide to grip just a bit in the coming weeks.

Class

Spotted this on Yahoo! sports:

Texans WR Andre Johnson drops 19K on toy shopping spree for charity. Jay Busbee, Yahoo! Sports

Johnson's Foundation, the Andre Johnson Charitable Foundation, funded the spree, in which 12 children selected by Child Protective Services had 80 seconds to fill up their carts with as many toys as they could. And oh, could they fill those carts.
"You hear a minute and twenty seconds, and you don't think that's a long time, but you'd be surprised by what these kids can put into their buckets," Johnson said afterward. You can see his gargantuan receipt in the photo at right.

Never mind his on the field performance, which is great, the simple fact is Andre Johnson is one of the best men in the Texans organization period.

Amazingly, this didn't hit the radar for the Texans beat reporters at the former newspaper of record in Houston.  Far more important to try and rehabilitate Bud Adam's reputation here I guess.

3CB Center (12/04/2012)

Musings from the waiver wire.

Texans sign Routt - A few years ago, when he was a UH Cougar, I summed Routt's game up as follows:  "Great speed, can't cover if you handed him a blanket."  That said John McClain's persistent criticism of an 11-1 team is getting tiresome.

Bielema to Arkansas, the coaching wheel continues to spin. - I don't like this hire for the Razorbacks, but it probably means that Mike Gundy is staying put at OSU.  In my mind Charlie Strong is still the top prize.

Nothern Illinois making the best of a bad situation. - Yes, I agree that their on-the-field performance is lackluster for a B(C)S bid, but arguing against the system only when it produces an outcome you don't like is even more ridiculous (I'm looking at you Herbstreet)

Snyder wins AP Big XII Coach of the Year. Klein wins Unitas award - After their best season in years, the awards are starting to pile up for the Wildcats.

Very happy to see that Javorskie Lane has figured it out.

Houston has 4 players named to C-USA 1st team and the Rice Owls get 2 - Rice is heading to a bowl, UH is not.  If you're being out coached by David Bailiff you're probably not qualified for the FBS.  It appears that the Cougars are keeping Levine, and AD Mack Rhoades, so they're content with a declining athletic program it seems.

Speaking of declining. - UH basketball is unwatchable.  Dickey fits right in with Rhoades scorched earth style it seems.

Remember, Pau Gasol was the player Morey wanted most of all. It's now fair to question this man's player evaluation skills.

Some good news from this year's sorry bowl season: 5 bowls you might actually want to watch.

And finally....

I give you the Astros biggest free-agent loss of this off-season. - Good luck Jim.