Insight

Can Texans Rebound?

Wednesday, October 26, 2011 By WILLIAM PHILLIPS, Bellaire High School

The Texans finally played a game that didn’t leave fans biting their nails out. With a resounding lead throughout the game, and great performances from Matt Schaub, who threw for 296 yards and two touchdowns, and Arian Foster, who became the first running back in franchise history to run and receive for over 100 yards in a game, put up two rushing touchdowns and one receiving touchdown. The deathblow to the Titans was their inability to move the ball. The Titans’ total offense amounted to only 148 yards, which is half of the yards that Foster netted between rushing and receiving. Matt Hasselbeck only threw for 104 yards last week, scoring the only touchdown of the game for the Titans, and threw two interceptions. Chris Johnson had an awful day at running back, rushing for only 18 yards, making it his worst game of the season. By the end of the day, The Titans had only 11 first downs as compared to the Texans’ 29. Although the Texans had a fairly rough start early on, it appears that things are going to get much easier for the team. Next week we play the Jaguars, currently lled by an inexperienced rookie quarterback who seems to be having trouble finding his targets. In Monday night’s game against the Ravens, Blaine Gabbert only completed half of his throws, and ended the game with only 93 yards. And although the defense did a very good job preventing the Ravens from ever getting anything going, the fact is that the Ravens’ quarterback Joe Flacco is equally as unimpressive as Gabbert due to his lack of accuracy. After holding the Tennessee offense to such a measly amount of yards, it seems that the Texans are bound to be entering the game with a dominant stride. And who can blame them considering that the Jaguars are currently sitting in third in the division with a record of 2-5? The one thing that the Texans must do to win this game is to stay focused on prevention Maurice Jones-Drew from running the ball effectively. As the main offensive weapon for the Jaguars, one can expect to see Jones-Drew take quite a few carries over the course of the game. But most importantly, the Texans must not forget who they are. They must not forget that it is possible to blow leads as they have proven time and time again. As long as they stay focused on this point, next week’s game should be an easy victory for the Texans.