Texans Still Impress In Loss

The Texans somehow continue to impress me, even with a loss at home against the Colts on Sunday. After the opening kickoff was returned for a touchdown by Jerome Mathis, I had to be resuscitated.

And that Mathis kick return was the fastest score in Texans history coming just 21 seconds after the start of the game. What I wasn't prepared for is that I would soon want to trade in that fast score for four quarters of scoring. Well, I would have traded in my iPhone for a win against the Colts.

Once I awoke, things started to go downhill for a while. The Texans were losing for the first time this season at halftime, something I wasn't used to. I also developed a nervous tick out of anger from watching Peyton Manning audible twenty-seven times at the line of scrimmage on one play.

The second half is when I became intrigued. At one point, the Texans were trailing 27-10 and it looked as if the excuses could start rolling in. My first priority became to start a petition to check Manning for steroids. My next was to attempt to clone injured wide receiver Andre Johnson. I have another request for the NFL. When a quarterback (Matt Schaub) throws to a receiver (Jacoby Jones) and it bounces off the receivers chest and is then intercepted, why is it a statistic against the quarterback? Should we not give interceptions to wide receivers as well? Just a thought.

I will say, the defense did give up 30 points to the Colts, but allowed Manning to throw only one touchdown pass. And even with all of the injuries and sloppy play, the Texans were still within a score of winning. I asked Mario Williams after the game if he could see the loss as positive. "Well even with one more turnover the outcome could have been different," Williams said. "If we could have that fumble at the end of the game, the offense could have had more time to work. When you are playing a team of that caliber, you have to have turnovers."

Which is exactly what the Texans needed. One big break. One fumble recovery. With one change in the game, the Texans could be sitting at 3-0 on top of the AFC South. So despite the fact that the injuries in this game made Reliant Stadium look like a scene out of '300', there was still a way they could have won.

But you have to think to yourself, "what if." What if the Texans had Andre Johnson? What if Ahman Green and Ron Dayne weren't out of the game? What if the Texans would have had that one turnover that Mario was talking about? Ill tell you...the Texans would have won.

However, I will not take credit away from that Colts team. Going 8-14 on third down conversions, committing no turnovers and averaging 9.3 yards per pass, that's a solid day on offense. On the Texans end, rushing for only 40 yards in a game isn't going to cut it. And Schaub didn't have his greatest game (27-33, 236 yards, one touchdown, two interceptions), but he did enough to keep them close in the final minutes, and that's what the Texans need. On another positive note, the next four games look like easy wins on paper. Did you ever think the Texans would have a chance to be 6-2 going into week 9?

Next week the Texans go into Atlanta to face the 0-3 Falcons. Even if the dog fighter himself was playing, I would still take the Texans in this game. My prediction: Texans 24, Falcons 13.

(This column appeared in the September 24, 2007 edition of The Huntsville Item.)