Ben R

vs Jets
at Titans
vs Jaguars
vs Raiders
at Cardinals
at Bengals
vs 49ers
at Bills
at Colts
BYE
vs Titans (MNF!!!!)
vs Colts
at Jaguars
vs Seahawks
at Rams
at Dolphins
vs Patriots

Can't wait for the draft next Saturday!!

LS1 KLR

iTrader: (2)

Bad ***! MNF against the Titans! Oh yeah! Might have to get tickets to that one!

At least this year the first couple of games are easier than last year!

chupr0kabra

iTrader: (10)

I have them going 10-6, losing to the Bengals (or the Bills) in one of their annual brain fart games. If the Pats have nothing to play for, the Texans, might sneak out a win there, but knowing Belichik, they'll still be going full-bore, even if they've already clinched.


-Mike

-Ross-

iTrader: (2)

11-5!!!

mmiller

iTrader: (1)

Reliant is going to be rockin' for MNF against the Titans!

FIREHAWK #07

iTrader: (1)

MNF tickets..... i want some!

Ben R

MNF was rockin' last season against the Jags, I can't imagine how it's going to be against the Titans after the way we played them in the second game in 08.

It's good to see we have 3 of the first 4 at home this year. I think 10-6 is very realistic and 11-5 is even possible.

I would've preferred to have the Pats first out of the gate in Brady's first game back but the last game might not be so bad.

Ben R

In an unrelated story, Greg Paulus, a point guard for Duke's basketball team had a tryout to play football for the Packers. Coming out of HS Paulus was the Gatorade player of the year as a QB. His brother is a QB for North Carolina.

imlooking

iTrader: (2)

i say 9-7

at 8-8 last year they underachived with the talent and squad they had. close out a couple more games and they would have been in the playoffs. afterall, these are the Texans and we are in a VERY SOLID and tough devision. someone on ESPN said it best "the Texans need to BECOME A TEAM, not a collection of parts"

still don't have a proven QB eventhough HE IS the man behind center, our runnig game will be good until Slayton gets knocked out and our secondary is probably the worst in the NFC. we just CANNOT defedn against the pass. DeMeco slowed down last year but he's definately the leader and the driving force of the defense. also, the Smith signing from the Cards was a fairly good move to complement Super Mario.

we need to find an OLB or a safety in this year's draft. the OLB from USC is a good fit here. pretty versatile and can move very quickly.

that being said, i don't care what anybody says, Andre Johnson is the nastiest, fastest, strongest and most premier receiver in this league. he has just been robbed of numbers and productivity by the likes of Carr and Shaub. evenso, he will be a hall of famer, guaranteed.

if LeBron James and Randy Moss ever had kids, Andre Johnson would be that kid

-Ross-

iTrader: (2)

I doubt they'll underachieve this year. They have gotten even stronger

Schaub was ranked 7th among all QB's last season and lead the team to be #3 in the NFL in total offense.

You mean AFC? Don't you think the secondary will have an easier time defending the pass now that we have gotten Mario help to put more pressure on opposing QBs?

wI agree.

I agree except for the Schaub comment.

LOL! Good one.

95zpro

I don't really see them beating the Titans on MNF and I think they will also lose to the Jaguars, heck they could be 1-4 after the Raider game.

Ben R

I know every year is different but if you look at the non-division games we played last and still found a way to go 8-8 I'm not sure that's underachieving. The beginning of our season was really tough with a bye week in week 2 and road games against good teams (Except for the OT loss in Jacksonville). This year we start at home and play some crappy non-division teams in the NFC West. The AFC East is tough though.

[/quote]at 8-8 last year they underachived with the talent and squad they had. close out a couple more games and they would have been in the playoffs. afterall, these are the Texans and we are in a VERY SOLID and tough devision. someone on ESPN said it best "the Texans need to BECOME A TEAM, not a collection of parts"

I follow the Texans pretty closely and I haven't heard anybody call the Texans a collection of parts. That sounds like the Dallas Cowboys to me. Defensively our scheme and our players need an upgrade. We've moving in that direction this off-season with Frank Bush and our moves in Free Agency and the upcoming draft.

Schaub is a very good player when he's healthy. When he came back from his knee injury he was on fire. People forget that last year was his first full year starting. Now with some experience under his belt I expect big things from him this season.

Our inability to defend the pass isn't all the back 7's fault. Besides Mario we have no pass rush. The protection is always sliding his way. Now with Smith on the other side and what is supposed to be a blitz-heavy scheme being installed that will make us better against the pass.

Ryans played hurt all season long suffering a high ankle sprain and a shoulder problem but you never heard about it because he won't complain publicly. Also, the emergence of Diles and the solid play from Adibi (When he wasn't hurt) took some of the pressure off of Ryans to make every tackle.

There is good safety quality in the middle rounds. I definately expect us to draft a FS somewhere between rounds 2 and 4. The coaches like Barber and Ferguson at Strong Safety and Eugene Wilson is good enough to win with at Free Safety. Matthews seems like a better fit for us than Cushing, although both are projected to be productive pro's.

Schaub hasn't hurt Andre's productivity at all. The biggest thing that's helped Andre has been Kubiak's ability to find ways to get him the ball. They've got Andre lining up all over the field and that makes it tough for a defense to take him away. And defenses can't put too much effort into taking 'Dre away because Walter and Daniels can both hurt them.

Ben R

The Jets have QB questions and even though eventually Rex Ryan will get that defense going it's a very complicated scheme (I actually have a Baltimore defensive playbook in .PDF format on my computer) and it will take time to fine tune it. They are plenty beatable.

The Titans will be a tough game of course, but we've shown we can beat them. The Jaguars are defiantely beatable. Lots of questions still on the O-Line, they don't have a receiving threat anymore, and defensively they have some big time holes to fill in the back 7 even though their hire of Greg Williams was a big one. I think anything less than 2-2 after those games would be unacceptable.

imlooking

iTrader: (2)

lets just hope the Texans can put it together this year. i'm pretty excited and i'll be attending quite a few tailgates.

hope to hang out with you guys at either a tailgate or another place.

95zpro

Ben I know you are optimistic but we have a tendency to be real slow out of the gate, if we could ever start off like we finish a season we would be dangerous.

LS1 KLR

iTrader: (2)

I see 10-6 being very realistic...11-5 if things go our way!

Hell..we were 8-8 last year and could of been 10-6 very easily....

Our offense is good....only part we need to work on is getting TD's in the redzone...that killed us last year...having to get 3 or nothing in the redzone...

We definitely need another good LB....Matthews from USC has been mentioned....

Also a "bigger" back to complement Slaton...say around 210lb....

I think Richard Smith and Kubiak will get it sorted out at the draft....with their free agent signings they have some options in the draft now....

I still can't believe some mock drafts have the Texans picking Mark Sanchez??? WTF!?

mmiller

iTrader: (1)

Umm, Larry Fitzgerald might have something to say about that. Andre is good, but he's not the best receiver in the league.

Ben R

We did get off to a super slow start in 08 but our schedule was crazy. We started in Pittsburgh, had our bye week because of the hurricane, went to Tennessee, lost in OT in Jacksonville (Who at the time had just beaten the Colts in Indy), then fell victim to Rosencopter.

This time we have a legit chance to be 3-1 after our first 4 games.

Ben R

Fitz and 'Dre are more like 1 and 1A, not 1 and 2.

The only reason I might put 'Dre at 1 instead of 1A is because he sees way more coverages rolled his way than Fitz does and he still came out with more catches for more yards. The Cardinals have another legit #1 receiver in Boldin so it's almost impossible to do that to Fitz.

mmiller

iTrader: (1)

Ben, IMO Fitz is the clear-cut #1 receiver in the NFL. Johnson is damn good and is certainly no slouch. I'd put him at #2, followed by Boldin at #3 and Steve Smith at #4. I look for Calvin Johnson to become an absolute monster if the Lions can ever get a good QB to throw to him and another receiver on the opposite side to help him out.

A couple of guys that don't get the pub they deserve are Reggie Wayne and Roddy White. Brandon Marshall could move up the charts if he would get his attitude in check