Texan Defense Faces it’s First True Test in the Jets’ High Powered Offense

In a bitter reminder of last season’s late fourth quarter thriller in the New Meadowlands, where the Texans trailed the entire game, mounting an astonishing comeback  in the final quarter, marching into the red-zone seemingly uncontested and scored twenty unanswered points in what looked like an amazing come from behind victory. Leading the Jets 27-23 after scoring a back breaking field goal with only 49 seconds left, no timeouts, the Texans’ lack of a secondary proved to be this team’s Achilles heel yet again, Mark Sanchez and his star studded receiving corps marched down the field from deep with in their own territory. The Texans’ Swiss cheese like secondary allowed two game breaking passes, one being the game winning touchdown pass, the first a deep pass to Braylon Edwards pinning the Jets within the Houston 10, and a pass to a clearly wide open Santonio Holmes, thus eventually sealing the fate of the Texans. The defense forfeited 72 yards in 5 seconds, a stat that is unacceptable no matter where you are, especially in a tight, clutch situation like that.

With that stated, I know every Texan fan cringes at that game and many others, Jacksonville especially; it still brings tears of anguish every single time I see that play on NFL Network, and we all know that our Texans have indeed beefed up the defense, more specifically, the secondary. With additions like Jonathan Joseph, Daniel Danieal Manning, Brooks Reed, JJ Watt, Brandon Harris, and plenty more, this Texan defense seems to be more than ready to accept the challenge of taking on any offense. With a tough one-two punch of JJ Watt and Mario Williams, the secondary may not have as tough a time as we expect, due to Mario and JJ applying pressure. Regardless, no offense will be an easy task for our defense, and we cannot let our guard down for a single second, proven by earlier years of heartbreak due to a mental slip up.

With the Jets improving their offense even more this off season, they are a tougher and better team, on paper, than last year and pose a threat to our end-zone with every pass; adding Plaxico Burress, giving us a triple threat with Braylon Edwards and Santonio Holmes, and fortifying their defense by snagging Antonio Rodgers-Cromartie. Overall, this Jets team is indeed a benchmark to find out where this Texans team stands and with only 5 days till kickoff in Houston, our coaching staff has plenty of time to work things out, get things into place, and get everything in proper order to get this team ready for our first challenge and will give us feedback on where we are as compared to where we need to be.

I know it’s only preseason, but… FOOTBALL IS BACK BABY!!!

– Richard Perez