Texans morning huddle: Wednesday camp review, Hard Knocks 2 recap
By Randy Gurzi
The Houston Texans were back at work yesterday in preparation for their upcoming game against the Denver Broncos. Check out today’s Huddle to see news from the team’s practice as well as a recap of the second episode of Hard Knocks.
31 observations from Wednesday’s #TexansCamp – by John Harris of HoustonTexans.com
"We finally reached THAT stage in training camp. I call it Groundhog Day: Training Camp style. It feels like we’ve done this all before. Practice. Sun. Interviews. Observations. Rinse, lather and repeat, right? It also means that the regular season is one day closer and, more importantly in the interim, Saturday night vs. the Broncos is right around the corner. Or, so it seems. The team was in full pads again on Wednesday in front of another loyal and loud crew of fans. So, here are some observations from the day’s work.1. The Texans signed two players prior to Wednesday’s workout – former Texan Quintin Demps is now a current Texan and former Colt Fili Moala was signed to the defensive line. Rookie TE Mike McFarland was placed on IR.2. Demps made a splash in his first workout as he made an outstanding interception late in practice on a goal-line drill. He shared kickoff return duties during practice. He had four interceptions each of the past two seasons with Kansas City and New York, respectively.3. An intriguing story line on Tuesday night’s Hard Knocks episode was Charles James talking with rookie safety Corey Moore. James’ passion for playing the game was evident, but his point to Moore was, essentially, that Moore needed to communicate with him consistently. James implored Moore to work better together. It was, to me, one of the most important moments of Hard Knocks. Of course, one of the first things I heard on the practice field today was secondary coach John Butler yelling out “TALK!” to his players. It was a point Bill O’Brien made to me at halftime with mostly young players on defense in the second half; he wanted to hear them communicate and talk to one another.4. Today was Ryan Mallett’s day with the first offensive group and he started the day strong. He dropped a beautiful dime in the back of the end zone for a TD early in practice and a few of his other touch throws on the day were on the money.5. When Mallett and the offense were backed up in the “going out” drill, he threw two darts – one to TE C.J. Fiedorowicz and one to Cecil Shorts III. That got the ball out of the shadow of their own goal line and a definitive win for the offense."
Houston Texans “Hard Knocks,” Episode 2 Review – by Sean Pendergast of Houston Press
"Two episodes of Hard Knocks are now in the books, and I suppose we could see this coming — after a season premiere that gave us enough content to carry a five-hour radio show last Wednesday, the second episode of the season was a bit of a tumble from the sugar high of the first.Perhaps it took us only a week to desensitize ourselves to Bill O’Brien’s being a volcano whose lava is the word [redacted]; maybe we’re still waiting for a seminal Hard Knocks moment (like Antonio Cromartie trying to name all of his illegitimate kids back in 2010), but the feeling I got watching Episode 2 was “Man, if I weren’t in Houston, I think I’d have been pretty bored watching that.” Don’t get me wrong, there were some funny moments (Charles James, God bless you), but I think the rest of America needs to see some guys get cut from the team pretty soon, like Sopranos fans waiting for someone to get whacked.Still, some things did happen on the show. Here are my highlights:1. The show opens with O’Brien skewering his team during halftime of the 49ers game, getting off an early [redacted]in the process. The best part of the scene, to me, was Jon Weeks standing right next to O’Brien with a really serious, somber look on his face, as if O’Brien were yelling at him personally. Meanwhile, inside, Weeks was probably like, “[redacted], I’m the [redacted] long snapper…guess who has two thumbs and did his job perfectly that half?? THIS GUY….”2. The producers focus in on undrafted rookie Lynden Trail, and the poor bastard is a mess. The Texans’ defense may as well be the Hubble Telescope, he’d have a better chance of figuring out how it works. Linebackers coach Mike Vrabel basically puts Trail in timeout, and when he asks for a pass rusher a few minutes later to run a play, Trail tries to go in and Vrabel is like, “WHOA, TRAIL… slow down…stay put…you suck at football, bro.” (I’m paraphrasing what Vrabel said.) I’d like to think there’s a deleted scene where Vrabel makes Trail ride home on the cheerleader bus, like Coach Nickerson did to Stef in All The Right Moves."
Carlos Correa impressed by Texans: That’s some real tackling – by Tania Ganguli of ESPN.com
"As Houston Astros shortstop Carlos Correa stood on the sideline watching a Houston Texans training camp practice Tuesday, he realized something.“The explosive stuff they can do, it was impressive,” Correa said. “That makes me wonder about my tackles. There’s some real tackles out there. J.J. [Watt] had a nice tackle out there. I thought, ‘Wow. I better quit tackling people.'”Correa’s own tackling recently got him called into Astros manager A.J. Hinch’s office.On Sunday, after teammate Jose Altuve hit a walk-off single, Correa tackled the diminutive second baseman during the celebration. Hinch asked that Correa, a rookie of the year candidate, not do it again.Hitting people isn’t really Correa’s thing, anyway. He’s said in the past that he plays baseball because he’d rather be hit by a baseball than by someone like Watt.Texans outside linebacker Jadeveon Clowney shared the opposite thought with Correa after practice Tuesday. As a kid, Clowney got hit by a baseball. He wanted to hit the guy who threw it, but wasn’t allowed.“I was like, ‘You’d rather get hit by somebody than by a baseball?'” Correa said of his conversation with the fellow No. 1 overall pick. “He’s like, ‘Yeah, man, of course.’ Different perspectives. I’d rather get hit by a ball than by somebody. That’s why I play baseball. That’s why he plays football.”"