Houston Texans’ Brian Cushing, “I’ll Pray for Him”

In the past week a lot of progress has been made towards getting a new deal done that will allow for the next NFL season to start on time and no games will be missed. That is good news for everyone. The players will get paid, the owners will make money, and the fans won’t have to find stuff to do on Sundays to occupy their time. In the past week, James Harrison decided to go off on just about anyone he could think of. As everyone pretty much knows, he made comments that he will probably regret about Roger Goodell, as well as comments about teammates Ben Roethlisberger and Rashard Mendenhall, and he even made comments about the Texans’ Brian Cushing. Harrison claims his comments were taken out of context but I still can’t figure out why he would be talking about Cushing. Harrison said that Cushing “juiced out of his mind.” For one, I would like to know how this came about in the conversation and why Harrison felt the need to say this. Of course all Texans’ fans know about Cushing’s suspension at the start of last season for testing positive for a banned substance. Naturally Cushing denied taking any kind of banned substance and kind of had a ridiculous excuse but it is in the past and we move on. It makes it a whole lot easier to forgive him since the Texans went 3-1 without him.

I thought Cushing had a curious response to what James Harrison had to say. From all that was he released, Cushing said he would pray for him. In a way, I’m glad that is all he said. I’d rather he let his football abilities do all the talking when the Texans play the Steelers in Week 4 in Houston. I’m sure there are many fans like me that feel like this is a make it or break it year for Cushing. After having that sensational rookie season, Cushing often looked lost on defense last year and hardly made an impact at all. Was that because he wasn’t juicing anymore or was it because DeMeco Ryans was out for much of the year? Or were there other factors? Whatever it was, if the Texans are going to make this magical leap into becoming a respectable defense like so many have predicted, Cushing is going to need to take his game up another notch. He has to do what he did his rookie year and that was being disruptive and making life hard for the opposing teams’ quarterbacks. The defense is not going to magically be better with Mario Williams moving to outside linebacker and the additions of the rookies they acquired through the draft. Unless the Texans add veterans to the secondary, they will still be young and can use all the help they can get and Cushing can help by getting to the quarterback. It has to be a team effort to make that next step towards respectability on defense. He has to prove to not only his teammates but the fans that his rookie season was not a fluke.

For right now, I would prefer the Texans to stay out of the spotlight. While many fans get irritated that the Texans often get over looked in the national media, there is a reason for that. It doesn’t help that the Texans have never made the playoffs and in their existence, they have only beaten the Colts twice. Unless Andre Johnson is using Cortland Finnegan as his punching bag or the Texans blowing another game as time expires, there isn’t much talk about them. If there is talk about them it usually isn’t positive. While they do need a true #2 receiver, I’d rather them not sign Plaxico Burress. He seems like a headache waiting to happen. I will be perfectly fine if the Texans don’t receive a lot of press as long as they are winning games and make that long awaited run to the playoffs.

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