Houston Texans’ Jacoby Jones a No Show Against the Oakland Raiders
By Joe Owens
What made anyone believe Jacoby Jones could contribute in a big way while filling in for the injured Andre Johnson?
Through the first four weeks of the season Jacoby Jones had only managed 7 catches for 91 yards. 7 catches through 4 weeks seems well off a quality pace especially when you consider that an injured Kevin Walter was on the sidelines nursing a shoulder injury during that span, giving the 5th year player even more an opportunity to make an impact or at the very least a mediocre contribution.
During today’s match-up agasint the Oakland Raiders Jacoby Jones was targeted 11 times catching one pass for 9 yards. Jones had as many penalties during today’s game as catches. 1 penalty for 5 yards on a false start call during the second quarter. Jones’ lone catch came during the first quarter.
This was supposed to be Jacoby Jones’ coming out party. There had been talk all week of the Texans being able to beat the Oakland Raiders for numerous reasons. One was the home field advantage of Reliant Stadium. Another was Arian Foster was back and at full strength. And yet another was that the Texans had enough “other” weapons to off-set Andre Johnson’s missing production.
While Owen Daniels, Joel Dressen and Kevin Walter made significant contributions in the passing game it was last years rushing champ, Arian Foster who lead the team in receiving with 116 yards on 5 catches. If the Texans are leaning on Foster to lead the team in both rushing and receiving in Johnson’s absence then Houston may have a tough few weeks ahead of them.
With 10:00 left in the 4th Q deep in Houston’s own territory quarterback Matt Schaub threw three straight passes to Jacboy Jones resulting in zero catches and a Texans punt.
Jacoby Jones biggest contribution may have came with 3:49 left in the game when on 4th & 9 and on the 30 yard line of Oakland. Rookie cornerback DeMarcus Van Dyke grabbed Jones on a Matt Schaub throw in his direction which resulted in a pass interference call against Van Dyke giving Houston an automatic 1st down.
Everyone has bad days but as of yet this season Jacoby Jones has not earned the 3 year deal worth $10.5M that Jones signed in teh offseason. Jacoby Jones tied tight end Owen Daniels with 11 targets against the Oakland Raiders and pulled a Minnesota Vikings Bernard Berrian on the Houston Texans offense when they needed him most.
If anyone still reserves the opinion that the Houston Texans are not looking ahead to the 2012 wide receiver draft class and do not need to address the wide receiver early on in the draft then we would assume those same people are quite happy with the hosuton Texans remaining at best a mediocre team and may want to remove the rose colored glasses that they obviously have on.
It’s quite possibly that the Raiders game planned to take Jones out of the game but we seriously doubt it especially considering the number of times Jones was targeted by Schaub. So in the meantime many of the Houston Texans fanatics are hoping that Andre Johnson is indeed going to back sooner rather than later.
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