Houston Texans Links: Wednesday Roundup
Dec 12, 2013; Denver, CO, USA; Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning (18) passes in the third quarter against the San Diego Chargers at Sports Authority Field at Mile High. The San Diego Chargers defeated the Denver Broncos 27-20. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
There are four days remaining until the NFL-worst Houston Texans take their home field and welcome the AFC first-place Denver Broncos (and their quarterback Peyton Manning), in what I can only imagine will be a bad time for the hosts.
Speaking on Manning, in an article from the USA Today, he spoke about how his wife, Ashley, got him though some tough times when he was recovering from his neck surgery. The article, which quoted The MMQB site:
"“Ashley was the one that was saying, ‘Peyton, you’ve got to try. You’ve got to try.’ With this injury, nothing was happening. Nothing. For weeks. There was no progress. It was so frustrating.”"
I’ve always been a big follower of Manning’s game as he’s one of my absolute favorite players to watch play in the NFL. I think our generation is lucky and fortunate to see a player the caliber of Manning take the football field on a weekly basis.
For Tuesday’s practice John McClain of the Houston Chronicle wrote about how interim head coach Wade Phillips put the Texans in “timeout” at practice. McClain quoted Phillips:
"“Unfortunately, some of the penalties we had in practice carried over to the game. We had the players — if they had a penalty in practice — we took them out of the practice and set them on the side. Kind of a timeout. Something to embarrass them a little bit. We’re going to continue to do that. We’ve got to cut down on penalties.”"
Too little, too late if you ask me. Week 16 with a 12-game losing streak is a little too far along in the season to start caring about a penalty problem that should have been taken care of a long time ago. Oh, and he’s doing the same exact strategy as last week … that worked out so well last week for them.
This season just needs to be completed. Is there a way to put the entire team in timeout so they don’t have to play Denver this weekend? Talk about a potential embarrassment.
ESPN’s Tania Ganguli asked several Texans players what they are playing for now as the Texans have a 2-12 overall record with two game remaining in the regular season.
She quoted Andre Johnson as saying:
"“I’m just trying to win. Trying to end this streak. That’s pretty much it. I only play the game for one reason and that’s to win …”"
I like Andre, but I don’t don’t see a chance at a possible win and end to the current losing streak until maybe Week 17.