Much like last season your Houston Texans are now 2-0. This is a good thing, another win on the back of an Arian Foster 100+ yard run performance and fortuitous defensive turn overs means Houston is now in sole possession of first place in the AFC South. Even if Indy wins tomorrow night, for now the Texans lead the South. Not a bad start a team that finished in the cellar of the NFL last season. Here are your Texans three quick takeaways from this afternoons win.
1. J.J. Watt can play offense! On the first drive of the game, after the refs declared Foster was a yard shy the Raiders failed to notice that #99 was lined up on offense. No one covered him and Fitzpatrick lobbed a little pass to Watt. Is there anything he cannot do? In his early college career he played some tight end. It was such a surprise even the announcers were caught off guard. Slick.
2. Fitzpatrick managed to complete another game without pulling a “Fitztragic” failure and that was enough for the win. While Foster got most of the serious carries Fitzpatrick looked a little like Matt Schaub out there targeting Andre Johnson six times for 74 yards. It was a decent if rather conservative day for Fitzpatrick with no deep passes attempted. I don’t think the Texans tried a pass that went more then 20 yards in the air. Still, a turn over free day is a good day.
3. The defense, while holding the Raiders scoreless in the first 3 quarters let off the gas and allowed two late game trash touchdowns. There were again worrisome miscues in the secondary that had the Raiders not fumbled the ball, repeatedly could have lead to problems. Good teams will be taking note of this, they will game plan not on trying to run through the Texans but beat them over the top. The Texans have been lucky, but you don’t plan on lucky to win football games.
Bill O’Brien is still installing his offense, but from what we’ve seen so far it’s a very conservative approach, well aside letting Watt take a touchdown pass. We’ve yet to see long passes, any real wow factor play, just blue collar, in the trenches ground and pound with some passes sprinkled in to keep the defense honest. Is that O’Brien holding the good stuff back, the limitations of the personnel or just what to expect? We’ll have to wait and see. The Texans take on the winless New York Giants, a team not afraid of throwing the ball down the field. Should be a good test for the secondary.
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