(David J. Phillip/AP Photo; previous weekly reviews here)
Texans 34 Broncos 13

It was the Mario Williams show last Thursday evening as the second-year defensive end dominated the line of scrimmage in leading Texans’ (7-7) to a convincing victory over the Denver Broncos (6-8). Backup QB Sage Rosenfels chipped in with his second straight efficient performance in leading the Texans’ offense to one of its best outputs of the season (358 yds total offense/200 yds passing on 16-27 passes/158 yds rushing). And no one should overlook the fact that the Texans’ offense is a different unit altogether when WR Andre Johnson (6 catches for 86 yds) — who missed eight games earlier in the season with a knee injury — is punishing opposing teams’ secondaries with his special combination of size and speed. About the only thing wrong with the Texans on Thursday night was their all-red uniforms, which made the players look like a bunch of rather large lollypops.
But the real story surrounding the play of Williams has been the blogosphere’s exposing of the vacuous, irresponsible and mostly unwarranted criticism of Williams over his first two seasons by much of the local mainstream media. When the Texans chose Williams over local favorite Vince Young and USC RB Reggie Bush as the first player taken in the 2006 NFL Draft, the local mainstream media crucified Texans management and Williams, even though a few of us in the blogosphere noted at the time that it was not an unreasonable selection.
Then, as Stephanie Stradley masterfully recounts here, the local mainstream media continued to criticize the Texans and Williams throughout the 2006 season and even much of this season. Although Williams pass-rushing ability was hampered during the 2006 season because he played the entire season with a painful injury (planters fasciitis), Williams actually played quite well against the run. Then, this season, with his mobility no longer limited by injury, Williams has continued to play well against the run and, over the past five games, has exploded into one of the best pass-rushers in the NFL. But until recently, much of the local mainstream media continued to characterize Williams as a bust, although Williams’ spectacular play over the past couple of games has generated a number of mea culpas.

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The holiday bowl season tends to generate a few friendly wagers in my circles, so it’s always helpful to have good information sources to check before finalizing those bets.
As noted earlier in the season, CollegeFootballSeason.com is an outstanding resource that provides the outcome of every game on every major-college team’s schedule. It’s a great way to check up on how competing teams fared against common opponents.
Also, Covers.com provides a ton of useful information, including this handy chart (H/T Jay Christensen) that shows the record of each major college team against the spread (Kansas led the nation this past season with a 10-1 record against the spread).
Get ready to rumble!

(AP Photo/David J. Phillip; previous weekly reviews here)
Texans 28 Buccaneers 14
The Buccaneers (8-5) had the incentive of being able to sew up the NFC South Division title with a win over the Texans (6-7) on Sunday afternoon at Reliant Stadium. The Texans could manage to generate only 286 yards of total offense and had two turnovers. The Texans were playing their backup QB, their third and fourth-string running backs, and an offensive line that included a couple of third stringers because of injuries.
So, what happens? The Texans win by 14. So it goes in the wacky world of the NFL.
This was a plucky performance by the Texans, particularly the defense and backup QB Sage Rosenfels. Even though Tampa Bay had to go with their backup QB Luke McCown, the Texans’ defense brought consistent pressure and, with the exception of one TD drive, never let the Bucs’ offense get into rhythm.
Meanwhile, Rosenfels threw three TD passes and managed the game quite well, allowing the Texans to have a decided advantage in time of possession. Rosenfels still shows his lack of game experience from time-to-time by holding on to to the ball for too long and throwing into coverage. But he is a gamer and as tough as nails, and it’s clear that his teammates rally around him. It’s amazing to me (and not terribly encouraging) that Coach Kubiak and his staff didn’t realize early on last season that Rosenfels was a much better NFL QB than former Texans QB David Carr, who will probably be out of the league after this season.
Finally, with the win, all is well again in Richard Justice’s Texans world, who was in a quite different mood after last week’s loss.
The Texans take on the Broncos (6-7) in the NFL’s Thursday night nationally-televised game this week at Reliant Stadium before finishing up the 2007 season at Indianapolis and then back home against Jacksonville.

A case can be made that the Bowl Championship Series has been bad overall for college football. On the other hand, a case can also be made that it is a reasonable compromise between a playoff system for big-time college football and scrapping the lucrative bowl system altogether.
However, regardless of what you think about the BCS overall, it’s clear that the component of the BCS ratings that is based upon the coaches’ poll of the top teams ought to be scrapped. If you have any doubts about that, read this Dan Steinberg post regarding the absurd ratings by various coaches in their latest poll. I know Missouri had a good season and all, but how does one rate the Tigers higher than Oklahoma, which beat Mizzou rather handily twice?
By the way, the Las Vegas smart guys contend that the BCS blew it by putting LSU and Ohio State in the title game:

If Las Vegas Sports Consultants oddsmaker Ken White was a matchmaker for the BCS, he said USC would be playing Oklahoma for the title. The Trojans and Sooners were tied atop LVSC’s final regular-season poll.
“I think the third- and fourth-best teams in the country are playing for the title,” White said. “We have to make USC a slight favorite over anybody except Oklahoma.”
White said because of “public perception,” the Trojans would be about 1.5 point favorites over the Sooners.
Walker said USC would be about a 7-point favorite over Ohio State.
“I still think USC would be favored over any team on a neutral field,” Walker said. “This would be a phenomenal year to have a tournament.”

As the Texans fade to their sixth straight losing season and fifth last place finish in their six year existence, head Texans cheerleader John McClain is preaching patience.
A year ago at this time, the Texans looked deader than a doornail and like a team that was not particularly well-coached. The Texans closed the season by upsetting the Colts and beating a bad Browns team to finish with a 6-10 record.
Then, after the usual pre-season cheerleading and despite the fact that the Texans continued to make questionable personnel moves in the off-season, McClain went batty over second-year coach Gary Kubiak after the Texans opened this season with wins over a bad Chiefs team and an even worse Carolina team.
Now, a couple of months later and a year later after the Texans looked deader than a doornail, the Texans again look deader than a doornail and like a team that is not particularly well-coached. The Texans will have to win two of the last four games against tough opponents just to finish one game better than last season’s 6-10 record.
And McClain preaches patience.
Frankly, I’m quite patient with the Texans — I don’t think the team will improve much until Bob McNair is completely comfortable with a management model for the team, gets the right management and coaches in place, and that management quits making bad personnel decisions. However, I’m much less patient with what the Chronicle attempts to pass off as analysis from John McClain.

(AP Photo/Mark Humphrey; previous weekly reviews are here)
Titans 28 Texans 20
Let’s see here. The Texans (5-7) lose another game on their way to their sixth straight losing season and lose their starting QB Matt Schaub to injury. Schaub is injured after being brutally hammered two plays in a row when two different Titan defensive ends waltzed virtually untouched threw the Texans’ offensive line, which has been a chronic weak spot of the team for its entire six year existence. Schaub has now had to leave three different games this year with injuries and missed one game entirely (Oakland) that the Texans won.
Viewing this landscapte, the Chronicle’s Richard Justice reacts to all this by expressing concern that second-year coach Gary Kubiak might not be the right coach for the Texans:

Now the Texans are at another crossroads. They’ve got four games left in a season that’s again going nowhere. I hope Bob McNair takes a hard look at his franchise and asks this question: ”Are we headed in the right direction? Are we getting the pieces in place? Are Rick Smith and Gary Kubiak the guys that can get us to the playoffs?”
He can ask himself that question today, but he really should answer it at the end of the season. Kubiak and Smith have had two. That’s enough to know whether they’re what he hoped they’d be. When you see the turnovers and penalties, when you see leads consistently disappear, it makes you wonder.

Of course, this is the same Richard Justice who wrote the following only two months ago:

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New Texas A&M football coach Mike Sherman was an assistant coach in the A&M program under R.C. Slocum, the folksy former head coach who was somewhat unceremoniously dumped when the A&M reached to hire Dennis Franchione five years ago. As one Aggie friend put it to me earlier in the week: “So, we endured Coach Fran for five years just to turnaround and hire one of R.C.’s former assistants? Why didn’t we just do that in the first place?”
At any rate, Slocum had been exiled from the Aggie football program during the Franchione regime. Incredibly, Sherman’s press conference earlier this week in which he accepted the A&M job was the first time that Slocum — who still works for A&M in its alumni relations department — had been in the new A&M Bright Football Complex. He apparently had never been invited before!
Nevertheless, Slocum is experiencing a rebirth in the A&M football program with the hiring of his former assistant Sherman. And one of the fringe benefits of that new level of involvement is the reappearance of the weekly segment that used to run on John Granato and Lance Zierlein’s local morning radio show during Slocum’s tenure at A&M, “Coach Slocum on a Mobile.”
“Coach Slocum on a Mobile” is comprised of an impersonator doing an incredibly precise imitation of Coach Slocum’s folksy East Texas twang as he provides often hilarious answers to questions tossed to him by Granato and Zierlein. Yesterday morning, Granato and Zierlein’s new KGOW 1560 AM morning drivetime show carried its first segment of “Coach Slocum on a Mobile,” which included the following gems:
On A&M’s new offense under Coach Sherman:

“Well, we’re bringing back the ‘Gulf Coast Offense’ with QB Randy McCown.”

On A&M’s 38-30 win over Texas this past weekend:

“Did you see (former A&M RB) Jamaar Toombs run over (former UT DB) Michael Griffin this past Friday? It was great!”

On the insecurity of big-time college coaching positions:

“You know, I’ve always said if you can go 7-5 and have the opportunity to go to Shreveport, maybe Houston, for a bowl game, you ought to keep your job.”

The old “Coach Slocum on a Mobile” segments during Coach Slocum’s head coaching days at A&M were classics, which included such pearls of wisdom as “1/2 of the teams in America lose every week and so I don’t think there’s any shame in losing,” that the tight end position in the Gulf Coast Offense is a “supertackle,” that “Baylor is the Notre Dame of the South,” and — channeling former UT coach Darrell Royal’s observation about passing — “Three things can happen when you throw the ball, and two of ’em ain’t good.”
If you want a taste of pure Texas football culture, then tune in to a few segments of “Coach Slocum on a Mobile.” You won’t be disappointed.