Kevin Whited over at blogHouston.net is one of the most insightful local bloggers on matters relating to football. In this post, he observes that John McClain — the Chronicle’s main beat writer on the National Football League for many years — is a rarity among Houston media types in now suggesting that Houston Texans owner Bob McNair ought to fire General Manager Charlie Casserly along with Texans Head Coach Dom Capers for the Texans’ miserable 0-6 start to the 2005 season. Kevin notes that Mr. McClain’s criticism of Mr. Casserly is unusual in comparison to the normally fawning treatment that most local sports media types give to the personable and media-savvy Texans General Manager.

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Texas Longhorns 52 Texas Tech 17

Texas QB Vince Young didn’t really have all that good a game, yet Texas (7-0) rolls over formerly undefeated Tech (6-1), anyway. The fact that Tech is arguably the second-best team in the Big 12 this season underscores just how better the Longhorns are than anyone else in the conference. The Horns now have the equivalent of junior varsity games the next three weeks against Oklahoma State, Baylor and Kansas before closing the regular season with its rivalry game against Texas A&M.

Texas Aggies 30 Kansas State 28

Although Kansas State’s (4-3) program has trended downward over the past couple of seasons, this was still an important road victory for the Ags, who find themselves at 5-2 even after a disappointing first half of the season. Unfortunately for the Ags, they host a tough Iowa State (4-3) team this week, then go to Tech and Oklahoma before finishing the season at home against the Longhorns. The Ags could lose all of those games, which would not go over well in Aggieland.

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Texas Longhorns 42 Colorado 17

Vince Young prevents the Horns (6-0) from having a post-OU letdown as the Horns cruise over what probably is the best Big 12 North team. The win sets up what will certainly be one of the most entertaining games of the Big 12 season next Saturday in Austin as the Horns host 10th-ranked Texas Tech, which is also 6-0. My sense is that Horns’ Defensive Coordinator Gene Chizik is licking his chops at the opportunity to unleash the Horns’ defensive unit against Tech’s idiosyncratic pass-happy offense, but this one should be fun.

Seahawks 42 Texans 10

So, who do you think the Texans should take as the first pick in the 2006 NFL Draft? At this point, it’s inconceivable to me that the Texans could win a game this season absent the other team simply laying down and letting them do so. And then the Texans might trip and screw it up, anyway. The team simply does not have enough NFL-quality players, and Head Coach Dom Capers has clearly lost the team — the Texans gave up 320 rushing yards in an NFL game, had 13 penalties for 95 yards, and the offensive line couldn’t even line up without a penalty during the first quarter! Accordingly, Texans owner Bob McNair is facing the unsettling prospect of cleaning house in his football operation — from General Manager Charlie Casserly on down — less than four years after the franchise played its first game. Ugh.

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Despite this, football was still noticed in these parts over the weekend. First, the good.
Texas Longhorns 45 Oklahoma 12

Dr. Vince Young found a cure for the Stoops Curse — it’s called “Give me the ball and get out of the way.”
Young threw for 241 yards and three TD’s as the Horns (5-0) romped to their largest margin of victory in this hallowed series. Although Young is such an extraordinary player that he tends to attract most of the attention, the Horns’ defense was really the difference in this game as it absolutely manhandled an overmatched OU offense that could muster only 171 yards of total offense.
Probably the best evidence that the Stoops Curse is officially a thing of the past is Coach Stoops’ dubious decision to play injured stud running back Adrian Peterson, who “ran” ineffectively for 10 yards on three carries. That was a clear sign of desperation that reflects that things are getting a bit testy these days in Norman, Oklahoma.
By the way, the Horns will have their toughest game next Saturday since the Ohio State game when they host surprising Colorado (4-1).

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On the surface, all things look rosy in Texas Longhorn football land these days.
The Horns are the second-ranked team in the U.S., dramatically defeated Michigan in the Rose Bowl after last season, have already beaten mighty Ohio State on the road this season, and have a bonafide Heisman Trophy candidate in QB Vince Young. So, coming into the annual Texas-OU game this weekend in Dallas against an Oklahoma team that has been relatively unimpressive this season, the Horns and their faithful should be calm and supremely confident, right?
Not a chance.

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Bengals 16 Texans 10

The local media will likely view this game as a moral victory because the Texans (0-3) at least had a chance to win the game. However, the Texans passing game generated a measly 128 yards on a 4.9 yards per pass average. The rushing attack generated 126 yards for a slightly-better 5.5 per rush average. The bottom line is that 254 yards of total offense will not win many NFL games. The defense was decent, allowing less than 100 yards rushing and keeping the team in the game for the most part. But folks, this is shaping up as a very looong season for the Texans. The Texans better beat Tennessee at home next Sunday because they have Seattle on the road and Indianapolis at home the two weeks after that one. 0-6 is looking like a distinct possibility.

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Kevin Whited over at blogHouston.net has this interesting post chronicling the trial balloons that are being floated out of the Houston Texans’ camp these days as various coaches and management figures attempt to deflect criticism for the team’s absolutely horrendous start to the 2005 season.
Although the Texans have a myriad of problems, it appears reasonably clear that the biggest one is that they do not have enough good players. That problem falls squarely in the lap of General Manager Charlie Casserly, whose golden touch with the media has been much better than his coordination of choosing the team’s players. The good news is that the Texans are almost $10 million under the NFL salary cap. Moreover, even with the almost certain decision at this point to exercise an $8 million option on under-performing QB David Carr’s contract for next season, the Texans should still have plenty of room under next season’s salary cap to attract some good offensive and defensive linemen during this upcoming off-season. The key question that Texans owner Bob McNair has to address is this:

Given the below-average nature of the player selections made to date, should Casserly be in charge of making the next round of player selections for the team?

Looks as if Chronicle NFL sportswriter John McClain better avoid political analysis and stick to football.
In the introduction to a column noting that new Texans offensive coordinator Joe Pendry is much more conservative in his offensive philosophy than the just-fired Chris Palmer, McClain makes the following analogy:

“Texans offensive coordinator Joe Pendry has a reputation for being so conservative he makes George W. Bush look like Bill Clinton.”