Texans 29 Titans 10. In the sweetest win for the young Texans franchise since the win against Dallas in the team’s first NFL game, the Texans defense picked off four Steve McNair passes and beat the Titans 20-10 in Nashville. The Texans defense — which has looked pathetic for much of the season — held the Titans to 210 passing yards on 41 attempts. I know it’s juvenile, but how can one not feel good about kicking the collective butts of a Bud Adams team? Here’s hoping the Texans make a habit of it. The Texans have an off week next Sunday before taking on the Jacksonville at Reliant Stadium in Houston on October 31.
Steelers 24 Cowboys 20. Rookie Pittsburgh QB Ben Roethlisberger cuts up the Pokes with 14 points in the fourth quarter to pull out the win. Uh, Big Tuna, have you noticed that the Texans have a better record than your Cowboys? The Pokes play at Green Bay next Sunday.
Texas Aggies 36 Oklahoma State 20. This was the resurgent Ags most impressive win to date as they extended their winning streak to five. Okie State is pretty good, and they had no answer for the Aggies offense under Reggie McNeal, who ran up almost 400 yards total offense. The Aggies take on Colorado at College Station next Saturday.
Texas Longhorns 28 Missouri 20. The Horns overcame their increasingly mediocre passing game to hold off Mizzou at Austin. Texas is a good team with a solid rushing attack and a quick and generally effective defense. However, the lack of any meaningful passing attack is a huge problem, particularly against good teams. The Horns take on Tech next week in Lubbock, which will be no picnic, and both Oklahoma State and the Aggies will be difficult games for the Horns. This team could easily end up 8-3, which will not go over well in Austin.
Nevada 35 Rice 10. The big bugaboo of the triple-option oriented attack is that it does not play well from behind — it simply takes to much time running the ball to overcome a big deficit. That’s what happened to Rice in this game as Nevada took a big lead and Rice’s offense simply could never get on track. This is a disappointing loss for the Owls because Nevada was a team that they should have beat and the Owls’ next game is against a very tough Navy squad next Saturday at Annapolis.
The Houston Cougars were off this week as they prepare to go 1-6 against TCU next Saturday in Ft. Worth.
And remember, for a more thorough weekly review of Big 12 games, check out Kevin Whited’s analysis over at PubliusTX.net.
Houston's Clear Thinkers
Longtime Houston attorney Tom Kirkendall's observations on developments in law, business, medicine, culture, sports, and other matters of general interest to the Houston business, professional, and academic communities.
Do you think you were wrong in your assessment of Carr? Or is he just going through a hot streak? Or are the #s deceiving?
I think it’s too early to say about Carr, although he has certainly shown streaks where his ability appears to be at the top level of the NFL QB’s. Of course, it helps to have talent such as Johnson catching Carr’s passes.
However, I would point out that Carr has not been consistently good thoughout any game this season. Even yesterday, he had a couple of fumbles, a pick, and four straight possessions of three and out in the second half when the game hung in the balance. Moreover, as you probably noted, most of his good passes are on medium to long routes where he is throwing to a hot receiver that they have isolated on a defensive back. Although he throws that ball well, most of the hard work is done by the receiver. I still do not see Carr reading defenses or picking out secondary receivers particularly well.
Having said all that, he has clearly developed better this season than he did last season, which I viewed as a substantial step backward from the promise that he showed in his rookie season.