Titans 26 Texans 20
Unless you are a hardy soul, it would be a good idea to avoid sports talk radio this week in Houston.
It would have been bad enough given that jilted no. 1 draft choice Reggie Bush had another brilliant game in helping the Saints blast the Cowboys. However, Texas Longhorns hero Vince Young really turned the knife when he transformed a third and long situation in overtime into a 39 yard touchdown run to give the Titans their second win over the Texans this season. The Titans trailed 14-13 in the fourth quarter before Young led a 15-play, 88-yard drive that gave the Titans their first lead of the second half, 20-17. The Texans tied it up on a Kris Brown 36-yard field goal with a little under two minutes ago, and then Young’s TD run occurred on the first possession of the overtime period.
Rookie Young clearly outplayed embattled fifth-year Texans QB David Carr, who could generate only 133 net passing yards on a 17-23 day. Young was 19-28 for a net 200 yards with one interception, but tacked on an additional 86 yards rushing on just 7 carries. Given how close-to-the-vest Texans coach Gary Kubiak played this one on offense, it’s reasonably clear that Kubiak has little confidence in Carr and that the first draft choice in the Texans’ history is probably playing his final few games with the franchise.
The Texans (4-9) now go on the road to face the Patriots (9-4) and then return home to finish the season against the Colts (10-3) and the Browns (4-9). There may be one more win in those three games, but my pre-season prediction of six wins for the Texans now appears to be a pipe dream.
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Given how close-to-the-vest Texans coach Gary Kubiak played this one on offense, it’s reasonably clear that Kubiak has little confidence in Carr and that the first draft choice in the Texans’ history is probably playing his final few games with the franchise.
I think Kubiak and McNair are going to be stubborn on Carr. I’ll honestly be surprised if he’s not the starter next year.
I will say that Carr looked improved at times early in the season when the offensive line was intact (not good — just improved from last season). Even that line was not of NFL quality, but injuries along the line have just destroyed any chance for the offense to do anything in this latter half of the season.
I’m not offering that as an excuse for Carr, but I think Kubiak and McNair are going to give Carr’s first season under Kubiak a grade of incomplete for that reason — and he’ll be back next season.
And the Texans will continue as one of the worst franchises in NFL history.
I know you enjoy reading the FootballOutsider guys’ stuff.
Check out this post about offensive line consistency:
http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/6252862
The only team that ranks worse than the Texans is the Cardinals. And they have Edgerin James in their backfield, instead of three guys that wouldn’t be starting anywhere else.
For the Texans to make the unorthodox choice in picking Mario Williams look good, they needed everything in the season to turn out perfect. Other choices would have bought time for imperfection, which is the likely result given a team coming off a 2-14 season.