(AP Photo/Dave J. Phillip; previous weekly reviews for this season are here)
So, what happens when the NFL’s worst defense meets one of the NFL’s worst offenses? Well, this time, Raiders (1-3) QB JaMarcus Russell is so bad that the Texans (2-2) defense dominated the game and propelled the local club to an easy victory.
The Texans potent offense played reasonably well in the first half, but after the Texans defense and special teams generated 9 points in about 10 seconds early in the third quarter (a safety and resulting Jacoby Jones kick-return for a TD), the offense simply held serve as the heretofore porous Texans defense held the Raiders to 165 total yards. The lack of offense from both teams made the final half almost unwatchable.
Prediction — Russell will not be a starting NFL QB after this season. Maybe even before the end of this season.
The Texans now enter a tough stretch in their schedule in which they play four out of the next five games on the road before the Week 10 bye-week. First up is the Cardinals (1-2) coming off their bye week in Phoenix.
Note to the Texans defense — Kurt Warner is no JaMarcus Russell.
This one was essentially two games — the first was the initial ten minutes of the game in which the inspired Aggies (3-1) stunned the Razorbacks (2-2) and led 10-0.
Unfortunately for A&M, the other game was the remaining 50 minutes in which the Hogs blitzed the Aggies 47-9.
Look, the Aggies are not without talent, most of it quite young. But when a team is starting a true freshman at left offensive tackle, and mostly freshmen and sophomores comprise the two-deep roster, the reality is that such a team is going to get manhandled from time-to-time by more seasoned squads.
That’s what happened to the Aggies yesterday. But I saw nothing in the game that indicated to me that the Aggies are a lost cause. On the contrary, give this bunch another year of maturity and sprinkle in another group of solid recruits, my sense is that the Aggies will again be competitive with all but the top flight programs (i.e., Texas and Oklahoma) in the Big 12. Even this season, the Aggies could win four more games (@Kansas State, Iowa State, @Colorado and Baylor). The others — Oklahoma State (next week at home), @Texas Tech, @Oklahoma and Texas — appear to be more problematic.
In the meantime, I’m picking Aggies QB Jerrod Johnson to be the QB on my sandlot team.
How does a team such as UTEP (2-3) that didn’t generate 58 yards total offense in its game last week (a 64-7 loss to Texas) turnaround and score that many points in handing formerly 12-ranked Houston (3-1) its first defeat of the season?
The answer is in my first weekly football review of the season:
The trick for the Cougars this season will be to figure out how their young defense — which lacks depth from several seasons of under-recruiting on the defensive side by previous head coach, Art Briles — can maintain the type of gritty effort that the unit displayed against OSU’s potent offense. UH defensive coordinator John Skladany is a master at getting the most out of undermanned defensive units (he was the DC for my friend Dan McCarney during Iowa State’s bowl run earlier this decade), but he will have his work cut out for him in the coming weeks. If the Coogs defensive unit can consistently play at the level it did against OSU, and the team can avoid injuries to key personnel, the Cougars are likely to be a top-20 team.
The Coogs’ defensive unit held up reasonably well against Oklahoma State and Texas Tech, but a hot UTEP squad exposed it for what it is — a young and not particularly physically-imposing group that simply cannot play at the same level as Houston’s high-powered offense.
The difference in this particular game was that Houston’s defense was not able to force any turnovers, which it was able to do in both the OSU and Tech upsets. When the Cougar offense uncharacteristically failed to score on a couple of 2nd quarter trips into the UTEP red zone, that plus the lack of turnovers gave the Miners the edge they needed to pull off the upset.
By the way, even with the upset, Houston QB Case Keenum continues to play at the highest level of any quarterback in the nation through five weeks of the season.
The Cougars will not be able to lick their wounds for long as they take to the road again next week to play tough Mississippi State (2-3), which almost upset 5th-ranked LSU two weeks ago. After that, the Coogs ease into the main part of their Conference USA schedule, which should allow the Cougars to get back on track.
In the latest edition of the bitter Todd Graham Bowl, the Owls (0-5) continue to struggle on offense while their defense plays well enough to keep the score respectable. My over/under for Rice wins this season continues at two, and that may be a bit optimistic. The Owls host the potent Navy (3-2) triple-option attack next Saturday.
The Texas Longhorns (4-0) were off this weekend before starting the meat of their schedule next week at Colorado (1-3). Following that game, the Horns play in successive weeks 19th-ranked Oklahoma at Dallas, at 24th-ranked Missouri, and at 15th-ranked Oklahoma State.
And Danny Amnedola got his first reception in the NFL.