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Official Sunshine Thread 2018


Apollo Stallion

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Big rivalry game coming up Sunday night, would be nice for a lot of Texas-based celebrities to show up in person to watch, including but not limited to:

*Johnny Manziel
*Beyonce
*Jensen Ackles
*Carol Burnett
*George Eads
*Selena Gomez
*Kelly Clarkson
*Stone Cold Steve Austin
*Representatives of Bat Conservation International, headquartered in Austin

When the Cowboys and Texans meet it is a really big deal in Texas. It's the biggest football rivalry in the state since Texas and Texas A&M stopped playing each other.

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14 minutes ago, Texansfan713 said:

No mention of Booker T and Mark Henry? 

He got Stone Cold. That's all that matters.

I'd imagine the trio of James Harden, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony will make an appearance, too.

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So I looked up the Texans Special Teams thru 5 games and it is nothing short of friggin phenomenal considering we were ranked 30-32 in practically everything since a few years into Kubiak's reign.  We need to worship at the altar of Brad Seely.  Both of our wins could have easily been destroyed by one big return which always seemed to come in crunch time in the past (Deji Karim anyone?).  Kickoff coverage is best in the NFL! 

Tyler Ervin is not spectacular, but has been steady handed, regularly gets the first guy to miss getting 10 bonus yards on nearly every punt, and has made responsible fair catch decisions avoiding getting blown up or getting us pinned too deep.  Can't find a stat, but I don't recall many flags on returns either which have been a staple for years to the extent that for several years I felt we would have been better off not blocking and sending 3 guys back to call for a fair catch which at least wasn't -10 yards.   There has been only 2 kickoffs and 3 punts returned for TD's in the NFL this year, so I'll trade explosiveness for tough safe yards any day.

Kickoffs

  • Own - 266 yards - 24.2 avg - ranked #6 & #11
  • Coverage - 96 yards - 16.0 avg - ranked #4 & #1
  • Longest return is 21 yards!  Only 6 returned.

Punts

  • Own - 139 yards - 10.7 avg - #7 & #9
  • Coverage - 49 yards - 7.0 avg - #9 & #14

Kicking

  • Most FGs in NFL (13/16) - 10/10 xps
  • Punts - Avg sucks, but 16th in Net, #6 inside 20 (11) with only 2 touchbacks, #2 in fair catches

Basically the Texans have sought to eliminate the variable of opponent kick returns. Only 6 kickoffs and 7 punts returned in 5 games.  They can't score if they can't return em. 

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- Watt and Clowney with a 2nd strong showing last night; Watt withstood a beating from La'el Collins and Zack Martin, Clowney was 1v1 against a top 3 LT in Tryon Smith and both had a few moments where they showed off their talent. There were a bunch of missed plays, which is credit to Dak Prescott being a plus athlete at QB moreso than either of those two not doing their jobs (IMO). 

- Zach Cunningham and Bernardrick McKinney both played sideline to sideline, cutting off Zeke Elliott before he could get going. 20 carries for 56 yards? That's a helluva showing for our front seven against a tough Dallas OL.

- Kareem at S is such a perfect setting for him, and S is starting to show up as a nice unit. Justin Reid is well ahead of schedule as a rookie, making some nice splash plays (I'll cop to thinking that INT wasn't an INT, but great play nonetheless). Tyrann Mathieu was looking spry in some big hits on screens and plays out to the flat. This is a performance you can build on, you can take this away as a plus performance overall. 

- Julie'n Davenport at LT is so much better than Julie'n Davenport at RT. Kendall Lamm at RT is a scary thought, but it might work. Maybe we take the Duane Brown/Epharim Saalam route at RT, give both Lamm and Rankin time at RT in a platoon. I didn't hear Senio Kelemete or Zach Fulton as a detriment to the offense, and we were up against an improving Dallas D. 

- Keke Coutee is a damn steal as a 4th round slot WR. There's no other way to put it, he's got every single skill sets needed to be successful as a slot guy in this league. 

- Byron Jones came into the game as the #1 rated CB per PFF, but DeAndre Hopkins absolutely shredded him in 1v1 coverage. The uber athletic Jones had absolutely no answer to Hopkins on pretty much every route where they were in coverage, Hopkins imposed his will against Jones. We should expect that from the man who dropped a Nuk on Revis Island, but it was fun to see.

- Watson took a beating out there, but he showed some growth in checking down into open zones; Both Alfred Blue and Ryan Griffin made good plays when the heat came down on Watson, catching little flips and picking up chunk yards (but Griff - bruh, you got to make that catch in the end zone). Watson's one INT was a poorly thrown pass under extreme duress; That needs to be addressed, but he didn't throw a pick in the end zone at least.

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- Special Teams with their best showing in a very long time. I can't even tell you the last time I saw a blocked punt. Maybe Alfred Blue his rookie season? I literally forget.

- The OL isn't doing a great job at anything, but when they DO get some blocks in, Lamar Miller and Alfred Blue are moving the ball. The YPC is more reflective of the lack of blocking up front vs these guys not doing some good things. 

- JJ Watt with another sack and a few pressures, as well as a nice stoestring stop of Josh Allen on what could have been a big run. He's still gotta play 16, but I feel good with what he's done so far. 

- The AFC South is a mess. Quite literally a mess. Jax blown out by the same Cowboys team we beat, Baltimore blanked by the Ravens, Colts let the Jets put up 40; No matter how bad our coaching is, we can still take control of the division with a good showing vs Jax next week. 

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41 minutes ago, ET80 said:

- Special Teams with their best showing in a very long time. I can't even tell you the last time I saw a blocked punt. Maybe Alfred Blue his rookie season? I literally forget.

- The OL isn't doing a great job at anything, but when they DO get some blocks in, Lamar Miller and Alfred Blue are moving the ball. The YPC is more reflective of the lack of blocking up front vs these guys not doing some good things. 

- JJ Watt with another sack and a few pressures, as well as a nice stoestring stop of Josh Allen on what could have been a big run. He's still gotta play 16, but I feel good with what he's done so far. 

- The AFC South is a mess. Quite literally a mess. Jax blown out by the same Cowboys team we beat, Baltimore blanked by the Ravens, Colts let the Jets put up 40; No matter how bad our coaching is, we can still take control of the division with a good showing vs Jax next week. 

Jacksonville will be mad as heck. They are going to eat Watson alive. I think we lose big time. 

Miami and Denver will be the big games for us to win. 5-4 at the bye week will set us up nicely 

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I've read on the team's Wikipedia article about a rivalry with the Saints.

Would that be considered a friendly rivalry nowadays considering both Houston and New Orleans experienced devastating hurricanes in the 21st century?

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Hal was activated. We have 3 weeks to move him to the roster. It’s amazing for him. Super happy that he’s back

 

from a team stand point he gives us another option in the secondary. He was a decent Saftey. He can allow us to swing Jackson outside, slide Badger into the nickle and play Reid and Hal at safety 

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On 10/17/2018 at 4:48 PM, pf9 said:

I've read on the team's Wikipedia article about a rivalry with the Saints.

Would that be considered a friendly rivalry nowadays considering both Houston and New Orleans experienced devastating hurricanes in the 21st century?

Nope - wikipedia nonsense.  We've played the Saints 4 times (2-2) in our entire history and I don't think some post-Katrina bias or some training camp machismo quite counts.  I think most Texans fans probably have fond feelings for Austin Westlake's own Drew Brees and any team hiring Houston heroes Bum Phillips, Earl Campbell, and Kenny Stabler are alright by most.  Mechem family that owned the Saints before Benson are a prominent Houston family (Mechem fountain) and the Benson's are as tied to San Antonio as New Orleans. FYI - let's not leave Galveston out of the hurricane connection as the 1900 hurricane remains the worst natural disaster in US history by far killing off 8,000 people (1,800 in Katrina), and leaving 30,000 of 38,000 residents homeless.  Galveston was equal parts Wall Street, Vegas, and Mardi Gras at the time, and rising to the richest and most populous city in Texas before the hurricane basically leveled it leading to the creation of the Ports of Houston and Beaumont. 

Patriots would make more sense as a "rival" due to the fact we've actually played them 8 times in the past 6 seasons including 2 playoff losses.  O'Brien and Crennel are Belichick tree failures along with Vrabel, Izzo and more, but I like what I see in future OC Wes Welker.  Before we tried to become New England South we were Denver South with the Kubiak/Smith era where we sheltered more failed Shanny diciples than the Boston archdiocese does fallen priests.  Dolphins would be the closest we have to a winning rivalry as we've beaten them 7 of 8 (O'Brien managed to lose that streak with what is still the worst half of football in franchise history).  Still undefeated vs. the Bears (4-0) and have never beaten the Vikings or Eagles (0-4).  I'd put Browns (6-3), Raiders (6-4), and Bills (5-4) closer to the top of "rivals" as we've played each 9 or 10 times and they are amongst the few franchises we actually can consider ourselves superior to since our inception in 2002.  I'd include the Ravens and Chiefs due to playoff losses, shared players (Ed Reed, Jacoby and Vonta Leach - KC guard exchange) and former GM rivalry between Ozzie Newsome and Rick Smith which was about as one sided as Belichick-O'Brien.  Still plenty of leftover Oilers era hate for the Steelers and the Rooney Refs that have been gifting them playoff wins for 50 years.

Personally, I'd rank it Cowboys #1, Titans #2, Jags #3, Colts #4 with Pats, Ravens, Chiefs, Steelers as wins we'd savor if they came, while losing to Dolphins, Bills, Raiders, Browns being particularly painful.  Probably a worthy asterisk in there for the Bengals letting us beat them with TJ Yates quality QBs, but Marvin Lewis is the playoff gift that most franchises appreciate.

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- Andre Hal. 

- Jadevion Clowney was going up against a backup, and he actually took advantage of it. He attacked the edge, attacked the inside, stuffed the run, out up two sacks...it was one of the "so that's why he went #1 overall" games for JD... which is happening a lot lately.

- Whitney Mercilius, finally having a strong game out there with a sack and a forced fumble. He's been invisible, so hopefully this is a jump start for the rest of the season for him.

- There were a ton of dropped passes by Jax and Bortles was so bad he was benched, but the secondary had their best outing so far this season. Tyrann Mathieu was blitzing a lot, and it looked like he's got some good pressure on his opportunities.

- The run game was gashing that Jags front seven all day long, just imposing their will on a pretty physical front seven. That was very unexpected, and it actually worked to keep Watson upright for the game.

- I guess this is sunshine, but the Jags are tearing themselves up internally. We saw Yannick Ngakoue blow up on the sideline, and it apparently spilled into the locker room after the game. If the Texans really want a chance at the division, the Jags need to continue down this route. 

- Credit where credit is due: No questionable playcalls, time outs, clock management decisions. Only a few predictable plays. Rollouts and moving pockets to keep Watson healthy. This was/is probably the best coaching job from Bill O'Brien in his time with the Texans. 

- After an 0-3 start, you couldn't have convinced me that we'd win four in a row, beat Jax in Jax and have sole possession of 1st in the AFCS. Yet...here we are.

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its mind boggling. but then again, it feels like the past 2 years or so, the team makes a comeback mid season after i've given up on them. we'll see how it goes from here, but this turned out to be a better start than i expected

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Kareem Jackson has been really good this year. I would like to see his PFF rating, it has to be up there. He will be 31 after this season. I think at safety he can play another 2-3 seasons at a high level. The problem is two fold. #1 we have over paid him for a while now. #2 he is earning a good contract every day now. He has a 9 million dollar cap hit this season, and is an URFA next year. I dont want to give him some crazy contract, but We need to think about keeping him. Hopefully the market wont be there to pay him more than 9 million a year. I wouldnt mind giving him a 3 year 20 million deal this off season. 

We might finally be in a position where we are really deep at Safety. Matheau is coming along, and might be the guy we let go in the off season. Reid and Hal are both solid guys too.

Corner is going to be a major need for us. Kevin Johnson has to be shown the door, hes on the hook for 9 million next year that is fully cutable. 

Joseph is not going to be able to play forever, and I think he has to be replaced, though he is definately cheap enough to stay on the roster next year. 

Colvin would cost more to cut than to keep, and we really havent gotten to see enough of him yet, but he should be back next year. 

 

Our secondary will be set next year if we resign our own guys and add one CBs in Free Agency and another in the top 3 rounds. 

I am still torn on Clowney. If the guy would play 16 games at full speed, we would have to pay the man. Instead he plays 1 a quarter. He was dominate against the Colts and he was dominate against the Jags, and then it was as if he didnt play some of the other games. This is exactly what the scouting reports said about him back before the draft. 

either way, I like our D for a long time to come if we can get the CB situation worked out. 

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