The Texans travel to Jacksonville this weekend to face the resurgent Jaguars in a battle to see who will stand out as the more improved AFC team. The Texans got the season off to a hot start, but injuries and tough opponents bring them to this weekend with a 3-2 record. However, with the immenent return of Ahman Green and Jacoby Jones, the sporadically brilliant offense will get a much-needed upgradein the offensive options department.
The past two weeks have lived and died on Matt Schaub's ability to connect with tight end Owen Daniels, with a running game built on the hulking shoulders of Ron Dayne and most of the actual scoring provided by kicker Kris Brown. The return of Green in particular should keep the Jags' swarming defense honest and allow Schaub time to work through his downfield options.
Without the surprisingly strong defense (which has only truly struggled against the offense-wacky Colts), the Texans could easily be 1-4 at this point. But the emergence of Mario Williams, and the ongoing revelation that is beast-child Abomi Okoye have proven that the years of futility may be ending in a wave of tenacious blue helmets. But what about the secondary? Well, read on...
There are two other emerging stories heading into this game: the first is the horrific performance of #2 cornerback DeMarcus Faggins. With a surname like that, the easy invective that follows has flown around the Internet a lot this week. Childish namecalling aside, Faggins is bad. Seriously. He got clowned by Steve Smith in the Texans game against the Panthers, and Kubiak has lost enough faith in him that rookie Fred Bennett was given significant minutes last week against the Dolphins. (keep in mind that the Trent Green/Cleo Lemon-led Fins have a passing game in the same way that Houston has mass transit) Bennett showed last week that he may be ready for the full-time role, so this issue may not go away even though Kubes has said that Faggins is his starter until further notice.
The other issue that'll get a lot of airplay this week is the ongoing reprecussions of the Travis Johnson-Trent Green collision last week. Green is possibly out for the season and may even retire; Johnson is still mostly unrepentant and definitely villain #1 of the NFL this week. (Hey, T.O. hasn't shot his mouth off this week, so give it time.) DGDB&D has a hilarious internal dialogue for Johnson, and we here at Houstonist are backing our home town boy: Green either has no idea how to block, or was deliberately aiming to hurt Johnson. But trust us, that play going to be replayed endlessly on Sunday. Just fair warning, y'all.
Not that we condone this sort of thing, but the Vegas line has the Jags winning by 6.5. With their defense and solid QB performance by David Garrard, that sounds fair. But if the Texans defense holds the passing game in check and Green can make yardage against the Jags front four, this could be a lot closer.
The Texans and Jaguars start their contest at noon Sunday on CBS.
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photo: intrepid flickr user mrp1001
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