Reflections On A Defensive Win Against Jacksonville

Yes, it was closer than I would have liked. Yes, the Texans offense looked lost at times and that Matt Schaub missed on too many passes down the field. But, there was still a bunch to take away from the Texans victory over the Jaguars Sunday...

First of all, the Jacksonville defense is legitimate. They're tough against the run, played great pass defense and were always around the ball. That thing with the laterals with the defensive linemen was annoying as hell, but it was a good play. The Texans were able to make the most of it without their top receiver, and that's a credit to the offensive line and Arian Foster.

Speaking of Foster, he went over 100 yards in this one, but it took him 33 carries and he only averaged 3.4 yards per rush. He had moments where he broke runs and moved the ball, but there were quite a few times where he and the offense got bottled up. If there was a knock on him, it's that he could have been more useful in the passing game, but that's also on Schaub.

Oh, Ben Tate. Even though he had a gaudy per carry average, he's not going to see the field if he continues to put the ball on the ground. 

I don't know that I've ever seen Matt Schaub quite so bad on his downfield accuracy. He's hit those plays before to other guys than Andre Johnson, so I don't know that it was a timing thing. It also wasn't necessarily because of the defensive coverage or pass rush. 

Brian Cushing is playing at a very high level right now. He got a lot of the recognition on Sunday, but both outside linebackers also had a nice game. I was very worried when Brooks Reed went down and glad to see him back. Connor Barwin gets good pressure, but the Texans need Reed to balance him out. 

Was I crazy or did Kareem Jackson make a couple of nice plays in this one? I'm probably crazy. Nice to see Quintin Demps make a play or two after being signed off the street, too.

Still not a lot of production out of Derrick Mason. The way things are going, his role probably disappears once AJ comes back.

Really bad news about Darryl Sharpton going down for the season. He's been a big special teams guy and will be hard to replace. The Texans have just been on a bad luck streak with injuries. Hopefully that'll turn around soon.

You know, if Jacksonville actually had some offense or had time to get a quarterback settled in with the new coaching staff, they might be a better team. As it is, the Jags can stay in the game with that defense, but may not be able to score enough points, even with MJD playing well this year.