Lawrence Person's Futuramen

The Texans didn’t just beat the Colts today, they beat the Super Bowl runner-up decisively. A few random observations from watching the game.

1. Peyton Manning is still a better quarterback than Matt Schaub, but today the Houston Texans were a better team than the Indianapolis Colts.
2. After watching last season’s aerial pyrotechnics, who would have believed that the Texans could reinvent themselves as a power-running team?
3. As I mentioned at the end of last season, Arian Foster is the real deal. 231 yards, three touchdowns, seven yards a carry average? Those are just sick, video game numbers. Under the ridiculous assumption that he would continue to average that for the entire season, that works out to a total of 3,696 yards rushing. I would be quite shocked if he doesn’t end up being the Player of the Week.
4. The reason he racked up such big numbers is that Houston dominated the line of scrimmage, opening huge holes for Foster to plunge through. For many years the offensive line was one the Texans’ most glaring weaknesses; if this game is any indication, this year it should be a strength.
5. The defense seemed almost as dominant, consistently getting pressure on Manning throughout. You have to hand it to Manning: he managed to put up a gaudy 433 yards passing despite Mario Williams and Antonio Smith giving him a close, personal look at the Reliant Stadium turf throughout the game. Then again, he had to put up such numbers, because the Colts running game was getting stuffed and they constantly had to play from behind. And the Texans did all this without suspended NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year Brian Cushing. If the Texans can get this level of effort in the trench game, they are a no-questions asked playoff team this year.
6. Manning still has much better timing and chemistry with his receiving corps than Schaub has with his (at least beyond Andre Johnson).
7. This is just one game, and it’s a long, long season. But barring major breakdowns or injuries, the Texans have the potential to be one of the elite teams in the NFL this year.

Tags: Andre Johnson, Arian Foster, Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, Mario Williams, Peyton Manning

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 12th, 2010 at 3:30 PM and is filed under football. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.