Thread: Houston

Megawatt wants some cold weather. He loves the north. Our tight ends are badgers too. Manning coming come, lots of subplots, and seem like a lot of good guys on both teams.

PS, Urlacher looked really old returning that pic 6. He needed the whole team laying out blocks. Huge ups for what he has done, but is his game still where it used to be, dude looks like he has lost 3 steps out of 6.

Hi guys. Texans fan here.
I like what your team brings to the table. Great running game, sufficient passing game, great ball hog defense.
I think this will be a great game.
It's definitely going to bee fun to watch.
I believe it will be more of a defensive game.
These teams are very evenly matched.
I don't look for allot of offensive production from either team considering the 2 defenses.
It will be very close.
17 to 13 to the winner.
I hope it's Houston, but i respect your team and will enjoy this game no matter who wins.

Originally Posted by myopicone

Texan fan here. Good to see the cautious football talk and not just smak.

I think our offense is a little better due to the OLine play, your D is bend not break and big play, but great. Will be very interesting forcing us to drive and not let Tillman and co do their thing before we can score. Watt swatts those balls and we have several pick 6 from them, plus the sacks, and his run stuffing grades out incredible. We seemed to figure out how to play without Cushing, we had head up ass against Green Bay first time out after ACL.

Your special teams scare us. We spent the entire bye week working on this and looked a lot better against the Bills return game which is solid.

If we dont have 2+ turnovers, I think we win. That being said, will be a nervous fan come Sunday. Hope for a good injury free fight, my best man is in Chicago and brother loves you guys, so for NFC teams, you are all good. Think SF is more complete, but you can beat anyone any given Sunday.

Re: "head up ass vs. Green Bay", that is yet another thing these two teams have in common lol! We both played horrible games vs the Pack and lost when victory was very doable.

You other analysis is spot on. These are two very similar teams. Both have excellent RBs, tough error-forcing defenses, and passing attacks that can be deadly but also can disappoint. I would give Houston the definite edge on the OL vs OL front and a slight edge on the DLs (thanks to Watt who is having an MVP like amazing year). I think the Bears have the better back-7 defensively and an edge on STs if Hester can build on what he did last week.

You're probably right that whoever wins the TO battle will win the game. Unless one team melts down defensively or turns the ball over easily, it should be a tough fought, close, low scoring game like 20-17 or something like that.

Originally Posted by MPBears68

The Bears OL is definitely the weakest link on the team and their "achilles heel" so to speak. It isn't due to injuries, just a long line of neglect and poor drafting by the prior GM. The OTs in particular have been struggling most of the year. Its a pretty decent run blocking OL but a very poor pass pro one. Watt is a BEAST and I would expect him to have a big, even decisive, day if the Bears are forced into a pass heavy situation. Our OC has shown a stupid predilection for abandoning the run too early and getting a little pass happy, esp with too many wide formations/empty backfield sets IMO. If he does this again, 75% chance Houston wins.

If not, and I freaking hope not, it will come down to these big questions:

Can you guys stop Forte and Bush consistently and force a lot of 3rd and longs?
We tend to be soft up the middle w/o a good sized true NT so stopping them consistently I would have to say no but we really seem to stop it when it counts most (bend but don't break). Our defense has not allowed a rushing td yet this year but have on occasion given up the yards.

Can you guys keep Marshall from putting up big numbers if the Bears run game is avoiding the above? Imo, Marshall's production will really depend on Cutler and our pass rush. If we're making it a bad day for Cutler i don't see Marshall having big numbers. If we're not getting to Cutler its going to make it hard on our secondary and i can see Marshall getting his. Our secondary is pretty good with Quinn, Manning, Joseph, and Jackson back there. They play a lot of man, cover pretty well, and don't allow many yards after the catch. Joseph has been held up over the last several weeks with a groin strain but looked like he was back to his old self last game. Jackson tends to have issues locating the ball on deep passes but has improved and is a good physical cover corner.

Can Foster do the same for your offense?
Fosters production is really going to depend on our Oline and how they handle your Front 7 which will be a tall order! If we can get some push up front and get him in open space he will have a decent day, of course that's always easier said than done.

Will Schaub be forced into throwing picks and pick-6s?
Schaub has really taken good care of the ball but we haven't faced a D playing at the level yours is right now and forcing turnovers at such a rapid rate. It's definitely possible but the homer in me is saying not a chance, at least I'm hoping he isn't! ;)

Should be a great game...may the best team win.

Thanks for the information and great response. If I did this right I answered your questions above. I'm posting on my phone so some of the responses aren't as detailed as I would've liked but I'm a girly man and my fingers are cramping up! :D

Originally Posted by soulman

We've got two young (23 yrs old) inexperienced OTs who haven't learned how to pass block very well. They can knock guys on their asses in the running game but have trouble with good pass rushers. The jury is still out on whether or not they'll get it together in another year or so.

Depending on how they finish this year and whether they're showing marked improvement or not I'd say we may definitely be looking for an OT in free agency. The draft won't provide much help if any and whatever help we need we'll need yesterday. There should be a handful of LTs hitting free agency depending on whether their own teams can re-sign them or not.

My guess is that we'll be pursuing one of them. That's kind of the last offensive piece we need to complete the line. We've got one OG playing at a Pro Bowl level and the other beginning to resurrect a promising career and our OC is a passable vet with years of experience who can run the show so it's really at OT that we have some real question marks.

Well I hope at least one of them pans out for you guys AFTER this game. It's hard enough finding one good OT much less two.