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AFC South / Toro Times (Texans)'
Marc Vandermeer, the voice of the Texans is to the Texans as Rush Limbaugh is to the United States. Does that make sense to you? Think about it.
One of the things Rush is popular for is “propping” the United States. When every other media outlet seems to find ways to denigrate the US, Rush finds ways to speak in remarkable terms about our country. CNN bashes Bush on the Iraq war and Rush is quick to state reasons for the War. Bush is bashed for Club Gitmo and Rush has Bush’s back.
Vandermeer is many times seen as someone who has Texans Battle Red colored sunglasses on. When the Texans are going poorly, Vandermeer has the team’s back. It was tremendously apparent during the David Carr era that this would be Vandermeer’s approach to his morning radio show. Vandermeer had the much maligned quarterback’s….well, back for most of Carr’s tenure. More currently, Vandermeer has had the back of Rosenfels and Schaub.
The Texans have a 30-10 lead as the game closes in on the 2 minute warning. The Jaguars seem to have given up. Steve Slaton just scored on a 40 yard touchdown run over the right side. I thought Slaton’s ability to run would be key to this game. Big Eric Winston mans the right tackle spot for the Texans and Slaton has rushed for 127 yards and 2 touchdowns with Winston’s help.
Mario Williams has had a monster of a game on defense. He has sacked David Garrard 3 times in front of a big television audience. It’d be nice for Williams to get some recognition by being picked for the Pro Bowl.
The Texans are out of the cellar. They are one position in front of the Jaguars. The Texans can use this game as motivation for the remainder of the season. 8-8 or 9-7 should be there goal. I’d be surprised if the Jaguars won another game.
The final score is 30-17 Texans. David Garrard threw a touchdown pass late to make the score closer than it was.
With 9 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter, the Texans defense is looking good. Who would have thought? I knew that the Jaguars offensive line has had some trouble this year, but the Texans defense has been poor this year. The question is can the Texans defense hold up through the final quarter and a half of the game. A shut out by the defense would be an early Christmas for a much maligned defense.
Another question - Will Sage Rosenfels hold up in the 4th quarter? He has had a tough time closing games out, so there is still a long way to go in this game.
As I finish writing this, Fred Taylor has gotten the Jags to the 11 yard line of the Texans with a long run.
The first thing I noticed when I turned on the tv is that the Texans fans are strong. It is loud in the stadium and sounds like a bona fide NFL Monday Night Football game. Much talk today was about the fans not getting into their seats early enough. Many stay out in the parking lot too long tail gating. I’m not sure how the crowd started out at kickoff, but they sound great right now. I started watching the game with 10 minutes to go in the 1st quarter. The Texans are already up 7-0. Kicker Kris Brown is about to attempt a 38 yard field goal…it is good. Texans are up now 10-0.
Marc Vandermeer, the voice of the Texans just let me know that the Texans scored their first touchdown on a pass from Sage Rosenfels to Andre Johnson.
The Jacksonville Jaguars will be at Reliant Stadium to play the Houston Texans on Monday Night Football. This has turned into a great rivalry game for the Texans. Earlier this year, the Texans lost to the Jags in overtime 30-27.
When I think of Monday Night Football, I think of Howard Cosell, Don Meredith, and Frank Gifford. I especially loved halftimes back in those days. Howard Cosell describing the Sunday’s previous games was something to look forward to every Monday night. I don’t really care for the current crop of announcers doing Monday night’s. I don’t dislike them. I just don’t like them.
This game is crucial for the final kick of the season. I can see the winning team gaining some momentum to get them to the end in a reasonable fashion. Neither team is playoff bound, but a win could propel the winner to perhaps a .500 season. Considering both teams are 4-7, that would be an accomplishment in and of itself.
John McClain at chron.com reported that Matt Schaub is lobbying to play tomorrow night. He has been recovering from torn ligaments suffered against the Vikings back on November 2. Schaub will be the back up at best. Kubiak has already named Sage Rosenfels the starter. Sage has to get off to a good start and maintain throughout the entire game. It has been pointed out to me by one Robert Lane that Sage has had a tough time finishing games. Sage must finish well tomorrow night for the Jaguars to win.
I think Steve Slaton is going to have a big day. I can hear Cossel calling the highlights of Slaton going off right tackle, Eric Winston for long gain after long gain.
Nearly every Thanksgiving and Christmas I spend in the DFW area with family. Yesterday was no different. When I arrived in Dallas, I took I-30 west through Arlington. Along the way, I passed an enormous structure that will soon be the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium.
An odd thing happens to me when I’m around family in Dallas. I find myself rooting for the Cowboys. Ordinarily, when I’m in Houston, the Cowboys are the last team I want to watch play football. I love talk radio that bad mouths anything Dallas. My love-to-hate the Cowboys attitude began in college. I had the great displeasure to come into contact with some mighty arrogant Cowboys fans. The kind of fans you’d like to punch in the mouth but opted not to…only so you could continue your college education.
Yesterday, the Cowboys easily beat the Seattle Seahawks. Seattle had as much a chance winning that game as my cousin Brent had of beating up my cousin Doug when we were younger. The final score was 34-9. The Seattle defense couldn’t do anything to stop Tony Romo and Dallas’ offense. Romo threw for 331 yards. Jason Witten was the recepient of 115 of those yards and TO, 98. The Seahwks didn’t have a chance to score a touchdown against Dallas. Everytime Seattle was in the red zone, the Cowboys defense would stiffen and disallow any touchdowns to be scored.
It was a great Thanksgiving. I was surrounded by family and the Cowboys won. I can’t wait for the Cowboys’ next victory. Hopefully, it won’t come til next Thanksgiving.
The AP reported that the word “bailout” is the word of the year. Apparently, trepidation, precipice, and turmoil were also on the AP list because of the number of times they have been looked up online in 2008.
Bailout is the term currently being used in a financial sense to get the economy back on the road to recovery. Following the 1996 football season, the Houston Oilers would not play another football game in Houston. Bud Adams, the owner of the Oilers and now the Titans was moving his team to Tennessee. He took with him many of the great memories of Bum Phillips, Earl Campbell, and the Luv Ya Blue Era. Losing football in Houston was a cut that many Houston fans never thought would be healed. How in the world was Houston going to get another football team?
Houston’s football bailout came in the form of current Texans owner, Bob McNair. In 1999, Houston was awarded a football team that would become the Houston Texans. Prior to that, Houston was a football desert desperately leaving fans in want of water. No more football in Houston was an incredible thing. Once the Astros seasons ended during those football dead years, Houston fans had to wait until the Houston Rockets began play before another hometown rooting interest could be established.
In 2002, the Texans began play whippping the Dallas Cowboys 19-10 to get the franchise off to a 1-0 start. It seems that sense then, there hasn’t been a whole heckuvalot to get excited about. The best record that the Texans boast of is 8-8. Early on the Texans went 2-14 when a winning season was highly anticipated.
I say that’s alright. I can still remember those 5 long years without football. No team to root for. Sure, some Houstonians began to root for the Tennessee Titans. Some still continue to do so. What? I wish y’all would move to Tennessee. That’s a story for another day. There was no reason to anticipate NFL football games. I really stopped following the NFL and I’m sure that I’m not alone. If I can’t root for my hometown team, I’m not rooting for anybody…especially the Titans. How is it now? I look forward to seeing the team improve itself through the draft and free agency. I look forward to seeing the development of Mario Williams and Andre Johnson. Someday, the Texans will get into the playoffs and the Super Bowl.
For now, I’m happy that Houston has NFL football once again, and I’m thankful that Bob McNair is the Texans owner.
The Texans are looking forward to a big game next week on Monday Night Football. The Jacksonville Jaguars come to town with the same losing record the Texans have at 4-7. Make no mistake, this will be a great Monday Nighter. These two teams play one another about as physcial as any combination in the NFL.
Jacksonville lost yesterday to the Minnesota Vikings. The Vikings whooped up on them in fairly easy fashion. The final score was 30-12. The Jaguars were out of the game before it started giving the Vikings 14 points on a pair of fumbles in the first 2 minutes of the game.
Turnovers are the name of the game in the NFL. The Texans did a great job in the Browns game getting 5 turnovers compared to only turning the ball over twice. In the Monday Nighter against the Jag’s, turnovers will be the key for the Texans. They must capitalize on any mistakes made by the Jaguars. Touchdowns, touchdowns, touchdowns are the desired outcome of any turnovers by the Jags. Settling for field goals will be costly in this game.
On offense, Sage Rosenfels is key. He was great coming off the bench when Matt Schaub was hurt. He hadn’t even practiced and came off the bench to play very well in that game. He wasn’t feeling any pressure. He didn’t feel the build up to the game like a starter does. He got in that game and started flinging the ball around like Roger Staubach. Now that Sage is the starter, he has tightened a bit. So a big key for Sage is to get him off to a quick start. The line played exceptionally well yesterday. That needs to continue. The receivers are as a good a group as there is in the NFL. That also needs to continue. If Sage can complete the first couple passes right out of the starting gate, he’ll be golden for the entire game. Sage will struggle if he gets off to a slow start.
This is going to be a great football game. Losing teams or not, this one will be worth watching.
The Texans beat the Browns in Cleveland Sunday afternoon. The score was 16-6. It was about as exciting a game as watching paint dry. I ‘m a big fan of the Texans and I’m glad they won, but this was a bad football game.
Andre Johnson went over the 1,000 yard mark for the 3rd time in his career. Steve Slaton rushed for 72 yards. Rosenfels and the offense stayed on the field for most of the game. Time of possession was the key to this Texans’ win. The defense was fresh everytime they were on the field and kept the Browns out of the end zone.
It was still a dull game. I was listening on Sport Radio 610 with the sound down as I watched on CBS. That is, when I wasn’t asleep. The most exciting part of the game was happening in the stands. Apparently, right next to the booth of Texans’ radio announcers Andre Ware and Marc Vandermeer were the coaching staff for the Browns. Browns fans were heckling their own coaching staff by chanting for a new coach. Bill Cowher was the name being sung from the stands.
Since Thanksgiving is this week, it should be noted that the Texans’ are 4-6, but fans have lots to be thanful for. Our players give it their all. They may lose, but it isn’t because they have packed it in. Braylon Edwards, the receiver for the Cleveland Browns looked completely disinterested in the game. The way the game was being described on the radio, the same could be said for the Browns tight end, Kellen Winslow. How would it feel to root for guys like that?
So, Happy Thanksgiving Texans fans. We get to root for a good group of players. I think John McClain would say that we don’t root for punks, jerks, or losers!
Donovan McNabb and his Philadelphia Eagles played to a 13-13 tie when they played the Cincinnati Bengals last weekend. The Eagles were favored to win the game and to have played to a tie against the lowly Bengals was the story. The media missed the main story focusing instead on a minor issue concerning overtime rules.
In case you haven’t heard, McNabb was unaware that an NFL game can end in a tie. If two teams play through a full 75 minutes of football and are tied, the game ends. Who knew? I didn’t know. McNabb’s only mistake was letting the media know that he was unaware of the rule. The know-it-all media complains that they are only given pre planned sound bites from players. McNabb truthfully answered the question regarding overtime and is summarily ruthlessly criticized for his naivitee concerning the rule. Can you blame the players?
The media blew this story up because they have nothing else to talk about. Much was made of the fact that the Philadelphia quarterback is a 10 year veteran and should know the rule. So what, that he is a 10 year veteran? McNabb had never played in an overtime game. How was he to know? Look at the PGA for a moment. Tournaments are peppered with officials who know all the rules. Why? Because veteran golfers don’t know all the rules. Sometimes these PGA tournament officials have to call upon other officials to clarify rules. Things come up that haven’t come up before. This is exactly what happened to Donovan McNabb.
One of you know it alls should go ask Tiger Woods or Kenny Perry about a golf rule. What happens if you pull the pin for an opponent so that his ball drops in the hole instead of banging off the pin and not going in the cup?
Betcha they don’t know the answer. Ease up on McNabb.
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