It's Just Preseason, BUT........

My late father Fred M. Jordan III always warned me that if someone said the word BUT, no matter what they said prior, the true intention would follow that word.  The Texans set out in the normal NFL season ritual of the annual 3rd preseason game to prepare it's players for the regular season.  Several things were in play leading up to the game.

1.  Bill O'Brien said the starters would only play about as much as they did last week.  
2.  After an amazing game last week, Bill O'Brien when asked about the starting tackle position, although he said it was Matt Khalil, it was obvious that it WASN'T Roderick Johnson.  

So after keeping Khalil out, likely to avoid having to pay an injury settlement, we come out and basically start last year's starters.  Inserting Nick Martin back in his first game against a defensive front that caused Deshaun Watson to take Metro to Jacksonville.  You insert Davenport to start at Left Tackle, even though Rocderick Johnson more than handled his own last week.

Where those were some obvious things that left us all scratching our heads, they allowed an injury to blow up the entire game.  When Lamar Miller was carted off the field, it was visually apparent that the focus of the entire squad changed as if they saw the entire season evaporating into ash and blowing away like an  Infinity War Avengers scene.  You can tell in Deshaun's presser after the game, he couldn't even comment on his play because he only played 3 plays. You simply can't play scared in this league.  There is no action like live game action.  And Poor Joe Webb.  He has had more work at a position that he will simply never play this season.  Remember last year he took more snaps at WR than he did at QB.  My prayers and thoughts also go out to Jordan Ta'amu.  I wish him the best in whatever career he chooses outside of football. 

There were absolutely some good things in this game and you can't write this team off.  This coaching staff shut down the playbook and all of it's major talent because of an injury.  That was simply unacceptable.  This was a major opportunity to test your guys against a damn good defense and we chose to throw in the towel because it was preseason.  So now the next test will come in New Orleans and it will show and tell if this was a major screw up or JUST PRESEASON.  But here were my major takeaways:

1.  JJ looked like OLD OLD SCHOOL JJ.  Extremely quick off the ball.  Getting to the QB with pressures, hits, and sacks.  Mercilus is ready to be OLD OLD school as well.
2.  Even after going up 17-0, 2 TD's were basically given to them from special teams and a fumble in the red zone.  The game was not over, but we ran the same basic offense the rest of the game.  This speaks to preparation 
3.  We needed to upgrade quite a bit at corner.  Lonnie Johnnson has showed some good promise, and even the TD thrown by DAK on Roby, he was step for step and Dak just made a damn good throw.  This secondary is 100% better than last season and I can't wait to see Justin Reid and Gipson do their thing.
4.  Even though Miller went down, we probably have the most depth at TE and RB, and we have a FB option as well.  This will give Duke his chance to step up, but they should still be looking to upgrade.

And for the Clowney rumors, tweets, and crystal balls, there should be an on going auction with the NFC East right now to see who doesn't want Clowney coming after their QB.

Dallas?  Zeke and Clowney straight up pay them both long term let them be happy elsewhere and out of your respective divisions.
Philadelphia?  LT and RB for Clowney and a 4th
Washington (My Favorite) Trent Williams, Adrian Peterson for Clowney, Matt Khalil(eat his contract and cut him) and a 5th.
Giants?  Realize you are rebuilding ? Nate Solder and a 2nd for Clowney

Other people in the mix:
Seattle? Duane Brown and a 2nd for Clowney and Matt Khalil

It is never good to watch a team stop your complete ability to score, and the ability to stop them from scoring.  Whoever that guy was that completely missed his block on that punt, I hope they tried to cut him as fast as they tried to cut Mallet.  Shout out to Andrew Luck and the hell he caused us over the years.  Now it's on to New Orleans to see if we look back to yesterday, or pump out our chests for the season.



And as always,


GO TEXANS!!!!!!!!