Gonna be VERY interesting to see how Antoine Caldwell and/or Chris White do at RG (White also got snaps at LG in a rotation with Kasey Studdard last week as well). Overall, the pass-blocking, even with the infusion of new players on the line, has been tremendous. The offensive line was struggling with run-blocking before the injuries to Pitts and Brisiel, so it figures to be even worse now.

Depending on what kind of pressure your boys bring, I’m guessing you’ll see a lot of quick routes by Owen Daniels, Kevin Walter, and David Anderson to keep Schaub upright. The running game…well, I’m not holding my breath. It hasn’t looked good all season. At this point, I’m hoping Kubes has been watching tapes of Brian Westbrook all week and figuring out a way to make Slaton a bigger part of the passing game.

I don’t. Next question?

I’m betting yes, but that’s more a testament to Andre Johnson’s awesomeness and perhaps my own bias. Darrelle Revis shut ‘Dre down, but he’s really been the only CB to have done it this year. I don’t count the win over Oakland because the Texans went into a prevent offense in the second half.

Mario has been a disruptive force, as expected. He’s usually at, around, or on the quarterback by the time the play is up. For some reason though the sack numbers just haven’t been there. It’ll come. As for the others…

Amobi Okoye, who had a non-existent (when I say that, I mean it, there was maybe one play the entire year where we can say he played up to his level, though to his credit he was playing through injury) year last year, showed up in the Raiders game (though maybe that was more a product of the Raiders showing up in Houston) and has found his way to the backfield a few times here and there, but for the most part he’s still far too inconsistent.

Antonio Smith, our “marquee” free agent signing, has been playing eerily similar to Anthony Weaver, the man who he was supposed to play. That is to say, not at all. He, like others, was a force against the Raiders, but again, that means little to nothing. Wasn’t able to catch the Arizona game so I can’t say anything past that.

Our tackles opposite Okoye.. well, I can’t say anything about them. It would be saying too much about them.

As a group, they’ve been about as good as the entire defense. For the most part, shitty. There have been tiny stretches in a few games where they’ve looked capable, but needless to say, your offense has nothing to fear when they stare down at Mario and… “the other guys”.

Short and sweet: none. Not in the regular season.

how bout a sack in his hometown? pretty good!

After Steve Slaton, it’s Ryan Moats, who has looked good in limited action this year. For reasons unbeknownst to me, he didn’t sniff the field last week. Chris Brown is miscast as a goal line back and doesn’t really figure into the game plan.

The OL has been very good protecting Schaub and not nearly as good run-blocking. That said, we’ve lost our two starting guards for the season, and our center has historically been abused by big DTs, so it’s not like they’re invulnerable.

The pass rush has not been good. Our new DC has tried to be more aggressive and blitzes far more than his predecessor; watch for Cushing and Ryans to come after Palmer. Super Mario has been Super Mario, and Okoye has looked better, but Antonio Smith and the rest of the DL have been underwhelming. One guy to watch when he’s in—Tim Bulman. Dude’s got a motor.

If I was a betting man, I would not bet on the HOU running game getting well this week. I do, however, believe the OL will do a decent job protecting Schaub.

Just like it would sting if we received a Browns beatdown. Or a Ravens beatdown. Or a Steelers beatdown.

becuz that beatdown was reversed…..

The answer is (D)—All of the above.

Was in highschool when the texans where coming into the league and jumped onboard. It was that or the chargers or raiders. Yuck.

Both of which resulted in the league fining the players who delivered the cheap hits.

Matt is actually not injury prone when Jared Allen isn’t trying to kneecap him.

Thanks for the offer, but I imagine we’d pass on a Chad Johnson/Laverneous Coles for Andre Johnson trade.

Schaub’s a good, sometimes very good, QB. Although you can count on a TO from him almost every game, he’s also becoming awfully automatic at 2-3 TDs per game in this offense. We’ll take that ratio.

He’s really fast and athletic and our tackles are really large?

His quickness really becomes an issue later in the game when those big tackles start to tire.

Gotta love big fat bald white guys. Should be a good matchup, I just didn’t want him to overlook the fact that mario is 290 pounds of pure muscle man.