Battle Red Blog - For Houston Texans Fans

How's Your Bracket Look, BRB?

by Tim on Mar 19, 2010 1:28 PM CDT in News Comment 24 comments

As there's not a whole lot of news coming out of Reliant Park right now, your attention has likely turned to March Madness. How's your bracket doing as the first slate of games on Day Two wraps up? Who do you have in the Final Four? Who do you have winning it all?

Me? I'm pretty much screwed, what with two of my Elite Eight teams (Georgetown and Vanderbilt) already gone. Share and/or vent in the Comments below.

24 comments | 0 recs | Share

BRBTV -- Jakespeare Is Big Time

by MDC on Mar 18, 2010 12:00 PM CDT Comment 20 comments

In this installment of BRBTV, Jacoby Jones and John Lynch discuss Jacoby's status as a player, and Lynch lays out the criteria for being "big time."

20 comments | 14 recs

With yesterday's trade, San Diego now has the 28th and 40th picks

I think it's highly likely Ryan Mathews is far up the Chargers chart, if not the top player.

Our 20th pick is worth 850 points. The Chargers' 28th is worth 600, and their 40th is 500. I see the possibility of a match here. So, throwing this out there: theoretically, would you like to see us move down? And how, if at all, would this change our strategy?

1 day ago bigfatdrunk 24 comments 0 recs

Bob McNair Wants The Texans On HBO Hard Knocks? Give Me a Break...

by Mike Kerns on Mar 18, 2010 9:25 AM CDT in News Comment 27 comments

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By now, everyone has heard that team owner Bob McNair has been in touch with NFL Films to lobby for your Houston Texans to be the featured team on HBO's critically acclaimed series Hard Knocks.

My initial reaction to hearing this was intrigue. To any who have watched the series, it would certainly be must-see TV. Hard Knocks chronicles a team with a behind the scenes look during training camp and some of its more "unique" characters. What Texans fan wouldn't be interested in seeing that?

But that is just the thing about it. Who outside of Houston would care to watch it?

Don't get me wrong, I love this team and all, and I love the fact that there aren't a bunch of thugs, criminals and knuckleheads on the roster. But, again, if you've seen Hard Knocks before, you know that is what makes the show great: Knuckleheads.

If Houston was on the show, it would receive the lowest ratings it has ever gotten. And let's not confuse things, ratings and money are what it's all about. I mean, how else would you explain Duke getting in the softest bracket in this year's NCAA tournament? Or the L.A. Lakers getting about half of their games on national TV? Or the Yankees vs. Red Sox being shoved down our throats every couple of weeks? Ratings. But, I digress.

There isn't one story on this team that would be considered "dramatic." That just doesn't make for good TV. No one wants to watch a series like Hard Knocks on a team as vanilla as the Texans. Except for people in Houston or Texans fans living outside of Houston.

The fact that Houston is up against the New York Jets for the rights to this year's feature doesn't bode well for McNair. Who do you think Hard Knocks would want to feature? The team with a "silent superstar" and a quarterback whose name most people can't even pronounce correctly , or the team with a coach who goes to MMA events and flips the bird to opposing teams fans?

Like it or not, things like Rex Ryan and New York are what draws in the most national viewers, and that is the way HBO will and should go.

"I've let NFL Films know we're interested, and perhaps this will be the year," McNair said of the request. "I've discussed it with Gary and Rick to let them know how I feel about it. I think it's time for the Texans to get more national exposure. We have some outstanding players. This would be a chance to showcase our players as well as an opportunity to increase our fan base."

Winning games will get you more national exposure, Bob. Doing better than 1-5 in your division will get you more exposure. Making the freaking playoffs will get you more exposure...not an HBO show.

27 comments | 1 recs | Share

RiverSide Chat: DraftCountdown.com's Scott Wright

by riversmccown on Mar 18, 2010 8:00 AM CDT in News Comment 14 comments

One of the first draft websites I ever stumbled across as a Texans fan, back when I was excited about the prospect of drafting Willis McGahee near the top of the second round, was NFL Draft Countdown. I enjoyed the site's thorough scouting reports and still find them much more readable and common sense than what any other draft site on the web is doing.

Fast forward seven years later, and I've gotten the kindly Mr. Scott Wright of the re-branded DraftCountdown.com to sit down and answer a few questions for us BRB'ers. You can also follow him on Twitter, if you have one, at @DraftCountdown for quick hits and tidbits. Onwards with the questions, where you will find the super duper sleeper pick for the Texans! ...Maybe.

Continue reading this post »

14 comments | 4 recs | Share

A Trip Down Memory Lane

by tehGrindCrusher on Mar 17, 2010 1:58 PM CDT Comment 10 comments

I was surfing around Football Outsiders the other day when I came across this very interesting article. The boys at FO went back and analyzed the 1993 NFL season. The interesting thing (for me, anyway) was that they spent a fair amount of time discussing the Oilers. Turns out that the Oilers' defense was better (based on DVOA) than their offense. I knew we had a solid defense back then, but FO ranks them second in DVOA, while the offense, which I thought was elite, comes in more in the middle of the pack. Also, Gary Brown >>>>> Lorenzo White.

Lastly, Indy is the worst team in the league according to these metrics.

Who knew?

10 comments | 1 recs

Goodbye, Grossman

Adam Schefter reporting that the Sex Cannon, Rex Grossman, has signed with the Washington Redskins, reuniting him with Kyle Shanahan. File this under least surprising things ever.

Rex, you'll always have the second half against 3rd and 4th string Tampa Bay Buccaneers on the Texans portion of your resume. This proved, with an emphasis, that there's nothing more important in proving your worth than besting a bunch of scrubs who were cut the next day.

2 days ago bigfatdrunk 24 comments 0 recs

Wade Smith: Where Are We Going With This?

by riversmccown on Mar 16, 2010 2:00 PM CDT in News Comment 78 comments

The Texans' first journey into non-futures free agency came last week as they inked ex-Chiefs guard Wade Smith to a 4 year, $12 million contract with $4.25 million in guarantees. We had a nice little FanPost on the subject, but it was sort of hijacked by an argument along the lines of "Duane Brown is bad." "Nuh uh!" "Yuh huh!" and so on. So lets spend a little time talking about what Smith will bring to the team.