Although I realize going into this that anything I write will pale in comparison with Liston's recap, I nevertheless am compelled to share my thoughts on last night's tilt. Having attended the game, I'm sure there are several things I missed that viewers at home caught; feel free to educate or blast me in the Comments below. And away we go:
- Jacoby! What a performance. While we (probably) can't count on him to run punts back 90 yards every week, it sure is sweet to know that opposing special teams and defensive coordinators are going to have to game-plan for him. The dude is simply ridiculous. If he puts forth these kinds of games during the regular season, songs will be written about him. Probably only by BFD, but still...he didn't write any songs about J.J. Moses, did he?
- Super Mario played his guts out last night. I seem to remember that he notched a sack, but the stats don't reflect that. Perhaps someone can shed some light on that for me? After last night's effort, go ahead and mark me down as "pro-LDE" for him. He was in the backfield far more than he has been at any other point in the preseason. Bodes well for us and poorly for Kansas City.
- I can't say enough about how the defense performed against the run. It looked like Dallas was running into a wall. And how about that sack by Okoye? If that's what "busts" do, I hope we draft another twenty of them.
- Dunta Robinson looked absolutely brilliant in coverage last night against #81. It was the best I've seen him look in years. We know that he's capable of that sort of shutdown performance; could this be the year that his coverage skills catch up to his play against the run?
- Why didn't Dallas throw at Petey more? If I was an opposing offensive coordinator, I'd make him beat me, especially given Dunta's apparent improvement. Speaking of, Fred Bennett may be serving notice that he's legit. Jamar Fletcher's play had me breathing a bit easier as well.
- Overall, the offensive line play was verrrry solid; I only remember one instance where the LT clearly got beat. Steve McKinney in particular looked strong; I'm not so sure that Kubes won't surprise us all and start him at center over Mike Flanagan.
- Andre Johnson is silently and consistently spectacular. Perhaps I'm biased, but I think he may be the most underrated Pro Bowler in the entire NFL.
- Did David Anderson's TD grab vault him back into contention for one of the WR roster spots? Probably not, yet it was nice to see him make a case for himself.
- Did Keenan McCardell make it onto the field? If so, I sure don't remember it. He's making it awfully tough on himself right now; is his past success and experience enough to warrant a spot on the roster?
- Speaking of, Apostrophe Davis looked pretty darn nice. He made the most of his time at wideout.
- Owen Daniels sure can take a hit and hold onto the ball. Wow.
- Ahman Green's performance last night was exactly what the Texans thought they were getting when they signed him. I had forgotten how he has a knack for simply running over people. Had he not been horsecollared at the end of that 46 yarder, he was bound for the endzone.
- Can we go ahead and issue a moratorium on the "Matt Schaub is going to have the same problems David Carr did" talk? It's not even close. The Schaub is light years ahead of where Carr was as a QB. It's night and day.
- Heaven forbid anything ever happen to The Schaub, Sage Rosenfels is as good an insurance policy as we could ask for, I think.
- Matt Turk still has not won the punting job. Why not, I have no clue. This is getting silly.