Was that as good for you as it was for me? Yeah, I thought so. The Texans won the most important pre-season game in franchise history a meaningless preseason game, and the Governor's Cup, against the Dallas Cowboys tonight. Houston won 23-7 in front of a packed and wild Mike Kerns Reliant Stadium.
On the whole, the Texans exhibited a lot of effort in this third exhibition game. You could tell this team wanted to get rid of that terrible taste from the New Orleans game. There were still some problems, but there is a lot to be pleased with from this game. Let's take a look as the game is fresh on our collective mind.
THE GOOD:
- As was said many times, we love Arian Foster. What a game for the young man from Tennessee. 110 yards on 18 carries to go along with four catches for 16 yards. He capped off a drive with a touchdown and would've had a second were it not for a Chris Myers holding call. As HoustonTexans.com said, Foster had the franchise's first 100 yard pre-season performance.
- Andre Johnson. Seven catches for 79 yards. He completely owned the middle of the field as he always does.
- Jacoby Jones showed why so many were hyping him up with a five catch, 63 yard performance. He was completely wide open on his TD reception and made some big first down receptions. He looks primed for a breakout season.
- Kareem Jackson! Welcome to the NFL! He had some problems on the slant, but he owes Bernard Pollard a steak dinner for that nice tip on Tony Romo's intended pass to Jason Witten. That tip gave Jackson his first NFL interception which is more than whatever his name was who is no longer on this team.
- Amobi Okoye and Glover Quin both had sacks today. One's an attaboy to Frank Bush who showed off a CB blitz while the other is an attaboy for Okoye. Amobi had a pretty solid game all around as he had a sack and pretty decent pressure through his three quarters of play. We need more of this, Amobi. An active Amobi makes for happy Houston fans.
- Pollard and Zac Diles led the team in tackles, and the Cowboys could not run outside. Good job D.
- Duane Brown should thank the Cowboys LB who had a holding penalty because that helped preserve a sack-less performance by the D from Dallas. That negated play aside, Brown actually did a good job of moving his feet and keeping DeMarcus Ware in front of him. I am hopeful that Brown can continue to improve.
- Seven-for-fourteen on third downs is much better than last week's terrible one third down conversion performance.
THE BAD:
- We still have not settled on a kicker. Three field goals no longer than 23 yards will not settle things. It's not bad that all the field goals were made, but I don't like that there isn't a clear winner yet.
- The kickoff coverage unit allowed the Cowboys to have an average of about 30 yards on returns which set them up with decent-to-good field position.
- Has this team seen a draw or screen pass before? The defense NEEDS to improve against the draw and screen before we face the Maurice Jones-Drews and Chris Johnsons of the world.
- Six penalties earns a spot up here. Mistakes extended drives for Dallas and killed red zone drives for Houston. Stop making mental mistakes, guys.
- Red zone play-calling was pretty poor. This team should have had five touchdowns instead of two TDs and three FGs.
That's my take on the game, but, as always, feel free to discuss your Governor's Cup winning Houston Texans (or other pre-season games) in the comments. Are you stepping back from the ledge after this week? Or are you popping other people's balloons?
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