Texans/Panthers: Third Quarter Live

Fair warning, I’m writing this the night before the game. I’m assuming by now the first stringers have long since come out of the game, put on baseball caps, and that J.J. Watt is probably somewhere in the parking lot flipping tractor tires just for the hell of it.

To you and me, these are the dregs of the game where we don’t know who these players are and only the truly hardcore Texans fans are watching at this point. But this is the crucial part of the game for those players fighting to avoid the dreaded cut list.

Maybe we’ll see the Texans’ equivalent of Victor Cruz during this point in the game. Maybe we’ll see a bunch of scrubs who’ll be bagging groceries by the end of the month. Maybe I’ll have some pizza. The night is full of mysteries so let’s continue watching the game and see what unfolds!

Now for some last minute observations.

It’s kind of comforting in a weird way to see consistency in things. Even the Texans abysmal special teams. Although Tyler Ervin managed to snag a punt, so there’s SOME improvement, I guess.

I think the Texans are operating under the assumption that if they get all their penalties out of the way in preseason that it’ll lead to no penalties during the regular season; because holy taco-loving crap, 10 penalties for 72 yards in the first half is not something we want to carry over into the next preseason game, let alone into the season.

It’s a really, really small sample size, and it’s the preseason (obligatory), but I like what I see from Deshaun Watson so far. He’s beating second stringers with his throws and with his feet, buying time to make throws, and he’s showing great poise in the pocket. I’ve forgotten what it was like to see a quarterback in a Texans jersey not get panicky and force throws.

That said, here’s the statlines for both Savage and Watson:

Savage: 9/11, 69 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT, 92.8 QBR.

Watson: 8/14, 121 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT, 85.7 QBR.

Anyway, here’s the third quarter. You can start commenting now.