OPPONENT PREVIEW - HOUSTON
Texans Need Running Game for Success
by Mike Rabun
In the eighth season of their existence, the Houston Texans finally posted a winning record.
It took the Jacksonville Jaguars just three seasons to do so. The Carolina Panthers did it in their second year. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers lost the first 26 games they ever played, but they eventually needed just four campaigns to produce a winning one.
At least Houston did not need 21 years to get the job done, which is the NFL record for futility in such matters. New Orleans holds that record, by the way, and probably will do so from now on.
Now the Texans, who host the Cowboys Saturday night in their next-to-last warmup tilt, will set their sights on the things they still have yet to achieve - earning a playoff berth being the next logical task.
If Houston does collect a postseason spot this year, the Texans will almost certainly have to be among the league leaders in throwing the ball.
As it turned out, they were No. 1 in passing yards per game last season during what was Matt Schaub's third year on the roster. He started all 16 contests, an achievement in itself, completed almost 70 percent of his throws, produced 29 touchdowns and threw for 4,770 yards, the league's third-highest total in the last 15 years.
Here is the rub. Houston averaged 290 yards per game in the air, tops in the league. New Orleans averaged 18 yards less than that and ranked fourth. And yet the Saints scored 122 more points than did the Texans en route to the Super Bowl.
An aerial circus might get a team a championship from time to time, but not very often. It stands to reason that for Houston to advance a level, it needs to be better running the ball, where it was third from the bottom last season. A ranking of No. 13 on defense was not bad, but improvement could be used in that area as well.
Steve Slaton led the Texans in rushing in 2009 with a relatively modest 437 yards and he sat out December on injured reserve. He started 15 games the year before in his rookie season and was a huge hit with 1,282 yards.
Slaton is back and the Texans figure to lean on him once again now that rookie Ben Tate is out for the season with a fractured ankle. Tate, a second-round choice out of Arizona, was being counted on heavily, so the Texans are back to where they started in the running game and Slaton is where they started.
If he is healthy, he can take some of the load off Schaub and his chief target Andre Johnson (1,569 yards last season). That would be a good thing for the Texans.
The Houston defense is all about Mario Williams. He had nine sacks in 2009 and is certainly capable of a lot more. The Texans not only need to reduce the yardage they allowed a year ago, but they need to improve their minus-1 turnover ratio.
The Texans finished last season with a surge, winning their final four to post their 9-7 record. But three straight losses to start the year put them into a familiar hole.
They will have to make only one road trip in September and one in October, so the start of their schedule is favorable. Their third game, of course, is against Dallas. That contest could go a long way in determining whether the Texans are ready for the next step.
In their inaugural year of 2002, Houston allowed a staggering 76 sacks, 22 more than the next worst team. Last year the Texans gave up 25 and only four teams allowed fewer.
KEY MATCHUP
Cowboys WR Sam Hurd vs. Texans CB Brice McCain
Hurd is in the battle of his young career to secure one of the backup receiving roster spots and this is his last chance to make an impression before the Aug. 31 roster cuts. He led the Cowboys in receiving in the loss to Oakland in Week 2 of the preseason with four catches for 57 yards. McCain, who is in his second year from Utah, is battling to earn some playing time in the corner rotation for the Texans, and filled in as a starter when rookie first-round draft pick Kareem Jackson was injured earlier in the preseason. Although only 5-9, he has great speed and is a good tackler. McCain grew up in Terrell, Texas and was a big Cowboys fan. He recently changed his jersey number from 41 to 21 to honor former Cowboy Deion Sanders, who was his favorite player.
TEXANS UPDATE
By Sam Iannuzzi
Houston safety Dominique Barber is the younger brother of Cowboys running back Marion Barber III. Their father, Marion Barber Jr., a running back like MBIII, played for the New York Jets from 1982 to 1988. All three Barber men played college football at the University of Minnesota. Dominique is in his third year with Houston. He was drafted by the Texans in the sixth round in 2008.
Kicker Kris Brown, who played high school football in the Dallas area at Southlake Carroll, is the only Texans player to have appeared in all 128 games in franchise history. But the streak is in jeopardy as Houston signed 11-year veteran Neil Rackers from Arizona to compete with Brown after he hit on only 65.6 percent of his kicks in 2009 and missed potential game-tying field goals in consecutive weeks. One of the veteran kickers could already be gone by the time the Cowboys get to Houston.
The Texans had high hopes for rookie running back Ben Tate, a second-round draft pick out of Auburn. That was before Tate suffered a fractured right ankle in the second quarter of Houston's first preseason game against Arizona. Tate, who got the attention of scouts when he ran a 4.3, 40-yard dash at the scouting combine, will be on injured reserve this season after surgery to repair the damage.
After winning just 24 games in their first five seasons, the Texans have posted 25 in the last three. Last year's 9-7 finish came after consecutive 8-8 campaigns and was the first winning season in team history.
All-Pro wide receiver Andre Johnson is shooting for his third straight year with at least 100 receptions. In 2008, he posted career bests for receptions (115) and receiving yards (1,575). Last season he had 101 catches for 1,569 yards, including a career-high nine touchdown grabs.
FOCUS ON OWEN DANIELS
Even though the Texans posted the first winning season in franchise history with a 9-7 record last year, it wasn't enough to get them into the playoffs. It's hard to tell if the season would have had a similar ending if the afternoon of Nov. 1 had gone differently.
The Texans were playing the Buffalo Bills in the eighth game of the season that day. They would win easily, 31-10, to raise their record to 5-3, but the offense suffered a big loss. After only one catch for 22 yards, Owen Daniels, who was emerging as one of the league's best tight ends, went down for the year with a torn knee ligament.
Expectations were high entering the 2009 season for the Texans and Daniels, a fourth-round draft pick in 2006. He had a career year in 2008 and ended up playing in the Pro Bowl. The former Wisconsin star caught 70 passes for 862 yards, including 46 that went for first downs. Only perennial All-Pro Tony Gonzalez, who was with Kansas City in 2008, had better numbers among AFC tight ends.
Daniels and standout wide receiver Andre Johnson became the most prolific tight end-wide receiver tandem in the league. Daniels also became the first Texan to score a touchdown in the Pro Bowl when he caught a nine-yard pass in the end zone from Tennessee quarterback Kerry Collins in the game following the 2009 campaign.
After seven games last season, Daniels was leading all NFL tight ends with 519 receiving yards. He already had 40 receptions and five touchdowns. Then in Buffalo, he was injured on just the second Texan offensive possession of the afternoon. Originally diagnosed with a sprained right knee, tests later revealed a season-ending torn ACL. Daniels will be 10 months post-injury when the 2010 season opens, and is expected to be fully healthy.
PRESEASON HISTORY
COWBOYS VS TEXANS
From 1967-96, Dallas and Houston met every preseason. In fact, in 1992 the NFL teams representing each city met twice during exhibition play, once in Tokyo. That covered the Cowboys' preseason history against Houston's original team before they left for Nashville in 1997, now known as the Tennessee Titans ... Houston was without an NFL team from 1997-2002; that's when the current NFL representative, the Texans, began play ... Since then, the two have met five times in the preseason with Dallas winning three of the contests ... Even though the teams did not meet in the 2002 or 2006 preseasons, those were the years for their only regular-season meetings ... Each side has won once in the regular season ... This marks the first year that the Cowboys and Texans play each other in both the preseason and regular season.
All-Time Preseason Results • Cowboys Leads Series, 3-2
Date W/L Score SITE Att.
8/15/03 W 34-6 DALLAS 60,058
8/14/04 L 0-18 @ Houston 70,431
8/27/05 W 21-9 DALLAS 54,288
8/25/07 L 16-28 @ Houston 70,512
8/22/08 W 23-22 DALLAS 60,795
HOUSTON TEXANS Coaching Staff
Gary Kubiak: Head Coach
Bill Kollar: Assistant Head Coach/Defensive Line
Rick Dennison: Offensive Coordinator
Frank Bush: Defensive Coordinator
Joe Marciano: Special Teams Coordinator
Ray Rhodes: Senior Defensive Assistant
John Benton: Offensive Line
David Gibbs: Defensive Backs
Chick Harris: Running Backs
Johnny Holland: Linebackers
Larry Kirksey: Wide Receivers
Greg Knapp: Quarterbacks
Brian Pariani: Tight Ends
Frank Pollack: Assistant Offensive Line
Robert Saleh: Assistant Linebackers
Perry Carter: Assistant Defensive Backs
Marc Lubick: Offensive Assistant
Bruce Matthews: Offensive Assistant
Cedric Smith: Strength and Conditioning
Matt Schiotz: Asst. Strength and Conditioning
HOUSTON TEXANS
As of August 20, 2010
NO NAME POS HGT WGT EXP COLLEGE
1 Matt Turk P 6-5 248 14 Wisc.-Whitewater
3 Kris Brown K 5-11 214 12 Nebraska
4 Neil Rackers K 6-1 210 11 Illinois
7 Dan Orlovsky QB 6-5 231 6 Connecticut
8 Matt Schaub QB 6-5 241 7 Virginia
10 John David Booty QB 6-3 208 2 Southern California
11 André Davis WR 6-1 195 9 Virginia Tech
12 Jacoby Jones WR 6-2 214 4 Lane College
15 Bobby Williams WR 6-4 215 1 North Alabama
16 Trindon Holliday WR 5-5 165 1 LSU
18 London Crawford WR 6-2 203 1 Arkansas
19 Dorin Dickerson WR 6-2 230 1 Pittsburgh
20 Steve Slaton RB 5-9 199 3 West Virginia
21 Brice McCain CB 5-9 185 2 Utah
22 Sherrick McManis CB 6-1 195 1 Northwestern
23 Arian Foster RB 6-1 229 2 Tennessee
24 Jeremiah Johnson RB 5-9 218 1 Oregon
25 Kareem Jackson CB 5-10 197 1 Alabama
26 Eugene Wilson S 5-10 193 8 Illinois
27 Chris Henry RB 5-11 234 3 Arizona
28 Antwaun Molden CB 6-2 198 3 Eastern Kentucky
29 Glover Quin CB 6-0 203 2 New Mexico
31 Bernard Pollard SS 6-1 228 5 Purdue
32 Fred Bennett CB 6-1 194 4 South Carolina
33 Troy Nolan S 6-2 207 1 Arizona State
34 Dominique Barber S 6-0 212 3 Minnesota
35 Jacques Reeves CB 5-11 188 7 Purdue
38 Mark Parson CB 5-10 189 1 Ohio University
39 Nicholas Polk S 5-11 218 1 Indiana
42 Torri Williams S 6-2 209 1 Purdue
43 Ben Tate RB 5-11 220 1 Auburn
44 Vonta Leach FB 6-0 263 7 East Carolina
46 Jon Weeks LS 5-10 255 1 Baylor
49 Jack Corcoran FB 6-1 234 1 Rutgers
50 Darnell Bing LB 6-2 232 3 Southern California
51 Darryl Sharpton LB 5-11 244 1 Miami (Fla.)
52 Xavier Adibi LB 6-2 242 2 Virginia Tech
53 Danny Clark LB 6-2 233 10 Illinois
54 Zac Diles LB 6-2 240 4 Kansas State
55 Chris Myers C 6-4 292 6 Miami (Fla.)
56 Brian Cushing LB 6-3 259 2 Southern California
57 Kevin Bentley LB 6-0 247 9 Northwestern
59 DeMeco Ryans LB 6-1 252 5 Alabama
60 Mitch Unrein DE 6-4 300 1 Wyoming
61 Isaiah Greenhouse LB 6-2 234 1 Northwestern State
62 Antoine Caldwell G 6-3 310 2 Alabama
63 Chris White C 6-2 295 5 Southern Miss.
64 Kasey Studdard G 6-3 308 4 Texas
65 Mike Brisiel G 6-5 298 4 Colorado State
66 DelJuan Robinson DT 6-3 307 3 Mississippi State
67 Malcolm Sheppard DT 6-2 280 1 Arkansas
68 Steve Maneri T 6-6 272 1 Temple
70 Cole Pemberton T 6-7 313 1 Colorado State
71 Shelley Smith G 6-4 308 1 Colorado State
72 Jesse Nading DE 6-5 261 2 Colorado State
73 Eric Winston T 6-7 317 5 Miami (Fla.)
74 Wade Smith G/C 6-4 310 8 Memphis
75 Brett Helms C 6-2 303 1 LSU
76 Duane Brown T 6-4 314 3 Virginia Tech
77 James Wyche DE 6-5 279 4 Syracuse
78 Rashad Butler T 6-4 307 5 Miami (Fla.)
79 Adam Stenavich T 6-4 310 1 Michigan
80 Andre Johnson WR 6-3 228 8 Miami (Fla.)
81 Owen Daniels TE 6-3 243 5 Wisconsin
82 Derek Fine TE 6-3 247 3 Kansas
83 Kevin Walter WR 6-3 218 8 Eastern Michigan
85 Joel Dreessen TE 6-4 243 5 Colorado State
86 James Casey TE 6-3 238 2 Rice University
87 Anthony Hill TE 6-6 277 2 N.C. State
88 Garrett Graham TE 6-3 241 1 Wisconsin
89 David Anderson WR 5-10 193 5 Colorado State
90 Mario Williams DE 6-6 285 5 N.C. State
91 Amobi Okoye DT 6-2 283 4 Louisville
92 Earl Mitchell DT 6-3 300 1 Arizona
94 Antonio Smith DE 6-4 282 7 Oklahoma State
95 Shaun Cody DT 6-4 306 6 Southern California
96 Tim Jamison DE 6-3 275 2 Michigan
97 Frank Okam DT 6-5 346 3 Texas
98 Connor Barwin DE 6-4 257 2 Cincinnati
99 Pannel Egboh DE 6-6 287 1 Stanford
* Restricted Free Agent
