No Texans game this weekend. No Texans game for Azeez Al-Shaair for a month. Let’s state it simply up front. Al-Shaair's knockout shot of Jacksonville quarterback Trevor Lawrence was flagrantly illegal and obviously worthy of suspension, even more so with Al-Shaair's other personal fouls this season taken into account. He doesn’t get a three-game suspension without a track record. Well, he has one. As the saying goes, if you can’t do the time don’t do the crime. Silver lining, Al-Shaair should be fresh for the playoffs. He can return for the regular season finale.

Attacks on Al-Shaair's off-field character have ranged from unwarranted to offensive, but his on-field character can fairly be called out. Many players in such a violent sport have different personalities on and off the gridiron, but cheap shots are cheap shots and Al-Shaair is a recidivist taker of them. The hit on Lawrence was in one way the least egregious of Al-Shaair's three clear offenses this season in that, wrong as it was, at least it came in making a football play. He should have been kicked out of the Bears game in week two for throwing a punch on the sideline. Two Sundays ago he drilled Titans’ running back Tony Pollard in a blatant late hit out of bounds.

The argument that Lawrence slid late and hence Al-Shaair couldn’t stop himself is a weak lesson learned in an Excuse Making 101 class. Lawrence was a full four yards from Al-Shaair when he started to slide. Of course the action happens fast but that was enough time for Al-Shaair to react differently than by launching himself and leading with a forearm shiver. The claim that he was committed before Lawrence slid does not hold water. He’s not going that low against a runner (and making no effort to wrap and tackle) unless the idea was to go for the knees, also illegal. Any Texans’ player, coach, or executive alibi-ing for Al-Shaair would probably have gone ballistic if, say, Josh Hines-Allen had made the exact same hit with the exact same result against C.J. Stroud.

Fandom: where passion knows no bounds

I think doctors still take the Hippocratic Oath of integrity and pledging to always do what is best for the patient. For many sports fans there is a de facto Hypocritic Oath taken, by which a fan can gloss over wrongdoing when done by one’s preferred team, but want the book thrown at an opponent guilty of the same wrongdoing. The Astros’ cheating scandal was the classic exhibit of that here. Had the 2017 Dodgers been the team caught with hands in the same cookie jar instead of the Astros, many Dodgers fans would have scoffed that it was no big deal and “everybody was doing it.” Meanwhile many Astros fans would have been beyond apoplectic at the nefarious deed and wanted the Dodgers punished to the max. The way of the world.

If one wants to argue that quarterbacks are over-protected, so be it, but everyone knows they are heavily protected as the most valuable and expensive group of commodities in the game. If a defender can’t play accordingly, the defender is the problem, not the rules. There are those who romanticize what used to be allowed in the NFL, and lament what they consider the “wussification” of the game today. It’s a rather Neanderthal-ish perspective given the reality of CTE and the numerous sad stories of dementia and suicide.

Examining the ripple effect

While not a star, Al-Shaair will be missed. He’s been solid overall pretty much at the level of the guy he replaced (Blake Cashman). In the 10 regular season games he’s played Al-Shaair has been on the field for 85 percent of the Texans’ defensive snaps. His suspension does happen to coincide with the Texans’ toughest three game stretch of the season. He’ll sit out matchups with the Dolphins, Chiefs, and Ravens. The Dolphins will be here in desperation mode trying to keep playoff hopes alive, but when Tua Tagovailoa is healthy at quarterback, Miami is a better team than its 5-7 record indicates. The Chiefs are the Chiefs. The Ravens will have Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry ready to roll at NRG Stadium Christmas day.

Fortunately for the Texans they can lose all three of those games and still win the AFC South, but it could get dicey. To borrow from baseball, the Texans’ magic number is two. Any combination of Texan wins and Colt losses that reaches two wraps it up. The Colts also have their open week this week. Next week they play at Denver in a probable loss. Couple that with a Texans win over the Dolphins, and division title clinched. However, should the Texans go 0-3 in Al-Shaair's absence to fall to 8-8...

After Denver, the Colts’ final three games are versus the worse, worser, and worsest Titans, Giants, and Jaguars. If Indy upsets the Broncos, winning out becomes quite viable. That would mean a 10-7 final record, forcing the Texans to win two of their remaining four games. A loss at Denver and three wins closing the Colts at 9-8 would mean the Texans need one victory. The Texans’ regular season finale is at...Tennessee.

Food for thought

Two-time former Texan Kareem Jackson last season got separate two and four-game suspensions for his repeated illegal and/or dirty hits. The 36-years-old Jackson is still hanging on to his career. He's been on the Buffalo Bills’ practice squad this season.

For Texans’ conversation, catch Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and me on our Texans On Tap podcasts. Thursdays feature a preview of the upcoming game, and then we go live (then available on demand) after the final gun of the game: Texans on Tap - YouTube 

The Astros are always in season for discussion. Our Stone Cold ‘Stros podcasts drop Mondays: Click here to watch!