SPEED KILLS
How the Houston Texans may have caught lightning in a bottle
Aug 11, 2023, 2:16 pm
Tank Dell was electric in his NFL debut.Photo by Omar Rawlings/Getty Images.
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The Texans played their first preseason game of the new era. They beat the Patriots 20-9 in a pretty meaningless game. While normal, well-adjusted onlookers see this as just another preseason game and/or a dress rehearsal, there are some out there who see this as an indictment or preview of what's to come. A LOT of the chatter has been about C.J. Stroud, and rightfully so. He's the number two overall pick and the franchise quarterback for a team that's been looking for one.
Look, I'm not saying he needs to sit, and I'm not saying he's a bust either. What I'm saying is both extremes need to relax. Did he look good? Not really. He played 12 snaps, dropped back to pass six or seven times, got sacked once, completed two, overthrew one, and got the other picked off. The pick was a bad read on what seemed to be a timing route. Stroud threw the ball before the receiver broke and it got intercepted. Guaranteed he knew this the minute he threw it and will study to ensure he doesn't repeat it.
While Stroud didn't look good in his first live action, there were four other things I wrote about that I wanted to watch for during this game. Here's what I observed:
Speed and Quickness: There was a TON of it on the field for the Texans, especially on defense. Tank Dell stuck out on offense. He looks like he'd be trouble to cover in a closet, much less on a football field. On defense, Christian Harris showed some elite athleticism. There was a play on the Patriots' first possession where a RB made a catch on the sideline. In the initial camera shot of the pass being thrown, it appeared as if he was out of position to be able to make the play. He made the tackle from an angle that looked like he covered 10 plus yards in less than a second!
Health: There was only one injury coming out of the game. Fullback Andrew Beck limped off the field after the second half kickoff. The team has reported him as having a minor knee injury. The team held out several guys with injuries, and a few more that were healthy scratches.
Dawgs: I LOVED seeing guys get after it! Tank Dell was the most impressive guy vs. the Patriots. He's going to have the slot WR job locked up very soon. He may even push to start since he's clearly a matchup nightmare. Will Anderson Jr is so quick/fast. His speed/quickness jumps out at you when watching him. Seeing him blow up run plays and cause the QB to get sacked by trying to escape his pressure will be more fun when the games count.
Compete: Watching the game from start to finish, I enjoyed how everyone played hard. You didn't see guys out there slacking. Everyone was engaged. DeMeco was looking like he was having the time of his life. A few times, cameras caught him smiling and high-fiving guys. The interactions on the sidelines were fun to observe as well. Nobody pouted or sulked, and everyone seemed to be having fun.
A couple of things I kept saying was this team looks faster, guys are flying around on defense, and I can see the machinations of what this offense will look like in the future. How far in the future will depend largely on Stroud getting up to speed on the NFL game. Oh, and how well the pieces play around him. I've heard “it looks like a real football team” a few times. This team will be fun to watch. While some of the hype is overblown, it is warranted. The days of embarrassing football appear to be finally over.
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There was a conversation Cleveland guard Donovan Mitchell had during training camp, the topic being all the teams that were generating the most preseason buzz in the Eastern Conference. Boston was coming off an NBA championship. New York got Karl-Anthony Towns. Philadelphia added Paul George.
The Cavs? Not a big topic in early October. And Mitchell fully understood why.
“What have we done?” Mitchell asked. “They don't talk about us. That's fine. We'll just hold ourselves to our standard.”
That approach seems to be working.
For the first time in 36 seasons — yes, even before the LeBron James eras in Cleveland — the Cavaliers are atop the NBA at the 25-game mark. They're 21-4, having come back to earth a bit following a 15-0 start but still better than anyone in the league at this point.
“We've kept our standards pretty high,” Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said. “And we keep it going.”
The Cavs are just one of the surprise stories that have emerged as the season nears the one-third-done mark. Orlando — the only team still unbeaten at home — is off to its best start in 16 years at 17-9 and having done most of that without All-Star forward Paolo Banchero. And Houston is 16-8, behind only the Cavs, Boston, Oklahoma City and Memphis so far in the race for the league's best record.
Cleveland was a playoff team a year ago, as was Orlando. And the Rockets planted seeds for improvement last year as well; an 11-game winning streak late in the season fueled a push where they finished 41-41 in a major step forward after a few years of rebuilding.
“We kind of set that foundation last year to compete with everybody,” Rockets coach Ime Udoka said. “Obviously, we had some ups and downs with winning and losing streaks at times, but to finish the season the way we did, getting to .500, 11-game winning streak and some close losses against high-level playoff teams, I think we kind of proved that to ourselves last year that that's who we're going to be.”
A sign of the respect the Rockets are getting: Oddsmakers at BetMGM Scorebook have made them a favorite in 17 of 24 games so far this season, after favoring them only 30 times in 82 games last season.
“Based on coaches, players, GMs, people that we all know what they're saying, it seems like everybody else is taking notice as well,” Udoka said.
They're taking notice of Orlando as well. The Magic lost their best player and haven't skipped a beat.
Banchero's injury after five games figured to doom Orlando for a while, and the Magic went 0-4 immediately after he tore his oblique. Entering Tuesday, they're 14-3 since — and now have to regroup yet again. Franz Wagner stepped into the best-player-on-team role when Banchero got hurt, and now Wagner is going to miss several weeks with the exact same injury.
Ask Magic coach Jamahl Mosley how the team has persevered, and he'll quickly credit everyone but himself. Around the league, it's Mosley getting a ton of the credit — and rightly so — for what Orlando is doing.
“I think that has to do a lot with Mose. ... I have known him a long time,” Phoenix guard Bradley Beal said. “A huge fan of his and what he is doing. It is a testament to him and the way they’ve built this team.”
The Magic know better than most how good Cleveland is, and vice versa. The teams went seven games in an Eastern Conference first-round series last spring, the Cavs winning the finale at home to advance to Round 2.
Atkinson was brought in by Cleveland to try and turn good into great. The job isn't anywhere near finished — nobody is raising any banners for “best record after 25 games” — but Atkinson realized fairly early that this Cavs team has serious potential.
“We’re so caught up in like the process of improve, improve, improve each game, improve each practice," Atkinson said. “That’s kind of my philosophy. But then you hit 10-0, and obviously the media starts talking and all that, and you’re like, ‘Man, this could be something special brewing here.’”