NERDS AROUND TOWN

Nerds Around Town: Texans, NFL season questions and Terminator

Sep 3, 2019, 4:58 am

Born with a comic book in one hand and a remote control in the other, Cory DLG is the talent of Conroe's very own Nerd Thug Radio and Sports. Check out the podcast replay of the FM radio show at www.nerdthugradio.com!

Tuesday on a short week? Let's do this! Tuesday on a short week? Let's do this!

GOOD DEED OF THE DAY

Another week, another mass shooting last week. What are we doing? Give blood, hug your loved ones, be careful.

MAYBE? MAYBE NOT?

So this pre-season ended with a bang for the Texans who scrambled to replace the injured Lamar Miller, add to the offense with another receiver, add to the woefully bad line with another lineman, move the now unhappy Clowney and replace his lost production with more guys in the LB corp. They managed to do all of that on Saturday which does make up slightly for getting outmaneuvered by the Patriots on Thursday. The trade for Clowney wasn't great but we weren't going to get a lot for a guy on a one-year deal. I'm excited to see what Stills can add to our offense, having a third legit weapon takes some of the pressure off the running game and in turn Watson. This is the third season which is make or break territory for most quarterbacks in the NFL and for the first time in recent Texans memory they are at least addressing the roster in such a way that we aren't just trotting out who we drafted and saying "best of luck."

BIG QUESTIONS THIS YEAR

The NFL season kicks off this year and there are lots of big questions that will be answered. The Colts just extended Jacoby Brissett two more years for $30 million, $20 of which is guaranteed. This is odd because he was on a one year deal, and now they're committing money and time to the backup QB. Leveon Bell coming to the Jets, was he the talent or were the Steelers that good? Here in Houston, we are running a franchise without a GM, the only franchise without one, are we smart or are we dumb? I feel like I know the answer but we'll see. The Browns? Are they for real? Is Andy Dalton done in Cincinnati, who hasn't had a winning season since 2015. This season will tell several player's tales.

AM I CRAZY?

I've seen a few trailers for the new Terminator movie and it actually looks really good. I know how weird it is to think that they are going to make a good Terminator but it turns out they actually might be. Once you get over the idea of a robot aging, and you accept that because of all the other movies Judgement Day has been pushed back several times, then you get to an interesting place. One where the story is exciting and there's a new girl in the role of mother to the rebellion, but this time she's a Hispanic immigrant. Cue the angry MAGA hats and anti-SJW types who were mad that Captain Marvel was a woman. Either way, the movie looks better than the last two.

NOT THAT YOU ASKED

In Ohio at a high school football game, the referees ended the game early after a player headbutted the ref. The team was being called for their 12^th penalty in the half and a player went right to the head umpire, took off his helmet and headbutted him. The game was called early and the other team awarded the victory. The school involved, Dayton Dunbar is already under probation for a previous incident and the basketball team is banned from competitive play. This is not the kind of program colleges will recruit from or is giving the kids involved the right opportunity. For heaven's sake, who is running the athletics program.

Feel free to check out my brand new comic book Another Day at the Office or buy a shirt from Side Hustle Ts where some proceeds help people struggling with cancer or listen to Nerd Thug Radio. Thoughts, complaints, events and comments can be sent to corydlg@gmail.com.

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Ravens 41, Texans 7

Texans offer no challenge to Ravens in ugly 41-7 loss

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The Texans had a chance to make a big statement on Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens. They did indeed make a big one; they are not ready to compete at the highest level. The Ravens might be the best team in football right now, and they looked like it. The Texans looked like an also-ran, losing 41-7. There is no shame in losing to the Ravens, but completely failing to show up and channeling your inner Miami Dolphin was an embarrassment. This was by far their worst performance of the season and maybe the worst of the Bill O'Brien era. It was reminiscent of the 30-0 playoff loss to the Chiefs. Here is how it all played out:

Offense

The positives: You're kidding, right? The only touchdown came in garbage time.

The negatives: We can stop with the Deshaun Watson MVP talk. He was badly outplayed by Lamar Jackson, who continues to stake his claim. Watson followed up an amazing performance in London with one of the worst efforts of his career.

They got off to another slow start, with a bad Watson fumble where he once again tried to do way too much. Fortunately it did not hurt them, as the Ravens missed a rare field goal. The next possession they went for it on fourth and three, threw a deep ball to Hopkins, who was interfered with in the end zone but there was no call. The Texans rightly challenged, but the NFL continued its trend of refusing to overturn interference calls. That was one of the only real shots to score a touchdown as it turned out, and they game quickly got away from them after that. Ka'imi Fairbairn missed yet another field goal in the first half. They allowed five first-half sacks (seven overall), although many of those were Watson's fault. They looked disjointed on offense, as they did in the first game against Jacksonville and in the loss to Carolina. They had just 102 yards in the first half, worst of the Watson era. There is no other way to say it; they were just bad.

Defense

The positives: Special teams made a nice stop on a fake field goal in the first quarter, reading it perfectly and stopping it on fourth down. Also, it was scoreless after one quarter. So there's that. Otherwise...

The negatives: After a solid beginning, holding Lamar Jackson to a 1-of-6 passing start, they had little answer for what has been the best offense in football, allowing the Ravens to score on six consecutive actual possessions (they did have a one-play knee down at the half). They got little pressure on Jackson, dropping multiple players into coverage, but Jackson was able to beat that. The third touchdown they allowed was vintage Texans defense; they failed to cover a running back out of the backfield on a wheel route. Injuries continued to plague the secondary, as both Lonnie Johnson and Justin Reid left the game. They were overmatched on this side of the ball, too.

The bottom line

This was an all-around awful performance, the worst of the Watson era. He completed 18-of-29 passes for 169 yards, zero TDs and a terrible interception and even worse fumble. He rushed for just 12, and was sacked six times. All the progress the Texans seemed to have made over the past month disappeared in one ugly afternoon. Lamar Jackson showed why he and Russell Wilson are the MVP leaders, hitting 17 of 24 passes for 222 yards, four TDs and no interceptions. He also added 86 yards rushing on just nine carries. In the battle of young star quarterbacks, Jackson dominated in what was no contest. The team stats were ugly as well. Baltimore had 25 first downs to 16, 492 yards to 232 (much of it garbage time yards) and led in time of possession 35:46 to 23:41. The Texans were just 2 of 10 on third downs and 1 of 4 on fourth down.

Bill O'Brien has done a good job in recent weeks, but they had no answers on either side of the ball. He also unnecessarily risked Watson by leaving him in the game down 34-0 in the fourth quarter. Why? To pad his crappy stats? He finally put in A.J. McCarron with 3:55 left down 41-7. He should have folded sooner and prepared for Thursday night's game against the Colts. He was lucky Watson was not hurt.

The Texans came out of the bye week looking like they had spent the entire time on the beach. The bad news is they face a quick turnaround and a must-win against the Colts and are now just 6-4 on the season, tied with Indy. At least they didn't expend much energy in this one. They have to regroup quickly or the season could spiral out of control in a hurry with the Colts and then Patriots on deck. This three-game stretch was going to be their big test. On the first section of it, they failed miserably.

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