Finally football

Ok, wow, super late on posting anything lately mainly due to my trip to Vegas this past weekend. While I do plan on giving that a good write up perhaps later next week, it will not be the focal point of this post. Were here today to talk mainly about football, more specifically how the Texans season is already over, how the Bills and Raiders decided to not be the Bills and Raiders on opening night and why Adrian Peterson is not human.

First off, the Texans. For some reason or another, the Texans managed to secure the spot of pre-season "sleeper" status. How this managed to happen I have no idea. Watching both the FOX and CBS pregame shows unanimously pick the Texans to not only win the game but also be playoff contenders pretty much sealed the deal for their season. Matt Schuab took a play out of David Carrs book and proceeded to throw for a measly 18 for 33 with 160 yards. Steve Slaton built on his solid rookie year by carrying the ball 9 times for an incredible 17 yards.

I really had high hopes for the Texans this year. I really did. I guess I just got sucked up in the hype that they would be a playoff contender this year. However, after this past Sunday's performance, finishing at .500 would be nothing short of a miracle. I will still watch them and hope that they do well, but it wouldnt surprise me if they finished 5-11, 6-10 at best. Perhaps I already knew deep down this would happen since I decided that betting the Texans at -7 was probably going to be a bad idea.

On the complete opposite side of the spectrum we have the Buffalo Bills and the Oakland Raiders. Perennial losers, these teams managed to cost me 100 bucks with their sudden lack of horrible play. At +10.5 and +7 respectively, these games were two of my locks that I had picked before even heading out to Vegas. The bills were playing the freaking Patriots! I figured Tom Brady would come back from being out last year and throw for 9 TDs and 4 thousand yards. G'luck. Brady looked very rusty and the Bills were going down the field every possession with ease. Oakland pretty much did the same against the Chargers. Both teams played well above their expectations and still lost, just not by the correct amount of points I needed for a win.

All was not lost however as the Cowboys and the Vikings both covered. Not too much to say about the Cowboys, they played well against an ok Tampa Bay team and got the win easily. The Vikings are another story altogether. Adrian Peterson is going to single handedly win the Super Bowl for them. Book it, done. He was annihilating the Browns defense like he had the Madden settings on super rookie mode. They would have scored another 8 or 9 times if Favre hadnt attempted to throw the ball so damn much. The Vikings are legit and Adrian Peterson will be your 2010 MVP.

I, quite frankly, watched a lot of football this weekend and is a lot more that I am not going to cover here like the Patriots and Broncos final drives. Those have been written about to death over on ESPN and the like. I will go ahead and give a shout out to the Houston Cougars. Everyone, and I mean everyone, was telling me that I needed to take more medication if I thought that the Cougs would beat Oklahoma State, let alone cover the 16 point spread. Not only did they win, they won handily by 10 points. Great way to start the season and now they are ranked 21 in the nation. Beating Texas Tech next week would really start to raise some eye brows nationally if they haven't already been raised.

And with the start of the NFL season, I officially bid farewell to the Astros who I will no longer be following. Here's to the next 3 months of nearly non interrupted football awesomeness. From the looks of it, it's going to be a great season.

NBA finals prediction and more

Right, well we havent had any kind of sports talk in a while so I figured I would take a few minutes of your time to explain what has been on my mind. Enjoy.

Ok, so the NBA finals. Did anyone else even know there was a game on last night? I sure as hell didnt. From what I can remember, the first game was last Thursday night, then mysteriously, there was not a game until Sunday. In fact, the only reason I discovered it was on was by being at a bar that actually had the game on. Now, fair enough, it is no secret that I am no NBA fan, mostly due to the rigging of games, etc. However, did anyone think that there was a chance in hell that Orlando was not going to win the game last night? Of course not, and if you look even closer you will notice that they conveniently covered the spread of four points only by having a foul call in the closing seconds of the game when it was clearly already over. How very convenient indeed.

I know, I know, I am crazy. My prediction is this for the rest of the series:

Game 4: Orlando ties the series up 2-2 in a blowout.

Game 5: Los Angles narrowly avoids losing at home in 4th quarter nail biter.

Game 6: Back in Orlando with the Lakers up 3-2, the Magic win handily.

Game 7: Game 7 in Los Angles, because you cant have a Finals Playoff Extravaganza without it being in Los Angeles. This is the only wild card that is left. I actually have no idea who the NBA wants to win this game. But whoever it is, will. Guaranteed.

Either way, Im glad Hockey and Basketball are finally nearing their conclusion. Unfortunately, as I predicted earlier this year, the Astros stink out loud and pretty much have nothing to look forward to the rest of the year. Luckily, football (both NCAA and NFL) is just around the corner. Could this be the year that the Texans make the playoffs? Possibly. This city would go absolutely nuts if they did.

Only one thing for sure is certain, Houston sports need to step back up to the plate. We had a great run from 1995 until 2005 and from there it all went back to the craptastic 80s and early 90s. Can someone please make me the GM of one of these franchises already so I can get the ball rolling? Id surely appreciate it, thanks.

"Horse racing is animated roulette."
-Roger Kahn

Another disappointing season

Yesterday ended the possibility of the Texans ending the season with a winning record. Their loss to the Oakland Raiders, of all teams, also ended the 4 game winning streak that was the only bright point on this miserable season. And while a win next week against the Bears would once again give them an 8-8 season, serious decisions need to be made in the offseason if they want to be a playoff contender next year.

I think one of the main things that needs to be changed next year is the "stick to the game plan at all costs" mentality. It was more than obvious yesterday that nearly every play was going to be a running play. Even when it was apparent that this strategy would not work with Steve Slaton being stuffed play after play, they continued to not call any passing plays. I don't care how covered Andre Johnson is, you give the ball to your play makers.

The quarterback situation will also need to be addressed. I'm not sure how comfortable I am having Schaub as a starter anymore. I am even less impressed with Rosenfelds now that he has turned into an interception machine after his helicopter antics in the Indianapolis game. I haven't really looked to see who would be out there for us to pick up but I do know that the Rosenfelds + Schaub option simply isn't living up to how it was billed to us.

I suppose the greatest surprise this season was the effectiveness of Steve Slaton. Having been without a real every-down running back for the past few years, Slation has really filled a large void in the team. Hopefully the Texans lock him up to some sort of long term deal.

Oh well, so much for my prediction of a 10-6 year with possible playoff implications. The chances were there this season to achieve that goal but were squandered the way bad teams squander good chances. The fact remains that the Texans are still a mediocre football team. The loss yesterday cemented that reality. Heres hoping the team can build on the few successes they had this year and come out and actually contend next year. If freaking Miami can do it, so can we.

Meet the new Texans

Same as the old Texans. Yesterday's season opener against Pittsburgh erased nearly all the gains that had been made last year. And it was all over by the end of their first drive which, to their credit, was probably robbed from them by the referees. But one blown call does not a game make. Either the Steelers are going to be absolutely outstanding this year or we simply didn't show up. It now looks that my prediction of the Texans going 10-6 this year and making the playoffs might have been a little off.

Matt Schaub reminded us of the glory days of David Carr by making ill-advised sideways passes. The offensive line giving him just enough time to tuck the ball away before being stuffed into the ground. I personally have always wanted the Texans to give Sage Rosenfelds a real chance to be the starting quarterback. Perhaps we are not that far away from that.

The defense looked absolutely anemic. I am pretty sure that even I could have ripped off 100+ rushing yards against them. The pass defense also left alot to be desired. It really is a shame that Daunte Robinson will still miss 4-5 more weeks, especially since the games he is missing will most likely be our most difficult.

The only glimmer of production came out of Mario Williams who, for all things considered, had an outstanding game. 2 sacks and a forced fumble while constantly putting pressure on Roethlisberger. He looked to be the only one on the team who realized that it was opening day in the NFL.

I suppose it would have been nice to open the season up against a stat-padding team like Cleveland or Oakland. But then again, maybe WE are that team.

Next Game: Baltimore (3:15 here in Houston).