With just the one remaining preseason game before the Texans head to Pittsburgh for the season opener, the defense has come under pretty hard fire on the airwaves and rightfully so. It's basically been a sack-less bunch that rarely visits the opposing backfield. Throughout the tenure of defensive coordinator Richard Smith's time, the defense has rarely been able to get offenses out of rhythm. They've been picked apart by some pretty mediocre quarterbacks (see Mark Brunell, 2006) and have rarely stopped the run. The Texans finished in the top half of the two each of the 2 seasons prior to his arrival, but the bottom half of the league in two seasons under Smith.
I wouldn't call it a make or break season for Smith, It's a make or break start to the season for Smith. The first five game are...
@ Pittsburgh
vs. Baltimore
@ Tennessee
@ Jacksonville
vs. Indianapolis
For Smith's sake they'd better have at least 2 wins after that stretch or it might be time to make a change. It's the third year for the head coach and at some point he comes under fire. As soon as that happens, changes will be made and the head coach isn't usually the first to go.
----------------------------------------
UPDATE-As I mentioned previously, this first round of cuts would be very easy for the Texans. They basically cut two players - WR Tim Carter, who'd missed much of the last few weeks with a mild concussion and G Mark Fenton who was last on the depth chart among offensive lineman. The other moves are all injury-related -
Dunta Robinson placed on the PUP list so he's out for the first 6 weeks
Jameel Cook made his release an easy one, since he likes to smoke weed while committing multiple non-moving violations.
Scott Jackson goes to IR, he never practiced during camp.
Harry Williams goes to IR, his season/career ended Friday night in Dallas.
Cuts down to 53 must be made by Saturday, August 30 at 3pm (CST). Eight man practice squads can be established after 11am (CST) on Sunday, August 31.
---------------------------------
Steve Slaton will hopefully be over his minor case of turf toe, so he can continue to convince the coaches that his time is now. The rookie has already earned carries for the opener in Pittsburgh for sure, but he continues to impress and it's obvious that even with the blocking issues that'd be attached to any rookie running back, the Texans likely can't keep him off the field. The group in front of him does not promote fear in the opposition, like Slaton might.
---------------------------------
Did you know the Dennis Franchione landed on his feet after his ouster from Aggieland? He's the color analyst for ESPN Radio college football. His first game? Alabama at Clemson this weekend. Many are not enthused. See here & here & here.
---------------------------------
Longhorns face Florida Atlantic this weekend (6pm on SportsRadio 610). Surely you've seen the ornery coach of FAU talk about the Charmin-like qualities of the 'Horns. Quick thoughts on the Longhorns season from myself, morning show host Marc Vandermeer and afternoon show host Matt Jackson can be found here.
---------------------------------
ON THE SHOW
- As you know this section is dedicated to many of the things we'll discuss on The NightShift.
- Tonight we welcome the Wizard of Odds to the show to talk college football, he joins us at 6:20pm cst. (Listen live here). It's one fo the best sources for college football and the wiz has just relaunched the site, found here.
- Remember when the college baseball player of the year award was a big deal? The Rotary Smith Award would include a huge dinner and auction and the top 3 collegiate baseballers and their coaches would come to Houston for this big fundraising gala event. Then Roger Clemens stepped in, they renamed the award after him and in its 5th year as the Roger Clemens Award, the winner Aaron Crow now gets his picture with Clemens and trophy and a press release. No dinner. No auction with killer sports memorabilia. Wow, what a celebration.
- I'll continue the odds and ends that will make the airwaves tonight as the day moves on.
-------------------WEX
No comments:
Post a Comment