TexansChick

A Texans fan blog with Stephanie Stradley

Unofficial plans for Texans fans going to Chicago

Tuesday, November 6, 2012
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Chicago long range forecast. Ooof. As a spectator, I think you'd rather have snow than rain.

Going to Chicago? Want to hang out with other Texans fans?

Sadly, I am not going but I want the fans who are to have fun and represent the Texans well. The following are some plans that I didn’t put together but fans who are going did. It’s a lot of fun meeting folks the night before so you can share plans for Sunday.

Please pass this along to people you know who are going, and if you have additions, questions, comments, leave them at the bottom of the post:

Color for Fans to Wear? BATTLE RED. The team will be wearing white, but typically the color for traveling Texans fans is red unless the opponent wears red. The players can see it, the TV can see it. The long range forecast calls for 41 degrees with 60% chance of showers. Not ideal. So dryish and staying warm is first priority, red is second priority. /This is where you go “yes mom.”

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Categories: Fans

Texans 21, Bills 9: George’s text message game review

Sunday, November 4, 2012
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The two tickets in front of mine are Stubhub tickets on the visitors side. Recent years, mostly Texans fans sit there. This guy with the knit puff ball hat in 80 degree temps seemed to be competing to be the most annoying road fan ever. GOOD BYE!

Not much to say about this game. The best team won. It was closer than it should have been due to untimely penalties: Bills had 3, Texans had 7.

So far for 2012, the Texans have the most penalties of any Gary Kubiak Texans team, averaging 6.1 per game prior to this one.  To put that number in context, Atlanta has the least number average penalties per game at 3.4 and the Ravens have the most at 8.1.

In all the Kubiak years, here’s the average penalties: 2006 – 5.6, 2007 – 5.1, 2008 – 5.0, 2009 – 5.6, 2010 – 5.6, 2011 – 5.9.  Remarkably consistent. Their current ranking of 12th least penalized in the league is around where they’ve been in previous years relative to the league. However, it is slightly higher than usual. Being around the middle might not be a bad thing if the penalties are defensive ones because it shows aggression. You don’t want false start penalties ever, especially at home.

Once again, untimely penalties will be an object lesson for next week.

Oh, and I realized this blog post started off far too negatively. Sorry about that. The Texans are 7-1. Rejoice and be glad! But be careful out there. Scientists who should be spending money to cure cancer have learned that fans of winning sports teams have a increase in testosterone.

Texans + increased testosterone = be very, very afraid.

Other things of note:

Rookies. Like seeing the rookies making more plays, like Whitney Mercilus, Jared Crick, Keshawn Martin. From the Texans….

Matt Schaub. Another quietly efficient game. QB rating of 126.8.  His second touchdown that went to Garrett Graham was to me one of those, “Throw it away, throw it away, THROW IT AWAYYYYY…. TOUCHDOWN!!!”

Glad he doesn’t listen to me. Quarterback efficiency will be at a premium next week facing the Bears who are getting turnovers at what seems to be an unsustainable pace.

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Categories: Post Game

    • Bills Q&A with Tim Graham of the Buffalo News + stats, more

    Thursday, November 1, 2012
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    Tailgating on Sunday? You might want to bring wet wipes. A lot of folks will be going with the Buffalo Wing theme. Oh, and be sure not to rub your eyes after eating.

    This will be the best Bills-Texans preview you will read or your money back.

    Today’s Q&A is with Tim Graham of the Buffalo News.  He’s in his 10th year with the Buffalo News but not consecutively.  He covered the 1-15 Dolphins for the Palm Beach Post and spent three years at ESPN before returning to the News as an investigative reporter. And then he returned to sports a few months ago.

    I strongly suggest following him on Twitter @ByTimGraham, and if you are not on Twitter and are a football fan, once again I suggest you are missing out.

    Here’s our Bills’ Q&A

    What is different between this Bills team and previous ones?

    “Sadly for Bills fans, not much on the field so far. A 13th straight season without the playoffs looks likely. The Bills already had strong defensive ends when they decided to jump into free agency to assemble a front that would make the NFL take notice. They invested huge money in Mario Williams, as you know, and swiped a division rival’s top pass-rusher, signing Mark Anderson away from the Patriots.

    The Bills did well in the draft, too, finding starters at major positions with their top two picks: cornerback Stephon Gilmore and left tackle Cordy Glenn.

    On paper, the Bills looked like a team on the make. They’ve somehow performed worse than before they spent all that money and hit on their picks.

    Through nearly half their schedule, Buffalo’s defense has allowed some of the most obnoxious stats in NFL history. They’re the first team to allow 300 yards passing and 300 yards rushing in the same game (Week 5 against the 49ers) and the first team since the 1950 New York Yanks to give up at least 550 yards in consecutive games. Opponents have scored 180 points in Buffalo’s four losses.”

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    Categories: Preview

    Texans special teams: What is fixable, not fixable

    Monday, October 29, 2012
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    Texans tailgaters: Do not put regular garbage in the hot coals dumpster. It causes a flaming dumpster, which is what the Texans special teams looks like in 2012. (In other words, I couldn't find any special teams pictures I wanted to use).

    That the Texans acknowledge their special teams is underperforming is a good thing. Usually, if the Texans staff acknowledges that they have a significant problem, they believe they can fix it and will focus on fixing it.

    You worry when the Texans say kind things about their problems because they know everybody else is dogging it/the person, and they can’t do anything about it/them, so they just give public moral support.

    This post will explore not only the special teams problems, but the likely reasons for that problems and try to identify what is fixable and not fixable this season.

    Texans Special Teams-Can it be fixed?

    Coaching. The first thing to look at on whether something can possibly be fixed in-season is coaching. If you don’t have proper coaching, nothing can be fixed, do not pass go, do not collect $200.

    With brain-bleach apologies in advance, think of all the terrible defenses that the Kubiak  Texans put on the field pre-Wade. Given that Richard Smith and Frank Bush had never been defensive coordinators before, and never had a history of any good defenses, there was zero reason to believe that they could fix their execrable defenses as the season progressed.

    The good news for Texans fans is that special teams coach Joe Marciano is very experienced in coaching special teams, and has put good special teams on the field before on many occasions. That gives you some hope that over the course of a season, he can fix things.

    Or at a minimum, the problem isn’t a coaching one if there hasn’t been persistent poor performance with little experience (The Smith/Bush axiom). If you have interest, you can read Marciano’s bio here.

    Currently, the Texans special teams is ranked 31st in the league by Football Outsiders stats.  More specifically, their kick returns are ranked 32nd and their punt returns are 31st. This would be their worst special teams in Texans history by far, and unusual for a Marciano-coached special teams. Here’s a description of how Football Outsiders comes up with their numbers.

    Over the course of his time with the Texans, Coach Mariciano has had some good/not good special teams:

    2002 – 8th, 2003-7th, 2004-28th, 2005-2nd, 2006-22nd, 2007-3rd, 2008-17th, 2009-7th, 2010-23rd, 2011-13th, 2012-31st so far.

    What explains the up and down of special teams rankings? Part of it is emphasis. In the early years of the franchise, a lot of time and emphasis was given to special teams in both time/designated players because that was going to be part of the way the Texans would be able to steal wins despite being overmatched.

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    Categories: Coaching, Special Teams

    Texans 43, Ravens 13: Windshields and bugs

    Sunday, October 21, 2012
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    Most points ever for the Texans. If you were at the stadium, you may have received celebration injuries. Like when your best friend keeps sort of tackling you when good plays happen. Too much banging on the seat in front of you when the Texans are on defense. Or the guy across the aisle high fives you a little too exuberantly. It’s the good sore, kind of like after a hard workout.

    It’s a good thing then, that the Texans have next week off, so we all have time to heal.

    The contrast from last week to this week is best summed up by the musical philosopher Mark Knopfler, who once wrote and sang, in part: “Sometimes you’re the windshield. Sometimes you’re the bug.”

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    Categories: Post Game

    Ravens Q&A with Aaron Wilson of the Baltimore Sun + more

    Saturday, October 20, 2012
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    The Baltimore Ravens: Tricks or Treats?

    This week’s pregame post is a Q&As with Aaron Wilson of the Baltimore Sun. He is a must must must follow on Twitter @RavensInsider, and has covered the Ravens for the last 12 years, with previous stints covering the Titans and Jaguars.

    Aaron Wilson always does some of the best Q&As, and this one is no exception. And if you want more pregame stuff, please check out the Q&A I did about the Texans for the Baltimore Sun. The best compliment I received about it was that a Texans fan thought it was too spot on and was revealing secrets even though he knew it wasn’t.

    (As a brief quick housekeeping note, I would like to thank all of you who helped me with the previous post to maybe win Super Bowl tickets and filled out your NFL history using this specific link. The blogger competition ends Monday night at midnight eastern, and any help you can provide in spreading the word would be dearly appreciated).

    Ravens Q&A

    What are the differences between this Ravens team and previous ones? In particular, what changes have been made offensively with scheme?

    The Ravens have made a quantum leap offensively, climbing the charts by implementing more of a fast-break, no-huddle offense. Behind the scenes, quarterbacks coach Jim Caldwell has been instrumental in orchestrating the change, which was embraced by quarterback Joe Flacco. Using the shotgun formation often and rarely huddling, the Ravens want to build a fast tempo and go deep often to wide receivers Torrey Smith, Anquan Boldin and Jacoby Jones. They lead the NFL in pass plays of 20 yards or more.

    Some of what they’re doing is right out of what Flacco was comfortable running at the University of Delaware, which emphasized the shotgun, a spread formation and getting the football out of Flacco’s hands quickly. Flacco has been less accurate on the road, just over 50 percent, and the Ravens have largely abandoned the no-huddle in noisy road venues.

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    Categories: 2012, Preview

    Please share your ‘Fan-cestry’ and maybe we can win Super Bowl tickets

    Wednesday, October 17, 2012
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    You want Super Bowl tickets? Of course you do. Me too.  Let us help each other out.

    Before I explain further, I ask (actually beg beg beg) you to go to this specific link at the P&G “Fan-cestry” site, go thru the easy steps and create your history as a fan.  Takes maybe 5 minutes. And please get your friends to help too.

    If I get the most sign ups through this specific link, I win two tickets to the Super Bowl.

    And if I win, two of my participants may also get tickets to the Super Bowl.

    REALLY??!!!!!!!!! GET OUT!!!!!!! PLEASE HELP ME MAKE THIS HAPPEN!!!!!! REMEMBER I ONLY GET CREDIT IF YOU USE THIS SPECIFIC LINK!!! /I am usually not much of a bold-face, exclamation-mark person, but if you know me, you know that my enthusiasm for NOLA Super Bowl tickets goes far beyond exclamation marks, and way into too-much-whites-of-my-eyes-showing territory.

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    Categories: About Me, Fans

    Packers 42, Texans 24: My recap in video form

    Monday, October 15, 2012
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    You could read a traditional recap of that game at NFL.com or any number of places. If you are a Texan fan, I strongly urge you not to do that unless you enjoy self-abuse.

    For me, the game reminded me exactly of this video. Exactly. From the beginning of the game. And then it just kept going.

    Look, you are not in the mood to read an in-depth discussion of that game, and I’m not in the mood to write it. Because likely what I will say will set you off. I’ve written about a lot of losing football over the years, so I know how this goes.

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    Categories: Post Game