Everyone wants it to be pretty and look easy. They want those games where you score 40 points and your quarterback throws for 300 yards and a bunch of touchdowns. The Texans 19-13 win over Cincinnati on Saturday was the opposite of that, but it was beautiful in its own way.
The Manning, Brady, Rodgers way is more fun to watch, no question, but it isn’t a guaranteed way to win. Let’s remember, Manning and Rodgers have won one Super Bowl apiece, and ever since Brady’s Pats have been carried by its offense it has come up ringless. I’d rather be ugly and win than pretty and lose.
On the surface, Saturday’s game was ugly. There was no high-octane offense on the field. There was only one long pass play (AJ Green 45-yard catch), there was no breathtaking touchdown, unless you count Leon Hall’s pick-6, but for Gary Kubiak and Wade Phillips, this game was beautiful. Houston got back to Texan football, and while the score won’t indicate it, they dominated the Bengals.
Matt Schaub and the offense controlled the ball for almost 40 minutes. Arian Foster ran the ball 32 times for 140. He was consistent and steady as was the offensive line which kept the power Bengal pass rush from sacking its quarterback. Nobody will confuse Schaub for Manning, Brady, or Rodgers, but he was efficient, and made the big throws when he had to, like the 3rd down pass to Garrett Graham to seal the win. More important than the offense however, was that the old Texans defense showed up again.
For much of the season, the secondary has been picked apart, the pass rush has been non-existent, and Phillip’s defense hasn’t been able to get off the field on third down. Saturday, the Texans defense held Andy Dalton to 127 passing yards, while completing half his passes, the pass rush was made him uncomfortable, and the Bengals offense didn’t complete a single third down.
Ball control and defense. It might not look good, but it’s the only way the Texans can win, and for one day, they did it as well as they have all season. Now the question is can they do it again, and again, and again?
All throughout the next seven days you will hear how the Texans have no chance to in New England next week. They’ll talk about the game from last month. They’ll say the Texans are a fraud, that the offense isn’t good enough, that Tom Brady will throw all over them. Those people are stupid, so don’t listen.
I’ve seen this episode before. The big-bad Patriots dominate a team in a high profile Monday Night game, only to see that same team again in the playoffs. It happened two years ago. New England beat the Jets 45-3. They met in the divisional round weeks later, at the exact same time (3:30 Sunday), and the entire world said it would be a blow out. Trent Dilfer went as far to say how he had watched hours and hours of tape, and didn’t see any way possible for the Jets to win. Guess what they did, and the team that went into Gillette Stadium two years ago is pretty similar to the team that will take the field next Sunday.
Like the Jets were back then, Houston is built on defense and a run game, and to be honest, the Texans are better at both. Their pass rush will be able to get to Brady a lot easier than Rex’s did. Their run game is better than the Shonn Greene LaDanian Tomlinson attack that Gang Green had. Oh ya, Matt Schaub is better than Mark Sanchez.
Saturday’s performance against the Bengals won’t have anyone jumping on the bandwagon because the score wasn’t what we consider to be impressive, but in the NFL, a playoff win is a playoff win no matter how you get it done, and what most people consider to be ugly football is beautiful to some teams, especially when those team’s move on in the end.
