I haven't set an alarm for work in over a year and a half. So today when my phone started vibrating early in the morning like a kid who forgot to take his riddlin, I was understandably confused... for about three seconds. Then I got that giddy, kid-on-Christmas-morning-feeling and lept to my feet, paid the hooker, made breakfast and camped out in front of the TV. From the second the pregame started, all the familiar stats started rolling off the lips of the talking heads CBS tricked into thinking they know stuff about football. 15-1 this, Peyton Manning that, blah blah blah. These are stats Houston fans know all too well. We've heard them spit at us by Colts fans and Texans haters for quite a while now. All the experts were going on and on about how Matt Schaub's golden arm was our only hope, and even that didn't give us much of a chance. Well, evidently, Arian Foster didn't get that memo. What he did get was 231 yds on 33 carries with 3 tds. For those of you keeping track, thats the most any one back has ever gained against the ponys. Thats also 2 yds more than Adrian Peterson and Chris Johnson combined,and on 13 less carries. Not only that, its the second most yds ever by a RB on opening day (the record-holder is everyone's favorite wife-murdering parody of a human being, O.J. Simpson). Matt Schaub only let the ball fly 17 times, 9 of those were complete for 107 yds. If someone had told me before the game that Schaub would have than 150 yds, I would have laughed, punched them, laughed again, and maybe cried a little. But with a final score of 34-24, I couldn't do anything but grin like a cheshire cat.
While 2-15 isn't by any means a great record, its an enormous boost to this team. We knew better than anyone how big this game was. We sat and watched game after game turn in the last minute on some fluke fumble, missed field goal, blown call ect... Even a late 73 yd touchdown pass from Manning to Austin Collie couldn't dampen the spirits in Reliant Stadium. And it didn't do much to raise Peyton's spirits either, he was visibly distressed nearly the entire game. While I have always had a sort of professional respect for him, and admire his competitive spirit, I couldn't help but laugh when I saw the Sony-hawking millionaire pouting, yes, pouting, on the sideline in the 4th quarter.
Obviously the biggest suprise was Arian Foster, but he was by no means the only player on his A-game. Super Mario Williams came to do two things today, chew bubblegum, and kick ass. Evidently, he forgot his bubblegum. He had a sack and a half (though not listed as such on the Texans' website at this time) 4 tackles, and 5 knockdowns. Peyton Manning spent more time on his butt than I've ever been witness to, both on the turf, and on the bench. The Time of possession was only slightly skewed in the Texans' favor, 30:53 to 29:07, it sure didn't seem that way. The first drive of the third quarter alone was 15 plays for 66 yds and ate up 7:57. That was the drive that we will be looking to later on in the year when people are asking who the hell Arian Foster is, and why he's man-handling their defenses. Again, Foster is amazing, but you can't forget to give some extra love to our O-line (who thought we'd ever say that?) and FB Vonta Leach, who cleared the way for so many of Foster's game-changing runs. If this kid can keep it up, and our defense can play like they did yesterday, is there really any team in the league that can stop us?
Article by Chase
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