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2023 Houston Texans thread


Macklemore

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I haven’t cared about pro football in Houston since the Oilers left. Today was extremely satisfying and shows it doesn’t pay to be an asshole. Fuck the Adams family and never forget that Bud was dead in his house for multiple days before anyone cared enough to do a wellness check. Hopefully his daughter joins him shortly.

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I was able to put the Oilers behind me the day they lost that Super Bowl by 1 yard to the Rams. They were our team and the uniforms are badass, but they were as notorious a choke squad as anyone in the league and that is their legacy.

Moon, Campbell, and anyone who matters are Houstonians at heart, and there were a lot of fun memories that don’t mean anything to anyone outside Houston. They can have the jerseys and the “legacy”, as bad as it is.

As far as this sad try-hard pettiness goes… HAHAHAHAHHAHA that’s an aggy level joke on yourself.

Edited by The Earl of Texas
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Goddamn that was good. That was a culture building win! On the road?? HATED division opponent trying to troll your fans??? Backup QB and missing probably the 5 best players???? The juxtaposition against the Cowboys and the culture they have had for 30 years is amazing!! Fuck shitty owners like BA and JJ!!!! Long live DeMeco!

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https://www.tennessean.com/story/sports/nfl/titans/2023/12/17/tennessee-titans-houston-texans-oilers-uniforms-derrick-henry-afc-south-mike-vrabel/71845456007/


Tennessee Titans looked cool, but they don't scare anyone in AFC South anymore 

Spoiler

This wasn’t just a cool throwback uniform. When this season’s Tennessee Titanshave personated the franchise’s past life as the Houston Oilers, they’ve leaned into it.

The scoreboard at Nissan Stadium said Oilers. The walls surrounding the field did, too. You had Mike Vrabel showing up Sunday in a cowboy hat, a la Bum Phillips. Cheerleaders wore ’70s era “Luv ya Blue” jackets. Even the players’ nameplates in the locker room were baby blue with Oilers logos.

Against the Atlanta Falcons, it was one thing. Against the Houston Texans, though, that’s a spicy move. The Titans knew it, too. Some might call it trolling an ex, or at the very least, kinda weird. Seemed oblivious to the fact that the Oilerswere the ones who left, deciding to instead become the Titans. Houston's loss at the time was Nashville's gain.

It’d be a little like the Baltimore Ravens going all-out to celebrate their Cleveland Browns roots while hosting . . . the Browns. Or the Indianapolis Colts hosting the Ravens and sending a band out there in uniforms that read “Baltimore.”

Probably won’t happen.

But who knows? On this Sunday, Houston played Houston, and it was a game so unsightly that Houston almost didn’t win. Ka’imi Fairbairn’s 54-yard field goal to end overtime was the only thing keeping this messy affair from ending in a tie.

So the Oil . . . uh . . . the Titans lost 19-16.

Fine. They didn’t deserve to win. All those Oilers trimmings had been hung with care, but the Titans didn’t play to the occasion. The shorthanded Texans were better. They sacked Will Levis seven times, stuffed Derrick Henry all game and outgained the Titans 340 yards to 204.

And the visitors did it without starting quarterback C.J. Stroud and their top two receivers. This was a gritty win for Houston — the real one — that was vital for its playoff aspirations.

Meanwhile, the Titans were eliminated with three games remaining.

Fine. They didn’t deserve to make the playoffs. Haven’t been a playoff-caliber team all season. While Monday’s thrilling comeback in Miami was fun, it didn’t change anything about the Titans we’ve been watching all season. They just aren’t very good.

They especially haven’t been good against AFC South rivals. This defeat dropped them to 0-4 in the division. Two of those losses were in Nashville, both coming in overtime.

The Texans probably enjoyed Sunday's victory as much as the Colts enjoyed sweeping the Titans this season. In the Texans’ case, I'd suspect the joy had little to do with uniforms.

It was more because of what they did to Henry.

Few running backs have tormented another franchise to the extent that Henry has the Texans. In five previous meetings, Henry had eclipsed 200 rushing yards four times. In 2020, he secured a 2,000-yard season by rolling for 250 in Houston. Even last year, when the Texans won in Nashville, Henry still gained 126. It was his third-highest total of the 2022 season.

 

But then came Sunday. Henry ran 16 times and totaled nine yards.

“It seemed like they had an answer for everything,” Henry said.

It was bad, and it only got worse. The Texans’ defense dominated the Titans up front so thoroughly that by game’s end, home fans were booing each stuffed run.

“We have to be able to establish the run,” Vrabel said. “ . . . We've won a lot of football games with that formula. We've seen where it's been some inefficient runs, and then we break one and turn things around. That didn't happen today.”

It's not just the Texans. For years, Henry has terrorized the AFC South and those poor defenses that had to face him twice in a season. In 2023, however, he is averaging 48 yards in division games.

The Titans scare no one in the AFC South anymore. They’ll now have to watch as the Jaguars, Colts and Texans all play on with postseason hopes intact, knowing they’ve been passed by all three. And knowing full well, too, that each was better — and more tenacious in the run game — than the formerly physical Titans.

Like most things in football, that glum fate also has been deserved.

It has been the consequence of deteriorating talent on the offensive line. Of poor draft classes and a misguided belief that accomplished, expensive offensive linemen like Taylor Lewan, Rodger Saffold, Ben Jones and Nate Davis can be replaced on the cheap — and we've learned that they can’t.

For the Titans, that lesson has come at a steep price. It has cost them their identity under Vrabel.

“Obviously, we want to get the run game going with Derrick. That's kind of who we are,” rookie left guard Peter Skoronski said.

Not quite.

It’s who the Titans were.

On Sunday, that tough-guy reputation simply felt outdated. Along with everything else about a franchise that sought to return to past glory and instead still found itself mired in gloomy ol’ 2023, where the Titans are no longer the bullies of the AFC South. Now they are the division's weakling.

 

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2 hours ago, Rip76 said:

Did he play yesterday?

No, he got waived after their last game for ‘attitude and lack of effort’. Apparently he’s been pissed all year about the lack of an extension. Whatever, maybe a change of scenery will make a difference. Zero risk, and the dude can play…

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1) Fuck Bud Adams!

2) Fuck the Tennessee Titans and their "Luv Ya Blue" backfire!

3) Way to scratch and claw a way to victory and a shot at the playoffs Texans!

4) There was on positive of seeing the Columbia blue that I loved, that also brought so many disappointments.  Mainly was a vivid recollection of a drunk Ass Bum Phillips at Club No Minors at El Patio a few years after he stopped coaching.  So there was something good that came out of the visualization of that color. 

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39 minutes ago, HtownHorn said:

I think we are in really good shape if we win our next 2 home games.

The Indy game is really the big one; if we beat Indy and Tennessee, that gives us the tiebreak over Indy (by division record) even if we lose to Cleveland. That win over Cincinnati could end up being huge; really need Buffalo to drop another game as well…

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