DL – Any defensive line that has Mario Williams is better than ours. He’s better than Dockett and Campbell is better than Smith so it’s a wash at that point, but defensive tackle pushes the Texans over the top in my mind. Okoye is still really young (22) despite being in his third season and has tons of potential.

LB – Talent wise I think this is almost a wash but if factor in contracts and age, I’d take the Texans. DeMeco Ryans is very close to Dansby talent wise and he’s only 25. Cushing is obviously a rookie but his three game sample size looks awful promising. Considering their entire linebacking corps is 25 years old or younger, I’d take youth over our mix of 30-somethings.

CB – As some of the Texans’ guys have been saying already their pass defense numbers are deceiving b/c they haven’t played a single team with a strong passing attack and teams have been able to run at will against them. When you looking individually at Dunta Robinson and Fred Bennett, you’ve a got one very good player who’s struggled staying healthy and third year player who lost the starting job last year. When healthy Robinson isn’t a ballhawk but he’s still better than DRC or McFadden but both our guys are better than Bennett. It’s at least even without knowing much about the Texan’s depth at corner.

WR News:

Braylon Edwards has reportedly been traded to the Jets. Terms have not been disclosed yet.

Michael Crabtree has signed with the 9ers. Once he is in football shape, could he help open up the passing game for them? They are already extremely good in the running and short passing game.

I would actually say that Warner and Schaub are almost a wash. Both are explosive and accurate when they are on, but neither is entirely consistent and neither plays overly well under defensive pressure.

Warner obviously has the experience edge though, but I think this is a close call.

I also think you will be surprised at how well the Texans LB corps actually plays. They don’t have Arizona experience, but they are incredibly fast and physically talented as well as extremely aggressive.

This will be a fun game to watch.

Sorry to take over the blog. Back to the subject.

I think overall Houston has the better DEs as a whole, especially against OUR tackles (who doesn’t). Now, with that said, would our familiarity with Antonio Smith be able to neutralize some of his effectiveness against our tackles. They did go up against each other for years. Yes he is in a different system, but I’m sure tendencies and quirks are a little harder to disguise.

There is no way possible that what you have at CB is better than the Texans. They have given up all kinds of ridiculous 3rd and longs to the likes of David Garrard, and Kerry Collins. If the Raiders weren’t SO inept they would’ve made Jamarcus Russell look like Elway. The Texans needed a whopping 9 or 10 drops to keep the 3rd down conversion rate low, and to me that is about 8 more strokes of luck than what you usually get in the NFL. Our CB2 is literally a dude we drafted in the 4th round this year who is starting because Jacques Reeves is hurt (he’s not that good) and Fred Bennett is terrible. Dunta Robinson has only been promising one year out of the 5 he’s played.

As far as LB goes, if they can play a disciplined game of football they can be outstanding. Unfortunately Zac Diles and Brian Cushing both lack the experience you want and it has shown on a lot of the blown plays you see on highlight reels. I imagine that since the Texans have such a torrid time with the 3-4 (Hell the Jags used it a lot on us and it worked well enough) I can see the Cardinal LB’s having a great game.

All that being said, this match-up is still pretty even, and hopefully both teams will put their best foot forward.

is a work in progress. but going forward, here’s what we should look like:
CB1 – Dunta Robinson
CB2 – Fred Bennett OR Quinn… depends.
FS – Eugene Wilson
SS – Bernard “Bonecrusher” Pollard
i’ll take our chances with this group. there’s a lot of potential there… and all of them are young guys, with room to grow. and while your coach may have been to a superbowl… our coach has already won a couple. albeit for another team, but i still give the advantage to Koob. pretty much everything else, i agree with.