WR Kevin Walter is arguably the best unheralded wide receiver in the league.  He runs exact routes and has excellent hands.  Through the first thirteen games of the season, Walter has 851 yards and is among the league leaders in touchdowns (8).  Of the 31 players with at least 55 receptions, only Roddy White (ATL), Greg Jennings (GB), Steve Smith (CAR), and Calvin Johnson (DET) are averaging more yards per catch.  

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Sunday's match-up with the Browns will feature a familiar sight for Texans fans; CB Dunta Robinson will slide back into the starting line-up.  Playing primarily nickel back since the Detroit Lions game, D-Rob will resume his duties at the right cornerback slot.

Robinson is ready to prove to everybody that he's ready to be the player that was he was before he suffered a near career ending knee injury. 

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With two of the NFL's most potent offenses squaring off, it was all but certain that last Sunday's game would have its share of fireworks.  With both teams dug in, the game a Lucas Oil Staduim was a steady shootout.  Each team fired on target, seemingly at will.   As time was running out, and the Colts dead in their sights, the Texans' last shot misfired - leaving them to be done in by the Colts' Bullitt.     

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Games that result in 41-13 blowouts usually have several reasons for the disparity in scoring.  Oftentimes, games that are that lopsided are a result of turnovers, and last Sunday wasn't any different.  With Sage throwing four interceptions (three in the second half), the Texans were unable to stay competitive. 

As detrimental as the turnovers were, there was another key component to the Texans demise: penalties.  Sunday, the Texans were flagged ten (10) times  for a total of 76 yards, by far the most this season.  Through the first eight contests, the Texans were averaging only 3.5 penalties a game, nearly a third less than their total last Sunday. 

Being that the Texans are one of the least penalized teams in the league, it became obvious that something else was at play.   If the Texans were playing away from home, in front of a hostile crowd, I could understand the sharp spike in called penalties, but seeing as how the game was at Reliant, there must have been something else at play.

So were the Texans' inflated penalty numbers a result of mental miscues or over officiating?  After scratching my head for a second, I went on a fact-finding mission.  And what I found all but confirmed my hunch.   

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Watching Sunday's game took me back to a time in my mind, back to 1995.  It was the Edinburg North High School campus sometime just after the day's final bell.  Teenagers were being teenagers, enjoying the end of another skull-numbing day.  I was walking and talking with a friend, heading out to my car when I saw something about to pop off.

This kid (who we'll call Red) was marching down the corridor with a group of his homeboys following close behind.  First thought - there's gonna be a gang fight - let's go check it out.  So I see this kid and his cadre of compadres set their sights on this guy sitting down at a table talking to his chick. We'll call that guy Blue.

So anyway Red demands that Blue gets up.  Blue tells him to fuck off.  Being goaded by his homeboys, Red pushes a still-seated Blue.  So Blue, alone in front of this ever growing crowd of bystanders, gets up.

Red again pushes a now-standing Blue.  And with amazing quickness, Blue unleashed a flurry of pounding punches, pummeling Red's nose, chin, neck, mouth, eye...  each shot echoed louder than the last.  I mean seriously, Red got the ever living crap out beat out of him.  It was so bad that even Red's friends started to slink away.   After a couple of minutes, security guards came in and rescued Red from the savage beating.

The story is hardly football related, but the Texans' performance on Sunday reminded me a lot of that one-sided fight I saw some thirteen years ago.  Like Red, the Texans made mistake after mistake and wound up getting embarrassed in front of their home crowd.

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