Well the season is now officially three weeks old and it is time for the Houston Texans to do some deep soul searching on their team.

First the Good:  The offense is still firing on all cylinders.  QB Matt Schuab is healthy and WR Andre Johnson is still in Pro Bowl form.  As the game against Tennessee showed, this offense can put up impressive numbers.  WR Kevin Walters has shown that he is at least a great number two receiver and possibly a good number one.  The Kickers are, as always, good and special teams are at least doing their jobs.

The Bad:  RB Steve Slayton seems to be suffering from the same 2nd year slump that he worked to avoid.  He already has three, count them 3, fumbles this year.  His yards per carry are down and he only has one run of 20 yards.  Some of the blame must be on the offensive line but still he needs to fight for every inch of ground and HOLD ON TO THE BALL!

The Ugly:  One word…. Defense!  Wow, how much worst can it get?  I thought the hiring of Frank Bush was suppose to give us a more aggressive defense and create more turn overs and sacks.  One sack so far for Super Mario.  Allowing opposing RB’s to run over/around/through the line and just blow pass the linebackers.  Giving up a unbelievable 436 ypg.  If the defense does not get it together this week then we can kiss this season good bye and give Payton Manning every record in the book when they come to town.

The math is simple,  give up that kind of yardage to every team that comes to town and it doesn’t matter how good your offense is, your going to lose.  If Houston manages to stay a 8-8 team this year it will only be by way of the offense stepping up and winning shoot outs.  Coach Kubiak will keep his job if that happens but if the Texans drop much below that mark then he will be (and probably should be) looking for a job.

Next week the Oakland Raiders come to town.  Now earlier this year I predicted a win in this game.  Of course I also thought we would be 2-1 at this point and looking to get revenge for last years loss.  The odds right now are in Houston’s favor with the Texans a 9 point favorite.

Just looking at the numbers you would think that the Texans would make short work of the Raiders and win in a blow out.  Looking at our defense the last three weeks I wouldn’t be surprised to see the opposite happen.  We shall see what happens next sunday.  One thing is for sure, if the defense does not improve drastically this week you should kiss this season goodbye.