Week 10 – Texans vs. Cardinals: Preview and Predictions

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At this point, the entire Texans season has been a never ending string of deja vu.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve used the phrase, “After a brutal collapse to…” in relation to the Texans this year.  And here I go again.  After a brutal collapse to the Indianapolis Colts, the Texans are now 2-6 moving into week 10.  This week they face off against the Arizona Cardinals at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale Arizona at 3:25 PM (CT).  You can catch the game on CBS. While they’re not quite mathematically eliminated just yet, they will need a win here to keep their potential wild card playoff hopes alive (see? Deja vu).

I’m not really sure what to say about this team anymore. In games they should’ve lost, they’ve won and in games they should’ve won, they’ve lost… miserably. Everything that could have even remotely gone wrong for the Texans this year has.  Matt Schaub continuing the abysmal play of last season’s end, quarterback controversy, offensive line play has been suspect, Brian Cushing has yet another season ending injury, our notoriously awesome defense has given up huge plays at horrendous momentum-killing moments, killer penalties, Randy Bullock can’t hit the broad side of Reliant Stadium from 40 yds out, head coach Gary Kubiak suffered a mini-stroke in the middle of last week’s game… the list goes on and on.

And why should the bad news stop on game day?  The Texans and their fans awoke to news this morning that Arian Foster is going to have season ending back surgery.  Not only does this hurt our chances of doing anything even remotely positive for the rest of the season, but this could cause us some serious problems at the running back position in future years with Ben Tate coming up on free agency in 2014.  Fun fact: Brian McIntyre reporting that once Foster is placed on IR, the Texans will have $26.3 million in cap dollars on IR.  The highest in the NFL.  Wonderful.

The Cardinals are coming off of a bye this week so they are going to be well rested against our (many times over) demoralized squad.  The Cardinals have been very strong on defense this year, and have a better secondary than the Colts do.  Despite how well he’s been playing, Case Keenum could have some problems throwing the deep ball to Andre Johnson against the likes of shutdown corner Patrick Peterson.  He won’t be able to lean on AJ as much against the better defenses in the league.  The other offensive options in Garrett Graham, DeAndre Hopkins, DeVier Posey must be utilized for the Texans to move the ball successfully.

However, The Cardinals’ offense is just as confused as ours has been this year.  Carson Palmer is not a huge threat despite having a weapon like Larry Fitzgerald at his disposal.  J. J. Watt could have a huge game against the run duo of Rashard Mendenhall and Andre Ellington and also affect the pass game if we can get pressure and keep the lead.

This is a game the Texans can and should win even with their depleted roster.  Then again I said that about the Rams, the Colts and Ravens so forgive me if I throw my hands up at this point. Look for this to be a low scoring, defensive driven game with some lackluster offensive play.

Texans 21, Cardinals 17.

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