Alfred Blue: HOH's Week 11 Golden Bull Award Recipient

The odds were stacked against the Houston Texans.

I’m positive that nobody thought they were going to win a game against a flourishing Cleveland Browns football team.

The Browns had been one of the hottest teams as of late, earning some impressive wins such as the pounding of the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cincinnati Bengals — two quality football teams.

But, for once, the Texans were calm, cool and collective as they easily dealt with the Browns throughout the entire game.

The team did not play perfect football — it’s rare that a team does — but they did all of things necessary to get the badly-needed win.

Now the Texans are perched at 2nd place in the AFC South with them only being one game behind the Indianapolis Colts.

It will be a uphill battle but the it’s nothing the team cannot handle.

I honestly think the reason why this team wasn’t winning games was because of sub-par play at the quarterback position.

Don’t get me wrong — Ryan Fitzpatrick works hard at what he does but it just wasn’t translating to wins out on the football field.

Ultimately, that’s what counts.

Nov 16, 2014; Cleveland, OH, USA; Houston Texans quarterback

Ryan Mallett

(15) throws a pass during the first quarter at FirstEnergy Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports

Bill O’Brien decided to give Ryan Mallett a shot, a shot that he’s been looking for his whole career and he made the absolute best of it.

He ended up completing 20-of-30 of his passes — 67 percent — for 211 yards with two touchdowns and one pick for 95.3 QB rating.

Extremely impressive game and I’m positive we’ll see more games like this out of him because his ethic and foundation of his NFL body of work is just starting to be constructed.

However, there was another player on this football team that made just as much a difference as Mallett and it warrants recognition as well.

Because of this, excellence deserves to be recognized — we started at the beginning of the season and on that type of basis continuously, we will honor an individual player that made the most impact in helping the team, despite whether it resulted in a win or a loss.

We’ve dubbed it House of Houston Golden Bull Award…

And this week’s Golden Bull Award goes to…

Alfred Blue!

The Texans’ rookie running back was called upon once again to hold the torch for Arian Foster as he deals with the healing of an hamstring injury.

He answered the call in a manner that I don’t think any Texan fan would expect.

Blue had 36 carries for 156 yards — his best performance of the season and he also shattered a franchise-record for carries in a game.

Just think about all of the backs we’ve had in our short history — Foster, Domanick Williams, Ben Tate even Steve Slaton.

None of those guys were able to get to Blue’s mark — he did it in one game.

That’s a sign for things to come for the Texans.

Nov 16, 2014; Cleveland, OH, USA; Houston Texans running back Alfred Blue (28) finds running room against the Cleveland Browns during the third quarter at FirstEnergy Stadium. The Texans won 23-7. Mandatory Credit: Ron Schwane-USA TODAY Sports

With Foster consistently being out with various injuries — the team may have to turn to Blue in the future to carry the load.

Foster is incredibly talented but eventually the team may look toward a “shape-up or ship-out” type-mentality toward him.

He makes nearly $6 million a year — it’d be naive to think that the Texans wouldn’t let him go if Blue can carry the load.

Alfred Blue: HOH’s Week 11 Golden Bull Award Recipient

By Brian K. Patterson | Nov 18, 2014