Texans-49ers Preview: SIX Things To Watch For I knew I hated preseason football. I’ve watched it plenty of times. I know what happens. Pretty much nothing. I can’t remember anything from preseason that extrapolated into the actual season that mattered. The only preseason game I really remember Justin Reid Jersey White , do you remember?, was the one against the Cardinals in 2014 where Ryan Fitzpatrick completed like 1/11 passes for 9 yards and everyone realized that he was going to be bad, and guess what, he was bad. So, yeah, I may watch LIVE tonight. If not, I’ll watch condensed tomorrow hungover with a pot belly filled with beans. Regardless when you watch or how you watch, here are SIX things to watch for when the Texans play the 49ers tonight. I’M SHOCK COLLARED AT THE GATES OF HEAVEN1.) Last Year Actually HappenedFour summers ago I went on a trip to the Colorado Plateau. I went to the Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce, Capital Reef, Arches, Canyonlands, and Mesa Verde with my heart in tatters and shredded like Earl Campbell’s jersey in the 1970s. At the Grand Canyon I backpacked 30 miles or so of the Tonto Trail. On the second day I went to get going but struggled to find the trail. It was like looking for a very important set of keys. I ended up walking back up the canyon and wasted an hour and a half. That hour and a half ripped up my muscles, forced me to walk in the blazing sun, and sucked up water that was nonrenewable. The rest of the day I don’t remember too well. It’s all surreal looking and thinking back on. I took a nap under some cotton wood trees at a campground with twelve spots, all vacant. I felt the rocks as I walked with my mouth closed. During this vagabond voyage I saw a black mark perched on pink rock. It’s eyes bugged out and turned in full rotation. It yawned showing off a sticky tongue packed in its mouth like origami. It didn’t flinch or move like those other horrified lizards when I approached. A chameleon. Deep down in the grand canyon. I’ve been back four more times since that time, I’ve kept my eyes out, I’ve talked to people along the way, and never have I seen one or heard of someone seeing once since then. And now waking up today where I’m at I feel like I hallucinated the whole thing. It doesn’t even seem real. Just some dehydrated dusty desert vision. Like some alligator walking through the streets of Atlanta. This is exactly how I felt about Deshaun Watson. Last year was a fever dream of touchdown passes and magic man pocket maneuvering and squirrel across the highway scrambling. It’s been so long since I actually watched him play that I felt like it never happened. Like imagining your friend Dan laughing in the kitchen even though Dan is dead, or seeing a chameleon in the wild, at the bottom plateau of the Grand Canyon in 110 degrees of baking heat. Last week Watson threw one pass and he completed it. He ran one series and they punted it. No. I’m not insane. Watson did play football for the Texans’ last year and actually did the things he did. I didn’t imagine it all. And this year he will once again play football for the Houston Texans. Enjoy it and savor it when he’s out there tonight. Bill O’Brien already said the starters will play about as much as they played last week, which wasn’t much at all. Regardless, any sight of Watson on the field is assurance that reality is more stable than it actually is. 2.) The New GuardPhillip Rivers. Ben Roethlisberger. Tom Brady. Eli Manning. Drew Brees. We are nearing the end of the life of the former cream of NFL quarterback play. Soon they’ll all be gone. There will be a cavity in our Sundays missing Rivers climbing up the pocket and running so slow outside of it, Roethlisberger getting smashed over the head with a bottle of Busch Light and not feeling a thing, Brady being annoying and completing wide open passes over the middle, Manning throwing aw shucks interceptions Womens Ryan Griffin Jersey , and Brees peaking over the line of scrimmage to throw deep. The end is near. We are going to need other quarterbacks to come alive and be able to take over. No matter which team they play for, or the aesthetic of their game, we need some young men to step up. Marcus Mariota needs to play better. Dak Prescott needs to evolve past throwing seven yard passes to a lot of different receivers and managing a viscous run game. Teddy Bridgewater needs to be traded to Tampa Bay. Josh Rosen needs to excel once Sam Bradford’s Aorta collapses. Ryan Tannehill is never going to happen, stop trying to make it happen. And Jimmy Garooppolo needs to be more than, as Jalen Ramsey claims, all scheme. I watched more of Jimmy G! during his Brady’s four game timeout than he played last year. At that point of the season I don’t have much time to watch bad football teams unless it involves the Houston Texans or Blaine Gabbert. But tonight, it will be fun to see him sling it. Jimmy has a crazy release and an arm as wild as his heart. He’s a pure thrower of the football. It’s going to be fun to see how he’s evolved the rest of his game tonight. 3.) I <3 Julie’n DavenportSo far so good. I told y’all signing Nate Solder would have been a mistake and Davenport could be a competent cost effective starting left tackle if he got strong enough. And last week against Kansas City, boy howdy, did he look strong enough. His biceps are spaghetti squashes, he’s wide and massive, and he sucked up and devoured every bull rush the Chiefs threw at him last week. Even though Davenport delivered last week it was nothing more than a first impression. An important step, but there’s still a handful of boulders between here and the other side of the creek. Whenever Houston has the ball he’ll be the only player I’ll be watching. I’m interested in the interior of the offensive line as well, but you can’t see things very clearly from the LIVE sideline camera angle. It just looks like a Rivercity Rockfest moshpit. Out on the left edge, with the Texans traveling south, Davenport is easy to see. When Houston goes the other way I’ll watch for Seantrel Henderson. He’s an enormous man, but he hasn’t played football since 2014, and when he did play he was terrible, and this season he’s probably going to be terrible. Last weekend he struggled in pass protection and was constantly beat by edge rushing moves. Lucky for him the Texans were using that 2014-2016 quick passing offense so Brandon Weeden got the ball out before anything could harm him. Life won’t be as fortunate in the future. No matter which way the Texans are moving the ball, there is an important position to watch right front and center. 4.) Just Go AwayI’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, I really don’t like watching Alfred Blue play. He runs up the middle and falls down. He doesn’t even run fast. He doesn’t offer anything additional to this offense. Just a plodding steady constant of time. He’s no different than a ceiling fan. But still he’s here. He just keeps hanging around this town. The Texans have had a cornucopia of running backs over the last few seasons, but none of them have been consistent enough, or their expected athleticism didn’t match their actual on field athleticism. Johnathan Grimes, Chris Polk, Akeem Hunt, and Tyler Ervin. All four have been here and haven’t been able to really supplant Blue. Then last week that little man Troymain Pope came out onto the field. He caught a couple of screen passes and was unable to be seen among a jungle of offensive linemen. Patiently waiting, then ripping off down the field. A screen pass actually worked! Someone actually showed some athleticism. It was beautiful and insane to see. It was what we all have been wanting to see from Tyler Ervin for two years now. Now Womens Stephen Anderson Jersey , when D’Onta Foreman comes back Blue will no longer be the second running back, but he could still be on the roster as a third back. Ervin could still be here as a kick returner. But there’s a different reality, a better reality, one where the Texans finally found a third running back with speed who can do things with screen passes, and add an additional layer of grime to a filthy offense. 5.) THE DUKEI don’t watch college football. Football all day Saturday. Football all day Sunday. Hell that’s too much damn football. So I’ll wait until after the draft and get acquainted with the NFL’s new recruits. Duke Ejiofor was as much of a Baldur’s Gate NPC to me as a football prospect. Then I watched his video from his Wake Forest halcyon days, and boy-o, the kid could play. He had both a great rip and spin from the edge, and despite being under sized, he could get underneath some pads and drive tackles back. He fell later in the draft because of injuries, and the Texans swooped him up. Last week, with the starters off the field quickly, Ejiofor was the best defender on the field. Constantly he was applying pressure and ripping and swimming around offensive tackles. He had a Pro Football Focus Pass Rusher Effectiveness Efficiency Rating of +107.12. For so long the Texans haven’t had a third edge rusher. It’s been all Whitney Mercilus and Jadeveon Clowney. Sure, Brennan Scarlett has had some shots along with Ufomba Kamalu, but neither are very good. If they are playing snaps you better hope it’s week 17 and you’re trying to stave off an embarrassing last place finish. Ejiofor looks better than being a vulture sack garbage gut. He has actual pass rushing skill, and the athleticism to close the distance between him and the quarterback quickly. In football you can never have enough defensive backs, and you can never have enough pass rushers. Hopefully Ejiofor becomes an additional rusher they can toss out there when Clowney or Mercilus is a little winded. 6.) SIX THINGS I’ve been writing this silly little article for three? years now. I don’t know. I still can’t believe I’m doing this. And during this time this same version of this same article has popped elsewhere. Five Things To Watch For here and there and here and there. Well I’ve had enough of it. I’m packing my bags. I got six things to watch for. Take it from here Cormac:Enjoy the game everyone.The Film Room: How The Giants Took Advantage Of Zach Cunningham Whether I wanted to or not, I forced myself to re-watch Sunday’s game. I did it not for the article or for the research, but purely to quell the frustrations bouncing around my head. I wanted to take something away from the film that I did not initially focus on when watching live.That one thing turned out to be that Zach Cunningham was utterly picked on by the New York Giants. Whether it was through the air or on the ground, Cunningham was the mismatch the Giants located before the game and executed upon during the course of the contest ad nauseum. I am not saying that Cunningham is the reason for Sunday’s loss, but the sophomore linebacker does have a ton to work on.For example:Cunningham’s play recognition during the rush is way too hesitant.He is watching the play develop and bunny-hopping in position in front of his primary gap responsibility. This creates no momentum for him when taking on a block and it allows larger linemen to overwhelm his smaller frame. On the Giants’ first drive of the game, New York targeted Sterling Shepard over the middle to convert 3rd and 4 from the Texans’ 23. Cunningham was in zone coverage over the middle and whiffed on a tackle that would have forced a fourth down and presumably a field goal. Instead, the Giants scored on the next play, and that score can also be credited to Cunningham.Let’s set the stage first before we start pointing fingers. Giants are in a shotgun 11 personnel (one running back, one tight end) with all three wide receivers split out to the left. The Texans are in a 3-4 nickel set and have shifted to the right to match the Giants’ alignment. Cunningham is responsible for the A gap and C gap as the strong side linebacker in this situation. The Giants’ offense runs a zone block scheme to the A Gap, which allows Saquon Barkley’s patience, speed, and difficulty to tackle flourish in a tight space.At the point of contact http://www.thetexanslockerroom.com/authentic-senio-kelemete-jersey , Cunningham (#41) runs straight to the hole but is greeted by a much larger offensive guard who gets below the linebacker’s pads and throws him to the ground.Look at everyone else on in the picture.Their legs are bent. The low man wins in football; that is just a fact. Patrick Omameh is a 6’5”, 322 pound offensive guard build like a steer. Cunningham is 235 pounds. Almost NINETY POUNDS of difference, and Cunningham approaches him like Flat Stanley? Cunningham simply cannot get away with this technique versus athleticism at this level, even if he put on weight this offseason. What Cunningham needed to do was keep outside leverage on the guard and force Barkley back into the whole where D.J. Reader (#98) could clean the play up. Although Kareem Jackson whiffed on a tackle at the end of the play, there really is not much he can do when the running back goes untouched through the offensive line.Cunningham was not a good blitzer. He ran straight into the blocker and did not have any moves at the point of attachHe missed what should have been a tackle off the edge of Barkley because Cunningham went too high.On the Giants’ last drive of the first half, they were stampeding down the field and fully executing a four-minute drive when their offense lined up in an empty set on first and ten at the Texans’ 16 yard line.This forced the Texans to split Zach Cunningham out in man defense on Giants backup TE Rhett Ellison. Since the Giants line up three wide receivers on the other side of the formation, Tyrann Mathieu (#32) is shaded to the right to help cover the three receiver side. This leaves Cunningham on an island in the middle of the field, and since he is shaded to the outside of the tight end, he is in a very vulnerable position before the ball is even snapped.Two seconds later, Eli Manning, the Mendoza Line of NFL quarterbacks, has a perfect throwing lane and places the ball squarely into the chest of his target. As you can see from the image above and in the video below, Cunningham pauses for a brief moment as Ellison breaks on his route and into the end zone. Mathieu is too far away to break up the pass and now the Texans are behind 20-3.Outside of these two plays, I found other issues with Cunningham’s game on Sunday. On the first instance I witnessed Cunningham actively sprinting to the ball on a run, he successfully got into the backfield but would up missing the tackle entirely; Barkley turned a two yard loss into a two yard gain. While we know Cunningham is not an adept at blitzing the quarterback, on the one occasion he was a part of the package rushing the passer, he was incapable of putting any pressure on Eli Manning.Even with all of these negative findings, Cunningham is a good linebacker with a ton of upside. He is only in his second year in the league and was solid last year for the Texans. His future is bright, but when the team has to take him out because the opponent has found flaws in his game, he becomes a liability more than an asset. It does not help that Cunningham’s backup, Dylan Cole, was just put on the IR and lost for the season yesterday. Now there is no equivalent replacement on the roster if Cunningham gets picked on again. Regardless of whether the Texans can help Cunningham out or he begins to work on addressing some of his weaknesses, he’s one of the biggest liabilities on this 0-3 Texans defense as they prepare for the Colts on Sunday.