Texans Look For Redemption After Initial Embarrassment
By Charles Jay
The Houston Texans suffered an embarrassing fate in their opener, even by pre-season standards. On Saturday night they may feel a sense of urgency to improve upon that as they take on the Atlanta Falcons in football betting action that is set to get underway at 8 PM ET at Reliant Stadium.
The Texans, in their debut for new head coach Bill O’Brien, were held to nine first downs and were outgained by a 407-172 margin in losing a 32-0 decision to the Arizona Cardinals last Saturday. Did some heads roll? We’ll find out.
Meanwhile, Atlanta beat Miami 16-10 in an effort that maybe didn’t impress everybody. The Falcons know that there are a lot of eyes on what they do, since they are this year’s subject of the HBO documentary series “Hard Knocks.” And to spice up the series, there have been joint practices held this week between these teams, which often gets spirited.
In football betting odds, the Texans are laying a field goal on their home field:
Houston Texans -3 (-120)
Atlanta Falcons +3 (+100)
Over/Under 40 Pts
In last week’s game, the Houston defense, which is an area that is supposed to be the team’s strength, let Arizona run through it like a knife through butter. The Cardinals’ big QB “project,” Logan Thomas, was 11-of-12 in his NFL debut, while Carson Palmer had a perfect outing in his brief appearance (5-for-5, 84 yards). If there is a bright spot Chinese Bookie customers could point to, it’s that the Texans held the Cards to 81 yards on 37 carries.
On offense the effort was lacking, to say the least. Ryan Fitzpatrick, the Ivy Leaguer who is expected to handle the quarterback position until Houston settle son a better answer, was six of 14 for 55 yards, and rookie Tom Savage, in his first appearance in the pros, got sacked twice, confirming to critics that he is going to be in trouble in the face of an active pass rush. Football bettors should know that record-setting college quarterback Case Keenum, who had his moments when filling in for injured Matt Schaub last year, is also around, and he’s got every opportunity to compete for the backup job, although he won’t see any action with the fist unit on Saturday.
In an interesting twist, TJ Yates, who quarterbacked the Texans in two playoff games as a rookie but wound up being an odd man out with the QB crew Houston decided to go with, is now in a competition to be the backup quarterback with the Falcons, who are +1800 in the football betting odds at Chinese Bookie to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl. He connected on seven of his 16 passes against the Dolphins, while Sean Renfree, who he is dueling with, was just 6-for-15. Matt Ryan got in and out of the game with a very efficient outing, hitting all seven throws for 53 yards. On the evening, Atlanta was eight for 17 on third down conversions. Over the course of a season, that would probably be the best percentage in the NFL.
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