W10: Texans fall to Saints, 24-21

"Dammit, we almost had that one," said Texans SS Aspha Savage. He's right, too. This game was hard-fought, and truly could have went either way.

The Texans tried to force a passing game, until Andre Johnson suffered a torn shoulder labrum on his second catch, and was taken out of the game. To make up for the loss, Texans owner/coach Mike Suszek, after panicking and urging QB Matt Schaub to force balls to Jacoby Jones, turned to Shonn Greene and said, "It's time." This came after the realization that with 10 seconds left in the half and near the goal line, the Texans weren't able to score before getting the ball back in the second half. Had they decided to not risk the TD they didn't get and taken the field goal, at least OT would have been in their futures.

Greene would then pick up the slack for the rest of the game, plucking out run after run. They would limber to the end zone through the third quarter to knock down their ten point deficit, then stop the Saints to force a punt.

Down 17-14 with less than five minutes to go, the Texans marched down the field, culminating in a 43-yard TD run by speedy Ben Tate to take the lead, 21-17. However, they allowed roughly three minutes for Keith and the Saints to respond. This was plenty of time for Brees and co. to score a necessary touchdown using their fast and effective passing game.

With only 24 seconds left in the game and a kickoff to KR specialist Yamon Figurs, one could only wish he could repeat the magic of last week's two KR-for-TD performance. Instead, on the first play of the drive, Matt Schaub would throw the dagger interception, sealing the game for the Saints.

Johnson's best friend, Sam Shields, is coincidentally pained with the same torn shoulder labrum injury. Both are expected back next week against the Colts.

Full game stats:

Bummer, Mike. What a game though - looks like you did everything right and just lost to the slightly better team.

Torn labrums = back next week? Crazy!

I'm surprised the saints didn't have more success running

Chairman7 wrote:I'm surprised the saints didn't have more success running

That's one of the few things I can take away from this game. But stopping the run means nothing compared to stopping the passing game, which I suck at.