Houston Texans - NFL Season Information, Trivia and History

2011-12 NFL Season

There were a lot of areas the Texans needed to clean up in order to help the franchise progress and succeed. At the top of the list was a defense that ranked last against the pass so when the franchise selected defensively with their 1st round 11th overall draft selection it was expected. What wasn’t expected was the drafting of J.T. Watt, a 6-6 DE that coaches say is an excellent athlete with a 37-in vertical leap and 34 reps on the bench. With the 49ers taking their draft board pick of Aldon Smith, the Texans selected Arizona OLB Brooks Reed who they plan on starting on the strong side of the ball. The team also picked up a couple of cornerbacks in the 2nd and 4th rounds; Brandon Harris out of Miami in the 2nd round and Virginia CB Roc Carmichael in the 4th. Other notable picks include 5th round pick Shiloh Keo, a big and fast safety, 5th round pick T.J. Yates, a tall QB out of North Carolina where they ran nearly the same offense that the Texans use now.

Outlook: With former Dallas Head Coach Wade Phillips heading up the defense, the Texans will convert over to Wade’s 3-4 scheme and look for veterans like Mario Williams to reap immediate benefits from the switch. "I'm very excited about this," Williams said recently. "I think it'll be a good change-up for our team -- not just for me, but overall because of the flexibility Wade will have with the way he'll be able to mix things up."

The defense should improve enough to keep up with the offense of Matt Schaub, Andre Johnson, Kevin Walter, Arian Foster and Owen Daniels who will be together for another year. The key this season will be defense.

Houston Archives

The city of Houston was heart broken when the Oilers bailed on the town in 1996 and left the east side of Texas with only the Cowboys to root for. The Oilers had been gone for six long falls before the professional football of the National Football League returned to Houston. In their first game back in the saddle the Texans took on America’s Team the Dallas Cowboys in a game that divided the state in half. Both teams were airing commercials where fellow Texas residents wearing their respective team’s gear would go through a Spy vs. Spy type thing of playing pranks on each other like a bagger at a grocery store would grab the eggs of the other guy and drop them on the floor instead of the paper sack. In this momentous game the hype around the state was ridiculous. The state hadn’t been so excited about the two teams playing since the Cowboys and Oilers clashed in the 1994 regular season. The game was held in Houston at their new state of the art stadium Reliant Stadium. The crowd had the feel of a college game sans the band. When one looked out into the crowd all they could see was a churning sea of red white and blue the team colors of the Texans. The game got started and on the first drive, quarterback David Carr hooked up with tight end Billy Miller for a 19 yard touchdown, the first one in franchise history. The Texans were amped up by their home crowd and played like they had been in the league for years. They held the Cowboys to only one touchdown and won the game 19-10. More importantly, for some people at least, the Texans got to say they are the best football team in the state, which is a big deal in Texas; football is a religion down there.

Last year the Texans looked like an improved team. They finished the season 5-11 but could’ve very easily been 9-7 with losses to Indianapolis, New England, Cincinnati, and the New York Jets by less than a touchdown. The team actually took the eventual Super Bowl champions to overtime where, who else other than their kicker Adam Vinatieri booted a 28 yard chip shot through the uprights and won the game and saved the team from an embarrassing loss to a second year team. The team is well on their way with their four season plan to make the playoffs.

In the off-season the Texans didn’t make very many big moves through free agency, opting to rather build their team more through the draft. The team did bring in a few veterans in to help the team out like tight end Mark Bruener, offensive tackle Todd Wade, linebacker Dashon Polk, and defensive tackle Robaire Smith.

In the draft, the Texans had 10 draft picks to work with, including two first round picks. With their first pick the Texans grabbed South Carolina cornerback Dunta Robinson. The Texans needed another cornerback in the worst way and got a very good one in Robinson. Robinson can flat out fly running his 40-yard dash in 4.34 seconds and is extremely good at man to man coverage and welcomes the thought of being out on the island by himself. With the 27 th pick in the draft the Texans got Western Michigan defensive end Jason Babin. This was another position that the Texans really needed another guy at. The Texans also picked up three native Texans in Notre Dame cornerback Vontez Duff, Texas wide receiver Sloan Thomas and Texas Tech quarterback Bj Symons who are from Copperas Cove, Spring, and Houston, Texas.

The offense looks like it will be very good over the next couple of years with the young players it has. These young guns are led by quarterback David Carr who was the franchises’ first draft pick ever. The other two young emerging stars are second year running back Domanick Davis and second year wide receiver Andre Johnson.

The Texans use the 3-4 defense like many other teams in the NFL. They are led by savvy veterans like linebackers Jaime Sharper and Kailee Wong, and cornerback Aaron Glenn.