Clowney’s Commitment To The Houston Texans “Questioned”
By Cheval John
The Houston Texans are now 4-5 after their 31-21 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday at NRG Stadium in Houston.
First year head coach Bill O’Brien believes that his team can turn the season around and make the playoffs.
And since they have a bye (not playing football) this week, Mr. O’Brien will focus on fixing the inconsistencies of the offense.
I think he should really focus on trying to make sure that the No.1 overall pick, Jadeveon Clowney, is committed 100% to the team.
Many have question Clowney’s committment to the game of football after he “took off” from playing very hard in his last year at the University of South Carolina.
One could say that Clowney was more concerned about making the jump to the NFL and making millions of dollars in the NFL than helping South Carolina to make another run at a potential SEC title.
And it seems like Merril Hoge’s prediction about Clowney is coming true.
Since he was drafted, Clowney has only participated in two NFL games this season due to injuries and Sunday’s game to a flu.
It might be too early to tell if Mr. Hoge was right about Clowney about being a bust, but signs of Hodge being right is there.
And according to a report by ESPN, Clowney allegedly liked a photo on Instagram during the game on Sunday.
Even though it should not be a big deal, it is a big deal because it raises questions about Clowney’s commitment to the game of football.
Reports also suggests that the Texans, who in my opinion are a first class organization, are questioning whether they made the right decision to draft Clowney.
O’Brien denies the reports about questioning the commitment of Clowney to the football team.
“Yeah, he and I…like we tweeted back and forth last night.” O’Brien said to Pro Football Talk. “I went on Spacebook, he went on Twitter…I mean, I don’t know. This guy wants to play football. He’s trying to get better to get back on the field.”
One can hope that Clowney will be ready for their next game in two weeks and be very consistent in producing for the Texans.
If he continues to struggle with staying healthy and also his supposed lack of focus on the game of football, then Mr. Hoge’s prediction about Clowney will be right on the money.
SHSU Defeated SFA 42-28 In “Battle Of The Piney Woods” Rivalry
By Cheval John
It was no surprise that everything was at stake between archrivals Sam Houston State and Stephen F. Austin in the 89th edition of “The Battle of the Piney Woods.”
Both teams were a part of a five-way tie for first place in the Southland Conference (SLC).
The winner of this matchup would have control of their own destiny and have a chance to play for a SLC title.
And for the fourth straight year since the game moved to Reliant Stadium (now NRG Stadium), home of the Houston Texans, the Bearkats defeated the Lumberjacks 42-28.
The Bearkats dominated the Lumberjacks with their running game and strong defense.
“First of all, congratulations to Sam Houston. They are a fine team,” SFA head coach Clint Conque said. “Certainly, they deserved to win the way they played. It was pretty obvious everybody didn’t play their best game tonight on the defensive side of the football and execution on offense. Congratulations to those guys. We certainly have to play better, but we didn’t do that today.”
Senior running back Keshawn Hill torched SFA’s defense with 156 yards and four touchdowns on 14 carries.
Hill became one of four Bearkats to score four touchdowns in one game.
Sophomore quarterback Jared Johnson, who had the other rushing touchdown, had 140 yards on 13 carries and completed 6 of his 17 passes for 127 yards and no interceptions.
Though the Bearkats gave up 516 yards of total offense, SFA shot themselves in the foot with penalties that would have made this game a lot closer.
In the opening drive of the game, the Lumberjacks (3-2 SLC, 6-3 overall) seemingly had scored the first touchdown.
But an illegal shift penalty on Aaron Thomas nullified the touchdown and a few plays later, SFA had to punt the football.
On SHSU’s first possession Johnson connected with Hill for 13 yards for a first down.
After Hill rushed for 8 yards to the Bearkat 41 yard line, he ran for a 59 yard touchdown to make it 7-0.
The Lumberjacks tied it up at 7 after Trey Vallier recovered a fumble in the end zone for a touchdown.
Both teams exchanged scores that made it 14 with 7:32 left in the second quarter.
Hill scored his third touchdown of the game with 26 seconds left in the second quarter to give SHSU a 21-14 lead.
“That’s one of the benefits of being up tempo,” Bearkat head coach K.C. Keeler said. “We’re comfortable no matter how much time is left on the clock. It just doesn’t bother us. You give a minute, we’ll take it. You give us 30 seconds, we’ll take it. I think that helps being uptempo. We had all of our time outs available. We felt comfortable that we could go down and make a play.”
Sam Houston picked up from where they left off in the third quarter when Hill broke loose for a 32 yard touchdown run that made it 28-14.
That play was set up earlier when Johnson connected with Yedidiah Louis for 42 yards.
The Bearkats increased their lead to 35-14 after Hill scored his fourth touchdown.
Though the Lumberjacks cut the lead to 35-21 after a 1-yard touchdown run by Conque on a 13 play, 86 yard drive, it was too late as they could not recover from the onslaught of the Bearkats.
Texans Are On The “Right” Track
By Cheval John
The old saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Well, the Houston Texans offense was very broken and it needed fixing.
And Texans head coach Bill O’Brien has “fixed” the problem as today he named Ryan Mallet as the starting quarterback in place of Ryan Fitzpatrick.
The Texans currently have a 4-5 record.
With a bye week, Houston have ample time to address the inconsistencies that the offense have produced under Fitzpatrick.
Naming Mallet as the starter was the correct step that they needed to take if they are going to make the playoffs.
However, Fitzpatrick seems to “dislike” the move.
“I don’t really agree with it, but I respect the hell out of Coach O’Brien.” Fitzpatrick said to Tania Ganguli of ESPN.com. “It’s a hard thing, especially with me at this point in my career, to have to sit and take a back seat.”
Fitzpatrick have no choice but to take a seat as a backup quarterback because he had failed to lead the Texans to a winning record.
Though Fitzpatrick has 11 touchdowns and 8 interceptions, his inconsistencies with the offense has been a detriment to the team.
And since O’Brien believes that his team can make the playoffs despite the odds against them, he had to make the move of naming Mallet as the starting quarterback.
The lesson that people can learn from the Texans organization is this: If you are not making a contribution to your organization or in the case of the entrepreneur, not serving your clients/customers, you will be replaced by someone else who can do the job much better than you.”
That is the hard lesson that Mr. Fitzpatrick will have to deal with for possibly the rest of the season.
Do you think that coach O’Brien made the right move in naming Ryan Mallet as the starting quarterback?
Leave your comment below.
Video courtesy of NBC Sports
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