Texans Kick Cowboys in the Teeth: Win 28-16

The Texans and Cowboys have faced each other six times in both preseason and regular season games, and the home teams have won each time. Big pregame tailgates that never run out of beer, ran out of beer, and in this Saturday night game, there was more trash talking in the stands than on the field. I heard reports of arrests, mostly involving instigating, publicly intoxicated Cowboy fans. Don't mess with the Texans or the HPD.

Cowboy fans talked big junk pregame and on sports talk radio this week, but by the second quarter, they started jabbering about how this was only a preseason game. Funny how Jacoby Jones' 91 yard punt return for a touchdown (he's had two in the preseason, and almost a third one) got Cowboy fans to simmer down some. They didn't completely shut up because well, they are Cowboy fans and have a certain reputation to uphold.

There should be panic in the streets in Big D, as the Texans held the Cowboy rushing game to 57 yards and the Cowboys allowed 142 yards rushing by the Texans. So much for the Dallas lines dominating in the trenches theory.

The game ball should go to Jacoby Jones, who had a great performance in both punt returns and receptions, but another game ball should go to Texan fans. In the post game quotes, many of the Cowboy players mentioned the difficulties that they had with the noise in the stadium. (The game ball should be given to Texan fans also for not killing braying Cowboy fans, unless of course, you actually did kill a Cowboy fan, and then you should receive two game balls. Three game balls if a trident was involved).

The first team cuts are on Tuesday, and even punter Chad Stanley's relatives would have to concede that the job should belong to Matt Turk. The elevation and placement of Turk's punts was impressive. Assuming that Kris Brown's miss of a 45 yard field goal is an anomaly (big assumption given his inconsistency over the last couple of years), special teams and field position for the Texans should be a strength of the team in 2007.

Even Texans owner Bob McNair was feeling it after the game:

"I said before the game that this is a good test for us to see how far we've progressed. The Cowboys, I do believe they've got the best team they've had in the last ten years. Their defense had not given up a touchdown and we scored four on them. We went in, and our second-team offense scored on their first-team defense. Their number one offense played our number two defense and they didn't score. So it wasn't just the first-team; it was our second unit that did extremely well too. I think it was a good test. It was a preseason game, but it is a good test as to where we are."

Nice sum up. So, who here has Jacoby Jones on their fantasy team? And what was interesting to you about the game?