Texans' Debut At Reliant

I watched the Texans' first (preseason) game in Reliant Stadium on television tonight.

There were not many highlights, as the Texans looked about like an expansion team should look against a seasoned playoff-caliber team. It was pretty ugly, right down to the opening festivities:

The Texans (1-3) didn't have too many bright moments in their debut in their $449 million retractable-roof stadium, including the pregame introductions before 69,432. It was the largest crowd ever to see a football game in Houston.

Six flag bearers ran onto the field with flags containing one letter, supposedly spelling out "Texans." But they erred, spelling it T-X-E-A-N-S.

A number of notes on the football side of things:

1) David Carr's experience may be very much like the last quarterback to play NFL football in Texas after being drafted #1. As was the case in Troy Aikman's first season with Dallas, they better have the ambulance ready to go every game, because

2) The offensive line is terrible, and the right side was especially terrible tonight. This was to be expected with two projected starters out, and injuries are certainly beyond the control of management. EXCEPT for the fact that management drafted Tony Boselli first in the expansion draft, he ties up a huge amount of salary cap space, and it's possible that he may never play again, let alone this year. The Boselli pick is probably the only bad move Texans' management has made, but it may help get David Carr killed this season.

3) The receivers need to quit dropping perfectly thrown passes. They've dropped passes all preseason, and tonight was no exception.

4) The special teams are not very special.

5) The defense missed a lot of tackles.

6) The team committed a lot of stupid penalties.

I don't think Dom Capers will be getting much sleep tonight.

[Posted at 22:57 CST on 08/24/02] [Link]