Chris Johnson is undoubtedly one of the best RB’s in the league, but the Texans defense has played extremely well against the run in the last 6 games, averaging about 55 yards allowed. I don’t think that they can contain Chris Johnson to near that number, but if the defense can limit him to about 100 yards, I’ll be happy. I think the best way to limit Johnson is to try and get ahead early forcing Vince Young to beat us. If you guys are allowed to pound the ball early and often, we could be in for sme trouble.

We had no real issues dancing all over their D when we played them.

They look good statstically, don’t get me wrong, but I wouldn’t hold them up as the gold standard.

As for containing CJ, I don’t think you shut him down really. Look, the Titan gameplan is give the ball to CJ over and over and eventually he will break a big one.

The way to beat that is no secret, you have to hit your assignments and stay in the gaps.

One of the strengths of this defense is we have a very fast linebacking corps. They move laterally quickly and can generally string out the play to keep a RB from turning the corner down the sideline.

Bernard Pollard, AKA “Bonecrusher”, has been playing really well in the run game, plugging gaps in the middle of the field.

Two of the huge runs CJ had against us were caused by:
1. In one case we simply didn’t line up across from him, literally. That won’t happen again.
2. Our old safety, Busing, missed his run-gap assignment in the middle of the line and CJ blew right past him. Bernard Pollard is MUCH MUCH more proficient at run game gap defense.

So can we stop CJ from breaking the long ones? Not all of them. I fully expect CJ to get his. But I think we can keep him to ONE big run, and if we do that we win the game.

Run defense – Bernard Pollard. Also, Brian Cushing didn’t play at all in the preseason so he has gotten better and better as the season has gone on. It’s not quite that simple of course, but those are two huge reasons. Also – Antonio Smith didn’t play well to start the year, but has really come on as of late, and his run defense has been stellar.

Stop Chris Johnson? No, I don’t think anyone can right now… but they just can’t give up all those huge plays. He can get his stats, but we can’t let him run absolutely wild. I think he’ll do well Monday night, but we’ll make Vince have to be a factor in the game as well, and if we do that – I like our chances.

Steve Slaton’s problems are all in his head. The run-blocking hasn’t been good at all – but it’s not just that. He’s more tentative, he doesn’t hit the hole with authority, and obviously – the HORRIBLE fumbling problems. He’s still LETHAL when the screens are working, but he’s just as damaging to Houston as he is to opponents if he can’t hold on to the ball.

To win this season. This game would help because of the prime time exposure, but it’s not this particular game per say. I would say this game is more important because it’s the first of three straight AFC South games.

It was supposed to be a strength for the Texans this year, but it hasn’t been going that way. The Titans defense, from what I’ve observed, is still very stout against the run. If Slaton gets the ball a lot don’t be surprised if it’s on swing passes and screens.

And I would also expect a healthyamount of Schaub to AJ as well.

if the texans lose, it probably sets off a 1-2 or 0-3 run against division rivals which would all but tank their season.

for the titans, a loss means even the casual mathematical suggestion of the playoffs as a possibility disappears and it becomes a whole lot harder to get guys breathing fire every week.

But the Texans have now taken 2 straight from the Titans and have finished the last 2 seasons very strong, so I think we all believe they have a good chance of winning this game, and 3 straight goes a long way to evening that series. I actually think that we have a better chance of winning this than if you guys where 0-9 because we might have under estimated you if you where still on the losing streak. But with the recent wins, they now have to make sure come out prepaired. We got caught buy a horrible Raiders team last year because whe underestimated them, when we where on a late season roll.

because of the franchise history and the VY element. They advertisers have got to be much, much happier that VY is in there over Kerry now. Gives this game a whole nother story line it wouldn’t have had otherwise.

It’s not a classic NFL rivalry at this point by any means, but it holds promise. The Texans will get to a string of winning seasons eventually. They are not a badly managed or coached team, as so many NFL teams are – their time is coming. If we have a few seasons where both the Titans and Texans are consistently good (and Manning is waning instead of waxing), I think it could blossom into a great rivalry. Hope it happens before Bud kicks the bucket.

Mario Williams has by far outplayed VY,and Schuab is a much better fit for a Kubiak offense(or any offense where the QB has to throw the ball) then VY.

Wow….pretty much EVERYONE IN THE ENTIRE WORLD except for TITS fans of course, agree that Williams was the better choice in that draft. EVERYONE.

You make no sense.

even a squirrel finds a NUT every once in a while!!

get hit too hard on monday night, or else all those stats go out the window for about 3-4 weeks. listen i like schaub and he is a great qb, always thought so when he backed up vick, but the guy is made of glass. on good shot and he most likely not good to go the rest of the game, and his consistency with injuries has been the main reason for the texans non success for the past few years. we cant win alot of games if our franchise qb is on the sideline the majority of the regular season.

Either way I don’t think he get’s fired unless we have a terrible second half collapse. We play all thre division teams, then the Seahawks, Rams, Dolphins and Patriots. If we don’t win four of those games, I don’t think he’ll get fired but there will be a huge amount of pressure for next year. The thing that coming into this year would have killed him is if the defense continued to play the way it did in the first three games. Frank Bush getting the defense to play better has probably given immunity to Kubiak unless they revert.

Each game is a little different so who knows what they will do this time.

If Slaton returns to prominence this game. I’m not saying that he will have a huge night production wise, but after the bye week I could see Kubiak trying to re-establish Stevie Wonder.

No official word on who’s starting at RB on Monday, but Moats did get the start in Indy before the bye. I said before the Indy game, and I’ll say now, that I think Slaton will get his starting gig back for MNF.

Regardless of what happens, you should expect to see both Moats and Slaton get touches on Monday night.

VY running into the endzone in overtime to win the game