FanHouse Demarcus Faggins

After losing Eric King and Chris Carr to free agency, the Titans have made it clear that they want to find a least one veteran cornerback to help out with depth. The only question is which veteran backup corner it will be.

The Titans have brought in Donald Strickland and Demarcus Faggins for visits this week. Neither of them are guys who you'd want to start, but either could be a nickel/dime back who also contributes on special teams. In fact, its hard to find a whole lot of difference between the two.

In their first drive last week, the Vikings offense scored against the Texans defense in 4 plays. It was a typical start to a Texans game. They have by far worst red zone defense in the league, allowing touchdowns 17 of 25 times for a 81 percent red zone rate. The 213 points the Texans have allowed is 4th most in the AFC.

Football Outsiders currently has the Texans defense ranked 30th (compared to 12th for the offense and 4th for special teams). They ranked the Texans pass defense at 21 and the rush defense last in the league. I believe that most of the pass defense improvement in recent weeks is that teams know the Texans rush defense is garbage, and also they have faced a parade of horrible QBs (Orlowsky, Fitzpatrick, Frerotte).

Hey, but there has been some improvement right? Maybe this young defense is figuring it out? Perhaps if you live in blind optimism land, but this week, a thin defense limited in playmakers has become thinner.

The Houston Texans have been pretty low key in free agency, mostly because they: 1. aren't one player away; 2. don't have a ton of money to spend; 3. usually make bad free agent acquisitions and trades (see e.g. Anthony Weaver, Ahman Green, Phillip Buchanon).

At SI.com, they are reporting unidentified "league source" suggesting that recently released Atlanta running back Warrick Dunn might be interested in the Cowboys, Texans or Broncos. The Texans are reportedly wanting him to have a visit, as they are not interested in re-signing running back Ron Dayne. I can't see Dunn as a Texan unless he really wants to be reunited with offensive line guru Alex Gibbs, and doesn't sign for much.

How many running backs can you sign with their best years behind them?

For the most part, the Texans have spent this free agency period shoring up weaknesses with not terribly splashy acquisitions: former Dallas CB Jacques Reeves, former Seattle linebacker Kevin Bentley (seen in above HT.com video or video transcript here), and re-signing Andre Davis.

To get you ready for week 11, FanHouse is previewing all 16 NFL games. Here is the Houston Texans/New Orleans Saints preview.

2007 Records:
Houston Texans 4-5 (4th, AFC South)
New Orleans Saints 4-5 (T2,NFC South)

Last Game:
Texans Bye Week (Previously Texans 24, Raiders 17)
Rams 37, Saints 29

If you want to read or participate in some Reggie Bush-Mario Williams talk, check out this. Otherwise this is going to be a straight up preview of the game.

It's interesting that both of these teams have the same record, but that the Saints are only one game out of first place in the division and are very much talked about in the playoff hunt, but that the Texans are three games out and not much in the playoff discussion. Certainly both teams want to leave this game with a .500 record.

Today, I don't particularly want to write about the Texans, so instead, Emily Litella will be filling in for me. To see Ms. Litella, please check out the above YouTube.

The topic I will talk about today is the Houston Texans defense. How is it that Joey Heatherton can go 23 for 29, 2 TDs and get a 121.7 quarterback rating against them? Sure, the Texans offense left Atlanta with short fields throughout the game. And the entire team had many more penalties than the Falcons. And sure Joey Heatherton has been playing better at home. She would have had more passing yards but she was protecting the lead by the end of the game.

But if Texans cornerback DeMarcus Faggins is getting abused by Joey Heatherton, who can Faggins play against? He got replaced by nickle back Jamar Fletcher. Heatherton played the same sort of game she played against Carolina, so it wasn't unexpected. You have to make her uncomfortable in the pocket, and the Texans played a very vanilla defense for the first part of the game.

For the Texans defense, Dunta Robinson and DeMeco Ryans both played well. And Amobi Okoye got another sack to get four sacks in three games.

But even with these nice performances wasted, there is no way that you can let Joey Heatherton continue to drive the ball down the field. She's a great singer, dancer and entertainer, but she shouldn't beat you with her quarterbacking skills because she has to be in her 60s.

Wait. You say it was Joey Harrington not Joey Heatherton? Oh that's different. Nevermind.

To get you ready for week 3, FanHouse is previewing all 16 NFL games. Here is your Indianapolis Colts at Houston Texans preview. And to prepare you for this epic battle, I strongly suggest watching the mashedup YouTube of two of the greatest battles in recent cinema.


2007 Record:
Indianapolis Colts: 2-0 (T-1st in AFC South, 1-0 in division)
Houston Texans: 2-0 (T-1st in AFC South)

Last Week:
Colts 22 , Titans 20
Texans 34 , Panthers 21

Last Meeting:
December 24, 2006: Texans 27, Colts 24. With the absence of Colts safety Bob Sanders, Texans running back Ron Dayne rushed for a career high 153 yards. David Carr did not fumble, throw an interception or get sacked--mostly because by that time of the season, the Texans had pretty much shut down the passing game.

Only people who haven't been paying attention are particularly surprised by the result of the Panther-Texans game. Houston quietly had a solid camp and preseason, with the preseason's number one scoring offense in the league. And the Panthers are now historically 3-10 in home openers.

Early in the game, it looked like it would be a runaway victory for Carolina. The Texans quickly got into a 14-0 hole on the road in the first quarter, after a easy touchdown, and then a fumble leading to an easy touchdown. Both TDs involved Texans CB DeMarcus Faggins covering getting abused by Panther receiver Steve Smith in one-on-one coverage. Covering Smith straight up is a nearly impossible task for most cornerbacks, and Faggins is the same corner that got beat by two 83 yard Lee Evans' TDs in last year's game against the Bills so it's not like this was particularly surprising.

After the Texans defensive coordinator embraced the reality that the Faggins-Smith matchup was a worse idea than the Britney Spears' VMA comeback song, the Texans secondary coverage changed and the defense played tough for the rest of the game.