Sports Talk

HouSports.com

2011-11-15T15:05:00.000-08:00

www.housports.com Hi everyone due my growing love for writing about Houston sports I've constructed a website (in the title) it's already up and running but it needs numerous improvements. I'm going to be dropping the blogspot from the URL and try to make this into a huge site for Houston sport fans.

Thanks

Justin Pishkar

Leinart's Chance

2011-11-14T20:55:00.000-08:00

Fearless leader of the bench Matt Leinart

Can Leinart lead this team? He doesn't have to do much other than avoiding mistakes! Arian Foster and the offensive-line have shown they are more than capable of controlling the game. He's also gaining a fresh (or rusty) Andre Johnson which will definitely help him due to lack of weapons at the receiver position. While in Arizona Matt had Larry Fitzgerald who some consider along with Johnson to be the best in the league. Leinart wasn't able to get it done in Arizona where he was a cocky young player accustom to greatness at USC and not ready for the NFL. For the last season and a half he's sat behind an excellent veteran, and hopefully #8's efficiency on offense has rubbed off. Kubiak convinced Leinart to stay with the Texans rather than taking a deal with Seattle. I have to hope that Kubiak knew what he was doing because reports on Schaub's return have been undetermined. Jacksonville's defense (ranked 5th defending the pass) presents no easy task for the Texans coming of their bye week. If anyone paid attention to the Texans in the preseason Leinart played pretty well off the bench....I'm going to be optimistic.

Here are some of his stats:

College USC Trojans

		Passing							Rushing
Season	Team	GP	Comp	Att	Pct	Yds	TD	INT	Att	Yds	TD
2003	USC Trojans	13	255	402	63.4	3,556	38	9	32	-62	0
2004	USC Trojans **Heisman	13	269	412	65.3	3,322	33	6	49	-44	3
2005	USC Trojans	13	283	431	65.7	3,815	28	8	51	36	6
	Totals	39	807	1,245	64.8	10,693	99	23	132	-70	9

NFL Career

		Passing								Rushing
Season	Team	GP	Rating	Att	Comp	Pct	Yds	TD	INT	Att	Yds	TD
2006	Arizona Cardinals	12	74.0	377	214	56.8	2,547	11	12	22	49	2
2007	Arizona Cardinals	5	61.9	112	60	53.6	647	2	4	11	42	0
2008	Arizona Cardinals	4	80.2	29	15	51.7	264	1	1	4	5	0
2009	Arizona Cardinals	8	64.6	77	51	66.2	435	0	3	9	-6	0
2010	Houston Texans	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Totals	29	70.8	595	340	57.1	3,893	14	20	46	90	2

Please give birth to the playoffs!

Say It Ain't So!

2011-11-14T14:08:00.000-08:00

(Not from Sunday's game)

There is word coming out of the Houston Texans organization that Matt Schaub has suffered a significant foot injury. The injury occurred in the second quarter of Sunday's victory which at the time was declared a mild sprained ankle. Early reports say he will likely miss the season but will travel the country seeking second opinions. This my friends, could be the end of the line for the Texans. They've been able to overcome the injuries of their 3 stars (Foster, Williams, Johnson) but losing the 4th star (Schaub) will hurt the most. After the bye week Matt Leinart the former Heisman winner will step into the quarterback position and I can only hope all this time on the bench has prepared him.

Pretty boy Leinart hasn't looked too pretty on the field

***Update: Pandemonium sweeping the streets of Houston. Citizens have been rioting and flipping cars upon hearing the news!!!!

Week 10 Results

2011-11-13T21:03:00.000-08:00

Foster making fun of my predictions

Week 10 Results:

My personal BOLD ~~predictions~~ results:

Raiders (24) at Chargers (17) L

Steelers (24) at Bengals (17) W

Rams (13) at Browns (12) L

Bills (7) at Cowboys (44) W

Jaguars (17) at Colts (3) W

Broncos (17) at Chiefs (10)   L

Redskins (9) at Dolphins (20) W

Cardinals (21) at Eagles (17) L

Titans (30) at Panthers (3)   L

Lions (13) at Bears (37)   L

Ravens (17) at Seahawks (22) L

Giants (20) at 49ers (27) W

Houston (37) at Buccaneers (9) W

Patriots (37) at Jets (16) L

Vikings at Packers (Auto) W

Overall (7-8)

Prediction Corner (Comment):
Who will finish the season on top of the NFC east?

Texans Bury Bucs

2011-11-13T13:46:00.000-08:00

The Texans had an absolutely brilliant performance today. From the opening play the Texans dominated starting with an 80 yard TD pass to Jacoby Jones. From that point on Tampa's stadium slowly emptied until there were almost no fans left in the 4th quarter. The running game was so effective that Schaub barely needed to throw the ball. The O-line was making huge holes for Arian Foster leading to them averaging 9 yards a play. Foster accumulated 186 total yards and added on 2 touchdowns. The defense looked nasty once again being lead by the revamped play of Brian Cushing. QB Freeman looked awful for the Bucs throwing 3 interceptions and was pulled late in the 4th (he was sacked 4 times). If the Texans keep this current winning streak up it'll be the first time Houston will have an NFL team in the playoffs since 1993. Overall great performance on both sides of the football but you can't give Wade Phillips enough credit for turning this defense around. Texans stomp Bucs 37-9.

No, it can't be. Can it???

Prediction Corner (Comment):
Will the Texans earn a first round bye?

Boise Goes Down!

2011-11-12T16:49:00.000-08:00

Finally a team that gets way too much attention will be out of the spotlight!!! The overrated Boise State Broncos were defeated by the underrated TCU Horned Frogs tonight. This was the game that needed to be on ESPN and ABC but it looks like the Mountain West could only manage to make it on Versus. TCU went into the game with everything to prove (conference title) and their status as Mountain West elite on the line. The game was back and forth throughout with neither team leading by more than eight at any point. TCU solidified their victory with a 25 yard pass from Casey Paschall to his favorite wide out Josh Boyce. The Horned Frogs decided to go for the 2 point conversion and sealed the victory. With only a minute left Boise started a drive that looked dismal until they were gifted a first down on an awful pass-interference call. They managed to make it into field goal range at the 22 yard line, but shanked the kick wide right. TCU wins 36-35 on the blue turf. Not to mention that this Boise State loss will help my overrated cougs get into the national championship argument (in no way shape or form does UH or any non-BCS school deserve to play with the big boys).

P.S. What was with the camera feed outside Joe Paterno's house? They were waiting for him to come out from his house like he was a groundhog...strange

Prediction Corner (Comment):
Does Boise's lose totally put them out of contention this year and cause them to drop in preseason polls next season?

PAC 12: Oregon vs Stanford

2011-11-11T22:57:00.000-08:00

This is the weekends most interesting college football game except for maybe Nebraska vs. Penn St. (UPDATE*** no showers will be taken before or after this game for safety precautions). Last week we had the ever anticipated LSU/Bama game. Tonight we have a west coast match up of (7) Oregon coming in to play (4) Stanford. The game is basically the over-hyping of two superstars, Luck and James. Andrew Luck, the senior out of Stratford High School (Houston) is likely to be the 1st pick in the NFL draft. LaMichael James had a disaster of a performance against LSU in the season opener where he was held to a pitiful 54 yards. Since, he's rushed for 1000+ yards en route to Oregon's eight game winning streak. With Stanford and Oregon both fighting for the PAC 12 title this should be a thriller. If Stanford wins they have an excellent argument to play in the national championship (if they can stay unbeaten). Don't be surprised if Oregon pulls this one out and you see them in the championship conversation at seasons end. Oregon has a sensational rushing attack, ranking 5th in FBS. Both teams score an insane amount of points, Stanford averages 48.2 a game. The advantage on defense has to go to Stanford, they've only allowed 16 points a game. Overall their stats are similar on both sides of the ball, on paper its difficult to see weaknesses either way. All signs point to a great game, stay tuned because this ones going down to the wire. I'd really like to see Stanford place themselves on path to playing LSU early next year... plus I always love to see a fellow Houstonian win.

James is actually also from Texas (Texarkana)

Prediction Corner (post your comments):

Will Stanford be in the National Championship game January 9th 2012???

What A Relief?

2011-11-11T14:37:00.000-08:00

Jonathan Papelbon, the same player that helped blow the BoSox historical division lead has changed hats. The Phillies have decided they want to make Jonathan the highest paid reliever in baseball. I'm curious why the Phillies felt that with all their talent they needed to dump Lidge and add Papelbon? He signed a 4 year $50 million contract giving him $12 million annually. Sorry Phillie fans you needed middle relief pitching. Stop torching your money. Halliday is not going to last 9 innings every appearance. They need new bats in the lineup due to Werth's exit and an aging Jimmy Rollins. Use some of that "Yankee money" you're throwing around and spend it on power.

Prediction Corner (comment):

Will the aquesition of Papelbon get the Phillies to the World Series???

Thoughts On The BCS

2011-11-11T12:40:00.000-08:00

LSU has gone through numerous strong SEC opponents on the season. Contrary to LSU's strength of schedule Boise State placed one irrelevant SEC team in Georgia to add strength to their schedule (still garbage). If you're undefeated and your toughest game was against UCLA you might be The University of Houston. If U of H manages to stay undefeated they will get in a BCS game against an over-matched opponent that is going to destroy their defense. So whats the difference between an undefeated Boise/Houston and an undefeated LSU? The SEC is an entirely different brand of football. All of the southern high school talent in the nation funnels into SEC teams (besides UT). They play against difficult teams all season while others conferences are trash. It gets on my nerves when people try to argue Boise's place in the National Championship picture. Just because your team is undefeated unfortunately that doesn't make it a quality team. I don't believe that Oklahoma State will beat their rival OU to stay undefeated. Stanford will fall to the revamped Oregon Ducks. Which if Oregon stays undefeated they may surprise everyone and sneak into the BCS picture. But the true National Championship could only be a rematch of the titans, LSU/Alabama.

What you will see at the start of 2012

Prediction Corner (post comments):

Has LSU already won the championship in your eyes?

NBA Lockout

2011-11-10T17:54:00.000-08:00

Many average sport fans are quite aware of the fact that basketball season has began and....whoops nobody's playing. Personally I feel like if these players and owners want to whine maybe they should just take the year off. Take a year off and when they come back the season will be filled with hype. Reminds me of what happened when the NHL was locked out for a season but luckily hockey is irrelevant once again! Thank God! The reason for the lockout is a list of problems and disputes between the owners and the players (similar to NFL lockout). To guess the NBA's issues are financially related would be logical, and you would be correct. The owners initially asked the players to reduce their reveneue share by 40% (HAHAHAHAH rediculous). That was a BS start to a deal that so far has reduced NBA players revenue by a whopping 2.7%. Players sit at 54.3% currently but owner can't be satisfied whatsoever. Owners see Lebron James as the perfect scapegoat because the owners also want team based salaries (Because of the Heat). Teams that are able to virtually buy out other teams, what I call "super squads"(Heat) emerge. I understand why the owner want to stop neglecting their small market organizations repetitively being train wrecked by these "super squads". All this nonsense has made me completley lose interest in the NBA. Since the creation of the big 3 in Boston, which lead to the Lakers needing Gasol and Odom to add with Kobe and Bynum. So Lebron knew the only way to win was to dump superstars in South Beach and expect the rest of the league not to compete.. Oh wait... The Mavericks did.

Prediction Corner (Post Comments):

Will we see basketball played this season?

Week 10 Matchups

2011-11-10T11:56:00.000-08:00

My personal BOLD predictions:

Raiders at Chargers

Steelers at Bengals

Rams at Browns

Bills at Cowboys

Jaguars at Colts

Broncos at Chiefs

Redskins at Dolphins

Cardinals at Eagles

Titans at Panthers

Lions at Bears

Ravens at Seahawks

Giants at 49ers

Prediction Corner (Post Comments):

Give me some of your picks!

Joe "Blind" Paterno

2011-11-10T00:41:00.000-08:00

College football coaches are involved in more corruption than even the media is aware of. For example coaches secretly bail their players out of jail to prevent public attention and suspensions (cough.. UT..Cough EVERYWHERE). Boosters hand out money to star players like it's candy and buy athletes cars/jewelry/ect. Why? Because these athletes are the biggest instruments in a multi-billion dollar corporation. For years it was obvious what was going on but oblivious America thought it made sense that these poor inner city athletes drove Escalades. But now something totally contrary to previous scandals has presented itself in Pennsylvania. Joe Pa had knowledge of his pedophile assistant for apparently a decade without bringing it to light. He was fired today as he should be, though I feel this is not the way Paterno's legacy deserves to end. In a sport that's attitude is win now, fire quick mentalities, Paterno has managed a tenure with Penn St since 1950. He's brought glory to his program with 400 wins and not to mention two national championships. Penn St. stuck with him through thick and thin so obviously the details of this perverted situation must be terribly disturbing for a legend to be fired after 61 years of glory. Too bad to see it end like that for you Joe, I know you would of hoped to go out on top.

Prediction Corner (Post Comments):

Should they have played their game Saturday?

This Weekends NFL Matchups

2011-11-10T00:07:00.000-08:00

First I have to start with N.O. Vs. Atlanta. The game is in Atlanta for the first of their two games. Atlanta has had flashes of greatness by putting down the lions but had weak performances early in the season. New Orleans is having a solid season beating a few NFL elites. But then they decided to walk into st. Louis and totally play like trash. Their lack of run game and health of Steven Jackson was the difference in that game. Atlanta's offense is mediocre depending on Matt Ryan's performances. Their best attribute is their seconday and they need to step up against Drew Brees. I pick the Saints in a close one

31-27

Next big game: Sunday night football New England in the Meadowlands. Once again the Jets are having another strangely inconsistent season. They already suffered a loss to new England earlier this season. As usual Mark Sanchez and the Jet's offense are living down to expectations despite picking Plaxico up from prison. The defensively struggling Patriots bring the worst ranked pass defense into Sunday's game. This might be Sanchez' opportunity to put up some offensive numbers. The difference will be the above average defense of the Jets and a fierce division rivalry with the Jets at home I have to choose the Jets 24-21

Prediction Corner (Post Comments):

Who do you pick in these games?

Hou vs. TB

2011-11-09T11:30:00.000-08:00

This week marks the first time the Texans have an opportunity to go 4 games over .500. A feat that may finally earn them respect. Personally I love to follow the NFL rankings on ESPN http://espn.go.com/nfl/powerrankings They currently have the Texans in the 8 spot. Thanks to Arian Foster (cant forget Ben Tate) we have the 2nd ranked rushing game in the NFL. With the hiring of Wade Phillips he's molded the Texans into the 1st ranked defense in football. Its funny that no one believed that he could turn the team around despite his successes as defensive coordinator (San Diego). Even with the team losing their best player in Mario Williams and Danieal Manning they have continued to shine. That's what good teams do; players get hurt in the NFL and good teams have an abundance of players ready to step up. As for Tampa, they've been extremely poor on the defensive side of the ball.The only bright spot currently on the team is the youth of Josh Freeman. Tampa is very inconsistent, they beat great teams (N.O. Atlanta) then barely get past teams like Minnesota and Indy. Even though Tampa is at home and I'm horribly biased I have to pick the Texans in this one. Tampa doesn't have the D-line to stop Foster up the middle (all day baby). I look for Foster to put up big numbers Houston wins 24-13.

Prediction Corner:

Texans win?

Little Introduction

2011-11-09T01:06:00.000-08:00

This is my first blog post so I'd like to introduce myself. I'm a sports fanatic that unfortunately happens to be a die-hard Houston sports fan. I've experienced the highs of the 94'-95' championship Rockets. The heart breaking 15-30 Astros start that finished in a world series sweep. The year to year pain of watching each highly anticipated team the Texans produce crumble. I feel your pain Houston. We are not a well respected sports town and its not without reason. Our fan mentality is "oh we made the playoffs that's good enough". WRONG, with all the money the owners in this town possess they need to have championship caliber teams. I'm tired of seeing small market franchises that seemingly come out of nowhere and snag a title. For the size of the market we have and the overall success of our sports is absolutely "pathetic" as John McClain would say.

I have strong opinions about our sports franchises and I'll be going around sports not just focusing on Houston. You will hear some honest opinions mixed in with harsh reality and raw truths. stay tuned

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