1-3 vs. 2-2 fails to generate buzz expected of these teams
Charismatic superstars. Some of the best individual talent in the sport. Driving a few hours south on Interstate 45. The “rivalry.”
So why doesn’t Cowboys Texans V on “Sunday Night Football” at NRG Stadium feel bigger?
And why are we having to pump ourselves up for a Week 5 game that instantly felt like must-see TV the moment the NFL announced its 2018 schedule?
J.J. Watt is an early season Defensive Player of the Year candidate and is tied for second in the NFL with five sacks.
Ezekiel Elliott leads the league in rushing yards, while DeMarcus Lawrence tops the league
and Watt with 5½ sacks.
Deshaun Watson, DeAndre Hopkins and Jadeveon Clowney will share the same nationally televised stage with Dak Prescott.
Then there’s that whole Houston versus Dallas thing, and the fact that two of the biggest athletic organizations in this football-obsessed state only officially match up once every four years.
If only they weren’t fighting for the .500 life.
Let’s be honest: It’s partly the Astros’ fault.
Baseball’s reigning world champs — how did the Rangers do this year? — will own Houston starting Friday when the Cleveland Indians arrive for Games 1 and 2 of the American League Division Series. Sunday’s an off day for the series, which creates a mental opening for Watt and Clowney vs. Dak.
But if the Astros are up 2-0, you’ll still be reflecting on the joy on the previous two days and devoting the majority of your sports brain to the potential of a Monday closeout in Cleveland.And if it’s 1-1 entering Game 3 — or, gasp, 2-0 Indians — we’ll have much bigger issues than an earlyseason football game between 1-3 and 2-2 teams.
So, really, it’s those darn lackluster records.
I’ve recently written about the Texans’ path to 3-3. Beat the Colts (thanks, Frank Reich), knock off the Cowboys (TBD) and beat the bad Bills at home. Then it would be the .500 Texans at Jacksonville in Week 7, and the potential for a total reset on a season that started so backward.
Desperate times
Some of you imagined the Texans would be 3-1 right now — fall to the Patriots; defeat the beatup Titans, iffy Giants and below-average Colts. The fact that the Texans must beat the Cowboys (2-2) in Week 5 to again keep their season alive tells you what’s really at stake among the oversaturated gloss and glamour of SNF. Survival. “We’re 1-3. We need a win,” Watt said Wednesday at NRG Stadium. “That’s what it is. We need to keep winning. We need to build off of the momentum we had from last week. Obviously, it’s an in-state game, which means there’s a little bit of something there, but more than anything we need to win. We need to win football games.”
Dallas excels in one thing: Drama.
Dez Bryant’s ongoing one-man reality show. Elliott’s off-field problems and suspension a year ago. Jerry Jones somehow convincing himself that the Cowboys’ offense can match the high-flying Rams’, despite the fact Dallas ranks 30th out of 32 teams in average scoring (16.8) and Prescott throwing for 255 yards last week was widely viewed as a big deal.
Watson has thrown for at least 375 yards in his last two contests and totaled 416 last Sunday during a surreal 37-34 overtime road victory against the Colts. But who’s counting?
For as much as you might love to point out that the Texans have never really won anything — OK, that’s me — Houston’s pro football team has been to the playoffs in four of the last seven seasons and has been victorious in three postseason games.
Jones’ all-hat, often no-cattle Cowboys have only made the playoffs twice since 2009, and could be searching for a new coach, offensive coordinator, etc., if they fall short of their owner’s unrealistic expectations in 2018.
“When I see (the Rams) executing in a way that creates the offense they got, I look at our personnel — I don't have to reach to basically see that,” Jones told a Dallas-area radio station.
He also recently compared Prescott to Los Angeles’ Jared Goff and Carolina’s Cam Newton, which currently sounds as reasonable as those preseason predictions that had the Texans representing the AFC in Super Bowl LIII.
Everyone wants more from the Cowboys.
You spent the entire offseason — since Watson went down after Week 8 last year, really — hoping the Texans would be better than this.
Still a lot of talent
Granted, this could be a good one. Watson and Watt were made for the national TV lights; Clowney and Hopkins are showstealers. Elliott ran for an impressive 152 yards last week and might be back to his eat-it-up attack.
“They’ve got a ton of talent. … I could go right down the roster,” O’Brien said. “It’s going to be a very challenging game for us.”
The superstar names are there. The SNF stage is as grand as pro football gets until the playoffs arrive.
But Cowboys-Texans V won’t be about the I-45 “rivalry” or old-school bragging rights. For both of Texas’ NFL teams, winning Week 5 is simply about survival.