Battle Red Blog
This is usually the time of year when I would be doing five questions with the opposition. I am not chasing down a fellow SBNation writer for commentary on a meaningless preseaason game. As you can see, we have a new look here at Battle Red Blog. Most of us are doing good to log into the system much less answer someone else’s questions.
Your Houston Texans are officially opening up their 2025-2026 season tomorrow night and each game is an opportunity for DeMeco Ryans to learn something. As fans we have our own expectations/hopes coming into every season. So, here is a list of the top five things that we can look for on Saturday as potential insurance salesmen and grocery sackers take the field in the third and fourth quarter.
Absolutely no injuries
We’ve already failed at this one folks. Unless you have been living under a rock or you skipped the other stories on the front page of this site, C.J. Gardner-Johnson went down with a huge injury this week at the Greenbriar. We don’t know what the extent of the injury outside of the fact that it is a torn ACL. We can guess he will miss most if not all of the season. It’s a shame. He was slated to be our top safety and was coming off a pair of seasons where he had six interceptions.
Furthermore, secondary depth is not exactly a big thing for the Texans. Yes, they have Calen Bullock and Jalen Pitre, but Pitre has been playing in the box, so there is an open competition now for that third safety. I suppose that could be one thing to look for, but we will get to that soon enough. The number one goal every preseason is to get out unscathed.
Setting the tone upfront
Only an idiot would roll out their best plays in a preseason game. It’s going to be vanilla on both sides of the ball. The good news is that the Texans will be facing vanilla defenses. Brian Flores is not going to show everyone his best. Can you hit the guy in front of you and push him? It seems like a simple request, but that has been an issue for the Texans for several years now. Even when we remove the issues with pass protection, simply getting a consistent push has been difficult.
Three-fifths (or more) of this offensive line is new. We will see a bunch of different combinations on Saturday night. Which one of these guys can consistently open holes for the running backs? Even with the injury to CGJ, the Texans defense is bound to be one of the league’s ten best this season. We don’t need the 2000 Rams out there. We need a competent offense that can take care of the football and move it enough to score a reasonable amount of points.
Backups in the secondary
The Texans might have the best tandem of corners in the NFL. Kamari...
