Preseason Game Preview: Texans vs Broncos

Texans fans get to see their team in action for the first time since December, with expectations that are the highest in the franchise’s short history. For the first time, Houston is considered a legitimate playoff contender, and is trying to build upon the first non-losing season in team history.

Denver Broncos vs. Houston Texans
Saturday, August 9, 2008
8:00 p.m. (EST), Reliant Stadium
Kickoff temperature: 82 degrees, 10% chance of precipitation

As with any preseason exhibition, the final outcome isn’t nearly as important as the talent displayed, and the Texans will have a few positions in which they need to evaluate talent.

At running back, the team is expected to play veteran Ahman Green, rookie Steve Slaton, and most likely Chris Brown, as well as Darius Walker and Chris Taylor. Green and Slaton seem to have roster spots locked up at this point, assuming they stay healthy, and there is likely room for just one more spot in the backfield.

The three quarterbacks that will see action Saturday night will be expected opening day starter Matt Schaub, Sage Rosenfels, and Shane Boyd.

“(QB) Matt (Schaub) will play with the 1st group however long they play, whether that’s 12-15 plays or a quarter,” said head coach Gary Kubiak. “However, that depends. (QB) Sage (Rosenfels) will play the whole 2nd quarter and will start the 3rd. How long he plays in the 3rd I don’t know. And then I plan on playing (QB) Shane (Boyd) from there. We’ll hold (QB Alex) Brink this week. We will hopefully play him in New Orleans. We want to take a good look at (QB) Shane (Boyd). I want to see everybody and I’m excited to get out there and compete against somebody else. But we’ve got a lot of tough, tough decisions as coaches. So we’ve got to make sure it happens in that stadium and not always out here. We’ve got to go let them play and sort the thing out.”

Houston will audition its first-round pick, tackle Duane Brown who will receive extended playing time due to the rash of injuries to the Texans offensive line, as well as the fact he is in need of reps.

“(T) Duane (Brown) is going to play more anyway,” Kubiak said. “We consider Duane, (C) Chris Myers, and (G Mike) Brisiel still to be young players, and we had planned on playing them a half anyway.”

There will also be good competition at linebacker as the team is high on second-year player Zac Diles, as well as rookie Xavier Adibi and free agent acquisition Kevin Bentley. All three players are fighting for roster spots.

There is also heavy competition in the Texans secondary as cornerback Jacques Reeves has been solid in camp as well as second-year player Fred Bennett. The big surprise has been former first-round pick and journeyman Jamar Fletcher and DeMarcus Faggins, who is trying to carry his stellar camp performance on to the preseason.

“They really have (played well),” said Kubiak. “(CB Jamar) Fletcher has had a surprising camp in my opinion. He has comeback a real pro and ready to go. He’s earning his way on this football team right now. (DeMarcus Faggins) has been back now for about three practices and seems to be okay health wise. It’s going to be some tough calls so those guys are going to have to play a lot, probably more than they have ever played in the career in the preseason as veterans. It’s a tough group to make so they’ve got to step up and do it.”

As for the Texans opponent, the Denver Broncos, the two teams are very familiar with each other as they played last season, and both general manager Rick Smith and head coach Gary Kubiak were part of the Denver organization for several years. Despite the familiarity, the Texans head coach downplayed the rivalry as just another preseason game.

Kubiak was asked if there was any “magic” in cutting down his 80-man roster to 53 players.

“I don’t know if there’s any magic. I think every day is a new challenge and right now the challenge is body numbers at offensive line that are out there banging and practicing every day and playing. Right now we’re going to this game with 11 and it’s a little scary because we have a lot more preseason to play. We want to go practice against New Orleans and have some good physical practices against them but at the same time we got a football team to get ready to play for the season. It’s just a lot of juggling acts going on right now and we just got to keep doing it.”

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Charlie Bernstein is the Editor-in-Chief of Sports Media Interactive, covering multiple teams in the National Football League, NCAA, and National Basketball Association. Charlie is a regular syndicated contributor to FoxSports and Sirius NFL Radio, and has been featured on the NFL Network. Charlie is also a member of the Pro Football Writers of America. Feel free to contact him -HERE- with questions or comments.

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