We got an early start on Christmas today with a win over the Houston Texans 38-15.  Saturday night we talked about playing for pride but, more than that, playing to get a little sharper for the playoffs.  We really did play well, especially on offense.  We had a drive right before the half that ended with a fumble, but other than that, we scored on every other possession with our first offense.  Defensively we had a slow start but got some turnovers and controlled Houston's running game pretty well.

 

All in all, it was a good win against a team that had been playing well.  We got our thirteenth victory and played  without some of our usual starters.  Our defensive line was thin to begin with and Josh Thomas was not able to play because of flu symptoms so Dan Klecko, Darrell Reid and Ramon Guzman stepped up and played a lot more, and played well.  We think we'll get some of our defensive players back to practice this week--Mathis Brock and Bethea.  We'll see how they do and decide if we want to play them some against the Titans.

 

The surprise is how the playoff picture changed this weekend.  Cleveland's loss, coupled with Tennessee's win put the Titans in the driver's seat for the last wild card spot.  Because of that, NBC has changed us to the night game, moving us from 1:00 pm to 8:15.  It really isn't fair to fans who had already made plans but it will be the game with the most drama of the day.  If Tennessee wins they're in the playoffs.  If we beat them, Tennessee is out and Cleveland is in.  So everyone will have a thought about what we should do.  Our focus, though, will be to do what is best for us and not worry about anyone else's team.  We need some of our guys to get some work in but we'll decide on Friday how much the starters are going to play.  Right now we're just going to enjoy this win and enjoy the Christmas holiday.  We gave the players Monday and Tuesday off.  The coaches are going to try to get all of their work done on Monday so we can spend Christmas at home with our families.  We'll put together a good plan for the Titans, though, and we'll play to win--but we do plan on using everyone.

 

I hope everyone has a great Christmas and gets to experience what Christmas is really all about--God expressing His love to us through His son Jesus Christ.