On a cold New Jersey night, just miles from his hometown, Brian Cushing refused to be carted off after an irresponsible and illegal clip from behind ended his 2012 season. At the time, we as fans weren't sure of his fate, and as the game was far from decided, it wasn't at the forefront of our attention. But this afternoon, in Gary Kubiak's weekly press conference, we got the bad news that anyone watching could have read on Cushing's face as he left the field. He has a torn ACL and will miss the remainder of the season on injured reserve.
J.J. Watt is the unquestioned best player on this Texans defense, probably the league, but the heart of this defense is resides right in the middle with Brian Cushing. He is the emotional leader of the defense, its leading tackler, and the guy you don't want to meet up with in the off chance that you get past J.J. Watt. As Kubiak said, he's a guy who can't be replaced, you just have to asked everyone else to step it up a notch. Now if there is a team that has experience in losing a star player like Brian Cushing and still being able to perform at a high level its the Houston Texans. Ironically it was after week 5 last year that we lost Mario Williams for the year. I don't think we have a Brooks Reed in the waiting in this situation, but with Darryl Sharpton coming off the PUP list next week, he might be just the medicine this team needs. The #nextmanup philosophy that defined this team last year is going to need to be dug up and dusted off to account for the loss of production and leadership of a guy like Cushing.
The issue that worries me the most is how this will affect the Texan's run defense. This is probably the weakest link on this Texans team. A week ago, a fading star who hasn't cracked 25 yards against anyone this season, busted out against this unit for 141 yards. Reggie Bush was averaging almost 5 yards a carry in the Miami game before Watt just blew that game up and the Dolphins had to abandon the run. In fact most teams have to abandon the run against the Texans as they get up on teams early and often. But once they start playing good teams, like Baltimore, Chicago, and New England they are going to have to be able to stop the run. They can't assume they be up 2 TDs on everyone. This team may be 5-0 but it still hasn't beat a team that currently has a winning record. This team has aspirations for much more than just a playoff appearance this year. If you want to win in the playoffs, you need to be able to run the ball and stop the run, and honestly, against a team like San Francisco, I'm just not sure we'll be able to do either. Yes, the only time we would see the 49ers would be the Super Bowl, but don't you think that is a real possibility for this team.
We'll really find out who this team is and how well they can deal with this adversity over the next few weeks against the reigning MVP and the Green Bay Packers and Joe Flacco and a team that this Texans team has never beaten. We got the Jets monkey off our back this year, it will be a much bigger task now to get the Raven off our back.
J.J. Watt is the unquestioned best player on this Texans defense, probably the league, but the heart of this defense is resides right in the middle with Brian Cushing. He is the emotional leader of the defense, its leading tackler, and the guy you don't want to meet up with in the off chance that you get past J.J. Watt. As Kubiak said, he's a guy who can't be replaced, you just have to asked everyone else to step it up a notch. Now if there is a team that has experience in losing a star player like Brian Cushing and still being able to perform at a high level its the Houston Texans. Ironically it was after week 5 last year that we lost Mario Williams for the year. I don't think we have a Brooks Reed in the waiting in this situation, but with Darryl Sharpton coming off the PUP list next week, he might be just the medicine this team needs. The #nextmanup philosophy that defined this team last year is going to need to be dug up and dusted off to account for the loss of production and leadership of a guy like Cushing.
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