Mario Williams Sacks Broncos, Houston Texans Keep Playoff Hopes Alive With Win

Blogging the National Football League, Blogging the NFL

You can’t grade a team’s draft for three or four years after the fact and the Houston Texans are finding out that, perhaps, they made the right decision in selecting Mario Williams over Reggie Bush in 2006. Almost nobody thought so at the time and even though Reggie’s numbers have declined drastically from his amazing rookie season (he’s now watching from the sidelines with a knee injury), he’s probably still the better choice. Nevertheless, “Super Mario” added 3.5 sacks to his nearly league-leading season total of 13 (Patrick Kearney has 13.5 in Seattle) and had seven tackles as the Houston Texans kept their slim AFC Wild Card playoff hopes alive with a 31-13 win over the Denver Broncos.

Mario is beginning to show the rest of the NFL why Houston selected him number one overall out of N.C. State two years ago and even though they’ve been a middle-of-the-road team statistically this season, I like what the Texans bring to the table defensively. Take a look at their starting lineup. It’s loaded with youthful talent: the aforementioned Mr. Williams, Amobi Akoye, Dunta Robinson, DeMeco Ryans (second in the NFL in tackles) … these are Pro Bowlers in the making. And even though a 7-7 record isn’t an imposing one, it’s certainly respectable. And the first time in team history the Texans are at .500 after 14 games.