Raiders At Texans: The Resistable Force Against The Moveable Object

Here's a statement that should scare the Texans more than the sight of another running play:  as the Texans and Raiders enter their Week Four clash, there are a number of parallels between their seasons so far.

Both team enter the week at 1-2.

Both team have lost a heart-breaker late.

Both teams won a nail-biter with an improbable late push by their weaker unit.

Both teams are looking at this week as an opportunity to bounce back.

That last similarity is the one that should have Houston fans the most upset. 

Not only is the team looking to rebound from a devastating loss against Jacksonville, but the fact that the Raiders are likely salivating over the prospect of facing Houston's new and not-so-improved defense is absolutely terrifying.

The Oakland Raiders of 2009 are a team that has struggled mightily on the offensive side of the ball while playing decent defense.

Quarterback JaMarcus Russell has a measly 39.8 quarterback rating with only one touchdown and four interceptions.

Their leading rusher is Darren McFadden who is averaging under four yards a carry, and has more fumbles (three) than touchdowns (one). 

The perfect remedy for their stagnant offense may be what to date is the worst defense in the NFL.

The Texans are giving up over 200 rushing yards per game.  While the passing numbers are only slightly less pathetic, that's partially due to the fact that opponents have been so successful running, they don't have to pass.

Additionally, the Raiders held the high powered Houston offense to 16 points late last season.  Matt Schaub was kept to 255 yards, zero touchdowns, and one interception and Andre Johnson was held to two catches and 19 yards.  Johnson didn't even record a catch until the fourth quarter.

On the other side, the Texans defense may be looking at this game as an opportunity to finally step up.

While they've given up a league high 615 rushing yards, 286 of those (46.5%) have been on five plays.  If, by chance, the Texans had held their opponents to 10-yards on each of those five plays, they would have only given up 379 yards on the season—not great by any means, but enough to be almost average.

Now, we clearly can't assume that those five plays didn't happen or were just 10-yard gains, but it shows that the Texans may be able to right the ship—especially considering all five plays were caused by the same thing:  gap discipline and over-pursuit—by simply making a few adjustments. 

Furthermore, the Texans have faced a Murderer's Row of running backs in Thomas Jones, Chris Johnson, and Maurice Jones-Drew.

Darren McFadden has great potential as a running back, but he cannot yet be considered in the same elite class as those three.

There will be other story-lines worth watching this weekend such as Andre Johnson lining up against Nnamdi Asomugha, Matt Schaub continuing his torrid TD pace, and Houston's running game potentially breaking out, but the key to victory will be to see which team can take advantage of the other team's weakness.