Alan Truex: Luck provides a cautionary tale for Deshaun Watson
LLANO, Texas — If there could be a preseason football game that carries any significance, Saturday night’s Lone Star showdown in Arlington – Houston vs. Dallas — would be it.
First, there’s a rivalry. Dallas and Houston hate each other, though having lived in both cities, I sense Dallas hates Houston more than vice versa. In any rivalry the smaller feels more animosity than the larger, which doesn’t have the time to think about you.
On the other hand, the Cowboys have won the Super Bowl five times, while the Texans have never played in one, even since before they were the Texans.
They’ve been nowhere close to any Lombardi Trophy, so the Governor’s Cup is a big deal to them. Or at least a deal.
Besides a trophy and bragging rights – always important in Texas — the timing gave this event some credibility.
The third week of preseason is officially known as Dress Rehearsal. This is the one preseason game when, as tradition has it, the starters play at least half of it. Time to get everyone in sync.
Preseason Game 4 is reserved for the reserves, though the trend is for all preseason games to be the same. Not even the announcers are interested, usually neglecting to identify the individual culprits by name.
In this preseason, more than all previous ones, starters are in remission. LA Rams coach Sean McVay said that having lost one of his starters, linebacker Micah Kiser, to injury, he was barring the rest of them from Dress Rehearsal.
Ditto for New York Jets coach Adam Gase. He too lost a starting linebacker, Avery Williamson, in Preseason Game 2 and desperately needed another round of smelling salts.
Detroit’s Matt Patricia saved most of his starters for Dress Rehearsal, only to see middle linebacker/signal caller Jarrad Davis cruising away, not in a limousine but in a cart.
Cowboys coach Jason Garrett and Houston’s Bill O’Brien just wish they had all their stars available to play or rest.
The Cowboys’ All-Pro running back, Ezekiel Elliott, and Houston’s Pro Bowl linebacker Jadeveon Clowney are AWOL because of contract disputes. If you’re looking at prop bets, take Elliott to return to his team before the regular season is a month old and bet on Clowney to have a new team before it begins.
Speaking of bets, it takes a serious gambling addiction to invest in preseason football, but many do. The Vegas line on this was pick’em, despite Dallas having home field, the massively comfortable AT&T Stadium a/k/a JerryWorld.
The Cowboys won 34-0. It was obvious in the first quarter that they had better starters, better subs, better special teams. You can’t evaluate the coaches, because they won’t reveal anything but Football 101 in a game that counts only for ticket sales.
Without benefiting from new schemes from Kellen Moore, Tony Pollard, who is Elliott’s stand-in, stood out with his turn of foot. Facing Houston’s first-string defense he had a 20-yard run and a 24-yard reception (nullified by penalty).
For the preseason Pollard has rushed for 89 yards @ 5.6 per carry.
But he won’t make anyone besides Jerry Jones forget Zeke Elliott.
Pollard is built like a third-down back: 6 feet, 209 pounds. He’s 19 lighter than Elliott, and you notice when blitzers are charging at Dak Prescott.
The ‘Boys can roll over their first three opponents – Giants, Skins, Dolphins – without Elliott. But they will want to come to terms before their game in New Orleans on Sept. 28.
That said, Prescott stayed on his feet Saturday night and has been sacked only once in this preseason, while completing 11 of 14 for 109 yards and no turnovers.
Very different story with Deshaun Watson and the Texans. The first-round draftee of 2017 played just three snaps in Arlington, the last one ending in a strip/sack by the suddenly forceful Taco Charlton.
Expect more such calamities when the real season begins, because Houston’s O-line couldn’t block a crippled goat.
Watching second-round draft pick Max Scharping being swung open at right tackle by Kerry Hyder, I can’t see this line as an upgrade from last year, when it was, with all due respect to Arizona, the worst in the league.
Watson led the NFL in sacks last season with 63, and I’ll take the prop bet on him repeating.
If Nick Martin is the best lineman the Texans have — and they insist that he is — keep an ambulance ready for Watson. Martin is heralded as the brother of Cowboys All-Pro Zack Martin, but DNA didn’t keep young Nick from being mauled and trampled by Cowboys nose tackle Maliek Collins.
The Texans keep drafting linemen and signing free agents, all to no avail. Whatever great things they did in New Orleans, Kansas City or Buffalo doesn’t matter, they’ve been of no help to Deshaun Watson. There’s danger of his career following the pattern of Andrew Luck’s.
This team hasn’t had a left tackle since Duane Brown was shown the door in 2016. Just when they were finally getting a passer worth protecting.
The Texans are missing their left tackle du jour, Matt Kalil, ex-Viking, ex-Panther, with a “minor” foot injury. O’Brien isn’t saying more because, as he put it, “I don’t have to.”
Who can blame him for not wanting to talk about lame, clumsy football players at the top of the depth chart? But let’s not forget, Kalil is a brother of ex-Pro Bowl center Ryan Kalil. That has to make him worth keeping in Houston.
Now O’Brien’s overriding injury concern is Pro Bowl running back Lamar Miller, ripping an ACL when Collins blew up an inside run in the first quarter.
So Miller, who also happens to be — wouldn’t you know it? — the Texans’ best pass-blocker, ends his season before it begins.
Do the constantly rebuilding Texans need another dress rehearsal? Watson, honest to a fault, forced a smile: “Even if our starters had played the full half, I don’t think we’d be ready.”
