Jake Locker

How Does The 2013 QB Class Stack Up According To The "Parcells Rules"?

A few months ago, former head coaching great Bill Parcells was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, slated to be inducted this summer. If you're looking for the reasons why, there are obviously plenty -- twice named NFL Coach of the Year, twice a Super Bowl winner, three times a Super Bowl part ... More >>

Texans-Colts: 4 Winners, 4 Losers, "Playoff Apocalypse" Version

Well, I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that any plans you had to take a week off from Texans' football in order to get some early spring cleaning done or go visit relatives, well, you best change them. After losing 28-16 to the Colts on Sunday in Indianapolis (Texans are 0-11 lifetime ... More >>

Football! This Weekend's Best Bets, One Final Crack At Christmas Spending Money

The NFL schedule is a weird one this weekend. Virtually every game on the schedule has some sort of meaning, but many of them have true meaning (read: playoff hopes/seeding riding on the outcome) for only one side. Currently, 19 teams have either clinched a playoff spot or remain alive for the play ... More >>

Texans 24, Titans 10: Defense Returns To Form In Playoff-Clinching Win

After back-to-back games of exhilarating drama, the Texans seem back to their usual selves. That's just fine for soon-to-be Defensive Player of the Year J.J. Watt. Led by Watt and a defense that suffocated Tennessee and second-year QB Jake Locker, the Texans cruised to 11-1 and clinched the second ... More >>

Texans 38, Titans 14: After Early Scare, Houston Finally Proves It Can Handle Success

One week after exorcising their Peyton Manning demons, the Texans found themselves squarely in the crosshairs of another familiar enemy: complacency. In 2011, a 3-1 start turned sour with a demoralizing loss to Oakland in Reliant Stadium. Likewise, a home disappointment against Carolina ensued afte ... More >>

Texans 38 -- Titans 14: A Hasslebeck at QB Means a Pick-Six Fest

If Texans fans were expecting tense fingernail-biting to become a part of their season this week, they were disappointed. But it's the only disappointment they've had to endure so far in 2012, and the locals look in fine shape as the schedule finally begins to toughen up. A bit, anyway. The only r ... More >>

Football! This Weekend's Best Bets, Another Crappy Notre Dame Video Edition

Popcorn lung. Apparently, that's a thing. On Wednesday, a federal jury awarded a Denver man named Wayne Watson $7.2 million from various food companies after they determined that the respiratory problems he developed in 2007 were due to his frequent inhalation of the buttery aroma from microwave po ... More >>

NFL Week 1: Schaub Gets Rich(er), Buffalo Gets Poor(er) -- 4 Winners, 4 Losers

Check out our slideshow of the Houston Texans' season opener against the Dolphins. Could Sunday have been any better? 80-degree day. Sun shining. Birds singing. NFL football back in our lives. Oh and someone left a whole book of Burger King coupons in the lobby of my building. SCORE! So yeah there ... More >>

2012: Year of the Texans

Assessing all their strengths and weaknesses, we could be looking at a repeat or better.

10 College-Related Thoughts On The NFL Draft, Including Case Keenum

I'm not the draft expert that some of my Press colleagues are. Yet I do watch a lot of football, especially college football, and like every football fan, I have a few thoughts about some of the things that happened over this past weekend. 10. There are probably a bunch of Houston Cougar fans that ... More >>

Crisis Averted, Texans Fan -- Peyton Manning Spurns Titans for Broncos

In a Texans offseason that has seen some good (Arian Foster's and Chris Myers' multiyear contract extensions), some bad (Mario Williams' leaving, although the Texans have proven they can survive that), and some ugly (the dismantling of the right side of the offensive line), strangely enough, the Tex ... More >>

Texans FTW?

Football fans comment on "The New Normal."

The New Normal

The Texans start operating like a bona fide NFL team.

2011 NFL Draft -- Live Blog

I am not an NFL Draft expert. How's that for unbridled confidence? Right out of the shoot, in a live blog for the NFL Draft, a host of a sports talk show is admitting that he's not an expert at something sports related, let alone the thing at which he's about to live blog. If you're looking for l ... More >>

NFL Teams Don't Care That Cam Newton Can't Name A Play

Only one of these guys still has a decent job​Go to Google and put in "2011 NFL mock drafts." I did that this afternoon, and I couldn't find one current edition of a reputable mock draft that didn't have Auburn quarterback Cam Newton as the number one overall pick to the Carolina Panthers. T ... More >>

Cam Newton Flunks Camp Gruden (w/ VIDEO)

Cam Newtown: We got a 36 play, a 37 play, all kinds of plays.​While ESPN has become a bit of a safe haven for literally dozens of retired players and terminated coaches who have no business on television, occasionally they come up with a gem. If you cast the net wide enough, you have to, righ ... More >>

NFL & College Football -- Weekend's Best Bets

When it comes to college football, I'm not a staunch traditionalist. I believe the season is more compelling when the longtime powers are strong (Translation: Texas, Florida, Michigan, Notre Dame, and Miami all being mediocre is, to me, a bad thing.), and yet I picked Boise State before the season ... More >>

This Weekend's Best Football Bets: Live From The East Coast

UConn football: It's like LSU-Bama, except for EVERYTHING​So my vacation rolls on and I just landed in the sports mecca -- Hartford, CT. Tonight I will be taking my talents to Rentschler Field (or as I like to call it, The House Orlovsky Built) for UConn against West Virginia.So I land at 12:45 p. ... More >>

Texans-Giants, Debacle: The Sequel -- 5 Winners, 5 Losers

Big Blue leaves a bruise in Houston​Driving down Murworth to the media lot on Sunday morning at around 10 a.m., if it weren't for signs directing us to various colored lots and a few orange cones, you'd have barely known there was anything going on at Reliant that day, let alone an NFL football ga ... More >>

Les Miles for President (Also, 5 Winners and 5 Losers From This Weekend)

Everyone's talking about Les Miles, and not in a good way​"In the game of life nobody -- repeat, NOBODY -- is playing with more house money than Les Miles." -- Me on Twitter just after LSU's 16-14 win over Tennessee As Homer Simpson would say, it's funny because it's true. The truly funny th ... More >>

Houston Texans Turn The Corner -- 5 Winners, 5 Losers

Neil Rackers -- He's no Kris Brown​I shouldn't enjoy carnage as much as I do, but I have to admit that a few hours after Neil Rackers' 35-yard field goal sailed through the uprights, sending the Houston Texans to an improbable 30-27 overtime win over the Washington Redskins yesterday afternoon, My ... More >>

College Football & NFL -- This Weekend's Best Bets

Reggie Bush has always been a cheater​I'll get to the Best Bets of the weekend in a second, I promise, but first some venting.Reggie Bush is rapidly moving up my most hated list.Not because he chose to attend Southern Cal instead of Notre Dame. Not because the defining play of Notre Dame's decade ... More >>

College Football Review: Zero Tolerance Helps BYU Win