Chiefs v. Texans Preview

Photo from Mack-Brown Texas Football

This Saturday, the Kansas City Chiefs will travel to Reliant Stadium to play the Houston Texans in the first preseason game for both teams (7 pm on CBS in KC).

The Chiefs and Texans have played three times in the regular season, and only once before in the preseason in 2002. The Chiefs lead the regular season series 2-1, with wins in 2003 and 2005. The Texans stole one in 2004, as they marched down the field in the final minutes to set up a game-winning field goal. The Chiefs have scored 108 points in the regular season series to the Texans 55.

The only other preseason game came on August 17th, 2002, which the Chiefs won 19-9.

Last year's meeting between these two teams resulted in a 45-17 Chiefs rout. At Houston on Sunday Night Football in November, Larry Johnson rushed for 211 yards and 2 TDs. Eric Warfield returned an interception 57 yards for the TD seconds before halftime. Trent Green was 19 of 29 for 220 yards and 3 TDs.

Basically, it was a romp. Houston's stats aren't even really worth mentioning- David Carr was 19 of 36 for 182 yards and 1 INT.

What does this game mean? Absolutely nothing. I'm a firm believer in not drawing conclusions from preseason games. We can speculate and wonder but there are so many different factors in a preseason game-out of shape players, 2nd and 3rd string players in the game, the lack of effort many veterans give to the games- that I really do believe that they are meaningless.

Of course there are exceptions to this rule. If Brodie Croyle comes in and throws 4 TDs, then that means something. If Casey Printers doesn't throw a pick, then that means something.

What I will be watching for during these games are how well certain players are simply just holding up. Namely Kyle Turley, Trent Green, Will Shields, Willie Roaf (???) and Tony Gonzalez.

I put the questions marks after Willie Roaf's name because I heard from a shaky source that Roaf was trying to avoid training camp by declaring his intent to retire. The papers aren't through yet so there is a tiny chance Roaf could be back. Call it a hunch but I'm still leaning toward Willie staying retired.