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| A Single Focus |
| Written by Dom Barber / December 23, 2009 |
It's coming down to the end of the year and we are right in the middle of the playoff race. Right now six teams have a 7-7 record and there are eight teams fighting for two spots. We know that it's an uphill battle to get there, but we can't worry about what anyone else is doing. We know that if we are going to have a shot at the playoffs we have to beat the Dolphins this week. When it comes down to it we can only control how we play.
All year our goal is to achieve consistency and I think the last two weeks we have done that in our games against the Seahawks and Rams. We have fought our way back into the race by winning those games. A big part of the reason for those wins has been Andre Johnson, who might be the best receiver in football. Whether or not he gets the praise that some other guys do, he doesn't care. That's just his personality. But we as a team know exactly what he means to the Texans and we see the tireless work he puts in.
Going into Miami is going to be really intense because we're both 7-7, looking for one of those last spots. We need to stay focused despite the fact that it will definitely be a playoff atmosphere and just play solid football in all three phases.
We know the coaches will draw up a great plan for us in how to defend the Dolphins. Coach Kubiak has had faith in us all year and he believes in our ability to get the job done. Now we just have to go out and do it.
There will be time for scoreboard watching and all that, but no one here is worried about that until we get that win on Sunday.
Dominique Barber is a defensive back with the Houston Texans. His blog runs at www.playerpress.com. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/34dombarber |
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| Bad Breaks |
| Written by Dom Barber / December 11, 2009 |
We have been really unfortunate in our last four games. We got to 5-3 and things were looking pretty good, but pretty much nothing has gone our way since. We're playing just as hard as ever, so it is definitely not a lack of effort that has led to our rough streak.
It's more frustrating losing a close game than it is to be blown out. If you lose by three or four it makes you look back at maybe one play that you could have made that would have turned the tide. But in the end you either won or you lost. Nobody looks at how close your losses were at the end of the season.
We know that if the playoffs are a possibility that we have to win out. Luckily, from what I can tell, we don't really need to drastically change our play. We need to just make that big, game-changing play that can turn a game in our favor. We know we can go 4-0 from here on out, but we have to go 1-0 first. That starts this weekend with Seattle.
The Seahawks run that West Coast offense. They try to spread you out on defense and we need to be ready to make the proper adjustments. In order to come out with a win it starts with us. Coach Kubiak is a great coach and he makes it clear that we have to just keep fighting and eventually something good will happen. We're ready to fight for our playoff lives starting Sunday.
Dominique Barber is a defensive back with the Houston Texans. His blog runs at www.playerpress.com. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/34dombarber |
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| Finally a Win Streak |
| Written by Dom Barber / October 29, 2009 |
We have always been a team capable of putting together wins in a row but we just weren't able to do it until last week. We alternated wins and losses the first six games of the year and we didn't want to do that all year. For some reason .500 has been a barrier for us, so it's nice to sit at 4-3 right now.
We've played well in all three phases of our game lately, which is why we've been able to win recently. We held the 49ers run game in check and we're proving to a lot of people that we can be a good run-defense team. People still talk about us being bad against the run, but that's the NFL for you. You get praised as a team for something one week, but the next people will look to tear you down.
We had control of the game at halftime up 21-0, but the 49ers made some plays in the second half behind Alex Smith to get back into the game. We still are having trouble playing that complete four quarter game. We can't just play a half and expect to win. It's not that we didn't play hard, we just made some mistakes that they capitalized on. Smith was making good throws and obviously Vernon Davis came up big with three touchdown catches, but we need to fix our mistakes and we'll be fine.
We travel to Buffalo to play a pretty good Bills team. It's gonna be tough. The weather is probably gonna be nasty and they have a real good crowd there too. They have a lot of weapons on offense in T.O, Marshawn Lynch and Fred Jackson, so we will have to play our best defense in order to get a win.
Dominique Barber is a defensive back with the Houston Texans. His blog runs at www.playerpress.com. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/34dombarber |
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| Handling Our Business |
| Written by Dom Barber / October 21, 2009 |
It felt real good to go out and handle our business against the Bengals last week. They are one of the big stories in the league and it was great to go into their place and take the game.
The way Matt Schaub is playing I don't think there's any doubt that he is one of the elite quarterbacks in the league. Week after week he throws for 300-350 yards and a bunch of touchdowns, so I believe that he has reached that level. More than just being a great player he's also a great leader for us.
Steve Slaton came up huge for us last week too. He is becoming an overall great player. He runs and catches the ball at an extremely high level. He is the kind of weapon that every team would love to have.
Even though we got back to .500 it doesn't really mean anything yet. We've been here before and we've never been able to push over that hump. We have another great opponent this week in the 49ers and we know that Mike Singletary is going to have his team ready to play after their bye.
The 49ers should probably be 4-1 right now if not for that last second loss to the Vikings. They are a great team with a lot of weapons. They just added a new one too in Crabtree. The DBs have been getting caught up on our film of him from his college days and it's obvious that he's gonna be a great receiver.
No one is gonna hand us anything, so we know that we have to continue to battle and just try to climb over that .500 wall that has kept us down the last couple of years.
Dominique Barber is a defensive back with the Houston Texans. His blog runs at www.playerpress.com. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/34dombarber |
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