Texans hold on to beat Dolphins 24-17 in Cushing's return

After opening the preseason with a win over the Vikings last week the Houston Texans played the Miami Dolphins in week 2. This would be a good test for the Texans offensively and defensively with many of their starters playing this week. RB Arian Foster was still out with soreness in his back, but other than that every other starter on both sides saw time in the game against Miami.

Offensively the Texans looked really good, scoring a TD in each of the first 3 quarters. Each one thrown by a different QB. The Texans QB trio of Matt Schaub, TJ Yates, and Case Keenum were a combined 26-38 for 326 yards, 3 TD's, and a QB Rating of 110.2. The QB's were in fine form as they all found a different target for each of their TD's. Schaub finding TE Owen Daniels, Keenum hitting WR Lestar Jean on a fourth down conversion, and yater hitting TE Garrett Graham. Though the offense clicking the Texans did lose rookie WR DeAndre Hopkins to a concussion from his head being bounced off the turf after a hit. Hopkins was drafted to be the weapon on the other side of the field opposite Andre Johnson. In week 1 he showed he could be that guy when he made a spectacular catch over a defender against the Vikings.

The RB battle was something to watch in this game with Arian Foster still not playing for the Texans. Veteran RB Deji Karim took full advantage of the time he got on the field. Karim finished the game with 55 yards rushing on 9 carries and looked solid making his cuts in the Texans zone running scheme. Karim is battling to get the thits RB spot behind Arian Foster, and Ben Tate. Coming into this game Karim's competition was rookie RB's Cierre Wood and Dennis Johnson. But after his performance he may be in the lead now, as he also has the ability to return kickoffs when needed.

The Texans had a lot to look forward to this week on defense with the return of Brian Cushing. The team's emotional leader on defense, and it showed when he was on the field. 208 total yards was all the Texans defense gave up against the Dolphins. And they were able to get the QB 6 times in the game. The Texans were able to do all this without starting OLB and pass rush weapon Whitney Mercilus who was out due to injury. With Mercilus out rookie OLB Willie Jefferson got more time on the field and looked good coming off the edge. Cushing looked to be back to his old self, as shown when he leaped 5 yards in an attempt to sack Ryan Tannehill in the first quarter of this game. That's a great sign for the Texans, they're hoping a healthy Cushing will return this defense to the top 5 rank they had when he was injured last season.