Cesar Santamaria

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Gary Kubiak out, Cesar Santamaria in
After some years of disappointment, the Houston Texans decide to go a different direction with their head coach. They have hired Cesar Santamaria to replace Gary Kubiak.

Santamaria hails from Mexico and is somewhat of a "football ambassador" if you will. He did say he was going to keep the Texans' power run playbook but insisted the Texans make the switch to a more "unconventional" defense. The Texans will run a 4-2-5 defense.

Santamaria is a well-balanced offense/defense HC who is hoping to make an impact with this team.

This is a surprising move with the preseason right around the corner but the Texans organization is confident Santamaria will get the job done.

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Not many changes were made to the team's positional philosophies.

Because of the new defense, Cesar spent most of the practices prior to Week 1 versus the Broncos working with the unit and making sure some of his key plays were learned or mastered.

The staff was nervous after reports that only offensive line coach Alex Gibbs has a truly secure job but Santamaria insists everyone will get a chance.

LT Duane Brown walked out of negotiations after just one offer it was said, citing that he was "insulted" by the offer the Texans put out to him. He would not sign until 4 days before preseason officially began.

The Texans considered going after former MVP Shaun Alexander but backed out when the bidding got near $5M. They also went after Kevin Jones, former Detroit Lion, but backed out yet again. The Texans' best halfback is Ahman Green, highly considered to be out of his prime and injury and fumble prone on top of that.

The Texans are expected to be a bottom-of-the-pile team but Santamaria doesn't want to think in that fashion. "I mean, we have Andre [Johnson]. We got "super" Mario Williams. We have a good tandem of corners. I don't think we're nearly as bad as so-called analysts say we are."

The preseason will be supersimmed. I don't care too much about preseason lol.

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Houston beat Denver in its first preseason game 21-13. A lot of experts say the Texans only won because Broncos wide receiver Brandon Marshall tried his hand at QB for nearly the entire 2nd half.

Assessing the team's knowledge of the playbooks, Cesar said the offense does not need much work. He did comment though that it was "quite apparent" that Duane Brown, the Texans' 1st round draft pick, struggled mightily. Experts say he is probably not even a backup-worthy left tackle and that some of the Texans' other picks, like DT Frank Okam or LOLB Xavier Adibi, will be much more helpful in the future.

Morlon Greenwood injured his ankle during the game and is expected to be out for 1-2 weeks.

The Texans' next game is in New Orleans.

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Prior to the game with New Orleans, the Texans released SS Glenn Earl to sign former Kansas City Chief Bernard Pollard. They immediately made him the starting SS and then actually moved SS C.C. Brown to free safety for the game.

The Texans would lose to the Saints 21-10, despite 159 yards from Ahman Green in the 1st half. Combined, QBs Matt Schaub and Sage Rosenfels threw 5 interceptions and had a combined QB rating of 89.2. Frank Okam and Chris Brown suffered injuries during the game. Brown is out for 7-12 weeks with a broken wrist.

The Texans' next game will be in Dallas.

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Prior to the game with Dallas, the Texans decided to sign rookie kicker Alexis Serna. They also signed WR Chris Henry and moved TE Mark Bruener to fullback.

The Texans lost to the Cowboys 28-20 despite scoring 17 points in the 2nd quarter. Return specialist Andre' Davis got hurt during the game.

The Texans' last preseason game is at home against Jon Gruden's Tampa Bay Bucs.

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The Texans were quite frankly destroyed by Tampa Bay to the tune of 38-3.

Cesar Santamaria sounds optimistic but honestly everyone is expecting MAYBE 5 wins out of the Houston Texans.

On another note, the Texans have released an official depth chart for the 2008 season.

Houston Texans Depth Chart - 2008
Regular Offense
	STARTER	2ND	3RD	4TH
WR	Andre Johnson 90/91	Andre Davis 69/70	Kevin Walter 68/68
TE	Owen Daniels 78/82	Cole Bennett 65/72
LT	Jordan Black 82/82	Ephraim Salaam 73/73	Duane Brown 59/63
LG	Kasey Studdard 74/79	Chester Pitts 71/71
C	Chris White 84/88	Chris Myers 72/77
RG	Charles Spencer 70/71	Fred Weary 68/68
RT	Eric Winston 78/82	Rashad Butler 69/72
WR	Chris Henry 73/84	Jacoby Jones 69/83	David Anderson 64/72
QB	Matt Schaub 84/86	Sage Rosenfels 74/76	Alex Brink 55/92
FB	Mark Bruener 83/83	Jameel Cook 72/72
HB	Ahman Green 71/71	Chris Brown 72/72	Chris Taylor 70/76	Steve Slaton 60/66
Base 4-2-5 Defense
	STARTER	2ND	3RD	4TH
LDE	Anthony Weaver 72/72	Earl Cochran 61/64
LDT	Frank Okam 74/79	Jeff Zgonina 70/70
RDT	Amobi Okoye 86/91	Travis Johnson 66/69
RDE	Mario Williams 88/93	Paul Carrington 69/74
SLB	Xavier Adibi 80/85	Morlon Greenwood 79/80
WLB	DeMeco Ryans 87/89	Ben Moffitt 71/76
CB	Fred Bennett 86/91	Jacque Reeves 80/83	Jamar Fletcher 73/73
SS	Bernard Pollard 76/80
FS	C.C. Brown 71/75	Will Demps 71/71
SS	Nick Ferguson 74/75
CB	Dunta Robinson 85/87	DeMarcus Faggins 74/74
Special Teams
	STARTER	2ND	3RD	4TH
K	Alexis Serna 81
P	Matt Turk 85/85
PR	Andre' Davis 74	Antwaun Molden 74
KR	Andre' Davis 74	Antwaun Molden 74
LS	Chris White 84/88

Hmmm, probably should have chosen a defense I understand...

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The Texans have the Steelers Week 1. Cesar Santamaria had his team focused on stopping the run. "We can't allow them to run all over us nor can we let them have their way on defense. We have to put our dukes up and challenge a hard-nosed, rough-housing team like the Steelers."

Experts expect a loss from the Texans.

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Houston Texans at Pittsburgh Steelers
Jan 1,	1ST	2ND	3RD	4TH	OT	SCORE
Houston Texans (0-0)	10	21	0	3	6	40
Pittsburgh Steelers (0-0)	0	7	14	13	0	34

Team Stats Comparison
	HOU	PIT
Total Offense	435	421
Rushing Yards	74	62
Passing Yards	361	359
First Downs	23	11
Punt Return Yards	7	27
Kick Return Yards	187	151
Total Yards	629	599
Turnovers	0	1
3rd Down Converstion	8-14	3-9
4th Down Conversion	0-0	1-1
2-Point Conversion	0-0	0-1
Red Zone Touchdowns/Field Goals	4/2	3/0
Penalties	2-12	3-30
Posession Time	26:57	18:26

Houston Texans PASSING C/A YDS TD INT M. Schaub 24/32 373 1 0 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD C. Taylor 25 50 2.0 3 A. Green 6 27 4.5 0 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD A. Johnson 6 89 14.8 0 J. Jones 5 103 20.6 0 C. Henry 4 90 22.5 0 A. Green 2 11 5.5 1 DEFENSE TACK SACK INT TD D. Ryans 9 0 1 1 X. Adibi 7 1 0 0 A. Okoye 5 0 0 0 N. Ferguson 5 0 0 0 KICKING FG XP PTS LONG A. Serna 2/3 4/4 10 34 PUNTING NO YDS AVG IN20 M. Turk 3 121 40.3 0 KICK RETURN RET YDS AVG TD J. Reeves 4 102 25.5 0 A. Molden 3 85 28.3 0 PUNT RETURN RET YDS AVG TD A. Molden 3 7 2.3 0

Pittsburgh Steelers PASSING C/A YDS TD INT B. Roethlisberger 19/26 362 3 1 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD W. Parker 19 52 2.7 2 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD S. Holmes 7 151 21.5 1 H. Ward 6 90 15.0 0 DEFENSE TACK SACK INT TD B. McFadden 10 0 0 0 L. Woodley 9 1 0 0 T. Polamalu 7 0 0 0 C. Hampton 6 1 0 0 KICKING FG XP PTS LONG J. Reed 0/1 4/4 4 N/A PUNTING NO YDS AVG IN20 D. Sepulveda 4 159 39.7 1 KICK RETURN RET YDS AVG TD I. Taylor 4 101 25.2 0 PUNT RETURN RET YDS AVG TD N. Washington 3 27 9.0 0

The Texans win a close OT thriller over the Steelers. Experts called the Texans rushing attack "terribly inefficient but somehow effective" and gave credit to Santamaria and d-coordinator Richard smith, whose job is in jeopardy, for keying in on Pittsburgh's run game.

A multitude of injuries hit the Texans however. Chris White is out 1-3 weeks. Ahman Green is out 3 to 5. Frank Okam is out at least a week. And Jeff Zgonina is out for 7-12 weeks with a strained hamstring. This is going to cause issues for Houston when they face the Ravens next week.