TEXANS vs DOLPHINS

VS

The Texans have won all four meetings.

Miami's young secondary The Dolphins are starting a pair of rookies at cornerback, and a third rookie sees time as a backup safety. Vontae Davis, Sean Smith and Chris Clemons have played well, but as is often the case with first-year players, they have also struggled at times. They will face a stiff test against Houston's second-ranked passing offense.

The Texans can secure their first winning season by closing with two victories. ... Houston's Andre Johnson leads the league in receiving yards with 1,433.

Johnson is returning home with amazing statistical possibilities. He leads the NFL in receiving yards with 1,433. That's 415 yards shy of Jerry Rice's single-season record 1,848 yards, meaning Johnson needs to average 207.5 yards in his final two games to tie Rice.

Such a goal would hardly be worth mentioning for most receivers. Obviously, Johnson isn't most receivers. Quarterback Matt Schaub doesn't doubt it's possible for his favorite target to add to his legend.

"You look at what he's done the past two weeks," Schaub said. "That's not totally out of the question for him to average that many yards, but again, it's whatever it takes to win. I guarantee if you asked him, if he'd take two catches for 10 yards and we win, he'd emphatically say yes."

Since 2006, Johnson has been the most productive receiver in the NFL, averaging 91.0 yards per game.

"I've been around him three years now and it's impressive but it doesn't amaze me because I see him do it all the time," Schaub said.

In the past two weeks, Johnson has been on a real tear. He had 11 catches for 193 years against Seattle and nine catches for 196 last week against St. Louis. It's part of a pledge Johnson made to himself a few weeks back to play the best five games of his career to close out the season.

Is he measuring up to his own benchmark?

i recently caught up with my boy DRE and this is what he had to say

"We've been winning so I think I've been doing enough for the team to win," Johnson said. "Hopefully, I can keep doing what I'm doing and do it enough that we can get a victory on Sunday. The big thing about this league is consistency, so I have to come out and do that."

The statistical possibilities are just window-dressing.

"When you are playing, you don't think about stats," Johnson said. "You don't hear them until you come off the field. I'm just out there playing trying to do everything I can to help the team. But it's a great accomplishment to have played that way the last two weeks."

Johnson recalls his pro debut in Miami fondly. This time, it's more about business.

"I was more into that when I was a rookie because that was my first professional game, going home to play," Johnson said. "It will be fun, exciting. I'm pretty sure they'll (Dolphins) be pumped. We have the same record and we're battling for the same spot. It will be like our playoff game.

"This is the biggest game we've had since I've been here. If you keep winning, every game is going to get bigger and bigger. This is the biggest one now.

"I won't get carried away. When you get too carried away, it affects how you play. I approach it like I approach any other game. But I know what's at stake. That's what I have on my mind."

The Texans started the season with high expectations of making the playoffs. A four-game losing streak has put them in must-win situations and they need plenty of help to make it to postseason. It's not a time to be discussing individual honors for Johnson.

"It's great to accomplish that stuff but when you're not winning and playing in playoffs, it doesn't feel the same," Johnson said. "If we were in a different situation than we are now, it would feel a lot better."

Still, Johnson has achieved glowing numbers in his first 100 pro games.

He's caught passes in 99 of 100 games.
Johnson has 13 career games with 10 or more catches and 100 or more yards. That's third all time behind Rice and Marvin Harrison.
Johnson has 576 career catches, second behind Harrison for most catches in his first 100 games.
If Johnson leads the NFL in receiving yards this season, he will join Rice as the only receivers in NFL history to lead the league in consecutive seasons.
Although reluctant to talk about personal goals, Johnson's path to the Hall of Fame is on a fast track. And, it's something he wants when his career is over.

"I always had a goal of trying to be the best," he said. "When I finished football, I wanted people to say Andre Johnson was the best wide receiver to ever play.

"So I think at this point, I've worked my way to people having an opinion that I'm the best in the league. I'm going to continue doing what I'm doing so that when I hang my cleats up they can say I was the best to ever play."

in the words of Deion sanders "PAY DAT MAN"

texans need to give him a better contract sure the contract he got's now is good but he needs one of those albert haynesworth type of money.

it might be a close game in the 1st half but i see the texans putting away the game in the 4th qtr. dolphins passing game has been looking really good as of late but i see alot of good match ups against the texans D.if this game ends up being a shootout i would expect the texans high flying offense to shut that noise down.

MY PREDICTIONS

schaub will throw for 300+yds and a pair of TD's
andre johnson will have a dozen receptions and possably 200 yds receiving.
be on the look out for walter to make some tough catches in traffic in certain situations.

andre johnson will put on a show at his home and impress the dolphins fans to where they would say"AWWWW LET'S SEE THAT AGAIN AWWWW MAAANNNN AWWWW ANDRE MAN YOUR THE BEST WR IN THE GAME WOOOOOOW THESE SORRY ASS DOLPHINS WON'T STAND A CHANCE TO THAT MONSTER OFFENSE"

lol

no...andre will most likely get 100 yards or less...miami d has been continually getting better in pass d to go with its run d....the d has 40 some sacks which is something like 3rd in the nfl....so to say schuab will have 300 plus yards is kinda out there since the only qbs who threw alot on the fins d is brady....brees....uh thats about it oh yea and young =( but since the texans have no run game whatsoever....i feel that the fins will gameplan for the pass specifically and shut down every single guy but andre and force schuab to throw to andre at all times which will open up the exotic blitz packages to take off the doubles on walter and turn it into andre.....

200 yards...please

I predict Ande gettin 160 yards Houston winning 27-18

schaub has the most passing yds on the road since dan marino and has thrown for 300 yds 8 times this season & is second under payton manning for the most 300 yrd passing games this season.

sorry mario....texans wont win unless dolphins decide to turn over the ball 3x as usual...

Dre 120+ 2TD

yeah turnovers will be a big part of this game if texans can win the turnover battle they have a better chance at winning.

Dolphins D is terrible against the deep pass their young secondary is among the league's worst in allowing passing plays of 25 yards or longer the dolphins have given up 33 such plays and the texans have made 30 this season.

Even if they try to double DRE i don't think that would stop him he's been getting doubled covered all season long and is still able to make big plays down the feild just look at the video on my sig he was doubled covered by one of the best CB's in the league and he got burned just imagine what DRE is gonna do to that dolphins young inexperienced secondary.

fins d is gettn shredded right now....

Andre Johnson baby!!!!!

i told everyone that that dolphins D wasn't gonna cover DRE good. in the second half they did a little better but every time the dolphins got on a roll the texans D made some big plays with some sacks or an int.

THey still won't make playoffs.

it's possible we just need a little help from some other teams.

and have to beat the pats this sunday.

They need to fire all of the coaches now, not just Kubiak. How do you just put it in cruise control for the entire second half? I know the Dolphins made adjustments but c'mon.

Im just glad we won. The pats are going to be hard next week tho :/

i think the pats game should be an easy victory the pats might not play their starters. they don't have a reason to play.

i wish they would play their starters though the game would be alot more fun if they do.