Texans fans, let's treat this one as if it's our playoff game

November 25, 7:03 AMHouston Texans ExaminerAlan Burge

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Let's do this again

No, this season hasn't gone the way we wanted.  Far from it.

First there was the disastrous opener at Pittsburgh which seems like a different season ago.

Then there was Ike and all the disruption and chaos it brought.  There are still blue roofs everywhere in my neighborhood.

Then there were games against Jacksonville, Indianapolis and Minnesota that were there for the taking but no...

And now we have this.

'This' is our first Monday Night game since 1994.  And by 'our' I mean this City. 

That game was played by our old team - which was something like 1-8 at the time - but we (as in the great Houston NFL fans that we are) filled the ol' Dome and screamed and hollered and nearly came away with an improbable victory over a far superior New York Giants team.

I recall a few other Monday Nighter's at the Dome, the most famous of course being the one where Luv Ya Blue and Earl became household names across the country, and a couple of others from the same era against Bradshaw's Steelers and Grogan's Patriots.  There was nothing like the atmosphere at those games and I long for it again.

We might as well treat this as our playoff game for the season considering how rare it is for Houston to host a home playoff game.  It's only happened five times post-merger [against Denver in '79, Seattle in '87, Pittsburgh in '89, the Jets in '91, and Kansas City in '93] but I remember every one of those and it's something special - not necessarily the outcomes - but there's something special about a playoff atmosphere.

The bottom line is that these chances for the ultimate national exposure don't come around often - at least until you become a perennial winner.  So that means this is our chance to show the country that football is still king in southeast Texas and we're not just a bunch of empty seats, fickle fair-weather whiners, or bandwagoners with a other team's jerseys in their closet only to be worn if that team is on a winning streak (you know who you are).

I've read the message boards and all the garbage about orchestrated walkouts and not showing up to "show" the owner that the fans are ticked off and how we're not gonna take it any more.

Well, how shall I say this. That's stupid.

Do you not think the owner understands our frustration?  If not, you're not paying attention.  He's just as frustrated as we are and it's not only because of the bottom line.  The guy truly wants to put a winning product on the field for us and I think he'll do what it takes to get there.  I'll save that rant for another day but I touched on that stream of consciousness in this article a few weeks ago if you're interested.

Back to our opportunity.  Let's not blow it.

The Bills were 5-4 entering their Monday Night game with the Browns two weeks ago.  They lost.  The Saints were 5-5 entering their Monday Night game against the Packers last night.  They won.  

But what was a big deal is that both home crowds were great and looked great on TV.  It gave the rest of the country a favorable view of those teams (and those cities) even though those two franchises haven't exactly been the definition of successful over their 40 something years of existence.. 

What was important was that you saw a full stadium.  You saw passion, electricity, anticipation and craziness as you should for the NFL's  premiere game of the week.  If we do our part, I'm confident our team will do theirs.  If you're not going, give your tickets to someone who will.  It's a Monday Night Partayyyyyyy.

The Texans were 6-7 last season prior to our last Battle Red night in our "almost nationally televised" game shown on NFL Network.  We showed well.  The stadium was electric as the Texans stomped the Broncos.

Let's do it again.

Wear your red, get there early and take advantage of some of the best tailgating in the land, get inside the stadium for kickoff, make lots of noise (when Garrard is under center) and I think the Texans will respond in a way we like. 

The Texans offense is on the right track and the Browns game showed if nothing else, that the defense can (gasp) make some big plays if its allowed to play more aggressively.

What better situation could we ask for coming off Thanksgiving weekend but an opportunity to extend the party, improve our record, stomp a mud hole in a division rival that's easy to hate and put them in last place in the division.  

Sounds like playoff atmosphere to me.