Texas face Saints in preseason home opener

August 21, 7:38 PMHouston Texans ExaminerAlan Burge

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Marques Colston will test the Texans secondary Saturday night   (AP Photo/Dave Einsel)

First things first, Texans fans.

Get your tickets and parking pass out of their safe place.  This would be Game A, Jacques Reeves on the ticket, Spirit of Service as the weekly theme.

I say this only because I remember back in 2003 or something when I was so excited for the first game that I drove all the way out to Reliant and didn't realize until I exited on Kirby that I had forgotten my tickets and parking pass at home.

Not good.  But luckily we're only about 35 minutes from Reliant.

Since then, I've implemented a gameday eve tradition of tearing my tickets and parking pass out of the book and placing them in a prominent place on the kitchen counter next to my keys - making it virtually impossible to repeat that mistake.

That just made me think.  I wonder if having Jaques Reeves picture on the first game ticket was something like an SI cover jinx considering he broke his leg a few weeks ago.

We interrupt this story for a Favre alert.  How bizarre is it to see him wearing purple - as I watch him  on NFL-N warming up prior to the Vikes vs. KC?    Raise your hand if you're sick of that guy.

As 'SEC Guy' would say ... next!

Saints scouting report

Brian Allee-Walsh had some good information in his 'Camp confidential'  feature in the Times-Picayune this morning.  Here's some highlights that should interest Texans fans:

• Saints quarterback Drew Brees will play into the second quarter
• Joey Harrington will take the bulk of the snaps in the second half.  Mark Brunell is expected to enter in the fourth quarter and finish the game.
• Running back Mike Bell is expected to start.
• Reggie Bush is questionable with a strained right calf. 
• Wide receiver Lance Moore (shoulder) is being held out as a precaution.
• Unproven left tackle Jermon Bushrod will start in place of injured starter Jammal Brown who may need hernia surgery.

What I take from this information is that the Saints will probably play it fairly close to the vest early in the game to assure that they can adequately protect Brees.   Bushrod against Mario Williams appears to be a mismatch so expect the Saints help him out with a tight end or a back to chip. 

But I'm sure the Saints will take their shots downfield, and I'm looking forward to seeing what the young Texans secondary can do against the Saints first team offense.

On the other side, I'm most interested in the Texans protections.  Gregg Williams brings in a high pressure defense and I saw Duane Brown struggle a bit against Will Smith earlier this week in practice.  This isn't the kind of game where you want to get your QB hit.

Kasey Studdard and Chris White should see a lot of action again at left guard and center as Chester Pitts and Chris Myers recover from injuries.

I'm also interested in seeing what Arian Foster can do since he's been sidelined for the past 10 days with a hamstring.

Did you know?

Eight of the past 10 Super Bowl champions finished the season ranked in the league’s top 10 in scoring defense and total defense.  Those teams allowed an average of 301.1 yards and 16.0 points per game.

The Texans defense ranked 22nd in the league in total yards per game allowed in 2008, surrendering 336.6 yards. Houston was 27th in scoring defense, giving up an average of 24.6 points per game.