Leach catch a big key to Texans' win

Discussion in 'Tennessee Titans and NFL Talk' started by NewsGrabber, Dec 8, 2008.

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  1. NewsGrabber

    NewsGrabber Guest

    Posted by ESPN.com's Paul Kuharsky Last week, Megan Manfull reported that Vonta Leach had made himself a makeshift T-shirt soliciting Pro Bowl votes. The Texans had shirts made up touting some of their more high profile players, and as Leach is also on the ballot, he thought he'd jump into the action.

    He's a solid player who's played a role in Steve Slaton's breakout season, but in a division with three starting fullbacks, I'd rank him third. Jacksonville's Greg Jones is a quality blocker with a runner's sense of a play and Tennessee's Ahmard Hall is a bone-crusher who's also done some good work with the ball in his hands.

    I'm sure Leach was being playful, but transcripts of interviews from Houston last week read like reporters were very serious in discussing him as a Pro Bowl candidate.

    Never mind the trip to Hawaii, let's talk about his trip back to Green Bay. He was with the Packers in 2004 and 2005, and a game in 2006 before he was let go and landed in Houston after a short stop in New Orleans.

    Leach was a crucial piece in the Texans big win in Green Bay on Sunday. A team with Andre Johnson, Kevin Walter and Owen Daniels twice looked to the fullback in big moments and got big gains.

    He finished with three receptions for 48 yards.

    The first was a five-yard gain on the first play from scrimmage.

    The second was a nice 21-yard gain that got a 15-yard facemask penalty tacked on during a third-quarter field goal drive that put Houston ahead 13-7.

    The third was at the start of the game's final drive, when the Texans were pinned deep in their own territory contemplating playing for overtime.

    "That is about as bad a situation as you can be in," Gary Kubiak said of taking possession with 1:49 remaining at the Texans' own three-yard line. "They had two timeouts, you have to get the ball out of your own end zone and you are probably thinking, 'How do I get to overtime.' So we said, 'Let's pound it out a couple of yards, let's take a shot with Andre on the second play.'

    "But we didn't get the coverage that we wanted. Matt (Schaub) dumped the ball to Vonta and he makes the best catch that I have ever seen him make. Now all of a sudden we go from being non-aggressive and trying to get to overtime, to being aggressive and trying to win the game."

    Said Schaub of Leach's last-drive catch: "It was a great play. We had a play action pass and we had Andre deep and they covered him, so I had Vonta. I wasn't expecting to get him open because they play man coverage, and he happened to slip out to the flat. I just tried to put it on him, but it kind of took off on me a little bit. He was able to get one hand on it and pulled it in. The freight train, 'The Coke machine' we call him, turned down that sideline and ran a few guys over. That was the play of the game in my opinion, because it gave us the opportunity to go on that two-minute drive to get that field goal."



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