Chris Myers & Co. make it easy for Foster

Remember the difficulty the Texans had running the ball last season?

Remember their repeated failure in key goal-line situations?

Remember the lack of physical play up front a year ago? (And the year before that? And the year before that? And &hellip

Well, at some point Sunday, tailback Arian Foster wasn’t running downhill against the Indianapolis Colts. He was running downmountain.

Take nothing away from Foster, who displayed speed and shiftiness that he was not known for coming out of college, but the virtual gravitational pull from the Texans’ offensive line continually slung him, untouched, into the Colts’ secondary.

Center Chris Myers was at the center of the Texans’ record-setting ground attack.

Often questioned, criticized and condemned by fans and media alike, including yours truly, Myers has had some difficult work days since taking over at center for the team in 2008. He had a game to remember Sunday.

If offensive linemen danced like so many defenders do when they make a nice play, Myers would have been doing the dougie all day.

There have been occasions when Myers has been abused by some of the league’s top interior linemen. Of course, those interior linemen abuse almost everyone they face.

And Myers never made a big deal, or any deal for that matter, of playing on an injured ankle last season, though it clearly affected his play. He suffered a high ankle sprain when a teammate fell on his leg early in training camp, but he returned for the season opener and didn’t miss a start.

Playing with pain

After suffering a dislocated kneecap — instead of being front and center, his kneecap had moved behind his leg — Myers said he would play football even if it meant that after retiring he would be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

A speed lineman whom University of Miami teammate Brett Romberg described as “light in the britches,” Myers was hurt more than most would be by the ankle injury. But he is old school, an “all ball” and “lunch pail” guy,” Gary Kubiak says.

“There is no excuse,” Myers said. “I had to deal with it.

The no-excuse approach, which Myers learned in part from a tough football upbringing that included teaching from his uncle, Dennis Kelleher, who played on Miami national championship teams in the late 1980s, and his grandfather, Tom Kelleher, an NFL official for 28 years (1960-87), didn’t slow down us critics.

“(Criticism) comes with the territory,” Myers said. “Being the center, you’re in the middle of the group of five. If you’re not able to hold up, it’s evident and shows up on the film.

“People try to downplay you and say you’re not good enough. I’ve used that as motivation, fuel to the fire, to keep fighting every single day. I understand critics out there are there to help you and hurt you.”

We critics are quiet this week.

Time to get physical

The Texans’ offensive linemen met Monday morning to watch tape of their handiwork. Myers and his fellow linemen counted more than 20 knockdowns as they opened enough holes for Foster to rumble for a franchise-record 231 yards, the second-most rushing yards for a running back in an NFL season opener.

Myers can’t play much better, but if he is anywhere near this good all season, the Texans’ offensive line will be fun to watch.

When the whistle blew after Foster’s 1-yard touchdown run in the third quarter, the player deepest in the end zone was Colts linebacker Gary Brackett, some 3 yards beyond the line of scrimmage.

He didn’t start there.

Brackett’s repositioning was an involuntary displacement thanks to a textbook block thrown by Myers at the goal line.

On another third-quarter play, Myers and guard Wade Smith lit into Fili Moala at the snap.

After Smith quickly left to go find somebody else to push around, Myers took Moala, a 6-4, 300-pound tackle from USC, on a joy ride. They were six yards downfield when Foster ran past them on his way to an 11-yard gain.

At Miami, where Myers was versatile enough to play four of the five offensive line positions, they used to call such a block a “Metrorail.”

Myers and former Hurricane teammate Eric Winston got a chuckle during their film study, as apparently Houston’s Metro rail line on the east side of Reliant Stadium now veers through the building.

Myers knows what happened Sunday is just a start.

“It is only Week 1,” he said. “Everybody is on a high, the city is on a high, but it is only one game. We have to come out against Washington and repeat that effort.”

Remember last season when Texans running backs never seemed to break long runs? (The team finished last in the NFL in runs of more than 20 and 40 yards.)

In the fourth quarter Sunday, Myers stepped through a hole to seal it off from any linebacker or safety that might be there. He threw a cut block at safety Antoine Bethea, and though he didn’t drop him, Myers slowed Bethea enough that he never got a finger on Foster. Twenty-five yards. Touchdown. Ballgame.

Remember when we used to criticize Chris Myers every week?



(chron.com)