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HOUSTON -- Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid avoided the trap of the easy narrative.His team defeated Houston twice last season, ending the Texans season with a thorough 30-0 victory in the wild-card round of the postseason that initiated a complete reconstruction of offensive personnel for the 2015 AFC South champions.And now, with the teams meeting for a third time in 19 months, the kneejerk response would be to acknowledge that the Chiefs defensive personnel should feel a level of comfort preparing for Sundays game at NRG Stadium. Instead, Reid noted what was different and how those changes might influence an alternate outcome.Yeah, they are a different team, Reid said. Offensively, theyve got new people there. They looked sharp on Sunday.I mean, thats a good football team. We understand that. We understand we have to have a good week of practice here.With so many new faces on offense for the Texans (1-0), from quarterback Brock Osweiler to running back Lamar Miller to rookie receivers Will Fuller and Braxton Miller serving as complements to standout DeAndre Hopkins, it might be wise to disregard what unfolded Jan. 9 when the Chiefs limited the Texans to 226 yards while forcing five turnovers -- all charged to then-Texans quarterback Brian Hoyer.Three of the four skill newcomers enjoyed solid debuts for the Texans in their 23-14 home win over the Bears. Osweiler passed for 231 yards and two touchdowns. Lamar Miller amassed 117 yards from scrimmage on 32 touches. Fuller had five receptions for 107 yards and a fourth-quarter touchdown that put the Texans ahead to stay.The Texans addressed most of the issues that plagued their offense last season, concerns that led to that thud in the playoffs. It was just one game, but on the surface those moves appear to have paid dividends that were both immediate and will also be lasting.I mean, its a new season, Texans offensive coordinator George Godsey said. Theyve got new players. Theyve got players that are injured; weve got players that are injured. Weve got new players. Its a players game and there is new personnel out there. Thats the way we look at it.One of those injured players for the Chiefs (1-0) is running back Jamaal Charles, who practiced Wednesday after sitting out last week in the overtime home win over the San Diego Chargers. Charles is recovering from his second ACL injury, but even without him the Chiefs have maintained their offensive balance running the football.Spencer Ware rushed for 70 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries against San Diego. Because the Chiefs were forced to attack the field vertically after falling into a 21-point halftime deficit, the Chiefs ground game didnt play a significant role. But Ware and Charcandrick West rushed for a combined 1,037 yards and 10 touchdowns last season after Charles was sidelined. Their credentials are legitimate, and with Miller enjoying a breakout of his own in Week 1, the Texans understand how critical running the football is to both offenses.Absolutely, Texans coach Bill OBrien said. Just look at the Kansas City Chiefs and what they did with their running backs last week, I mean, Ware had a big game. West had a big game. They ran the ball. They caught the ball well. I know Jamal Charles wasnt in there, but that guy is a really good player too.Obviously with Lamar Miller and Jonathan Grimes on special teams, Tyler Ervin on special teams, Alfred Blue and what hes done for us in the past. I believe that running backs are very important to your roster.While the Texans fretting over the Chiefs defensive prowess is understandable, the Texans will field a stifling defense of their own led by defensive end J.J. Watt and linebacker Whitney Mercilus, who was named AFC Defensive Player of the Week after producing four tackles and two sacks helping Houston smother the Bears.Watt missed the preseason after July back surgery and was slow to find his rhythm against Chicago. He did in the second half when the Texans turned up the pressure on Bears quarterback Jay Cutler, who absorbed five sacks and was hit an additional 13 times. A healthy Watt and his capable teammates are the obvious concern for Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith.Turn on the tape and turn on the defense, the front jumps out right away, Smith said. Obviously, I think every guy up there is really, really talented and can bring it. Cheap Ravens Jerseys . Jim Rutherford, President and General Manager of the Carolina Hurricanes, announced Wednesday that the team would assign Swedish forward Elias Lindholm to his nations team for the upcoming tournament. Custom Ravens T-shirts . 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Thousands of Southern California fans enveloped the Trojans to celebrate an improbable win secured by an interim coach, an inconsistent kicker and a thin defence that wouldnt break. On the eve of this match, Sri Lankas captain Angelo Mathews had a pointed message for those who sought to attribute his sides series win purely to spinning pitches and Australian unfamiliarity with same. Im hearing that the Aussies have not played good cricket, and the wickets were poor - I mean, come on, youve got to grow up. We play on the same wicket.Within minutes of Mathews saying these words, the touring press corps were invited by the Australian team to pay a visit to the centre of the SSC ground in Colombo for a close look at the latest tinder-dry pitch prepared for them. The clear implication was that the surface would once again do plenty for spin, and that it would struggle to last the distance. Another spoiler for the pacemen.But events on day one of the third Test served to underline Mathews point rather better than it did that of the touring team. Yes the SSC pitch was extremely dry, and yes it took spin from the very first ball delivered by Nathan Lyon. Yet the conditions were not exactly treacherous, offering little by way of variable bounce, and catered to batsmen prepared to play with application, skill and occasional moments of flair. In Dhananjaya de Silva and Dinesh Chandimal, Sri Lanka had those batsmen.By way of quantifying how well these two played, Australia had arguably their best bowling day of the series. Runs were scored at a far less rapid rate, fields were clever but not over-attacking, and the pre-lunch spell when Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon combined artfully was as threatening as two Australian bowlers have looked together since Josh Hazlewood and Steve OKeefe on day one at Pallekele. Lyon found a disconcerting pace with useful turn early on, though for the balance of the day his line was perhaps fractionally too straight, allowing plenty of balls to be worked around the corner.Personally Ive learned a lot in this series and Im adapting, Lyon said. You can still see my stock off break creating chances but they just werent carrying to bat pad. The best way Id describe it is Im adapting to learning how to bowl on the subcontinent.Jon Holland too delivered a performance much improved on his nervous showing in Galle, dropping the ball onto the right length and varying his degree of turn nicely. On the evidence he offered here, Holland deserves a more consistent commission for Victoria over the home summer, and serious consideration for India next year. If a wicket or two was missing from his analysis, it was not through a lack of chances created. Peter Nevill could not accept an edge from Dhananjayas groping blade in mid-afternoon, not long after a skier fell tantalisingly short of mid-on running back with the flight. A facile appeal for a return catch via the boot of silly point was laughed off.What will frustrate the Australians is the fact that Sri Lanka have been by far the more reesilient of the two batting orders.dddddddddddd. A morning scoreline of 26 for 5 followed earlier starts of 67 for 5, 86 for 4, 9 for 2 and 98 for 5. Australias bowlers have not, all told, done a bad job, but their efforts to snuff out the Sri Lankan batting have been met by stiffening resistance with every innings since the first. Of course it was Kusal Mendis who showed the way with a series-defining hundred in Pallekele, but he has been followed by Mathews, Dhananjaya and Dilruwan Perera. It is a philosophy of Darren Lehmann that a batting line-up need only make enough runs to allow the bowlers room to take 20 wickets. Sri Lankas middle-order batsmen have followed it grandly.I daresay if you look at the whole series thats a big key in Sri Lanka being 2-0 up in the series, Lyon said. The ability for their batsmen to bat in partnerships and for a long period of time. Weve all spoken about it and our batters have got their own plans to come out in this Test match and hopefully put them into play and bat for long periods. Thats Test match cricket.Intriguingly, Australias selection for the Colombo Test reflected mounting discontent with the touring top order, even though Sri Lankas first three batsmen have been, if anything, even less productive. Joe Burns and Usman Khawaja paid a heavy price for their failures in Tests one and two, replaced by a pair of older cricketers in Moises Henriques and Shaun Marsh. These two were ostensibly the spare batsmen on tour, though Henriques is more an allrounder with precious few recent Sheffield Shield runs behind him. The methods he and Marsh offer will fascinate, given the teams commitment to a more aggressive game has now been faced with a counterpoint from Dhananjaya and Chandimal.Lyon offered a somewhat testy response when asked about the changes. Thats a selectors question, he said. Ive got no say in it, all Ive got to do is support each and every one of those guys in the change room, and Ill do that until the day I die. SOS and Mo have definitely got my support, but so do Burnsy and Uz. Its a tough call, but thats why the selectors get paid the big dollars.Dropping two seemingly settled members of the Australian top six just two Test matches into a new season was a momentous decision given the need for all antipodean batsmen to learn as much as possible in these conditions. Both Burns and Khawaja may now doubt their chances of going to India in the new year, no matter how many runs they make in Australia during the summer.But the move away from the current top six had as much to do with Sri Lankas greater resilience as with Australian troubles with spinning surfaces. Make no mistake, this series has been won by the home team, not by their pitches. ' ' '