I expected the Texans to be a bad team this year. 6-10. That's better than being a God-awful team like they were last season but bad is bad none the less. Bad teams find was to lose games. I'm glad it's getting out of the way early as to not give fans and the owner false hope and thoughts that it's just 'bad luck'. The team will get better next year with a new GM and better players.
Bad is one thing What I am seeing is a Good team doing bad things .. . which is worse Watching WINNABLE games . . . lost behind bad plays, mistakes,etc . . . not because of lack of talent but lack of execution . .. lack of commitment .. . lack of playing to the final whistle that is grueling Rocket River
http://************************************/10-21-14-jj-watt-mocked-by-pittsburgh-steelers-fans-after-loss-its-jeers-and-beer-showers-with-texans-season-in-doubt/ Spoiler J.J. Watt trudges off the field, another lost night shadowing him all the way, a section of Pittsburgh Steelers fans is waiting for him. They lean over the end zone railing to make sure the best defensive player in football can hear them good and loud — now that he can wreak no more havoc on their team. "J.J. have a nice trip back to Texas, baby!" one guy screams at the hulking defensive lineman with full beer courage bravado. "This is Steelers Country and you don't want any part of Steelers Country. You can't handle it!" Watt doesn't even look up. DeAndre Hopkin does. When the second-year wideout follows Watt off the field, he's hit with a "Thanks for dropping that fumble, Hopkins!" and then F-Bombs from the Steelers fans start flying. Followed by the beer. None of the suds come close to any of the Texans players. The stands are too far removed. A good share of the beer shower lands on unsuspecting KHOU sports reporter Matt Musil and a few yellow jacketed Steelers security guards. The stink of beer can be washed off a jacket. But the stink suddenly clamped onto Bill O'Brien's Houston Texans is not so easily removed. The once 3-1 Texans are now under .500 for the first time this season. They went into a murder's row three game slate against the Cowboys, the Colts and the Steelers needing just one win to stay on a legitimate playoff track. They come out of it with none, dropping games by three, five and seven points. The latest setback — Monday night's self-inflicted 30-23 disaster in the Steel City —is the most infuriating and worrisome of the terrible trifecta. For the Texans absolutely dominate this game early, jumping out to a 13-0 lead behind Arian Foster's brilliant bursts, leaving the Steelers and their fans (at least the ones who bother to show on a night Heinz Field has a ton of empty yellow seats) looking like they are ready to pack it in. But the Texans throw the game back with the worst 73 seconds of football you'll ever see, giving up three touchdowns in the span of five plays. The Texans make every kind of mistake imaginable in this spree of horror (mishandled kickoff return, fumble, interception, getting roasted by Pittsburgh's running backs in the passing game, being fooled by a trick play). Don't look now, but that awful feeling is creeping back in, the stink that got Gary Kubiak fired and Bill O'Brien brought here in the first place. The Texans players can feel it. Everyone can feel it. "This is the worst," second-year safety D.J. Swearinger says. "Two years in a row, it feels the same. Losing is . . . the worst." The Texans (3-4) aren't anywhere close to approaching that 14-game death spiral of a losing streak that marked last season. But three straight losses is cause for real concern, no matter how tough the opponents and how tight the games have been. Don't look now, but the Texans suddenly have their first must-win game of the O'Brien era. If the Texans cannot win at 2-5 Tennessee this Sunday — a game they should win — you can cue the Jim Mora soundbite and kiss any thought of a surprise playoff berth goodbye. These Texans with two of the brightest superstars in the NFL in Watt and Foster need to stop coming close enough to kick themselves — and finally just kick down the door. "I'm sick of saying we did a good job fighting back," Watt barks afterwards. Bill O'Brien's Texans Torment O'Brien is beyond sick watching the Texans bumble and botch great chances to come back even after those 73 seconds of horror. The Texans special teams commit an inexcusable 12 men on the field penalty when the Steelers are set to punt, extending a drive. Damaris Johnson can't hold onto a Ryan Fitzpatrick pass inside the 20-yard line in the fourth quarter, killing a touchdown chance. Hopkins — who beat the Steelers coverage all night — makes a nice catch and run on a slant for a big gain even later in the fourth. And commits the fumble that will later be fan mocked. Then after the Texans pull within seven with 1:31 left on a beautifully designed O'Brien play (in at tight end, J.J. Watt goes out wide into the end zone and Foster catches an easy one-yard touchdown on a pattern underneath him), the onside kick is right there, just waiting to be taken. The ball bounces around forever — and Texans linebacker Mike Mohamed seems to have a clear chance at recovering it, only to fail to locate the football — before a Steelers tight end Michael Palmer finally falls on it. The Monday Night Football cameras seem to find O'Brien after every blunder and his furious disbelieving expressions and expletives the most novice lip reader can pick up are flashed on the press box TVs — and sometimes the big stadium scoreboard screen. The coach is the first Texan to march off the field and he's still rightly fuming when he meets the media later. "These questions are like we lost 50 to nothing," O'Brien says at one point after some rather benign queries. "We lost by a touchdown." Which, as no one needs to tell O'Brien, almost makes it worse. These Texans are clearly talented enough to compete with almost any NFL team. Now O'Brien has to make sure they don't lose their way — and tumble right down another rabbit hole. "This team has a lot of great leaders," veteran safety Danieal Manning says. "It's time for our leaders to step up . . . "The coaches have done all they can do. We have great game plans, we're prepared for every situation. It's on us as players." It's hard to imagine the stage being set more perfectly than it is on this Monday night turned miserable Tuesday morning. The haughty Steelers fans who take winning for granted barely bother to show for this prime time affair. There are officially more than 9,000 empty seats in this mere 65,000-seat stadium by the river and it looks and sounds even emptier than that for most of the first half. The Texans have firm control of the game. Then, they suddenly look like clowns tumbling out of a car. "I dropped it," Foster simply says of his fumble on a night when he rushes for 73 yards in the first quarter and ends up with 102 for the game. "I ran without the ball," Manning says of his mishandling the kickoff that pins the Texans down at the three-yard line for Foster's fumble in the first place. "Just bad awareness, bad ball control on my part," Hopkins says of his own killer fourth quarter fumble. The Texans are all being stand-up guys and good teammates. But it's all still the sounds of snatching defeat from victory. In the end, those Steelers fans are showering the Texans with insults, mocking them as they head into another lost night and a very uncertain future.
I definitely agree with you about us not winning winnable games. It's so rediculous. I don't think we are completely devoid of talent, but there are some glaringly bad holes that exposed themselves. Secondary is obviously a big issue, Swearinger is a question mark, Cushing looks absolutely nothing like his old self, we also have questions about some D-line and O-line positions. And of course Ryan Fitzpatrick.
I really think its worse losing like this, know that you could win the game, if they did 2 or 3 plays different. i think I rather lose like the jaguars or the raiders, then you know, the team doesnt have the talent to compete, and wait for next year.
Houston is such a super football town, but has NEVER had a super football team. It really is a shame. Tragic and sad, actually. First, the Bud Adams curse, a really bad owner. Then Bob McNair. Maybe not as devious and mean spirited as Bud, but marginally clueless. How the man became a multi millionaire is hard for me to fathom. Building a pro football team was not and is not his cup of tea. Therefore, here we are, fifty plus years later, at the same place, waiting for a miracle that never comes. Kind of like the movie, Ground Hog Day. I have been watching this debacle since I was a little kid. It is the same story over and over again. The faces are different but the "keystone cops" outcomes are the same. If I live to see real change, the miraculous emergence of a genuinely competent franchise and football team, I will cry like a baby. Perhaps for days. And I have rarely cried in my lifetime. In so many other areas I have enjoyed a great measure of success. I have much to be thankful for, but a winning football team that makes me proud and rewards me for decades of fandom is not one of them.
How He Got Rich: Robert C. McNair owned a cogeneration power plant company and sold it to Enron in 1999. After that, it was nothing but smooooooth sailing for Enron. http://mentalfloss.com/article/52598/how-owners-all-32-nfl-teams-made-their-money
I'm already thinking ahead to next free agency class anybody got updates on money we will have to spend. And any potential targets. But if next free agency is anything like this years.....
Bob McNair doesn't really mind losing all that much. Any owner who invested his pride in his football team would have strangled somebody to death after any number of the uniquely insane ways the Texans has invented to lose. Bob McNair just goes home and sleeps like a baby, win or lose. More than a dozen years in, it's clear that McNair has no interest in building a great football team. He bought a football team. That was good enough for him. He's been kicking up his feet ever since, enjoying the prestige of being an NFL owner. He feels no obligation to deliver championships. That's the problem with the franchise, and has been from day one. And by all indications, it will continue to be a problem until he's dead.
I am lifetime Houston fan and I am old and I still don't get the whining. Ask a Cubs fan about their struggle. Better yet, look at the world around you and delete this thread. Reading such entitled, self-pity is worse than sitting through the Denver, Buffalo, the Rosen-copter games and every Rick Smith draft in one continuous loop of turd.
I recall 11-1 - 1 the. getting some text from a Cowboys fan "your team is done. Schaub jacked up his foot. freak injury "
I go on road trips and tailgate for all the home games. Obviously it is much better from a social aspect being a Texans fan than it was an Oilers fan. Hopefully we can get it together in 2015, unless we are within a game of the Colts by the bye week we need to start playing young guys and seeing what we have
I'm not complaining about how we have always been trash, that simply isn't true. I'm just frustrated with the way we lose games and the worst possible incidents that happen to us. Side note: It's obviously clear that there is venting in this meaning that I was obviously pissed when I wrote this. If you don't like what I had to say, nobody forced you to read this, nobody forced you to leave a comment, YOU DECIDED TO. I'm not going to delete this thread because a couple of people out there don't agree with my opinion, because I was already expecting that in the first place. If you honestly can tell me with a straight face that the way the Texans lose these games doesn't slightly piss you off, then fine, good for you. I will continue to yell at my TV, get pissed the next day, and then move on. That is the game of Football and that is why I love it. The emotions you feel during the great and close wins and the anger, frustration, and sadness you feel during the bitter losses.
Another side note: I realize that we aren't the ONLY team that has struggled long term. You have: Jacksonville, Cleveland, New Orleans, and other cities as well that have experienced this same mediocrity as well. But guess what, I don't care about them. I care about the city of Houston. I care about what's going on in the Houston Texans organization. I'm on bbs.clutchfans talking about the Houston Texans. I don't care about any of those other cities.
That about sums it up for me as well which explains my utter lack of faith in this team and this organization. Nothing has changed for decades. Dallas' football team owns this state while Houston's team is an afterthought. I grew up getting laughed at by Cows fans so at least I am accustomed to it. You'd think that in 5 decades, SOMEBODY in Houston would figure out a way to build a winning football organization. Instead, it's been this recurring debacle year after year after year. The song remains the same.
1) Despite losing, the Cubs are still popular. Of course winning is better (by far), but being popular at least gives some credence to sticking with your team. 2) Chicago others teams have ALL had success. Much easier to stick with your team when your other teams win. 3) It's not only about the Texan's failures, it's the entire city's failures... many times in dramatic fashion. Three new indictments have been added to the list over the last year and half. And now with the Cowboys ballin, it will get worse.
