Is content a better word? I'm agreeing with you. I think the frustrating thing about this team is less about the wins and losses and more about how the fans feel about the moves that have been made (or missed) and the high expectations placed on the team.
You missed the boat completely. Not every moves will work out, using the other teams failure example to defend a mediocre to bad management is just laughable. Teams make trades or go for it because they know the teams are not good enough, and indeed it showed our starting pitchers are not good enough down the stretch and our out fielders aren't doing much better without Gomez. Yes, it did not work out but at least that's a correct evaluation of the situation and that's why we went for it for the trades. Meanwhile, your beloved Texans evaluated to start the season with Hoyer and Mallett and believe that's the best choices for the organization and then pulled him after 3 quarters. Teams went for big trades or moves doesn't mean it will just work out, they took the risks because they see the possible returns, and by doing so, more than often those coaches and GM are putting their jobs on the line and put themselves on the hot chairs. While in H-town, your coach and GM are taking their swings with their golf clubs in their offices only.
I don't think content is accurate either. No reasonable Texans fan is content with a season where they seem to collectively take a step back regardless of the circumstances (injury, failed draft picks, wrong QB picked, etc.). But being "reactionary", and taking the standpoint that this organization is a failure because they're no closer to winning the Super Bowl now than where they were in 2002.... along with the standpoint that this city has not seen a football team make the AFC championship game since the 70's... just seems like needless venting. As far as expectations go... I'm not sure what's worse... the overly optimistic fan who drinks the kool-aid and believes that every year is their year.... or the overly pessimistic fan that will crap all over the team until they become world-beaters. Both situations feature inaccurate expectations that rarely fit any NFL team that's not named the Patriots (or teams in a current "elite" stretch such as the Packers or Seahawks). In the end, I guess i take a more pragmatic view with my expectations and why I continue to watch this team... are they making progress game to game with a still new regime? Are they discovering players/contributers that weren't expected to be of significance when they were acquired (the late-round/undrafted picks... this is how teams find Arian Fosters and Tony Romos lying around in the couch cushions)? Are they building towards something sustainable (like the Cowboys just did with their O-line), or will any potential immediate success be possibly short-lived due to the personnel involved? (the 2011-2012 Texans)
Venters are going to vent lol. And what less harmful place do they have to vent than here. Some fans go from the overly-optimistic to the overly-pessimistic in just one game. I think it's also harder with the NFL (or a lot of teams) because there isn't a good way to communicate a long-term plan. We know what the Astros plan was. The GM was open about it. Same with the Rockets and the 3 superstars plan. We don't know what the plan is with this team? They can't settle on a QB. Or LBs. Or RBs. They are run-first but throw 50 times in a game. They had a really good offense but then got Watt now they are a defensive team. It seems like we don't know who they are. A lot of it will be fixed when they settle in on a QB they believe in.
If memory servers, the Houston Oilers won the 1960 & 1961 AFL Championships but that's really splitting hairs. As for getting to the AFC conference championship game, I do seem to recall a two year period beginning in 1978 when they first "knocked on the door", then next year they "banged on the door" and when that failed, they promised to "kick in the son of a b**** in" the next year but sadly, they never got the chance. And that's been the high point of professional football in Houston. Well, I've seen all extremes with Houston pro football: good, bad, happy, sad and the comical. I'll be the first to admit that the dearth of success has left me very cynical which is why I no longer buy into the koolaid, rhetoric and the spin. I find that I don't suffer as much disappointment that way.
I don't it's fair to lump all the Oiler transgressions into the Texans just because they played in the same city. These are two totally different organizations. The Texans clock started in 2002, not 1960.
I totally agree.... however if you were a fan of the Oilers, and still live in Houston, its most likely that you are now a fan of the Texans. Thus, you simply cannot erase those painful years of frustration away from your memory no matter how logical it may be to do so. Its not fair to the Texans... but entirely justified that lifelong Houstonians carry-over some of their previous frustrations from the Oilers. That being said, being a fan of both franchises has actually made me appreciate a little bit more about how much I may have previously taken for granted... things like making the playoffs, having one of the most prolific QB's ever, and having rosters overflowing with talent were never a problem for the Oilers (granted, this is pre salary-cap era). On the flip-side, Texans fans now take for granted things like sellouts to lift the local blackout, tail-gating, and the NFL being this country's absolute preferred form of entertainment.... things that were not as present in the Oilers era.
Using one year of contention for a wild card over the past decade is ridiculous, I agree this is a ridiculous comparison to the Texans situation. The Texans are essential in rebuild after winning the division twice and then the wheels falling of Matt Schaub and the Kubiak era. The Astros rebuilt for years and years and have had one year of contending for the playoffs and people are coming in here calling them some kind of success story...Please. Good QBs aren't available for trade. You either have to hit the jackpot in the draft or groom one, this is O'Briens second year and his project QB just got put on IR.
I'm posting the link to this NFL fan map again for reference: You'll notice that: Cowboys - In terms of geographic reach, the Cowboys really are America's Team. Their fan empire stretches from Kern County, California to central Florida to southern Virginia to northern Montana. Texans - As a recent expansion team, their fan base only covers the Houston metro area. The rest of Texas goes for the Cowboys, and western Louisiana goes for the Saints. It is the lack of success for Houston pro football teams is the primary culprit here. Love them or hate them, the Dallas Cowboys can point to 5 SB trophies and they are the team you love to hate. They inspire anything but apathy which is exactly the emotion you find for the Texans outside of their small fanbase - even BoB himself admitted this on the first episode of Hard Knocks. And nothing is going to change this state of affairs until the Texans start making some noise in the NFL playoffs. Winning fixes everything.
Really? You don't think it has anything to do with the fact that the teams with the biggest geographic reaches are the teams that have been around for multiple generations? Whereas the Texans didn't even exist as recently as 15 years ago? You think it's strictly because we've never won a Superbowl......
If you look at it in terms of population of the areas of the map, it seems the Texans have more fans than the Steelers, one of the more popular teams in the league. Maybe they should win more. Man, skewing stasticis is fun.
funny enough, last year when arian foster ran in for that tying td against the cowboys, there were more fans cheering for the texans in gloryhole field.
Pretty sure you'd have the exact same geographical breakdown if the Oilers were still here. The Cowboys got good at the exact same time the NFL got mega-huge... made a huge difference in generating life-long fans in this state, and around the country. Again, all things that were already set in place before the Texans even existed, and when Houston already had another team. Please don't try to explain the Texans lack of success over 13 years as the primary reason why the Cowboys are more popular in this state.... and the Texans/Oilers could run off back to back SB wins and the rest of Southern Oklahoma-proper would still go crazy over every additional mediocre Cowboys season (as they've been essentially doing since 1996).
Not at all. Winning a Superbowl is the end result of having a winning football organization. That is something that hasn't existed in Houston for decades. You simply can't look at pro football and Houston and only use the Texans as a point of reference - you have to include the legacy of the Houston Oilers and the effect they had on football fans in this city. The map only confirms what Houston football fans have known for decades. It has always been this way in terms of regional support - even back in the 1960s & 1970s when both cities were in the same boat as far as football history is concerned. Houston could have been as popular in the state as the Cowboys but it was the lack of success that served to doom it to the role of also ran - a role that it occupies today. Now, had things been different here - had Houston been blessed with the kind of ownership and organization that the Cowboys had, the the football narrative here would have been different. There would be no Tennessee Titans because pro football would have never left Houston in the first place. There wouldn't have been any reason for the team to move. Had the Oilers not been cursed with Bud Adams, this city would have bent over backwards to build them the state of the art football venue they deserved. But it was the lack of success (along with the blatant dumbassery of the Oilers organization) that had the football fans here so fed up and beaten down that such a thing (losing pro football) became more than a possibility. And we wouldn't be here lamenting on the state of the Texans. I know that it's only been 13 years of the Texans wandering in the NFL wilderness but when you consider the totality of Houston's pro football history, it's been 5 decades of this. And that's an awful lot for a Houston football fan to deal with.
No, I am acting like the Texans are an uninspiring mediocre franchise. I never said they were the worst franchise. At this point there is little to suggest that tag will change. Doesn't mean McNair won't pass away and his won't be very inspiring and football savvy and compete for years. However right this minute this franchise has historically been mediocre and there is nothing tangible for their to be optimism.
Really never thought I'd see people fellating the Cowboys in the Texans forum. It's pretty sad....when I say that this forum has some pretty awful fans, this is a good indication that I was right.
No one is fellating the Cowboys. It cannot be contested that as a franchise they have been extremely successful and have marketed themselves very well, and that has resulted in a large fan base. It doesn't make a Texans fan an awful fan to acknowledge that the Cowboys have unfortunately had more success than the Oilers and Texans.
They were a successful franchise 20 years ago, but have been a disaster ever since....in large part because of their meddlesome owner who you just repped someone for talking up.
It isn't one year, it's the whole rebuild process for the Astros. It's been a successful rebuild, to put it mildly. The Texans were NOT supposed to be rebuilding. We already had Watt, DeAndre, Brown, Foster, Brooks, and the #1 pick (Clowney). But even if it is a rebuild, it's not going well. You don't waste picks trading up (compounding it by taking busts) and you shouldn't sign aging or mediocre veterans (JJo and Mercilus). This isn't about Astros vs. Texans...I was just as critical of the Astros during the late McLane years or even the Rockets during the Francis years.
