I'm fairly sure the Texans won't be 6-10, however, the Texans just aren't in the elite list of teams in my opinion. As last year showed, this team is close and it will greatly depend on a few things that can swing the record fairly wide. The Texans are one of those teams that a very few number of plays can make or break a season. They will play teams close, and when that happens, a 7-9 season is only a couple of plays away from a 10-6 season.
Does the computer predict if opposing players will land cheap shots a la Jared Allen, Drayton Florence, and Albert Haynesworth? Schaub has pretty much only missed games because of injuries suffered from illegal hits. After staying healthy last year, I believe more that he's just the victim of bad luck than actually being injury prone.
I hate when people call him injury prone and expect him to miss time. ANYONE who got hit by the dirty/cheap/illegal shots he got hit by would have missed the same amount of time.
http://sports.yahoo.com/fantasy/blo...ex-No-7-The-Houston-Texans?urn=fantasy-265776 And please, stop calling the guy "injury prone." When he's actually missed time due to injury in the past, it's generally been the result of a late, cheap hit that was penalized and/or fined. (Jared Allen(notes), Drayton Florence(notes) and Albert Haynesworth (notes) were the offending pass rushers). These have not been freak injuries; they don't raise any questions about Schaub's durability. In fact, he played all 16 games last season, and he returned to the field in Week 13 after dislocating his non-throwing shoulder.
I don't get the strength of schedule bit either. This is the NFL, not college football. I guess they figure this out by previous year's winning percentages of the teams on the schedule, but in the graphic they showed during the game this weekend, all the teams were separated by hundredths of points. Is there really a whole lot of difference between the hardest schedule and the 10th hardest schedule? Plus, like someone else said, NFL team records fluctuate so much from season to season. It's hard to put a whole lot of stock into last year's winning percentages. I'm more concerned about our secondary, our red-zone efficiency (or lack there of), and our ability to consistently run the ball this year than I am about our hard schedule or Matt Schaub's health.
One other way to decipher the difficulty of the Texans or anyone else's schedule is to look at the projected Vegas win totals of the various teams. That's how the handicappers look at it as opposed to just last season's record. It is a projection of this year's expectations. Using that number the winning % of the Texans schedule is nearly .600 which is #1 in the NFL.
Yep, it's projected to be a tough schedule. It's possible that the schedule turns easier, but at this point, the odds are the Texans are going to have a lot of tough games. I don't have a problem with computer projections. They aren't always right, but they add a certain objectivity. I just found it funny that they projected Schaub to get injured 4 games.
The fallacy there, though, is that Vegas odds aren't really set based on how handicappers look at it. Vegas projected win totals are designed to be at the exact midpoint of where the majority of bettors (fans) would place their money, and I'm guessing most fans use last year's performance as a baseline. Not to mention that the NFC East is somewhat inflated, coverage-wise, based on "America's team" and three enormous East coast markets. Again, not to say I expect the Texans' schedule to be easy, but it's not necessarily as harsh as some of the metrics look at first glance.
Schedule will end up getting panned in 2 months if we get anything CLOSE to a good record. Men lie, women lie, but the numbers don't.
this is ghey...more crap coming out of ESPN's ahole...i'm glad I don't watch much of that crap anymore...I see them at 9-7 or 10-6...
Over and under on the number of pro bowlers on the roster? I say 7 Andre, matt, Foster(as an alternate),Owens, Ryans, williams, pollard(alternate)
In other opinions, 6 of 16 "experts" at ESPN picked the Texans to grab a wildcard spot. 1 "expert" predicted the Texans to be the AFC champion (Seth Wickersham). http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/preview10/news/story?id=5493278
I'm looking at the schedule. I just don't see it as hard as everyone is expecting it to be. A lot of the tough games outside the division are at home. Boys, Giants, Chargers & Ravens. We can win @ Washington, Tennessee, Jacksonville, Philadephia, and Denver. The Jets don't scare me that much either. I have faith that we can win in NY also. Get the review crap straight, run the ball better and make kicks. We should be fine
