Actually . . I worry about beating the Steelers a second time more than beating the Ravens. Esp since I think we'd play the Ravens at home Rocket River
#1 in the AFC is awesome, but NE has a pretty easy closing schedule and we could end up tied with them. We'd obviously have a much better chance at beating them in the AFC Championship Game if it were in Houston rather than up in Foxboro. NE Remaining Schedule vs. KC @ PHI vs. IND @ WAS @ DEN vs. MIA vs. BUF The only challenging games are @PHI and vs. BUF, so I think they will probably end up 12-4. Current HOU vs. NE Tiebreakers Head to Head - N/A Conference Game Winning % - Tied Common Game Winning % - Tied Strength of Victory - ??? (I'd bet we lose this one) Tiebreakers: http://www.nfl.com/standings/tiebreakingprocedures Playoff Standings: http://espn.go.com/nfl/standings/_/type/playoffs/sort/conferenceRank/order/false
We'd also play the Steelers at home since we are the #1 seed based on our victory over Pittsburgh. I'd much rather face the Steelers. We can beat anyone though playing like we are right now.
NE's pathetic defense means they're more likely to lose random games than the Texans. Think of the QBs that are capable of slicing through Wade Phillips' D. There really aren't any to finish Texans' schedule except maybe Matt Ryan. On the other side, with Andre back the Texans can finally stop only dink and dunk passes and truly open their playbook.
This can change week-to-week. Last week, the Ravens beat Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh. That should carry some weight and not be seen as a blip.
The Ravens have only looked good playing the Steelers. Except for the Rams game, they've played down to their competition and go missing on one side of the ball.
They've also played good facing the Texans. Now, I still think the Texans can win, I just don't see a great advantage against either the Ravens, Steelers or Patriots. They all post unique problems.
Count me in as being most scared of the Belichicks. Tom Brady is like Drew Brees but better. I don't care how much we can pass the ball on that porous defense; I fear a 45-40 type game because we've never had to prove we could score that much yet. Maybe that will change when Andre comes back. It's kinda sad because Matt Ryan might end up being the only QB capable of testing us from this point on. Cam Newton doesn't count because he can't spread us yet the way veteran QB's will; we would just put Joseph on Steve Smith and that would be game set match.
In terms of looking 6 weeks ahead of ourselves... I LOVE how we're playing right now, especially with Andre returning to give us the deep ball back. HOWEVER...all the division leaders aside from the AFC-W match us in the loss column (3) as we had into the bye. And the Raiders will own a tiebreaker over us, though it would be surprising if they matched our record. It's exceedingly premature to pencil in a first round bye, let alone homefield throughout. The playoff teams are beginning to take shape, but a lot of position jostling is going to happen. Stay hungry and keep kicking rears!
Off topic, but penciling in something implies that you can erase it later, so it's never premature to pencil in anything.
Talk about a game you'd like to have a do-over. They didn't deserve to win that afternoon - but no way they should have given a home game away to the Raiders. In terms of seeding, that one might come back to bite 'em. It eliminates any possibility of a slip-up along the way.
Trying to regroup.... @Jax Falcons @Cinc Panthers @Indy Titans We have the bye, so best case scenario (extra week) if we have to prep Leinart and adjust the playcalling. Colts and Panthers are terrible against the run. We also have our mad dog defense to lean on: Jacksonville and Indianapolis - possibly the worst offenses in the league Both Jax (Mathis) and Cin (Hall) lost their top CBs. The Cincy and Atlanta games are looking a bit tougher now - both have been very good against the run this year (#2 and #3, respectively). Beat the Titans and our ticket is punched. We can do this. We haven't been winning because of a dominant passing game - it's been the all around play. Leinart needs to hand off and take advantage of the playaction to hit AJ on the occasional deep ball. He's a horrible pocket passer, but hopefully we can avoid asking him to be one. A 4-2 finish is still very realistic, and 3-3 will get the job done so long as we knock off both Indy and Jax or beat Ten. If we lose to Ten and finish with the same record, the next tiebreaker is division record (Hou 3-0, Ten 1-2)
Okay, demmit - I just got settled from a nice day at work, thinking I would hear a bunch of joy and happy and now... sigh . . .thanks guys! thanks for letting me know what could have been is gone! Earlier, I almost shed a tear thinking about what we could do in the post-season after all these years...now I'm just pissed! F#CK! ...
Piggybacking off the last post a bit but anyway: Texans at 7-3 have BYE, @JAC, ATL, @CIN, CAR, @IND, TEN Titans at 5-4 @ATL, TBB, @BUF, NOS, @IND, JAC, @HOU If each team wins the bolded it's Texans 10-5, Titans 8-7 coming in to the last game. And even if Titans get an extra win, and beat Houston on the road making them each 10-6; Texans will possess the divisional tiebreaker virtue of the Titans opening day loss to the Jags. So if Leinart can at least manage the game against the weaker opponents and Titans don't go off on a tear the Texans should host a playoff game.
Why does everyone think that the Jags on the road will be easy? We only beat them by 10 points at home with Matt Schaub. The Jags will be looking for revenge because they thought we were a dirty team, and this will be Leinart's first NFL start in a long time. Game looks scary to me.
