My best wishes to Mario, I hope he gets well and has a great career....somewhere else. From draft day on I have been underwhelmed by his performance. With his physical attributes, he should be absolutely dominate, picking up offensive lineman and throwing them aside. He should be unstoppable, Godzilla! But he is not, mostly slightly above average. Doesn't have the motor that he should for his rep and money. We can do better. I doubt the defense will miss a beat with his absence.
He had 5 sacks in 4 games. Dude was due for a monster season this year. Losing him hurts our defensive immensely.
We also need some depth at NT, Shaun Cody ain't gonna get it done over the long haul. What's Pat Williams doing these days?
I am not saying he didn't contribute, he was off to maybe his best season, but his performance was largely due to the overall improvement of the defense. The opposition can't block as many players as they did in the past.There was little if any pass rush in most games last year. Now there is pressure coming almost every play. I honestly don't think the defense will decline in the least. It is the overall team defense that is making the difference.
Remind me again which DE had more sacks than him since he was drafted. That's right. Nobody. I hope you're right that the D will be fine. But we'll need him against elite teams.
I swear to god, sometimes I wish Mario and Matt would just pack up their s**t and bolt just to prove how stupid some of you are.
Part of me wishes this team would just rip off multiple Super Bowls to shut the haters up, and make them realize that the team we have has some real, flat out well-respected talent across the board. Then, I realize that if that happens, this board will be filled with people complaining about the most inconsequential, mind-numbingly stupid things.
It's interesting how quickly fans have forgotten. Five years ago, we would have literally killed for a QB as competent as Matt Schaub. Now we have pages upon pages of people "yeah but"ting him because he's not in Manning/Brady/Rodgers/Bress' class, never mind their obliviousness to the fact that he even being in consideration is a testament to how good he's been.
not saying i think schaub is even in the top 10 number of reasons we haven't made the playoffs, but if you had told us 5 years ago that in 2011 we still have not made the playoffs, i would have literally killed you. LITERALLY.
do you watch how i met your mother? there's an episode where people's flaws or eccentricities are pointed out to various members of the cast (like chewing too loud, or, funny enough, saying literally all the time) and once they were pointed out, there was a broken glass sound and then that person couldn't ignore that habit. that happened to me and houston sports yesterday about 3:30ish and i was pissed. i don't really think schaub is a pansy though.
It is hard to totally shake pessimism as a Texans fan. I am trying to stay positive, after all I didn't believe Mario was going to be a dominant 3-4 linebacker until he appeared to be doing it. The nightmare scenario for me is and 8-8 that loses the division by one game and Bob McNair says "We were so close, improved by two games and even with all the injuries we were in playoff contention til the last week of the season. I am gonna bring back Kubiak and Wade, anything else would be too traumatic and might set the team back."
I have a hard time believing they'll bring Kubiak back if they miss the playoffs (minus, like, a 10-6+ record not being good enough to qualify). If they somehow blow *this* opportunity... I'd be in favor of blowing the thing to smithereens, jettisoning everybody they can and starting fresh.
Last year the biggest problem on defense was the play in the secondary, and they addressed those issues with Joseph and Manning. Not to mention Mario was playing injured. So can a Brooks Reed equal the presence of Mario this season? No. But can Reed equal an injured Mario? Possibly? This team is most certainly gonna miss him, but the defense stepped up in his absence yesterday and still contained McFadden and got pressure on Campbell. Plus we're not gonna play an offensive juggernaut the rest of the way. I'm really more worried about the offense than Wade and the defense. But no moves that we make now are gonna amount to much of anything. You bring a receiver it would take weeks for them to learn the system, and by then Johnson will be back hopefully. Kubiak needs to figure out how to best make use of the weapons he has.
You drafted Brooks and Harris in the 2nd round...those guys need to play. @nd rounder normally play not sit and so it will be. Nothing out there that can make a difference.
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He may have had 8.5 sacks last season, but I remember watching several games where his name was NEVER called. Never that impressed with him, still not. Sorry about his injury personally and I wish him well. It is just a fan's opinion, obviously most don't agree with it and that's O.K.
