You're right Ric, all the signs point to improvement. Except one: the Texans *never* really improve. They have always found a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and against all odds arrive at the pinnacle of mediocrity, even with greatness staring them in the face. So, despite the many signs pointing towards things looking better, I'm tempering my expectations to 6-10 or 7-9. That way, when they flounder to 5-7 again, or worse, I won't be as pissed as I was last year. I won't find myself saying, "I'm so sick of hearing this tired old song, I'm going to change the station" like I did all year last year, and even reading your post here. There are *always* reasons with this club to look up. Always. And yet, to date, they *always* disappoint. Sometimes spectacularly. Surprise me, Texans. Because I've got your penciled in for 6-10 or 7-9 with a new line of similar-but-slightly-different excuses, beginning with the lockout. I can hear it now. "Well, if it weren't for the lockout they would have had time to adjust to the scheme during training camp instead of on the fly against NFL competition." Save it, Bob--you knew the risks going in when you hired a 3-4 guy.
Brooks Reed wasn't a walk-on. And why should we be suspicious when 18-19-year olds blow up physically? These aren't 35-year olds. Getting to a big-time program with resources at that age is a pretty decent explanation, IMO.
I'm not sure if "improving" is the right word for this team. They made a leap from horrible under Capers to mediocre and average and Kubiak. But they haven't really gone above mediocre and average.
"improving" is not a good word for this team, unless one is looking at 2006. Since 2006, they have gone from 6-10 all the way up to 6-10. Sure, last season may have been an aberration--but they'll have to prove it. Until they prove otherwise, 2010 looks a whole lot like the rest of their existence, sans 2005.
Texans have a very soft schedule. They should easily be 9-7 expecting 10-6 upside is 12-4 Rocket River
It's going to take a while for this team to learn a new defense and likely without any training camp. You may be too optimistic.
There's a nice video on him at NFL.com. Deion Sanders fell in love with him. Total effort guy. Don't measure the 40 time, though. I was hoping the Titans could have nabbbed him. How can the Texans defense be so bad with Williams at DE, Ryan and Cushing at LB?
I've seen you state this elsewhere - have you actually *looked* at their schedule? They play the Colts twice, Saints, Steelers, Ravens, Bucs, Falcons - those teams combined to win 68 games last year and all but Tampa Bay made the postseason. It was ranked the 10th hardest schedule in the NFL and includes just 6 games against teams that posted a losing record last year (two against Tennessee - division games are always tough). A lot of things can change - but that, right now, is anything but a soft schedule, especially when you look at the first 6 games.
Re: soft schedule We wish. That was two years ago. Of course, I wouldn't call it brutal. Our entire division plays the same roughies, and it's all about division placement in this league. Ten is rebuilding, Ind is aging, and Jax may be without MoJo and have a QB controversy. We should be at full strength with a major shot in the arm on D. I expect 9 wins, and I am as critical as anyone. Re: Learning a new D I don't see this as a major issue. Only two guys have to adjust to an altered role: Mario and Mitchell. I am not optimistic about Mario, but Watt is good insurance on the line. I'll wait and see with Mitchell, but he's not being asked to occupy two gaps. The keys are Ryans and Cushing giving us strong play at full health and the secondary improving. Can't be worse than last year.
honestly, i have no reason to doubt that at this point. they'll have built in excuses if they miss significant portions of training camp while putting in a new defense. my best guess is kubiak will be a beneficiary of those excuses.
every team has built-in excuses. I wonder if any other cities buy it? because we don't. Chicago has their Lovable Losers, and we have our Battefightin' Excuses.
Battlefightin' excuses....I thought we had the Team Ready to Breakout. I can't help being excited about the potential new season even though I know it has blown up in my face for nearly a decade. I do expect the defense to have a huge learning curve, but it would be nice to have someone besides Mario get a sack. I know Smith was great at almost getting the sack, but football isn't horseshoes, hand grenades, or global thermonuclear war.
Our division is in shambles right now. ON PAPER, we should get 5 to 6 wins from the division for the reasons you list above. But knowing the Texans like we both know the Texans, we'll find a way to screw that up. The division was ripe for the taking last year, but we could only muster up 3 wins in 6 games. 1 was against a 3rd string QB and the other had J-ville tanking to get a higher draft pick - which is what we should have been doing. I hope next season will be better now that Frank Bush is gone (and on the titans staff, nice pickup Bud....LOL), but I'm still more concerned about Wade's "blitz first" philosophy and how that's going to affect our secondary than I am about everyone being able to pick up the new scheme.
They're *all* going to be adjusting to a new role, emjohn. It's going to take several weeks (of the regular season) for the defense to gel and hit its stride: That's very common for scheme switches of this magnitude. And that's assuming a full offseason, which they're obviously not going to get. I wish the schedule was flip-flopped. A truncated offseason combined with a tough early slate of games is going to likely lead to a rough start.
That's certainly true, and the MNF Colts loss was courtesy of Kubiak misunremembering that running the ball is Indy kryptonite, not the defense. Still, 3-3 is par, and I think they could get 9 wins even at that mark. Make it 4-2 and 10 wins, playoff berth. I have reservations about Wade's scheme and philosophy, but even a flawed scheme is going to be a big leg up over last year's incompetency.
yeah, we're polishing up those excuses already. They knew what a scheme change requires, and they knew the risk of limited preseason training. They could have hired another 4-3 guy. So in the end, when the Texas are 5-7 at week 12 again and fall just short (or way short) of the playoffs again, there will be legitimate looking "if only" things that we can point at as reasons they didn't make the playoffs. But that's what it'll be. No playoffs, and more excuses. *yawn*
