this is the parity of the NFL right now. virtually every team can just what we're saying here....except none of them have a defense this bad.
The things that give me hope are... 1) Our defense sucked epic monkey nut in the beginning of last season and then finished a respectable 13th overall to end the year. 2) Our offense, passing in particular, has been sluggish and there is no way in hell you can keep talent like Johnson and Schaub down much longer. The thing that worries me is our schedule is about to get REDONKULOUSLY hard.
As much as we kill the Texans about the Defense, looking around the AFC South, all the squads are STRUGGLING with some part of their defense. Indy can't stop the run and their secondary is a mess, Jax can't stop anyone from scoring on them through the air and Tennessee has a nice pass rush but teams are throwing on them at will also. This will be a dogfight and even though are schedule is brutal after the bye, everyone's schedule in the South is pretty darn hard except for Jax.
The thing is.....this year more then ever (at least it seems this way to me)...theres an AWFUL lot of parity early this season. When is the last time there were no unbeatens after week 5? I dont recall the last time that happened. The Cowboys and Jets are a combined 5-4 and they were trendy SB picks in preseason. The Vikes and Saints who played in the NFC champ last year are a combined 4-5. The Bucs, Chiefs and Bears are 10-3!!!! I think we need to prepare ourselves for a season of ups and downs...and the first 5 weeks have set the tone. 9-7 may win the division this year for the Texans....it may also mean they finish 2nd or 3rd and lose out on the wild card again. Given the way the NFL is this year so far, and the hopes of the texans being as high as they were, I think being in 1st place is a pretty darn good consolation prize given how they have performed. They have no more and no less problems than the Colts have....they arent being accused of overacheiving on an easy schedule like KC. Yes, they have played like crap in their losses.....and were an overthrow or an incredible AJ catch away from losing to Wash....but thats life in the big city....1st place is 1st place
Honestly, this is the kind of thing that bothers me now that we're eight years into this thing. Teams go from good to bad and bad to good all the time. There are a few teams (like the Pats and Colts) that stay on the good. The Lions stay bad. The Texans don't do anything. They are the epitome of mediocre. Again. And again. Can we ever get off this treadmill? Sadly, I think we're stuck here with Kubiak. Bummer.
I think Gary Kubiak is the definition of mediocre. 5th year, 34-35 record. Can't get much more average than that.
???? Why are you posting this when the Cowboys are 1-3...and the Jets are 4-1??? Were you thinking of someone other than the Jets? The Jets, Ravens, and Steelers look like the class of the entire NFL.
I dont really see them improving much as far as pass coverage. it had been an on going issue and it seems like they are getting worse. the way that i scale that they are getting worse is that their competition is worst every week and they keep allowing the same kind of performance manning mcnabb romo krawoski (whatever his name is lol) manning you can see the decline in talent as the year goes by, but the texans pass protection is not improving teams will continue to attack out Corners and I dont blame them. I can see opposing QBs get streaks of 5 or 6 straight completion. We will see how they look this week. It they still look bad I am affraid that this team will end up 7-9
Looking forward: As was mentioned, we haven't seen the Texans that played in week 1 since. We haven't seen the run and passing games show up on the same day yet. If we find some magic wand to bring those three things together, we will romp. The flipside is, we've literally played 0.500 ball since the Colts game, and pulled off the Washington win as much with luck as with great second half play. This year, we're averaging: 229 passing yards/game and giving up 330 142 rushing yards/game and giving up 80 41% converting 3rd downs and allowing 34% Scoring 24 ppg and giving up 27 Subtract game 1, since who knows if we'll see that team again and the numbers become: 259 passing to 304 (both better!) 114 rushing to 88 (both take a dent) 38% 3rd down conversions to 34% (virtually even) Scoring 21 ppg and giving up 28 ppg (both dip) I hope we get right, because if we're really more like the team we've seen the last 4 weeks and can't find a way to bring back the urgent, passionate play we saw in the opener, we're a mediocre team. Those numbers would make us: #14 in scoring #6 in yardage #31 in defense (scoring as well as yardage) With Jets, Raven, a short week Dec visit to Philly, and all of our away division games coming after the bye, we can't afford to let this weak sister version of the Texans keep killing us. Front 4 (+ Cushing on blitzes) have to force the ball out of the QB's hands and give our overmatched secondary a chance. The young guys in the secondary have to be coached well enough so they can at least play a zone with intelligence. You can be outgunned, you can be outsmarted, but you can't be both and make it in this league. Schaub has to give us a B game or better each week, he's filled up his quota of D games already. Hopefully the return of Brown gets the running game back on track and dependable. Ditto with Johnson & OD and the passing game. Kubiak and his staff have to get a fire lit under them and stop being outcoached all the time, and demonstrate that they can get the team fired up and ready to play.
I'm getting tired of getting this message: "You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to emjohn again." Keep posting emjohn. You make this a better board.
Of those 3 teams I think the Bears are the best. Packers are the best team in that division but they have had a ton of injuries. The Chiefs play in a bad division as well so they have a chance to make the playoffs as well.
All I was saying is the general trend is that teams get better and worse all the time (with the noted exceptions). The Bears, for example, were in the Super Bowl just a few years ago. Before that, they kinda sucked. After that, they kinda sucked. The Texans just stay mediocre...all the time (since Kubiak). It's getting old. Hell, the Browns even made the playoffs once since their return (granted it was a 9-7 team in 2002).
That makes no sense. Your FEAR is that the Texans have the most successful season in franchise history, and we bring back the man who was responsible? Since his hiring, the team has CONSISTENTLY shown improvement, and while I'm not completely sold on him as our coach going forward, I'm also not going to dog him for bringing this team out of our 2-14 funk relatively painlessly. Look at the Lions, Browns, Chiefs (before this season), and Rams who have ALL been abysmal for 3+ years. Kubiak has this team headed in the right direction, and if he takes this team to the playoffs this year, he deserves a TON of credit.
