What if we win the next two, then lose that one? We'll be 4-2. This is a defining year for Kubiak, but I'm not going to write him off if he loses to a very hot Chiefs team. If we don't make the playoffs, struggle within the division, and lose on bone-headed coaching calls, THEN I will be ready to cut him loose.
is kc a very hot team because they have more talent than the texans? all i'm saying is that we were better than the jets until we weren't. if kc proves they have passed us in the pecking order i'm gonna piss fire.
Are they really that hot? They beat a team that just lost to Seattle (SD), struggled to beat a winless Cleveland team on the road, then rolled the hapless 49er's at home. I don't know, they sort of remind me of the Broncos of last year. I'm not saying Kubiak should be fired if we happen to lose 1 of the next 3 games (LOL...), but I AM saying we really shouldn't lose any of them. We are clearly better than the next 3 opponents. If we're not, then that's a problem. And we really haven't progressed at all from last year.
This is also my major concern. I was thrilled with what I saw in the Colts game - it was the literal opposite of our opener last year against the Jets. I was furious with the return of the come out flat hoo-hums when they were down 27-10 in DC.....but encouraged when they had the resolve to come back and win it out. Last year, they'd roar back and come up short with attempts to tie late. Good to have the win, but I have to question the quality of it after watching the Skins lose to the Rams. Then this week comes along and they lay a turd on the field. You can't watch the Colts game wk 1 and then that disaster and claim that it was all on Kareem Jackson. It was deja vu of the Jets game. They brought practice intensity. Dallas played the same sloppy ball that we wanted to see, and we just couldn't nail them to the wall. How many times this past week did we have people posting: "Dude, it's Dallas and they're desperate - Kubiak won't need to get after the team, they know how hard they've got play. I'm not worried about a letdown or the Texans lacking motivation" Guess what. We just gave away a game when we need a couple of upsets to make the postseason. You can't grab 10 wins with a brutal schedule doing that. This also counts, in my eyes, towards the minimum 1 game that the Cushing/Brown suspensions were going to cost us. Too many people forecast 4-0 without Cushing.
What have we done? And we were clearly better than Dallas. If the Texans revert to Jekyle/Hyde personalities from week to week, they could beat or lose to literally anyone on the schedule. Dallas lost to a mediocre Skins team that got beat by the Rams (missing Jackson for half the game). We got LUCKY with a couple of breaks to beat those same Skins in OT because we decided to spot them 2.5 quarters before playing ball. It's maddening, especially when they demonstrated week 1 how good they are when they play 4 quarters of intense football. If they played like that just 13 out of the 16 games, they're at least an 11-win team. But if we go back to last year's coin flip intensity and effort, they're going to be 7-9. If not worse.
You're right, they have benefited from a fairly easy schedule, but to a team that won 6 games combined the last two years, those are all huge wins. They've built a lot of talent and it's starting to come together. They're still very raw, and I'm not ready to say they will win that division. You write off beating the Chargers since they lost to Seattle, but by that same logic can you not say that a 21 point victory over San Fran is not impressive after San Fran nearly took out New Orleans last week? Anyway, we'll see what they're really made of against Indy. Winning the next three would be huge, but I'd be much more concerned with losing to the Giants or Raiders than I would the Chiefs (even though the KC game may mean more from a tiebreak standpoint). Kind of confused by your last sentence there- other than this week, we've run the ball better, scored in the red zone, and gotten a pass rush. The only thing lacking is secondary.
I saw a Raider team that played very hard, played Arizona straight up and lost due to missed FG. I had originally assumed that they were a running NFL joke as their first effort at Tenn was beyond pathetic losing 38-13. So yesterday, I decided to take a look at the Oakland-Arizona game and I was surprised at how well they played. By now, the Raiders (and everyone else) knows that the Texans' secondary is pathetic and why try running the ball when you can pass on them with ease? And don't forget, this Raiders team no longer has Jamunchies back there imitating an NFL quarterback. I wouldn't count on their being pissed off about the loss either. From all I've heard, they can't wait to put it behind them and continue to play make-believe (as in "make believe we are a legitimate NFL playoff team") and drink the battle-red koolaid.
You're right, we can play this "they beat ____ who lost to _____ who beat ____" game all day long. All I'm saying is that, even though KC has improved, we should beat them at home. We are supposed to be much farther along in the improvement graph than they are, right? No one was talking about playoffs for them before the season started like they were us. What I meant was that last year, the main problem was losing to inferior teams like J-ville (twice) and Memphis at home on MNF. For the record, I don't consider Dallass an inferior team. But I DO consider the next 3 opponents inferior. Again, I'm not going to be screaming for Kubiak's head if we get to the bye week at 4-2. That would be silly. Just saying if we play like we're capable, we should be 5-1. The 1st 3 games were harder than the next 3 should be. IMO, of course.
The Cardinals are not exactly the class of the NFC anymore. That defense is poor and Derek Anderson might be the most inefficient QB in the league. The fact that the Raiders could hang with them is no surprise.
The #1 reason I hate when we lose is the fact that it brings out all the-sky-is-falling folks who do nothing but spout platitudes and cliches about Kubiak and the team. There are a handful of people on this board who offer objective, insightful criticism of the Texans, but damn if they aren't outnumbered 20:1 it seems.
Who in the world was forecasting a 4-0 start? I guess a few random homers here, but by and large, with or without Cushing, the first "quarter" of this season was a difficult one. Lance Z pegged the Texans at 10-6 with as thorough a breakdown as I've seen, and he had the Texans at 2-2 after four games. The Texans didn't give away anything yesterday. Dallas is simply a very talented team and played a great game. Tip your hat. If the Texans take care of business on Sunday and are 3-1 at the quarter-way point, they're exactly on track with where they need to be in order to get to 10 wins.
