true, but katrina also happened before the season started; ike directly disrupted the texans' regular season. that doesn't make it worse, nor am i suggesting the saints' season wasn't all blown to h-e-double hockey sticks, too, because it obviously was - but to lose a home game, to miss several days of practice, to go through the distraction of a clean-up in the middle of preparations for a team you end up not playing.... i don't think it's going to have a long-term impact, but i certainly think it had an immediate impact. they looked sunday like a team distracted - how many sure-TDs has andre johnson dropped in his six years here? a botched extra point? a fumbled QB snap?....
Well this game pretty much went the way I thought it would. The Titans D-Line dominated the Texans O-Line, they got pressure on Schaub and forced him into making dumb throws. On the other side, the D-Line wasn't even close to touching Collins. As bad as Schaub played, this team isn't going anywhere until they find a way to protect the QB and find a way to get to the opposing QB.
Personally, I just don't think that you can realistically compare the two situations because hands down, Katrina's impact on the Saints' season dwarfs that of Ike on the Texans season so far. I mean the Saints literally lost their stadium. At best, the Texans were horribly inconvenienced for a week. Now, I'm not dismissing the emotional impact of Ike at all because I grew up in Houston, lived through Hurricane Carla and others so I am fully aware of how bad things are/were down in Houston-Galveston. However, Ike hit 2 weeks ago and there should have been enough time for Kubiak to rally them for the task at hand - particularly after what went down in Pittsburgh. I wanted to see a team come out with a bit of a chip on its shoulder - one that was ready to deliver a little devastation of its own. And that's something that we just aren't seeing at all under Kubiak. It took a halftime speech by Demeco Ryans to light a fire under their butts at halftime and while I certainly applaud Demeco's leadership, I have to wonder if Kubiak possesses the ability to inspire and lead this team to contending status. This will sound harsh and it's not meant to be that way but that's just another excuse and folks here have been fed so many excuses that they can no longer ingest yet another excuse for yet another feeble effort from the Texans. At some point, this team and this coaching staff simply have to start showing that they can get the job done on the field. As I have posted before, they certainly talk a good game and by now they have all the excuses memorized so well they can recite them in their sleep. And they most certainly can pontificate in the media as Chester Pitts has today. They appear to be able to do everything save for the one thing that matters.
From the Steve Campbell article in today's Chronicle: http://blogs.chron.com/stevecampbell/2008/09/would_you_rather_win_or_be_abl.html "The people that are doing all the clamoring tend to not know football as well as the people that are making those decisions," guard Chester Pitts said. "I don't want to be rude, but the guys at home watching TV need to stay at home watching TV." Personally, I found this to be rather insulting. Those people as bonehead here puts it, have put up with subpar professional football for going on seven years now and long ago earned the right to be upset and clamoring for a change. I see nothing unreasonable in the least in any of the comments I've read since Sunday's game. This isn't a bunch of whinny Cowsheep fans acting as if they are entitled to be in the Superbowl each year. No, this is a bunch of long-suffering Houston football fans who are simply tired of experiencing deja-vu every Sunday. That dumba$$ should be thanking his lucky stars that there are still fans left who care enough about the Texans to get upset.
i think ike had AN impact; i'm not using it to excuse the loss entirely. but we saw another local team suffer ike hangover, too; i don't think having a regular season disrupted can just be dismissed as an inconvenience. they were in position to succeed all day long; they simply failed to close. you can't move inside the opponent's 15-yard line on six different possessions and come away with only 12 points. some of that's on kubiak, some on schaub, johnson, brown..... i just don't believe it's the rule; not yet, anyway. one of the reasons i banged the david carr drum so much was because he was the focus of so much ire, fans weren't looking at the larger picture; ie the team around carr was as bad, if not worse. (they'll claim they were, btw - but they weren't. they ripped carr for being handed the job and then applauded when they handed the job to schaub, etc.) they were, far and away, football's worst team in 2005. they had exactly two guys on that roster anywhere above average, and that is all. in my mind, i wiped out 2002-2005; it was a disaster and as a fan, i granted kubiak a clean slate. i think he's turned a really bad football team around relatively quickly given what he inherited. to go 8-8 two years after being far and away football's worst team is an accomplishment. i certainly understand the frustration; it dates back, for some of us, to gut-punch playoff losses nearly 20 years ago. but i just don't view kubiak's tenure with the same degree of impatience. they're, easily, 6+ players away from being where everyone wants them to be. some of that is kubiak's fault: his FA signings have been blah and he dealt two high picks for a QB that wasn't brady or manning (meaning, he way overpaid). but this is FAR AND AWAY the best team, on paper, the texans have ever had. my guess is that the schedule will ease up a bit, they'll start to buy into the new OL system, and they finish with 7-9 wins. and i think NEXT YEAR is the year they start to make the leap. will anyone be left?....
well, there were mass 'leaps' in 2005 during 2-14, and more in January 2006 (please don't make me say it), and still more happening so far this year... ...so maybe not! The Texans' "bandwagon" right now is more like an "ensemblewagon" or maybe a "duetwagon".
Eh, i think Kubiak did what he could to get this team from where it was to the players it has now and the 8-8 record last year. But i think the team will just plateau or get worse b/c i feel Kubiak isn't the coach that can lead us further than what we are which is better than being the worst team. AND that doesn't say much at all. I believed in Shaub as well...what a disappointment, he's been playing like a pansy. All that trash talking directed at him and he didn't even try and step up. Houston sports really depresses me way more than it makes me happy...i see all those fans in other cities, and i want that feeling when they win it all or even get close...i'd rather be heart broken from a superbowl loss than sit with my head down all year b/c there's nothing to root for.
All I can say is thank God the Rockets pre-season is around the corner lol. When I watch Texans football, all I can do is yell at the TV.
Man. When Yao went down it was, "Thank God spring training is around the corner." Then when the Astros began to suck it was "Training Camp is almost here!!" I hope the Rockets can deliver...
I have not read one post in this thread.... but here are my takes: My Lord, what a boring freaking franchise. This franchise is marked by 7 years of excuses...with the same results over and over and over and over again. Without reading a post here, I'm sure there are umpteen posts here talking about how it's really not that bad...that but for a few plays here and there, it's a much closer game. Seriously, who even cares anymore? They suck. They suck all the time. At the end of the game, it's the same. They lose by roughly 2-3 touchdowns. I said they'll win 6 games before....we'll see if they can get that high. Go Rox. Go 'stros. Go Texans.
man if the Rockets don't deliver.. we're cursed. (even though I no longer live in Houston) hopefully the Texans will start clicking soon.
I don't think that's fair. 8-8, considering they were 2-14 just two seasons prior, is a markedly different result from anything prior, save possibly 2004. And, the only excuses I've really seen made are for this franchise's quarterbacks. (Remember when I was jumping down your throat that they weren't 'excuses'? My bad.) Everyone's been pretty brutal on the running game, the defense, the o-line, every WR not named AJ or KW, the idiots in the front office, and McNair... Agreed!
You know, as an addendum, I'd say what the franchise is marked by seven years of, the same thing over and over again, is having less talent than everybody else. That's no excuse, that's the ugly reality: they're not as talented and not as good as the average NFL team; they generally suck, and in most areas, they specifically suck. I'm tired of that, too.
MM, msn, et al: i know you value my opinion above all others (cough), but lend me five minutes of your time and an open mind… this is why I took david carr’s “side” for all those many posts back in the day: too many fans had focused too much of their ire on him when he wasn’t the biggest or even 10th biggest problem the team had. and many of these fans, at the time, responded, “we know, we know…” then immediately went back to bashing and blaming carr and calling problems 1-15(ish) “excuses” they were sick of hearing. well… so NO ONE should be shocked at where the texans are. they were the worst team in football in 2005. the absolute worst; the 2008 version of the chiefs – think they’re going to be good anytime soon? just look at the texans’ 2005 roster: [http://www.footballdb.com/teams/houston-texans/roster/2005] there are two above average players on it (johnson and robinson) and i personally think texan fans slightly overrate both considering neither have ever established themselves as consistently elite performers. but then there’s a dramatic drop-off to the next wave of players. i mean, there was nobody near johnson and robinson on that roster in terms of talent and/or upside. that’s the team gary kubiak inherited. and i know no one wants to hear this, but i said it the day he was hired and i’ll say it again right now: in 2006, this team started completely over. from scratch. in my mind, THAT was their expansion year. NOTHING the team did between 2002 and 2005 will have ANY impact on this franchise moving forward except johnson and maybe robinson if he fully recovers. (i left off kris brown, btw, who’s been a pretty reliable kicker.) think about that… i know and certainly understand the frustration. believe me. i started going to oiler games as a 5-year old in 1976. i hate that the team is below average; it ruins my enjoyment of football on a larger scale. BUT… they’ve made some pretty remarkable strides the past two years. look at their roster now. it took them 4 years to acquire two above-average players; in the past 24 months, johnson and robinson have been joined by ryans and williams (who i personally think are better than johnson and robinson). more importantly, the drop-off from there is no longer into an abyss. walter, daniels, winston and bennett are all above-average players. schaub has shown flashes he may well be above-average, too, if they can work out issues (like a new blocking scheme – keep in mind, they have 3 new starters on the OL, including a rookie). steve slaton certainly looked promising sunday. okoye and brown have decent ceilings and look better than, say, travis johnson and seth wand. slowly but surely, it’s getting better. point is: if you can embrace the idea that this team more or less started in 2006… i think you’d see things from a different and ultimately better perspective. kubiak had NOTHING to do with the C&C idiot factory; he shouldn’t have to carry their ruinous burden. in fact, i truly believe that if you shot truth serum into kubiak, he’d tell you they’re a year away. you don’t hand the LT position to a rookie if you have ideas about the postseason unless a) said rookie is an elite stud; or b) you’re SO good, you can absorb his growing pains. especially if you have a better, in the short-term, option on the bench (salaam). that’s a move designed to make sure that brown is ready NEXT YEAR. meanwhile, i think they’ll level out and be OK this year: competitive and entertaining, especially in the second half. they had a tough opening schedule and that was before hurricane ike disrupted their season. to start your year on the road for three consecutive weeks against the steelers, titans and jaguars… how many teams come out of that with a winning record? and then they get to host indianapolis - that’s brutal. those 4 teams were, i believe, 44-20 last year. plus, they’re now playing 15 straight weeks without a bye. with that in mind, wins and losses are now secondary to me if they can develop more pieces to the puzzle: namely, slaton, brown, okoye, bennett, and the zone blocking scheme… that’s the reality; if you can tough it out one more year, i truly think everyone’s patience will be rewarded. lastly, keep in mind (as you roll your eyes at me), the oilers were decimated in 1981. it took them SIX YEARS to get back to the playoffs and that was before the salary cap. between 1982 and 1984, they added THREE HALL OF FAMERS (plus had a 4th already on its roster… maybe a 5th – when did bethea retire?) and it took three years AFTER that to post a winning record. and that ’87 team benefited greatly from the three strike games (doubtful the real oilers would have gone 2-1 at denver and cleveland and home against the patriots).
Ric, I don't disagree. The team has made strides (I said so in my post, only not so eloquently), but as you have pointed out before, on a talent basis, they still have a ways to go. As far as dismissing 2002-2005, I can do that in my evaluation of Kubiak and Smith, but I cannot do that so well as a fan who's waited a long, long time for good NFL football in Houston. The *Texans* have been around--and sucked--since 2002. Some of that's to be expected. We're all far-beyond-ready-and-hoping for improvements in the near future, however.
Ric - in the NFL teams go from worst to first regularly...it's happened every year in the NFC South for like 3 or 4 years in a row. the saints completely reinvented themselves two years back...they kept very few. they were competitive. i'm not asking for miracles. i'm not asking for super bowl. i'm asking that they simply look like they belong in the league..like they can compete. i love kubiak and i REALLY want him to succeed. but they're not going to give him 5 years to steady the ship. he's made decisions that have compounded the problems, particularly with free agency. i think this team is still really bad and still has way too many holes to say, "wait till next year." maybe if we didn't look so much like the 2002 squad, i'd feel better. but the results on the field still look the same.
And yet, John McClain, Steve Campbell and the rest of the Texans' apologists at the Chronicle who label you as being "knee-jerk" for feeling this way. As I've posted before, so many folks so desperately want the Texans to succeed that they are willing to accept almost anything from this team. Hence, they don't demand excellence or have the slightest expectation of it where the Texans are concerned. To me, that is a situation that fosters mediocrity which is exactly what they still have even after the Kubiak housecleaning. Funny how they want to criticize those of you for refusing to accept crappy play but they can endlessly excuse or overlook the same when it continues to emanate from the Texans. I'm not an expert by any means but I do know that until everyone starts to demand excellence from them, none will be forthcoming. Come Sunday if they trot out the same mismashed effort they have for the first 2 games, they will most definitely lose and I can guarantee that they already have their excuses memorized and ready to deliver.
they're going to be booed mercilessly. i'm not a boo-bird for my home team...but that's going to happen if they keep laying eggs.
