Schaub's weakness is his inability to make plays spontaneously...If he cant make those plays we cant be ELITE...Elite is defined as doing things beyond just the basic/norm...
I disagree with the rattling, he makes better decisions than most under pressure. But I do agree that Schaub cannot perform at a high enough level to beat elite competition unless our running game is humming and our defense is beasting. He (and Kubiak) is a liability when this team falls behind and/or can't pound the ball. That simply is not acceptable.
There are lots of issues with this team. First, the Texans will not take chances. They could have had Brandon Marshall, Brandon Lloyd or Josh Gordon but decided they were good at receiver. Shaub makes poor decisions, especially on 3rd down. The Texans have no 4-5 wide out sets, so it is very hard to keep up with high scoring teams. Wade Phillips defensive teams always regress after the first season, and it did this year. We need more help in the secondary. Kubiak will NOT change and McNair will not make him change.
^Not sold on the regression part. We missed Cushing a whole lot against the better teams and battled with other injuries all season long (Joseph, McCain, Reed, etc).
I've never seen a coach and a QB that resemble one another in their demeanor and competitive spirit as much as Schaub and Kubiak. It's almost like Schaub is related. The fear they have of taking chances and the slow, calculated pace in which they do everything. It's really quite a scene.
Anyone wish we drafted Russel Wilson? Schaub was scrambling for his life at the end of the game, throwing balls away with no one near him. Game could have been much different had Casey caught that perfect pass. Schaub gets confidence, we aren't playing from behind? This team lacks the O-line to be elite. The right side got thrashed all game long. Foster has no where to run and our qb is not mobile to evade pressure effectively. The biggest holes are our Lb's ability to cover, and the right side of that line. I'm not ready to give up on Schaub yet, but my god(fumbling the ball while scrambling all by yourself)??
The pro-Schaub contingent has never, ever a) denied his shortcomings; b) hidden when things went south. He hasn't played well the past however many weeks and you'll not find a single post during that stretch in which I've said otherwise. So congrats on pulling up a three-month old post; well-played. I’m such a MORON! (BTW, if Schaub's games back then don't count, why do posts? Just curious...) Even last week, I was critical of his play and saw many of the same issues yesterday (primarily, he suddenly looks wildly uncomfortable in the pocket and it has resulted, IMO, in his internal clock ticking much quicker than it should - a component of either being shell-shocked (ala David Carr, and I don't think that's it) or letting the moment swallow him whole, which is, unfortunately, probably it). I've never seen him play like that; I'm at a loss to explain it. Is it correctable? Will this experience make him better? I don't know... I thought there were three "championship moments" yesterday: the opening drive, the closing drive at the end of the first half, and the first two drives after New England scored on the opening drive of the second half. On the opening drive, Casey dropped what should have been a TD and then Schaub, with the clock inexplicably tick-tick-ticking unnecessarily in his head, air-mailed a throw to a wide-open Andre Johnson. End of the first half? He looked great. Two second half drives? I hated the playcalling on the first and was crushed by the interception on the second. I’m going to be honest and admit that I have three kids under 2.5 and we were hitting maximum chaos around this time so 1) I was half-watching; 2) more or less tuned out afterwards because… well, on at least one level, the Texans’ season ending is kind of a blessing for me, from a home front perspective. So I don’t know if it was a bad read, bad pass, what – but, obviously, the *worst* thing you can do there is turn the ball over so it’s on him. So in those “championship moments,” I’d grade Schaub… a C-. And C- ain’t gonna get it done. (And I’d be OK with a lower grade because the interception was so back-breaking. But what if Casey catches the touchdown? How much different is the outcome?) Unfortunately (on *a lot* of levels), he’s going to be the QB next year. Hopefully, he’ll be better from this experience. But I’m more in line with Donny Most right now – he seems to have hit his ceiling and can be a liability if the team around him isn’t clicking. I’ve honestly not felt that way about him until the second half of this year. Hopefully, they can find some playmakers to add to the offense, which can mitigate his shortcomings.
Can you ever admit that you were just plain wrong? I still can't believe you started this abomination of a thread with that opening post. The same guy who you want to 'add playmakers to MITIGATE his shortcomings' yet he is elite? Sigh.... Foster and AJ have been healthy all season and a Oline Rodgers would kill for....... what else do you want?
What you're missing is that his games back then DO count. They showed that when he has a great running game and a great defense, he can manage a game really, really well. It was your conclusion that it showed he was elite (and potentially the 4th best QB in the league!) that was absurdly wrong. And then when people pointed that out, you criticized them endlessly for being short-sighted or "yeah, but" people or any number of other silly things. In reality, they were just able to see beyond 8-0 and evaluate his actual contribution to that. So yeah, when you finally reach the same conclusion as others saw long ago, it will get pointed out. You're consistently about a year behind everyone else on QB talent evaluation, on everyone from Carr to Schaub to Peyton Manning (your post about him would have been spot-on with the October 2011 Manning).
I don't believe I was. I'll stand my ground from now until the end of time that a QB playing the way Schaub did at the time I started this thread, by any and every definition, is elite. Sigh is right... do you think I currently view him elite? He has very obviously regressed. I haven't said a positive thing about him in weeks. BUT... he's not going anywhere and, unless this was a stepping stone season and he'll be better because of it (possible), he's not going to suddenly morph into Tom Brady. As such, the answer is going to have to come elsewhere.
you do understand that posting stuff like this, and a bunch of the other crap you are now posting 2 months after beating your chest and starting this thread, makes you sound certifiably insane, right? are you talking about Matt Schaub or DonnyMost here?
The fault of the thread then is in its basic premise. That an 8 game stretch matters all that much. Especially when it excludes any playoff games, and doesn't take into account opponent, or status of other teams in the league. He may have been elite over that 8 game, but against who? And as compared to what quarterbacks, who were playing against what competition over the same stretch, etc.? It was just a bad thread to begin with, cause it didn't matter. Only 2 things ever mattered with Schaub once he proved he was at least an average if not slightly above average quarterback. (1) Could he stay healthy, and (2) what would he do come playoff time? I mean Kelvin Cato was great in the preseason. Dana Barros average 20 points, 7.5 assists one year. I'm not equating Schaub to those guys, but I do think the more likely scenario for a guy his age, with his talent and pocket presence issues - which were known 2 years ago and 1 year ago and 3 months ago just as they are today - was that he was having an exceptional stretch of play against ok competition but would revert to the mean. He is what he is. I think people like to look at last year and say only if Schaub didn't go down... well, maybe. Or maybe they don't go as conservative as they did and give Schaub more free reign... him being Schaub and not Yates... and things still don't turn out that great... who knows?? My money is more on that than on Schaub having some magical playoff run.
Let’s tap the brakes - here’s my *third* post from this thread: I think my evaluation was pretty even-handed. Despite the continued moroncy of a few posters, I never said he was better than the established elite and in no way did I ever conclude he was a finished project. Again, the pro-Schaub’ers have always been pretty objective about him. We just weren't knee-jerks. You left off BabyVince; I nailed BabyVince… The vast majority of anti-Schaub’ers belong to a subset of posters who routinely throw far more wrong than right up against the wall. That they finally get to check an “ITOLDYASO!” box does not suddenly invalidate their illogical reasoning, irrational knee-jerking and/or general laziness. “Manning! I mean, Flaccooooooooooooooooooooo!!” Schaub was excellent the first half (building on an excellent 2011 we all agreed sadly ended too soon) and regressed the second half. This, “Oh, yeah – well, in October you said THIS!!!” is flaccid internet “gotcha!” gobblegook that has absolutely no merit. I’ve never run from that opinion and I’ve been open and honest that my opinion is changing and evolving, I have no patience to sit here and continually defend it. It was three months ago. He is no longer playing elite. What more does anyone want to say? Pretty sure my primary objection to him coming here was that I couldn’t figure out how, exactly, a noted playoff failure made us a legitimate Super Bowl contender. Man, waaaay off on that one – oh, wait….
#1 Schaub was NEVER elite. #2 Schaub hasn't regressed. He still the same guy, it's just things aren't PERFECT around him. I guess Schaub needs a HOF offensive line , a prime Tony Gonzalez, a prime Barry Sanders, and a prime Jerry Rice to go along with Andre Johnson. Then , and only then, he will be elite. And for the record... Manning and Flacco are both better than Schaub.
When did we start etching our opinions in stone? I mean, weren't you the guy who swore up and down that Peyton Manning greatly increased our chances of getting to the Super Bowl? Would you like to revist that thread? And stop pretending like we don't discuss and dissect this team on a week-to-week basis. We don't register opinions in August and then reconvene in January. Yes, he was playing at an elite level - three months ago. I own what I posted then and stand by it. Three months later, I have no problem saying that he is not playing at an elite level and that unless the Texans find a way to get better around him (because he's not going anywhere)... this team is further from the SB than I thought. And you think that makes me certifiably insane?
