Growing Pains
In the 2010-2011 season the Texans won their first ever overtime game, had their first ever league leading rusher and league leader in scrimmage yards yet they finished with a 6-10 record. How is this possible? The Texans simply collapsed halfway through the season.
They started out strong, beating the Colts at home then going on the road to Washington to get their first overtime win against the Redskins. Then they lost to the Cowboys at home, went on the road to Oakland and got a win, came back home and got beat down by the Giants then had a last second victory at home against the Kansas City Chiefs. After the Chiefs game the Texans went into the bye week looking good at 4-2, but they lost their leader DeMeco Ryans in that game.
After the bye week the Texans headed up to Indianapolis to play the Colts on Monday Night Football. Even though Arian Foster looked like he was going to have another 200+ yard game against the Colts defense, the Texans still lost. Their defense couldn’t stop Peyton Manning and they couldn’t throw the ball against the Colt’s great pass rush. After the Colts game, everything went downhill. The Texans lost 7 of their next 8 games and essentially collapsed.
Any possible way you can think of to lose a football game, the Texans did it. They lost on last minute drives, hail marys, interceptions returned for touchdowns in overtime and everything else you can imagine. It was really hard to watch. It was even harder to want to blog or write about them. I don’t even understand how people can watch an entire season of Texans football without throwing up a few times. But I watched every single game, every single snap and of course I was disappointed. I felt betrayed by the team that I put so much faith into. I felt swindled by the franchise that took my money when I went to the first 3 home games and they only won once. I felt stupid for ever thinking that the Texans could be a playoff team with a defense that was as bad as the one they had. There were problems everywhere.
But with time comes wisdom, so once the season ended I felt more comfortable talking about the Texans again and now I am writing my first post since then. I can’t be too mad at the Texans, they played hard and they made progress as a franchise like I said at the beginning. There are going to be some growing pains when you start an NFL franchise and the Texans just went through some serious pains in 2010. But this franchise is being constructed the right way, with a great QB in Matt Schaub, who has thrown for over 9,000 yards in the past 2 seasons, a great WR for him to throw to in Andre Johnson, who we all know is a man among boys when it comes to football, and the Texans now have a great RB in Arian Foster who lead the NFL in rushing yards in 2010. The Texans have found their triplets on offense which helped the Cowboys win 3 Superbowls in Dallas.
The only thing left for the Texans to do is fix the defense, so they hired the former Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips, the son of the legendary Oilers coach Bum Phillips to complete the task. Wade’s first order of business is to convert the Texans from a 3-4 defense to a 4-3 defense. What does this mean? That instead of using the traditional 4 down linemen and 3 linebackers they will now use 3 down linemen and 4 linebackers with the outside linebackers (OLB) mostly used for rushing the QB. The biggest personnel questions Wade is going to have to answer is who is going to play OLB in his defense and who is he going to bring in to fix the secondary? The Texans secondary was atrocious in 2010 and was one of the worst pass defenses in NFL history. Phillips is going to have to sign some veteran free agents and draft some young talent to patch up the defensive backfield. Phillips is also going to have to figure out if Mario Williams is going to be a good OLB or if he is better suited to play DE. Williams is without question the Texans’ best pass rusher and his skills would be best utilized as an OLB. But if it helped the defense more, Mario Williams might be more helpful as a DE on run downs because he is so big and powerful.
One thing is for sure, the Texans better do a damn good job this offseason or else Texans fans are going to start a boycott if we don’t make it to the playoffs next year.
A Season That Was Lost
The Texans lost tonight against the Baltimore Ravens to fall to 5-8 and put an end to any hopes they had of having a winning season or a playoff run.[picappgallerysingle id="10381526"]
Against the Chargers, Jaguars, Jets and the Ravens the Texans lost at the end of the game in gut wrenching fashion. A deflected pass off Andre Johnson’s leg, a hail mary batted into the hands of the other team’s receiver, a last minute touchdown drive and an overtime interception returned for a TD. That has been the story of the 2010 Texans. Another losing season, and to think we all thought they were going to the playoffs this year.
There is nothing else to say.
Texans lose to Chargers 29-23
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The Texans lost their 2nd straight game and again were horrible on defense. This time it wasn’t Peyton Manning ripping them apart, it was Phillip Rivers without his favorite target Antonio Gates. Rivers made the Texans defense look like a bunch of 2nd graders who don’t know what “coverage” means. The Texans offense looked good for most of the game because Arian Foster was running like a mad man and had another 100 yard performance and two touchdowns. The Texans fall to 4-4 on the season, right back where they were in 2007 and 2008 when they finished 8-8 each year.
Texans lose to Colts 30-17
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The Texans lost on Monday Night Football and fell to 3rd place in the division behind the Colts and the Titans but ahead of the Jaguars who they play in two weeks. The Texans should have just run the ball on almost every play like they did in week 1 when they beat the Colts but they tried to get fancy and throw the ball which resulted in Dwight Freeney eating Duane Brown alive like a great white shark does to a seal and sacking Matt Schaub multiple times.
The Texans didn’t play as bad as usual on defense but they still played bad. Bernard Pollard is absolutely horrible in coverage, Zac Diles looked lost and Mario Williams was nowhere to be found. Yep, thats about it.
The Texans face the San Diego Chargers at home this Sunday in a game that they have to win if they want to stay above .500 and in the race for the playoffs. If they lose they can just kiss a playoff spot goodbye because the Jets, Colts, Ravens, Pats, Steelers and Titans (who just added Randy Moss) will all make the playoffs if the Texans don’t win 10 or 11 games. Thats all folks.
Losing a Leader
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Pro Bowl Linebacker and Defensive Captain DeMeco Ryans, who is a 5th year pro from the University of Alabama, was lost for the rest of season with a torn Achilles tendon in his right foot. This injury is going to seriously impact the Texans because Ryans is the guy who leads the troops into battle every Sunday. DeMeco gets guys fired up and holds them accountable when they are slacking. Luckily the Texan’s defense, which is ranked 31st overall, can’t get much worse. They were shredded by Kansas City even though they beat them. Without Ryans they are going to have trouble being so good against the run, but they may pick up their play against the pass a little bit depending on who replaces him. Stepping into Ryan’s place at middle linebacker will be either Zac Diles, Kevin Bentley or rookie Daryl Sharpton. Brian Cushing will stay at Strong Side Linebacker and Xavier Adibi could step into the Weak Side Linebacker position if Diles moves over to the middle. No matter what happens, its sad to see a great player like Ryans sidelined by such a serious injury.
