Wolf
12-27-2007, 07:54 AM
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/fb/texansfront/5405712.html
Good riddance to the Texans' hopes of their first winning season. Good riddance to the prospect of ringing out 2007 with a 9-7 record and four-game winning streak. The last thing the Texans need — aside from a second Charley Casserly era — is a false sense of security in where they are on the NFL food chain. If emphatic victories over Tampa Bay and Denver the previous two games presented the temptation to overestimate the Texans' progress, then Peyton Manning sure helped set matters straight.
A victory against the Jacksonville Jaguars in the season finale Sunday would get the Texans to 8-8 for the first time. All that stands in the Texans' way is a playoff-bound team that is mostly trying to avoid injury. It's a game the Texans should win, all things considered. As life-affirming as a non-losing season might be, Texans fans need not make too much of it.
On defense, the Texans have issues that the blossoming of Mario Williams and the Pro Bowl performance of DeMeco Ryans can't hide. They're 23rd in takeaways (24), 24th in sacks (29), 27th in yards per carry allowed (4.4) and 30th in opponents' pass-efficiency (91.5). What this says is that opponents can move the ball and score points without putting themselves — or the football — in harm's way.
"We've got a long way to go," Kubiak said. "There's not a finger on one thing; it's just about us continuing to grow as a group."
Good riddance to the Texans' hopes of their first winning season. Good riddance to the prospect of ringing out 2007 with a 9-7 record and four-game winning streak. The last thing the Texans need — aside from a second Charley Casserly era — is a false sense of security in where they are on the NFL food chain. If emphatic victories over Tampa Bay and Denver the previous two games presented the temptation to overestimate the Texans' progress, then Peyton Manning sure helped set matters straight.
A victory against the Jacksonville Jaguars in the season finale Sunday would get the Texans to 8-8 for the first time. All that stands in the Texans' way is a playoff-bound team that is mostly trying to avoid injury. It's a game the Texans should win, all things considered. As life-affirming as a non-losing season might be, Texans fans need not make too much of it.
On defense, the Texans have issues that the blossoming of Mario Williams and the Pro Bowl performance of DeMeco Ryans can't hide. They're 23rd in takeaways (24), 24th in sacks (29), 27th in yards per carry allowed (4.4) and 30th in opponents' pass-efficiency (91.5). What this says is that opponents can move the ball and score points without putting themselves — or the football — in harm's way.
"We've got a long way to go," Kubiak said. "There's not a finger on one thing; it's just about us continuing to grow as a group."