The Texans in the media's eyes...

[texan279]

OK, a few things have been bothering me lately, so here I go...why is a lot of the media so high on everyone else in our division, especially the Jags lately? What did they do in the offseason or draft that I missed? IMO we have a much better overall team and had a much better draft, and I am saying that from a football perspective, not just a Texans fan perspectuve. And I am so tired of a lot of the media being so down and skeptic about Carr now. People are saying that he hasn't learned things yet that he should have or he hasn't put up the numbers like he should, but do people realize that he came in here his rookie season and spent his whole rookie season on his back and running for his life, and last year he missed some time due to injury. I also read in an article somewhere that the Jags will be the team to watch this year, and they will not be a "sleeper" team because of their finish last year, and we will be at the bottom of the division...I just cannot figure it out...we split the series last year with the Jags, we beat one of the teams that were in the Super Bowl and took the other Super Bowl team into overtime, as well as leading Tennessee and Indy until the last minutes of the game. How could you have a better finish than that for a 2nd year team that was injury plagued for the whole season? How is that any worse than the Jags season? I guess overall the thing that gets to me is we are not getting the respect we deserve around the league and a lot of people are bad mouthing us while teams IMO that are worse than ours are getting talked about so much and so much praise, but I guess we will see this year who is worthy of all of the praise...

Oh, and by the way, did anyone see Channel 13 news last night? On their sports portion of the show they did a piece on the Texans training camp and how things are going and they showed Todd Wade and Gary Walker get into it really good. It took about 5 players and a couple of coaches, including Capers, to break it up. I thought those 2 were fixing to shed the pads and throw down!

[geofb]

The Jags beat the tar out of us in Jax and we barely escaped with a win over them here. Leftwich will be improved this year (hopefully Carr will be also). We're in a tough division...finishing anything but last in the division will be a steep hill to climb. Despite all the rosy predictions on this board, 2004 is not likely to be a winning season much less a playoff season. Hopefully we can contend for a playoff spot in 2005.

[WWJD]

I think the Texans can certainly compete for a playoff berth this year but I do believe next year is the more realistic goal.

This is a very tough division. And you never know about injuries. I think they will be 7-9 or 8-8.

[Carr Bombed]

Injuries are the key this year, last year I like to say that we were a 8-8 team that finished 5-11. All the close games that we lost last year was because our defense was destroyed with injuries and could not stop the opposition in the 4th quarter. I see us closing in on the rest of the division and playing a easier scheldule in my opinion if we stay healthy on both sides of the ball there is a good chance we can make a push for a wild card playoff berth

[BigBang]

Originally Posted by Carr Bomb

Injuries are the key this year, last year I like to say that we were a 8-8 team that finished 5-11. All the close games that we lost last year was because our defense was destroyed with injuries and could not stop the opposition in the 4th quarter. I see us closing in on the rest of the division and playing a easier scheldule in my opinion if we stay healthy on both sides of the ball there is a good chance we can make a push for a wild card playoff berth

Ditto. I seriously see us being a better team than the first two seasons. We have a decent offense and a decent defense. A lot of our success also hinges on what happens with our opponents. Football is a game where any and everything can change from one week to the next. For that matter one season to the next.

[Vinny]

5-11 expansion teams just are not going to make people in Boston, New York, Chicago, or LA fall all over themselves rushing to praise us. One of the many reasons expansion teams do not compete too well in the first couple of seasons is depth. The NFL is a seriously brutal league and you just have to have good starters as well as quality reserves.

Only this year were we able to "round out" our starting unit by adding Todd Wade, R Smith, Jason Babin, & Dunta Robinson. We finally have no journeyman starters at one of our 22 starting positions. It took two full years just to do this. It will be one more year before we are as deep as you need to be for a solid playoff run.

There WILL be injuries. All teams deal with that, but that is why you need good depth. 22 starters and a solid NFL quality reserve for each position takes a bit of time. Teams don't get "respect" just because you desire it. As long as we beat a few quality teams this year and play .500 ball we will get it. We will have people all over the country giving us props just as we have see them give the Jags and the Colts and the Titans.

[Blake]

Originally Posted by geofb

The Jags beat the tar out of us in Jax and we barely escaped with a win over them here. Leftwich will be improved this year (hopefully Carr will be also).

Yes the jags beat the tar out of the texans, with dave ragone as QB. And yes, we barely escaped with a win over jax, while the patriots barely escaped with a win over houston. Does that mean that the patriots dont deserve the W? A win is a win, wheather its by 3 points, or 23 points.

Originally Posted by geofb

We're in a tough division...finishing anything but last in the division will be a steep hill to climb. Despite all the rosy predictions on this board, 2004 is not likely to be a winning season much less a playoff season. Hopefully we can contend for a playoff spot in 2005.

I wouldnt be so quick to write us off until next season. Who looked at the panthers division and saw them coming out on top of the Falcons, Buccaneers, and Saints? Nobody. So before you X out Houston, wait to see them in action.