Are you all satisfied with an 8-8 season?

[TerribleToro]

I wouldn't say I'm satisfied. As a sports fan you can't be "satisfied" with anything less than a championship really. I'd say I'm generally happy about the way most of it turned out. We could have made the playoffs in a weaker division or even if we had won a few of our close games. I'm happy to see improvement. But I don't think we are ever "satisfied" until you win it all.

[DerekLee1]

Satisfaction is relative. Am I satisfied with improvement? Yes, absolutely. Am I satisfied with 8-8? Well, when your goal every year is the Super Bowl, then no.

That being said, we were 1-5 against our OWN DIVISION. We were 7-3 against the REST OF THE NFL!!! That's incredible. Kubiak needs to sit down with his coaching staff and spend the ENTIRE offseason figuring out how in the hell to beat each of the three teams in our own division. Study all of their games and devise a gameplan that can beat them. Anything less than 3-3 in our own division should be unacceptable. If we'd done that this year, we'd be in the playoffs right now.

[mexican_texan]

We looked a lot worse than 8-8 some weeks. We looked like a 12 win team other weeks. At least we're not consistantly bad anymore.

[gary]

Originally Posted by mexican_texan

We looked a lot worse than 8-8 some weeks. We looked like a 12 win team other weeks. At least we're not consistantly bad anymore.

True.

[The Pencil Neck]

Originally Posted by TerribleToro

I wouldn't say I'm satisfied. As a sports fan you can't be "satisfied" with anything less than a championship really. I'd say I'm generally happy about the way most of it turned out. We could have made the playoffs in a weaker division or even if we had won a few of our close games. I'm happy to see improvement. But I don't think we are ever "satisfied" until you win it all.

This is what I totally and completely disagree with.

If you're a player on the team, then you shouldn't be satisfied with anything less than a championship.

If you're a fan, you should be satisfied if your team is generally playing well. If it's improving or making it into playoffs, then you should be happy. If your team is getting worse or habitually playing badly, then you should be unhappy. If your team is moving in the right direction, happiness. If your team is moving in the wrong direction, unhappiness. The only people who should really be unsatisfied are the fans of teams that were expected to do something and then didn't: Jets, Saints, Bears, Panthers, Ravens, Bengals.

But to think that you should only be happy and "satisfied" if your team wins the Super Bowl is ridiculous to me. All the fans of teams that make the playoffs should be unsatisfied? All the teams that made improvements and have bright futures should be unsatisfied?

That's just wrong.

[ObsiWan]

Originally Posted by TerribleToro

I wouldn't say I'm satisfied. As a sports fan you can't be "satisfied" with anything less than a championship really. I'd say I'm generally happy about the way most of it turned out. We could have made the playoffs in a weaker division or even if we had won a few of our close games. I'm happy to see improvement. But I don't think we are ever "satisfied" until you win it all.

nuff said.

[Giant Tiger]

Well, I like the direction this team is going in, I'll take 8-8. Fewer turnovers next year will mean more wins. As far as being "satisfied" I'll cheer for the Texans whether they go 0-16 or 16-0

[Second Honeymoon]

Originally Posted by mexican_texan

We looked a lot worse than 8-8 some weeks. We looked like a 12 win team other weeks. At least we're not consistantly bad anymore.

and that is something to be truly thankful for. honestly, it was a much better product.

[Mr. White]

I've been saying 8-8 since December of last year. Feel free to look me up if you don't buy it.

We were still mathematically in the playoff hunt in December this year. We were out by the second week in December, but nonetheless.......

We might be mediocre right now, but that beats the hell out of what we've been any other year. I'm happy.

[Spike]

I am a little surprised to see so many people who aren't satisfied with this season as a whole. When I think about where we were last time this year, I can't help to be satisfied with 8-8 for a number of reasons:

(1) Fixed the Books - I can't remember the exact number, but the front office was able to field the best team in the organization's history, while taking a significant hit in dead money to fix a variety of mistakes that were made in the past. There was no spreading things out...the most significant hit took place this year.
(2) Fixed the QB Situation - There will be a lot of us who continue to argue about this well into the Summer, but in my estimation, we have resolved the QB issue one way or the other. There is no doubt about it, a huge mistake was made signing DC to a three year deal - but at least the organization stood up to the plate, admitted that a mistake was made and take an aggressive move to fix the situation - despite public scrutiny. I think this move made an impact well beyond the win/loss column and am convinced that allowing that situation to last even one more season would have set this organization back another 5 years.
(3) Revisit Mario - The play of one individual shouldn't have such an impact on an entire organization, but whether we liked it or not, Mario Williams and his top overall pick became the face of the organization for a year and a half. For all the talking heads on the national scene, this story line became the easy 30 second peice on our team and an easy cheap shot for not taking Bush. For local fans, the frustration of not taking the hometown hero gave more fire power to blast the home team. Mario's play did more than make him one of the top DEs in the league, it took some unwarranted heat of a player and a team and gained a little respect for a front office that made the right choice. Combine that with a really bad season by both Bush and VY (I am still a fan when they are not playing the Texans, but his team made the playoffs DESPITE him this year) and it gives us fans a reason to think that the new group in charge may know what they are doing.
(4) Injuries, injuries, injuries... - It is completely unfair to evaluate the performance of this team without taking into consideration the losses on the field. Even a team with great depth can't overcome the injuries we had this season. I know, all teams have injuries, but please tell me another team in recent memory that lost the number of starters we lost for a material part of this season: starting QB, starting RB, starting center, starting guard, starting WR (and best offensive player), starting CB (and arguably best defensive player), and starting S (and his backup). This list doesn't even take consideration other key contributors that were lost and had to be replaced.
(5) Learning how to win - Coming off the second loss to Tenn. and the loss of some more key players, it was hard to see this team winning another game all year. I remember hearing an interview when Kubiak said that his goal was still to fight for a winning season and all I could do was grin and shake my head. The fact is, this team could have packed it in after that game. Winning three of the last four showed a lot about the players assembled on this team and the coaches.
(6) Team Core - I read a really interesting post back in August, describing how every great team has a solid core of players that an organization has maintain and work to surround with role players every year. In part because this is such a young franchise, this is the first year that I really started to feel comfortable about the core of this team - Johnson, Daniels and Walters, on offense with Mario, Ryans, Dunta on defense. We absolutely need more, but I think there are a handful of guys that be named with this group with a solid showing next year - Schaub, Winston, Davis, Amobi, Demps, to name a few.

I would love to be a Pats or Colts fan right now and expect to go the the SB every year, but I am not going to be disappointed with this season because we aren't there yet. We shouldn't forget, a lot of the fun is in getting there. We have had back to back seasons where the team has improved and for the first time in a long time, it finally feels like we are going in the right direction. I'll take it...

[Texanballer]

i am satisfied, but this is only a starting point. From now on i say playoffs or bust

[ATRAIN]

For this year yes I am satisfied, next year we need to make playoffs!! We need Mario to punish Payton and Vince next year!!

[PHAROAH]

I am they really made progress but we have to get a running back early in this years draft.

[badboy]

The new front office basically cleaned house and hired an NFL office guy that is a cap guru. Guys like AJ and Dunte have said in their early years not every player seemed commited to winning. I think those are now gone. We actually have $ under the cap and decent back ups with realistic salaries and some of them will push the starters. There have been some unwise moves, but some pretty good ones like Demps and Bennett. Mario looks good and I just want to suggest Ahman Green may do better in second year as did Williams. Guess what? Green was not the only guy to miss games due to injury.

Easily for three years I was just glad to have a Houston NFL team. I kept remembering the ups and downs of the Oilers and no matter how bad the losing seasons were, Luv Ya Blue and then Run & Shoot brought some good times. It took me five years to end a relationship once. I'll give kudos to McNair. I just hope to have same luck finding a new relationship as did he.

Keep in mind over 1/2 of these 32 teams were 500 or below.