Peter King: Leinart injury takes air out of Texans' lofty playoff hopes

[Playoffs]

Gary Kubiak's voice sounded defeated, deflated on the phone from Jacksonville...

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/201....12/index.html


Now is not the time for Kubes to be all down in the mouth about his team's circumstance. Now is not the time for Gary's trademark low-affect, low-volume vocals. Now is not the time to look back at our losses.

It's time for Gary to stand up and lead. It's time for Gary to raise his voice in determined anger to instruct his team that great men are judged by how they respond to challenges -- that the mettle of a man is found in how many times he gets up off the floor after being knocked down.

To the great are given great tasks. Now is Coach Kubiak's time to be great ... to lead, to challenge his charges.

C'mon Coach, are you up to it???

[redwhiteANDblue]

This is where we'll see if Kubiak has it or not. No matter how bad the players are on the field, his job is to keep them playing hard. Motivation and confidence is all this team needs right now. Kubiak in the past has shown us that he doesn't have it but who knows what he will do now.

[ObsiWan]

No magician's hat holds an infinite supply of rabbits.

A Genie only gives out three wishes

sooner or later ya just flat run outta luck

[phantom17]

Originally Posted by asleep

Gary Kubiak's voice sounded defeated, deflated on the phone from Jacksonville...

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/201....12/index.html


Now is not the time for Kubes to be all down in the mouth about his team's circumstance. Now is not the time for Gary's trademark low-affect, low-volume vocals. Now is not the time to look back at our losses.

It's time for Gary to stand up and lead. It's time for Gary to raise his voice in determined anger to instruct his team that great men are judged by how they respond to challenges -- that the mettle of a man is found in how many times he gets up off the floor after being knocked down.

To the great are given great tasks. Now is Coach Kubiak's time to be great ... to lead, to challenge his charges.

C'mon Coach, are you up to it???

Coach Kubiak needs to yell at his players- "SPARTA" like in 300!

[ChrisG]

im actually not anymore worried than I was this Saturday. Leinart really disappointed me with his constant check downs. Also his only TD pass was anything but perfect.

Im really looking forward to see what Yates can do. Ideally I would have liked to see him step in about 3-4 years from now but....


I never was fully sold on Leinart. Based on how Yates looked in the pocket I think we will be fine. Wont make as deep of a playoff run as we would have had with Schaub, but I think first round bye is still an option. Unless Yates comes in and does something crazy bad we will make the playoffs.

[ObsiWan]

Originally Posted by phantom17

Coach Kubiak needs to yell at his players- "SPARTA" like in 300!

ummm.... didn't all those dudes die?

[wolf123]

Originally Posted by ObsiWan

ummm.... didn't all those dudes die?

No, the one guy with the hurt eye survived!!

[Corrosion]

Originally Posted by redwhiteANDblue

This is where we'll see if Kubiak has it or not. No matter how bad the players are on the field, his job is to keep them playing hard. Motivation and confidence is all this team needs right now. Kubiak in the past has shown us that he doesn't have it but who knows what he will do now.

You are wrong there - How many times has this team had a mid-season losing streak followed by the team making a push in December .... even if it was too little too late.

[ObsiWan]

Originally Posted by Corrosion

You are wrong there - How many times has this team had a mid-season losing streak followed by the team making a push in December .... even if it was too little too late.

Speaking of monthly performance, wasn't Kubiak supposed to go into some kind of November swoon?

What happened with that?

[GP]

I'd be a little dejected, too, if I were Kubiak. He probably wonders what he did to deserve getting shat upon even when he's finally got the goods to go all the way now.

Sucks.

It reminds of the scene in Land of The Lost (Farrell & McBride) when they finally track down and regain the device they need to get back home........

And then THIS bit of absurdity happens. Sums it up perfectly.

[Hervoyel]

Originally Posted by phantom17

Coach Kubiak needs to yell at his players- "SPARTA" like in 300!

They don't need him to do that. The Texans have this guy

[TimeKiller]

Well idk how lofty we were talkin about with Leinart.....but judging a man's tone of voice over the phone is about a pitiful excuse for journalism.

[Playoffs]

Originally Posted by ObsiWan

No magician's hat holds an infinite supply of rabbits.
A Genie only gives out three wishes
sooner or later ya just flat run outta luck

Bring that into your locker-room and losses come with it, imo.

Paul Kuharsky's What they should be thinking...

Houston Texans

We’re the No. 1 seed in the AFC today, and no one knows who our new quarterback, rookie T.J. Yates is. That’s not our concern. They probably don’t know who Connor Barwin is either, but he had four sacks in our win in Jacksonville. Having people who are known is not a worry, winning is. We’re in position to go win this division and be in the playoff field. We have enough to do it with if we just plan smart, play smart and call a smart game without over-thinking things. Atlanta is the best team we will face in a while, but if the Falcons provide a bump in the road, it won’t mark the start of some unraveling, it’ll just be a bump in the road.


For crying out loud, Rex Grossman went to the Super Bowl.

[Boris]

Originally Posted by wolf123

No, the one guy with the hurt eye survived!!

He survived only to be killed by his fellow Spartans for leaving the battle.

[Ranger Tom]

Originally Posted by Boris

He survived only to be killed by his fellow Spartans for leaving the battle.

Not in the movie version, at least!

[TexanSam]

I think our D plays even more lights out now. People are going to start writing off the Texans and our D will want to prove them wrong.

PLEASE just let Yates be halfway decent.

[ziggy29]

As far as the post-game remarks by Kubes, the one thing I didn't like was his criticism about the lack of effectiveness of the running game in the second half.

Dude, as much as their team mostly sucks overall, Jax has a pretty good defense... and it was YOUR play calling that let all 11 of their players put a bullseye on #23. That's as much on Foster, Yates or the O-line as it is on the coaches. Now maybe that play calling was justified under the circumstances, figuring your defense had a better chance to win the game for you than Yates had... but your play calling, justified or not, is what allowed the Jax defense to eat up Foster for the entire second half. An NFL defense, especially a pretty good one, can stop almost anyone if they know what's going to be called.

Calling out your running game there was bush league, IMO. If I'm someone's boss and I set them up to fail, I'm not going to humiliate them in public for failing. It's more on me than on them.

As for Yates, he doesn't even have to be real good -- just decent at passing and decision-making, and trusted enough to open up the running game and let the defense rest a bit.

[gtexan02]

Our ship sailed the minute Schaub broke his foot. Leinart wasn't going to win a superbowl, and neither is Yates. We'll probably make the playoffs, but do you really think either one of those guys had a chance against a Packers defense?

[ziggy29]

Originally Posted by gtexan02

Our ship sailed the minute Schaub broke his foot. Leinart wasn't going to win a superbowl, and neither is Yates. We'll probably make the playoffs, but do you really think either one of those guys had a chance against a Packers defense?

Maybe, maybe not. But in reality, what I think we're experiencing this year is almost a 180 from years past. In the past, the Texans seemed to find ways to regularly lose games they should have won. This year, they are finding ways to *win* despite all the injuries which have made many lose hope for the year.

AJ, Mario, Manning, Schaub, Leinart... the list goes on. Each one feels like a mortal blow, but since that's happened, the Texans have done nothing but *win*. So yeah, this feels like a cursed or snakebit team, but it's at least one that finds ways to win rather than ways to lose. I'll worry about the playoffs when the time comes. Now my concern is Atlanta, then Cincy, and so forth until the playoffs (and hopefully the division) are clinched. THEN I will start pondering playoffs.

[Buffi2]

According to Kubes at his afternoon presser, "I am not down. This team is not down. I want the fans and the city of Houston to know that."

He said this was just a challenge and life was full of challenges. He sounded pretty determined to me. I think they are going to give it everything they have and you can't ask for any more than that.

I'm worried but I think that Yates is certainly no worse than Leinart. I watched the game again this afternoon and L's check downs were very obvious.