The ever-popular "pull a few wins out of our rear" attitude is the big problem with this team.
We get behind the eight ball at the start of every season, and the team gets gloomy and pouty...and the fans chant "Fire Palmer!"...and then we beat teams we shouldn't (Kansas City last year) and all of a sudden we resemble a real NFL team for a few weeks, getting everyone's hopes up, and then we start sliding and making boneheaded mistakes (coaching AND playing) and the whole stupid cycle just repeats itself all over again. Over and over and over and over and over. Like a soap opera. You can NOT watch a soap opera for a year, then switch back and watch an episode and not really miss much because they re-hash the same old tired story line.
So I'll play along. Here's about how the rest of the season will go:
Week five: TEXANS win! Yippee! Looks like things are starting to turn around! 1-3
Week six: Texans win again! We're clawing our way back. 2-3
Week seven: Texans lose. It's OK. We're still on the right track. 2-4
Week eight: Texans win! See? I told you things were OK. 3-4
Week nine: Texans win again! Back to .500! It's a new season. Clean slate! 4-4
Week ten: Texans lose. Hey, look at where we were at after the first three games! No problem. It's all good. 4-5
Week eleven: Texans lose again. OK, if we don't win next week something has to be done. 4-6
Week twelve: Texans lose again. @#$!& the coaching, get these guys out of here! 4-7
Week thirteen: Texans win! Now that's more like it... 5-7
Week fourteen: Texans win again! 6-7
Week fifteen: Texans win AGAIN! We matched last year's win total, now we can get at least maybe one more win which means real progress is being made year-to-year. And, if we win three games...we might be a wild card!
Week sixteen: Texans win AGAIN! 7-7
Week seventeen: Texans win AGAIN! 8-7 and everybody's talking about us on ESPN!!!!! We're finally getting some respect around here! 'Bout time!
Week eighteen: Texans lose. 8-8, but that's OK. Look at the heart and the desire this team produced after starting 0-3. If that doesn't save Capers' job, then nothing will. Capers held that team together through troubled waters, and he deserves to be there next year.
(SIGH)
We again get a middle-of-the-road draft pick. And who knows who we take.
Capers indeed saves his job, returns for next year and we look exactly like we have for the past four years: An inconsistently-led team who still has no real identity and who still loses when they shouldn't...and wins when they shouldn't. Everything always equals out to 7-9 or 8-8, never really taking the next step into being a playoff team. Players no longer WANT to come to the Texans because we have the image of being a confused, inconsistent wasteland where good players go to die. And it's all because the owner won't pull the trigger on a signifcant coaching change that can re-shape our team into a playoff quality team.
No, this team HAS to have a new head coach next year. And I hope it's not some old re-tread like the Cowboys have or the Redskins have.
Let me give an example that's close to home for me:
I graduated from a Division II school in 1998. Two years ago, the college hired a coach to turn the team around since it had been slipping since the late 1990's. The first year (2003): ZERO wins. The second year (2004): Only ONE win. They fired the guy at the end of the 2004 season, then they hired a proven coach with a consistently-winning track record. This year under the new coach (2005): 6-0. We were picked DEAD last in all pre-season polls: Dead last. We have spanked every team thus far, beating the 23rd-ranked team in the nation AND beating the 3rd-ranked team in the nation. We are now nationally ranked at No. 22 for the first time in about 10 years. The home games for the past two years were like a ghost town. Now? You have to buy your tickets a week in advance because the home games are sold out by the time you get to the gate. Did the players just all of a sudden begin palying? Nope. The players played hard and the COACHING got better. Did it cost the university big bucks to get this guy? You bet it did. And they are earning back those dollars with home game sell-outs and increased enrollment because it's been statistically proven that a college football program, winning or losing, has an impact on where high school seniors want to go to college.
We have pretty good players on this Texans team. Carr, although he looks shaky right now, is still a better QB than Patrick Ramsey, Joey Harrington, heck even Byron Leftwich for that matter. I've ragged him a lot, but he at least is committed to laying his body out on QB keepers--Diving head first to get the TD or the first down. Despite the refs' obviously bad call, Carr didn't turn the ball over at all. He made better decisions than he has in months. I'm hoping he continues to make a steady improvement. Domanick Davis is just a workhorse who grinds it out and fights for EVERY inch he can get on every run play no matter what the blocking is like. Andre Johnson is only suffering because of the inconsistency at QB right now, and Gaffney and Armstrong are coming up strong. The defense, I'm afraid, was juggled too much during the offseason. but I still like our players in Peek, Orr, Faggins, Dunta, Coleman, Wong, etc. They have talent.
It's not like our team has scrub players from the streets who have never played. No, this team's coaching needs overhauling on BOTH sides of the ball. If we'll cut JJ Moses because he can't "take one to the house," then we sure as heck ought to cut Capers who can't give us a consistent team week-in and week-out.
The only consistent thing is inconsistency.
But for me, the days of eeeking out wins here and there is over. I don't want to see comebacks. I want us to break out of the gate fast at the beginning of a season, and THEN have the luxury of losing here and there...not losing a bunch early on and then salvaging our self-respect with some clutch wins. That kind of thinking gets us right back to this point EVERY year.
That's my two cents.
but you should still maintain realistic goals, the Texans can still improve and turn things around the last time I checked its a 16 game schedule. 
