2nd half hopes

As down as people are on this team we are way ahead of where I thought we'd be. Well at least in the win column. Injuries have again derailed our season. That seems to be a trend down here. At some point you have to wonder if the training staff is doing their job. Of course the only "medical" advice I've ever given my son or anyone I was playing any sport was "rub some dirt on it" so I'm not really qualified to debate the finer points of sports medicine. Instead this is a look forward for the second half what I'd like to, and expect to see in the coming months.

Ok. You're 4-5. Of course you're not mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, but..... its possible that the WORST team you're going to play the rest of the season is Denver. They are the only team that's below .500 left on your schedule. What you're doing isn't working, you just lost your ONLY legit corner (other than a rook that might have some promise) for the season, you can't find a healthy running back, your QB is getting pounded your WR1 has missed more games than he's played and to top it off you still have the worst secondary in the league. What do you do?

The advantage? This is your bye week. You start bringing in practice squad and young undrafted FAs in. This is the time you can find players. I don't want to hear the argument "We need Vets to get it done" because they aren't. Throw White Frye and Studdart in and see what we've got. Bring up Eschamandu (or however you spell it). On defense lets find out what Diles has. See if he can line up on the outside. In fact I'm even open to seeing if anyone that weighs over 220 and can run a 4.6 or under wants to try out for LB. What we're doing so far is only working against the very worst teams in the league. Seriously.

I don't see us winning many more games this year to be honest. I think that 6-10, at this point, would be a good season. If we manage to beat anyone.

I'm not saying we should mail it in. I'm not calling for that at all. I'm saying what we're doing is going to wind up with a sub .500 record, why not try some different thins. We have some people on the practice squad. There are free agents out there. We need to find some young guys who can play. There have to be at least two or 3 on this roster who can play that aren't.


Mike

Respectfuly there Mike, Injuries did not derail the season. The overall lack of tallent on the roster derailed the season. The sooner we except it the sooner the wounds will heal. We have a lot of guys on this team overrated for what they bring to the table. And I'm not talking about a couple of young d-lineman.
The cupboard was bare when they started and a couple of injuries exposed the Texans for what they are. The bailing wire broke and the hay isn't going into the barn this season. They have had two rough seasons injury wise. But that is also a function of not being in a position to fix the holes. Or having the attitude that almost good is good enough. I have no interest in seeing Falagan being raped by Albert Haynesworth. But they had a shot to fix that or the QB. So now if the QB of our future alegedly, ends up with the second concusion by the end of the season...who will that one be on ?

I do not know if we can do anything. A healthier crew of Schaub, AJ and JJ could allow Green and Eche to improve. I would focus on TEs more and show some more misdirection and trick plays. We seemed to go away from that with JJ and Mathis once regular games started. What do we have to lose to open it up a bit?

badboy said:

I do not know if we can do anything. A healthier crew of Schaub, AJ and JJ could allow Green and Eche to improve. I would focus on TEs more and show some more misdirection and trick plays. We seemed to go away from that with JJ and Mathis once regular games started. What do we have to lose to open it up a bit?

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We seemed to get away from that the exact second Dre went down. Don't know why. Lack of trust in the other WR's?

I remember a 4-10 team beating the Colts last season, so I'm not going to write off the next 7 games at this point. Who do we beat? Who knows, but anything is possible, so I'm just going to enjoy the rest of the season with low expectations and hope for the best.

assuming the team continues to play hard the rest of the way, I like that we are in the role of being spoilers for some teams trying to make the playoffs.

a win in Nashville would be very nice, or a win here against the jags depriving them of a possible wildcard berth would be cool too.

Double Barrel said:

I remember a 4-10 team beating the Colts last season, so I'm not going to write off the next 7 games at this point. Who do we beat? Who knows, but anything is possible, so I'm just going to enjoy the rest of the season with low expectations and hope for the best.

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I'm with ya on this DB! "Any given Sunday!"

Double Barrel said:

I remember a 4-10 team beating the Colts last season, so I'm not going to write off the next 7 games at this point. Who do we beat? Who knows, but anything is possible, so I'm just going to enjoy the rest of the season with low expectations and hope for the best.

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Right on DB. The way I look at it is we need to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. This biggest loss is without a doubt Dunta and our secondary, which was already below average, is going to be abysmal. But if Fred Bennett keeps stepping it up, we could do alright. Right now, I'm not ready to make any predictions on how bad or good we will be.

If the only reason anyone is watching the Texans is to watch a team make it to the playoffs, you shouldn’t have been watching them at all the last six years. They are not going anytime soon. I watch the Texans because they are the hometown team and I like rooting for them, even if they stand a snowballs chance in hell of a 500 record this year.

Double Barrel said:

I remember a 4-10 team beating the Colts last season, so I'm not going to write off the next 7 games at this point. Who do we beat? Who knows, but anything is possible, so I'm just going to enjoy the rest of the season with low expectations and hope for the best.

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Yep. Rep to you.

Well, thNFLn has a nice AFC playbook this week. Danny Clark is the guest and he has considerable camera time. Might have the segmets posted on line tomorrow.
Agreed they will probably eek out another couple of wins, IF they don't lose too many more key guys. Salaam goes down or another C or CB, it's chinese fire drill time.

threetoedpete said:

Respectfuly there Mike, Injuries did not derail the season. The overall lack of tallent on the roster derailed the season. The sooner we except it the sooner the wounds will heal. We have a lot of guys on this team overrated for what they bring to the table. And I'm not talking about a couple of young d-lineman.
The cupboard was bare when they strated and a couple of injuries exposed the Texans for what they are. The bailing wire broke and the hay isn't going into the barn this season. They have had two rough seasons injury wise. But that is also a function of not being in a position to fix the holes. Or having the attitude that almost good is good enough. I have no interest in seeing Falagan being raped by Albert Haynesworth. But they had a shot to fix that or the QB. So now if the QB of our future alegedly, ends up with the second concusion by the end of the season...who will that one be on ?

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Everyone knows how I felt about this team to begin with. I don't mean injuries have derailed the season from like a 10 win season. I mean we aren't really developing like I wanted. Schaub and AJ aren't getting the face time I wanted. The OL is preventing Schaub from really developing. The RB situation is such that the youngest most promising back in our stable is on the IR. Our second choice has a bum hammy and Spencer still hasn't developed. This year, to me (I'll pull out the thread if you need it) was about getting AJ/Schab acclimated. Finding a second WR (which we seem to have done) and realizing that we need to go get a good RB.

We can't do any of that in the injury issues we are having.

On defense, our starting CB is down so we're not going to see what Bennet has. He's not going to be covering WR2. Instead he'll get stuck on WR1. Hopefully he develops faster and doesn't get broken from it. From the beginning I never thought this was a playoff year. I thought we were putting pieces in and seeing what happened. We were getting a QB. Finishing the DL and getting ready to make a few splashes in the offseason. We cleared cap money. Now we almost have to draft a corner. There just aren't any FAs who are going to be worth a starting job if you ask me.

I hope I didn't imply that I thought this team was any better than 6-7 wins when I wrote this.

Mike

geez not that much optimism..personally i think most of our remaining games are winnable.. quinn gray/ gerrard doesnt scare me, vince doesnt scare me, bucs are pretty beat up too, browns are even worse than us at pass rushing, bromcos are playing pretty badly

Beginning N.O. game imo QB: better than last season. RB: Green should be healthier and Dayne may find what he did late 06. WR: Should be much better if AJ and JJ healthy, add in Davis and OD and we might score more. Maybe they will use TEs and Walters + full back to move the chains and keep D off field. O'line well McKinney was hurt then too and White may help this area. So maybe just maybe we might look like a team.

badboy said:

Beginning N.O. game imo QB: better than last season. RB: Green should be healthier and Dayne may find what he did late 06. WR: Should be much better if AJ and JJ healthy, add in Davis and OD and we might score more. Maybe they will use TEs and Walters + full back to move the chains and keep D off field. O'line well McKinney was hurt then too and White may help this area. So maybe just maybe we might look like a team.

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What's up with that? Are you thinking of Joppru? Walters is our second best WR behind AJ. Personally I would take him over JJ right now. He's tough, runs perfect routes, and gets open. I can't understand what he's doing wrong that people are ever down on the guy. Maybe if he was classless and pulled some Ocho-Cinco BS after every catch people would be more hyped up about him.

Thorn said:

If the only reason anyone is watching the Texans is to watch a team make it to the playoffs, you shouldn’t have been watching them at all the last six years. They are not going anytime soon. I watch the Texans because they are the hometown team and I like rooting for them, even if they stand a snowballs chance in hell of a 500 record this year.

Yep. Rep to you.

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Then they'd be like a Cowputas fan! That's the only time you see them is when they're team is playing good.

I HOPE we can go undefeated in the 2nd half of the season!

Preseason predictions:

Originally Posted by Beer and Metal
W CHIEFS Chiefs ain't quite got it together yet.

W @ Panthers Are the Panthers waning, or Texans waxing?

L COLTS Ehh.

W @ Falcons Our D-line contains the mobile Vick. Unless he's in jail.

L DOLPHINS Shoulda won, but a bad call kills us at a crucial moment.

L @ Jaguars The mysterious quietness of the sparse crowd somehow unnerves us.

W TITANS But all the highlight reels are of Young.

L @ Chargers But we beat the spread

L @ Raiders Raider fans break in and steal Texans cups and pain killers. We play very cautiously.

W SAINTS A runback for a touchdown swings it our way.

W @ Browns Cleaveland rocks, but not today.

L @ Titans But all the highlight reels are of Young.

W BUCCANEERS

L BRONCOS Kubiak hasn't quite outmastered the (former) master. Yet.

W @ Colts With nothing on the line, Colts sit out some starters.

W JAGUARS Not used to crowd noise, Jags look confused.



Texans 9-7



Well, hey! Looky there! 4-5 at the bye, just like I thought. It didn't quite happen like I thought it would, but 4-5 is 4-5.
This gives me some hope that 9-7 is still possible, however unlikely.

I'd like to think we'll split with the Jags.
I hope playoff field advanatage is settled before we play the Colts again.
Can we beat the Tacks?
Cleaveland's kinda scary this year.
What happened to the broncos?
The Bucs are pretty dinged-up too.
Saints are due for a loss.

my feeling is things are going up. the offense is at a point where the skill players (wr's, rb's, te's, and qb) can get the job done if the protection is sufficient. this is kubiak offensive football, unheralded players who fit the scheme and benefit from the run-formation look with passing getting you the big plays. id like to see jacoby jones utilized and become an every down receiver or atleast a red-zone every day receiver. the fact that we're 5th in the AFC in total points is amazing considering the injuries to such key offensive weapons. the offense is fine.<br><br>

the defense is our x-factor i think. the bodies are there and its a structured defense to where were set in key spots for the next 6 years (mario, okoye, dunta, demeco). i think the offseason should focus on bona-fying the secondary with a dominant free safety whether through the draft or free agency/trade. help on the deep balls and 10+ yard passes would do wonders for this defense and i truly belive adding that one piece makes this defense elite. the pups are growin up, lets watch and enjoy.