The alarms sounded Sunday night as I watched the brutal beating San Francisco put on the Houston Texans. The alarm was in my head and it said: “Stinker Attack, Stinker Attack, Don your gas masks immediately!”
A bit of hyperbole perhaps, but only the alarm and the warning dialog. The truth is the Texans played a true stinker in the televised prime-time game. As was the case in most of the games the 2-3 Houston team played this season, they were “Pogoed.” I say that, remembering the thoughtful and philosophical little cartoon ‘possum, Pogo, who was perhaps best known for his memorable political quote: “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
The enemy wasn’t all Quarterback Matt Schaub. Although, his setting a record throwing “pick sixes” in four consecutive games certainly is far from the prestige of a Pro Bowl selection. The fact is the Texans have looked like a crap boat in most of the games this year, including the ones they won.
First, it was the Oilers Texans coming back from the dead to win in games prior to their Baltimore loss, and then blowing a 23-0 lead in overtime with Seattle. And is it just me, or do the Texans appear as if they are reverting back to old habits, like their falling apart at the red zone? The Texans just haven’t seemed to click this year. No one could reasonably expect a repeat of the spectacular season defensive end J.J. Watt had last year, especially his taking up some of the slack for linebacker Brian Cushing, who was out with an injury. But with both Watt and Cushing reunited, well, it just doesn’t feel so good.
In the backfield alternating runners Arian Foster and Ben Tate haven’t really had that shine they seem to have had in past seasons, then again it might just be me trying to find a reason to not believe.
Schaub, though, he looks, as someone said yesterday, as if he had seen ghosts.
I have taken up for Schaub, for what pissing difference that makes. And his little coach too! Well, Gary Kubiak isn’t little but I was taking a little “Wizard of Oz” license there. I expect Schaub will remain starter unless he just disintegrates on field. I think backup QB T.J. Yates did an amazing job in the season before last, when he had to come in for a battered Schaub. But I think some people operate better during noble urgency as compared with simple desperation.
Maybe Sunday night’s whipping by the 49ers will provide a little shock therapy for Kubiak, Schaub and the rest of the Texans. I sure hope so. Because if they don’t I will not only have a crappy fall being furloughed from my job, but I will likewise have to suffer with yet another dismal excuse for a favorite NFL team.
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