Twas A Long Time Ago...

When the Houston Texans in 2011 came off a successful 10-6 season their first playoff birth and first division title and win over the Cincinatti Bengals at home in convincing fashing and an very hard fought loss to the Baltimore Ravens on the Road. The fans were ALL saying if only Matt Schaub were healthy we would have made it to the Superbowl. TJ Yates was the leader at the helm at the end of that season as Matt Schaub was seen riding around on a scooter during games because of Lisfranc injury in his foot.

The 2012 season and beyond was the Texans time and for a good portion of the 2012 season it was! We started off the season with a 5-0 record and an 11-1 record the one loss coming in devasting fashion against the Green Bay Packers in rout at home on national television (Sunday Night Football). Then week 14 rolled around the Texans are thought of as the team to beat in the AFC most NFL power ranking had the Texans as #1. All they needed to do to solidfy their spot was to go back on national television and make amends for their only loss of the season against the 3 time Super Bowl champion New England Patriots/Bill Belichick/Tom Brady on Monday Night Football. The stage was set the truth was only 60 minutes away. The entire team showed their unity and solidarity and rolled into New England wearing letterman jackets, Andre Johnson coined this the "biggest game" he would have ever played in. There was never any question as to the talent the Texans had on both sides of the ball the only question was always at the quarterback position. I was hoping that this is when Matt Schaub will prove the NFL world that he has arrived as a legit quarterback who can play on the big stage. He has been very good for our Texans even when we didn't have a defense a few years back but we (Texans Fans) and the rest were waiting for the last bit of confirmation that Matt Schaub has what it takes to deliver in the big moments.

So on December 16th 2012 the Texans faced off against the New England Patriots in their backyard and we were pummeled and ground to a pulp by Tom Brady. He went surgical on us, slicing and dicing our "vaunted" defense with precise throws and touchdown dances galore proceeded to be trend on that evening someone by the name of Aaron Hernandez was rolling dice and was throwing stacks of dollars in his endzone celebrations. It was a travesty and absolute embarresment the final score was 42-14. We were officially the laughing stock and frauds of the NFL with a 11-2 record. But both coming with the entire united states nfl fanbase watching as it happened. I didn't even want to tune into first take to see what Skip Bayless and Stephen A Smith was going to say but I did because it was enticing to just now how low had we fallen. That games was the straw that broke the camels back on our 2012 season. We would lose 2 out of the next 3 games when all we had to do was win 2 out of 3 to finish the top seed in the AFC but the we lost the last game against the Colts and still have yet to win in the house that Peyton Manning built *sigh*.

I have always been a strong supporter of Matt Schaub but my brothers are always hating on him and saying he doesn't have what it takes. If Trent Dilfer can win a superbowl, Matt Schaub is 10 times better than a Trent Dilfer and its not even close. I have always known that he is not an Elite Quarter back he is a very good quarterback. I remember both of my brothers came over to my house to watch week 3 we were facing the Denver Broncos and Peyton Manning in Denver a mile high from sea level. I remember rubbing my brothers noses during the game when Matt Schaub rolled out and threw a 50 year bomb that went for 60 yards and a touchdown to Andre Johnson and quickly followed up with another 50 yard touchdown to Kevin Walter and if Champ Baileys foot luckily never knocked the ball out of Andre Johnson's hand it would have been another 50 yard bomb for three touchdowns on a play Schaub lost a portion of his ear to a Joe Mays who plays for the Texans now. Many fans are very critical of our head coach. I like Gary Kubiak and his offense as long as the conservatism and play calling isn't too predicatable. I believe Gary Kubiak is an offensive genius with a huge menu with a playbook. But he knows what he can and cannot do with Matt Schaub and this offensive system is tailor made for a quarterback like a Matt Schaub. He is calmness personified on the football field but believe it or not that is a major leadership quality. He doesn't say much on the football field in terms of getting the trooped riled up. He leaves that to the Brian Cushings and JJ Watts of the world. When the General doesn't panic the troops don't panic. But with that leadership comes the other side of the coin leading the troops agains the harshest and toughest of enemies and winning the difficult battles and eventually the war. This is where he has fallen short. So after finishing the season with a 12-4 season which actually to most was a dissappointing season because of the way the last 4 games played out and left a bad taste in most of our mouths. We entered the playoffs in 3rd place, Division Champions and facing once again the Cincinnatti Bengals at home for the wild card game. People don't give Matt Schaub any credit for this victory and the amount of pressure that was on him in this game irrespective if this games was at home or on the road. The season before you get injured and your backup quarterback finshes the season and beats the exact time in the exact same wild card matchup at home. That is insane adversity to stare down the mouth. His performance wasn't overwhelming but he made the throws that counted and eventually sealed the deal with a clutch first down throw and catch that would ice the game. But yet again those pesky New England Patriots were on the horizon and we would have to face them again in our house.

Now we arrive to the 2013 season and we are a quarter of the way done and its been an interesting four weeks to say the least. He begins the season with a pseudo pick six on the first play of the season and gives up 7 points to the Chargers in the first 15 seconds of the season...ouch! We are losing the game in the second half 28 to 7, most fans are going off on him for this putrid performance by Matt Schaub and the offense. Then we start do the muddle huddle we pick up the pace Matt Schaub gets into a rhythm.. one touchdown and another touchdown. The score is 28 to 21 we are down by a touchdown. Are you kidding me? Brian Cushing just picked off Phillip Rivers and took it to the house..PICK 6!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tie game. Our defense holds up and stops San Diego one more time we get the ball back Matt Schaub ran an efficient 2 minute drive to get the ball in field goal range and we win the game with no time left on the clock 31-28. Clutch Gene! Surely this was an anamoly! People forget the game against the redskins on the road and the chiefs at home a few years back or the Jaguars game last year where he threw for 527 yards the second most in NFL history. Matt schaub has a career high in a game higher than a Brady, Manning, Rodgers and a Brees. Yes sir! He has it in him. Week 2 we are playing the Titans the infamous team that left us high and dry without a football team in Houston (Thanks Bud Adams!). To my surprise in this game the Titans really have a nice defense its a dog fight both defenses are holding up. We are losing only by one point late in the 4th quarter 17 to 16 and Matt throws a pick 6 on a non sensical throw to DeAndre Hopkins on the sideline score. We are losing late in the fourth quarter 24-16 wow. I'm stunned. But Matt showed me that he can overcome some more adversity again. He led us by the help of our stud rookie wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins in a nice 2 minute drive, capped off with a touchdown run by Arian Foster and a 2 point conversion on a run once again by Arian Foster. Whew sigh of relief we are going to overtime. We win the coin toss and Matt Schaub has a new buddy playing wideout Deandre hopkins he is hitting hopkins and we are moving the ball on the very first possession of overtime a touchdown wins the game. We are in the red zone over 10 minutes left in overtime he throws a nice back shoulder fade route to the end zone for another come from behind victory to Hopkins. Yes! Game Over! Score 30-24 Texans on a walk off touchdown we are 2-0 but this 2-0 record was a little unsettling for many Texans fans especially since these were teams we were supposed to "easily beat". We arrive to week 3 and our first supposed real test even though in my opinion we were severely tested in the two weeks prior but against inferior competition but this time we are playing the Superbowl champion Baltimore Ravens but its not exactly last years team but this team is well coached and mentally tough. Our offense could not get off the ground in this game. But Matt Schaub thows another game changing pick 6 we could never recover from after a punt return for a touchdown that followed quickly after the Schaub pick 6 and we get trounced 30-9. Ok now we arrive here to this past week and we are playing argueable the best team in the NFL now and for sure the best home team in the NFL in the Seattle Seahawks. A statement game we know how those turned out last year. At this point I believe its split down the middle that fans don't believe the Texans will be able to hang with the Seattle Seahawks and their vaunted defense and legion of boom secondary. Matt Schaub comes out with a purpose and on fire in the first half our offense is clicking, theres a rhythm to the offense a well oiled machine. He throws a dime to Garret Graham for 30 yard touchdown pass down the seam in stride. BAM! Take that Seagulls! We are in a commanding 20-3 lead at half and even Skip Bayless tweets at halftime of that game that teh Seahawks should be ashamed of themselves. Our offense and defense were just killing them. Brian Cushing, JJ Watt, Antonio Smith, Whitney Mercilus were just owning the Seattle offense. I believe Russell Wilson was 2 for 4 and 7 yards late in the first half.Pathetic! Their defense looked like the Jaguars defense, Richard Sherman was getting owned by Andre Johnson and he knew it but could do nothing about it. He can punk around weaker and lighter receivers and even a bigger Anquan Boldin but he has huge notch below an Andre Johnson. We have this game in hand all the way into the fourth quarter we are winning 20-13 we have lost momentum but still lead by a touchdown with the ball and moving the ball well with 3 minutes and change left. It is 3rd down and 4, Matt Schaub fakes the hand off proceeds to roll out but a man is running in his face lobs ball thrown to Owen Daniels with a lot of air underneath it. NOooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!! It's picked off by Richard Sherman 10, 5 touchdown tie game. ANOTHER PICK 6! All momentum is lost reliant fell silent and everyone in their knew who was to blame. It was Matt Schaub and he new it himself as he covered his face on his helmet at the sight of sherman catching the pass and beginning his run. I knew it was game once the interception happened we were emotionally flattened. Arian Foster even was like... "What the Hell!" A few defensive stands back and forth in overtime. Offensively Matt Schaub even before a lineman or linebacker can get a hand on him was falling down like good old fashioned dominos. I know your not mobile but move up in the pocket or to the right or left just try to avoid contact just a little. I never loved Matt Schaub but I have always liked him and always thought we can get to the big game with him and win because of the talent that he is surrounded with.

I am on my last shred of hope it starts and ends this week. We are back again on Sunday Night Football on the national stage on the road facing one of the unamimous preseason superbowl picks to represent the NFC the San Francisco 49ers. I am hoping that Matt Schaub will suck it up all the negativity, adversity of those past failures and take all of that negative energy and shove it down the the 49ers throats like last week but for two halves and not just the first half. If I was the GM this is my last game to give any slack to Schaub. If he doesn't win and we get blown out by 10 plus points. I am straight benching him and putting in Case Keenum because I know what I already needed to know and that is Schaub cannot win the big game weeks 3 thru 5 would be enough for me. If you cannot beat those teams now you won't in the future. Rick Smith would need to force Kubiaks hand and bench Schaub. I would bench Schaub immediately after another embarrassing loss and be turn someone into this years Colin Kaepernick and bring in a Keenum who has a decent arm and is very mobile and bring him up and see what hes made of against 1st string competition. If we lose this week and we still make it to the playoffs we are not going any further than the divisional round and maybe a first round exit. GM should tell Kubiak "if you don't acquiesce and bench Schaub and play Keenum you are gone by week 6". See how that trial goes with Keenum if not well for the rest of the season then we will be in a good position to draft Johnny Manziel and their will be hype and definitely some excitement, swag and mobility at the quarterback position in Houston. Manziel already does a good job of getting down and going out of bounds, can throw the football and he can learn Kubiaks excellent west coast offense with a touch of read option to keep defenses honest and of course the occassional scramble. Maybe even hire Kevin Sumlin and Johnny Manziel if Kubiak doesn't want to draft a guy like Manziel. We need someone to think outside the box if these unfortunate events do happen to transpire on sunday night.

I end with this please Matt Schaub help restore some of our faith in you and we need to you to lay it down on the 49ers this week and make sure by the end of the game that Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth are just praising you for the entire second half of the game and your performance. You have lost majority of the fan base at this point and I bet some of your teammates as well but they just won't say it. Prove Everyone wrong and show us that you have the mental toughness and skills to get us through this crappy beginning and no pick 6's this Sunday. Thank you!

Go Texans!!!!

-Sean.

 

I wrote it in story/letter format, summarizing 2 seasons worth of information and feeling both from myself and the houston texans fanbase as a whole. Believe it or not it is summarized I was really sleepy while writing this so apologize in advance for any grammatical errors. I would like to get thoughts and opinions on the story and opinions, assertions and conclusions that were derived. Thanks!

 

thats a shame! I was figuring the attention span of readers was lost. Maybe I should clean up any grammatical and spelling errors and send it to espn and if it says espn.com in the link people may be inclined to read more.

Only youtube videos, espn, sport illustrated articles and 50 word 1 paragraph posts have any merit nowadays. Maybe by the morning there maybe a few people who would care to read.

I worked two hours on this posts putting together a decent picture of events and feelings. Thats sad!

 

Did anyone get a chance to read it? I know its long but it may be a fruitful read.

Since I don't know who ubigred is... I don't know how to take this statement as a positive or a negative.