I'm not going to dive into the minutia of the Texans 13-6 Home loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars because the truth is, I spent the day at the Texas Renaissance Festival instead. Judging from the media recap, my day of quaffing beer, mead and more beer was much more entertaining.
I will point out that the Chronicle's Three Stooges are now firmly against this mess of a team were all three trumpeting them as Super Bowl contenders at the beginning of the year. Now, to be fair, I don't think anyone reasonably saw this disaster coming (my pre-season pick was 9-7 and a Wild Card entry into the playoffs) but buying the championship contender nonsense was something straight out of fantasy land.
Where to from here? I think there's still a long way to go before the Texans hit rock bottom. Next week the Patriots come to town, and there's no reason to believe that game will be competitive, then the Texans go to Jacksonville, where I'm guessing they'll continue to slide toward first place in the Teddy Bridgewater Sweepstakes. Given what I've seen from Bridgewater this year I can't say that pick fills me with warm-fuzzies. That said, what I've seen from Keenum this season is enough to suggest that he's not the answer either. The worst-case scenario would be Rick Smith (who I think is going to survive this mess amazingly) trying to out-smart everyone and make a bone-head pick like Derrick Carr. Should something like this happen it will just be another unexplainable move by a franchise whose history is filled with the unexplainable and downright bizarre.
The first problem of many that the Texans are facing is horrid play by the offensive line. While it's very clear that Keenum is not picking up blitzes well, neither is the unit that is tasked with keeping pass rushers off of him. It's not fair to blame Keenum for this disaster without dishing out an equal helping toward the O-line and the coaching staff. Whether or not Kubiak is physically sound enough to continue coaching is an open question. I hope for his sake, and the sake of his family, that he at least considers stepping down and getting his ship in order. I've met the man and he is a "good guy", but that doesn't mean that he's fit to be coaching an NFL team currently. I would think that he could benefit from stepping down, and then taking next year off before trying to come back as an offensive coordinator somewhere.
For Wade Smith I think this is the end of the line. His defense is getting worse and worse as the season progresses, and the unit formerly known as "Bulls on Parade" is now "JJ Watt and a group of guys that should be bottom of the roster fill-ins". While it's true that injuries, Brian Cushing the most notable, have played a role in this, the Texans have made a litany of roster decisions that just haven't panned out. The most notable is the Ed Reed debacle, but Joe Mays, Shiloah Keo, Jonathan Joseph, Brooks Reed, et al. don't exactly inspire confidence in the team's ability to evaluate defensive talent.
Finally, bad teams point fingers and it's notable that Ben Tate, Owen Daniels and others have spent a lot of time pointing fingers at the fans for being "wishy-washy" or simply "not-smart". I would argue that "not-smart" fans would be still be spending their time watching this debacle unfold and cheering for a team that, in some part, doesn't value them at all. I would much rather have a fan-base that understands when they're being handed a bowl of crap than one who laps it up without question. Right now the Texans are serving up crap sandwiches to fans and demanding they smile and ask for seconds. Texans fans are well within their rights to say "screw that" and demand better. The Texans that have a problem with that need to be shown the door. (I'm looking at you Tate).
As for next week? Well, it's the last week of the Texas Renaissance Festival so you could do worse.
