Fourteen penalties for one hundred and seventy seven yards. Let me put it a different way: 14 penalties for 177 yards. The Texans had more penalty yards in last night's 27-20 loss against the Jacksonville Jaguars than Case Keenum (159) had passing yards. They almost eclipsed Matt Schaub's (198) as well. They had more yards in penalties than Andre Johnson had receiving (154). Just when it seemed that it couldn't get any worse, #BeardedSchaub became a thing on Twitter.
This is how you know the Texans are at rock bottom. This is the low point, when the National media are rhetorically piling on there's not much lower you can go. I'm not talking about radio talk idiots like Travis Rodgers or Pete Prisco, those bottom feeders don't matter anyway. (Note to radio heads: if you think that a team being bad has any reflection on the city in which it's geographically located [and, in the case of Rodgers, where your show was an unmitigated bust] you're doing it wrong.) I'm referring to wise football folks like Rich Eisen, who wondered aloud on Twitter how this team could have fallen so far. I'm referring to game announcer Brad Nessler who, after the third personal foul penalty on DJ Swearinger said "Just say number 36, we know". The sad thing was we all know. We knew while the game was going on and we know this morning. It's time to clean house and fumigate the Texans facility, this era is done.
Now, you might not think that if you're trying to troll the city, as is John McClain of the Chron, who wrote before the game that a Texans housecleaning would be foolish and then tweeted during the game that the Texans should fire everyone before the game was over, that's not journalism, it's trolling. Remember, this is the same McClain that, despite all indications to the contrary, continued to push the "Texans to the Super Bowl" story even after the team was 2-2 and things were starting to unravel. This is the same group of Chron 3 stooges that have repeatedly told Texans fans everything was going to be all right, until things were obviously not all right and it was clear this team had fallen apart.
Last night, after Schaub led the Texans to a touchdown on his first drive of the game, Chron beat writer Brian T. Smith tweeted that Schaub's (single) drive proved that Kubiak and Co. were correct in saying that Keenum's inconsistency was a problem and that "Schaub was the right guy for right now". After that all Schaub did was lead the Texans to a field goal, throw an interception and fetal position into a sack to end the game.
The line on "Mr. Right now?" 17-29 198 1 TD 1 INT. QR 76.5
The line on "Mr. Inconsistent?" 16-29 159 1 TD 1 INT QR 68
Schaub coming back into the game gave the local CheerMedia exactly what they wanted. It was a poke to the eye of a certain portion of the fan base that wanted Case to succeed. It was better than a Texans win, it was a bad loss to a bad team and now, they can gloat that they were "right all along" by saying that Case doesn't have what it takes.
And, to be fair, he probably doesn't. At least not right now, with this coaching staff, running this (limited, predictable) offense behind this offensive line. I tend to agree with NFL Network color analyst Mike Mayock's assessment "Case is a backup NFL quarterback who you'd feel very comfortable having on your roster". He's Chad Henne but a little more mobile and with a little better arm. This is not a bad thing, but it means that the Texans don't have one starting quarterback on their roster because, at this point in his career, Schaub is a backup QB as well.
Even more troubling last night were all of the Texans penalties, especially those committed by DJ Swearinger. What we're seeing now is that DJ Swagg Boi is nothing more than a limited box safety with poor tackling skills and an overinflated sense of self. When you're a 2-11 team, mired in a 10 game losing streak, your ability to trash talk has been revoked. Permanently. If fans are growing weary of JJ Watt's salute, then they're weary of your act DJ. Just stop.
Above all this, the worst thing that the Texans are facing now is 100% fan apathy. The fans are done, finished, reduced to pulling for losses so that the Texans can secure the first selection in the 2014 NFL Draft. The ship be sinking. The bad news is it appears that Bob McNair is seriously considering retaining the services of the ship builder while (possibly) firing the captain. Does anyone have confidence that Rick Smith is the guy to lead the Texans to championship glory? I've made it clear that I don't. I just wonder (outside of McNair) who does?
