Ya, this is the way I see it, too. The first game against Jax is very important. If the Texans win and Leinart looks good, gains some confidence, then the high end (6-0) is certainly possible. 5-1 also has a nice ring to it....

Who'dve thunk at the beginning of the season that the Texans might enter the playoffs for the first time with Matt Leinart as the QB? :eek:

I tend to agree that Leinart should get us through the regular season OK. While I don't think he'll be able to navigate the playoffs, I had the same concerns about Schaub and expected this to be the "learning" year where we gain some experience for future runs. I just didn't expect us to go from never making the playoffs to Super Bowl. Just seems like you have to get your feet wet once or twice first. What I hate about Schaub's injury most is that he will miss out on getting any playoff experience.

Looks like they are starting to build a file for a QB3....

So depressing...... :(

Former Rice QB Clement to work out for Texans
http://blog.chron.com/owls/2011/11/f...ut-for-texans/

Former Rice quarterback Chase Clement will work out with the Texans on Monday.

Rice quarterback Chase Clement was the MVP of the 2008 Texas Bowl at Reliant Stadium. (Brett Coomer/Chronicle)
The Texans are looking for depth at quarterback with starter Matt Schaub possibly out for the remainder of the season.

Clement has spent the past two seasons playing for the Las Vegas Locomotives of the United Football League. He led the Locos to the 2010 championship and was named MVP of the title game.

Any reason why the Texans are limiting their search to a 5-mile radius they can conduct on their lunch break?

Because Case Keenum hasn't graduated yet?

Not to be Nancy Negative, or Chuck ;), but if we get to QB4, does it really matter who it is?

You know, it's funny, despite all the bitching I like to do I am perfectly at peace with Schaub's going down. Either Leinart can play or he can't. If he can't the team will back into a conference championship and get humiliated in the first round by San Diego or Baltimore, just like I thought would happen before the Texans started playing like a real team.

If he CAN play, well, so much the better. Like I said earlier he really doesn't have to do too much. He needs to complete short passes, run the bootleg efficiently and keep the defense honest with a deep pass every now and then. It's not like Schaub was setting the world on fire with his short passing accuracy this year.

If anything this makes the season doubly interesting. Was Kubiak correct in his evaluation of Leinart? Kubes obviously thinks he can play. Is he right?

If that scenario comes to pass, then we are home free ! I would fully expect us to challenge for the top-seed and compete effectively in the playoffs.
But I think Leinart will really struggle in Jacksonville. Dang, he has not taken a single snap in a regular season game since sometime in 2009, how could he not ? Say what you want about Leinart getting a lot of reps in practice the last few weeks because Schaub has been banged-up, how is that anything like game action during the regular season vs a very good defense like the Jags have ?

4-2, with a chance to run the table, is my guess. Heck if Leinhart can just hand off to Foster & Tate, we should be good for 4-2, and with AJ back, there is a more than even chance we run it out.

Can Matt Leinart Keep the Dream Alive in Houston?
 

Check out this podcast on Leinart and whether he will lead the team to success or failure. You won’t believe some of the comments.

Can someone give me the gist of it?

Chatty Casserly's breaking news this morning was that Schaub would seek a second opinion on his foot. :rolleyes:

Umm, we knew that.

Branching out a little for ya:
@McClain_on_NF Jeff Garcia and Trent Edwards are working out for texans with Kellen Clemens and Brody Croyle.

What? Not Tyler Thigpen? Where's Rosenchopper?

Thigpen is backing up Fitzpatrick @ BUF.
Rosencopter - I was wondering about him the other day. Saw this on Rotoword: Dolphins placed QB Sage Rosenfels (illness) on the Reserve/Non-Football Illness list, ending his season.

The Copter missed most of the preseason with the Giants due to a blood infection. The Giants put him on IR to start the season then released him after reaching an injury settlement last month. The Dolphins signed him (presumably after he passed a physical) but put him on the Non-Football Injury list after he began suffering from issues related to the infection.

I hope they're preparing Yates equally as much as Lienart at this point. One bad hit and it's his gig.

Just another Monday? Not with Leinart in the fold and Johnson back

more...

Pretty decent interview with Leinart:
@SiriusXMNFL: Matt Leinart, QB of the @HoustonTexans , with @AdamSchein & @RichGannon12 earlier today on The SiriusXM Blitz http://tinyurl.com/brctvku #NFL

Also, this guy interests me more than any of the other 5 they brought in, isn't saying much, but TJ Yates scares the shit outta me.
@AdamSchefter: Filed to ESPN: Denver Broncos waived quarterback Kyle Orton today.

I really liked Yates in the preseason. He is not as efficient as leinhart but he took shots downfield and was mobile. Leinhart can steward a team for a few games (especially a really good team that doesn't need him to make plays). But Yates had promise.

Agree, but not this year. If Leinart goes down, I would much rather have someone that has won games in the past than a 5th round rookie. Granted, our ship will start sinking, but at least an Orton would be somewhat of a hope for a life preserver. Can't expect much from a QB that's added in week 12, but he should be able to manage a game better than Yates.

I would imagine they would have to restructure a contract or two to get something like that done as well. Tricky, tricky.

The problem is that they are getting Leinhart as many reps as possible right now in practice. That makes it tough to bring a new guy in and get him up to speed. Any new guy they sign will have to absorb the plabook without practice reps.

Whelp, its official:
@JasonLaCanfora: From NFL.com: The Texans are putting Matt Schaub on IR, ending his season, and signing QB Kellen Clemens to back-up Matt Leinart

That's too bad. I was holding out hope he'd be ready for the playoffs but I guess the second opinion came back the same as the first. That sucks.

Well, suck it up and think Earl Morrall.

We just finished 10 seasons where our starting QB could have been hurt in week 10 and I wouldn't have cared. Now we play truly relevant games in December for the first time (not like the pretend relevant ones 2 years ago where we needed 18 different teams to lose ahead of us), and we have to do the whole thing without our QB.

Playing the month without him is one thing. The idea of him coming back for the playoffs kept some hope alive. Now we are playing for the playoffs and the right to get stomped at home by Baltimore. Awesome.

I know this is awfully rich coming from me but let's give him three or four games to see if he can be a competent replacement before we start giving games away to Baltimore or San Diego. You'd have to be pretty damn bad to screw up an offense with Andre, OD, Arian and Tate. And maybe he is, you know, maybe he'll be the second worst quarterback in the AFC. But I doubt it. Schaub wasn't carrying the team, he was managing the offense. I'm hoping Leinart can step in and do the same.

I agree Schaub wasn't being asked to carry the team. But I really believe what made our offense unique and so effective was the balance. No team in the NFL was better in terms of Run/Pass. After AJ went down the balance was thrown off, teams loaded up, and we saw that we are not the "impose your will" running game we thought we were. Our bootleg passes and stretch runs are a great chicken and egg type of thing for defenses to deal with.

Kubiak did the coaching job of his career to get long TDs on the throwback from the boot action to Dreesen, Foster, and JJ in successive weeks to scare teams back into being bludgeoned by our run game. We will now face that process all over again.

And my concern with Leinhart is that he does not push the ball down field. Look at the Redskins. They recently went to Beck because of his mobility. But after a few weeks they had to switch back to Grossman because Kyle Shannahan kept calling downfield plays that Beck would checkdown every time. Leinhart has always been that guy. He was that guy at USC but his checkdowns went to Bush and Mike Williams and turned into long gains that made him look good. He was that guy in Arizona and got benched and then cut for it. He was that guy in every preseason game this year for the Texans. He just doesn't push the ball downfield.

And teams know that. They will gameplan for that. With Schaub in, every safety had to worry about the deep route, the middle drag to OD, the flat, and the running play. And they all failed miserably. Now they will camp on the LOS and figure they can recover to the short routes, and if not surrender a medium gain and make us go 10+ plays with a compromised running game for every score. So Schaub was not throwing it that much, but his past success and his ability to gouge teams deep gauranteed a defense respected/feared our passing game.

Or I am an alarmist, and the Leopard will change the spots he has had for nearly a decade sample size. Believe me, I really want to be wrong here.

I always try, not always succeed, to be a glass half-full type of guy. I am with Chuck on this one, and believe that maybe the Leopard hasn't so much changed his spots, as molted into something that will get us through the next several games. Leinhart did it, albeit in college, so we know he has the basic ability. He mostly needed to mature and study more film of the next opponents. I may even have a few more Kool-Aids duringf this Sundays game.

I basically feel what you guys feel but am trying to stay grounded so I am not crushed in January.

I also like leinhart but think ours is not the caretaker job it's being made out to be. We need the QB to make big plays in the passing game and that's not his thing.

This is very true.

And I'm totally down with what you're saying but if the Jags or anyone else puts 8 or 9 guys in the box Andre and/or OD will be one on one with some poor bastard and if a quarterback can't find OD covered by a LB or Andre covered by anyone then we do indeed have troubles.

I'm not selling short the responsibilities that Leinart is assuming, I'm just saying he does not have to carry the team for the Texans to be successful.

I did some reading up on Leinart's problems in Arizona. One of the biggest was a poor work ethic, but maybe getting cut was a wake up call and the Texans have only said good things about him in that regard going back to the end of last year. Another issue was poor footwork causing him to tend to be high on his throws, which didn't endear him to the receivers who he hung out to dry. He also had some fumble problems when taking big hits in the pocket. It will be interesting to see how he's progressed because all of these seem correctable.

I need to revise this:

Who'dve thunk at the beginning of the season that the Texans might enter the playoffs for the first time with TJ Yates as the QB? :eek: