2011 Schedule released

[Arky]

From the chron:

TEXANS SCHEDULE


Sept. 11 – Indianapolis, noon

Texans hope to duplicate last year’s opening victory over the Colts.

Sept. 18 – at Miami, 3:15 p.m.

Texans won their last game at Miami during four-game winning streak in 2009.

Sept. 25 – at New Orleans, noon

Saints and Texans will be familiar with each other after practicing and playing in preseason.

Oct. 2 – Pittsburgh, noon

Texans should hope they get better results against the Steelers than 2005 at Reliant.

Oct. 9 – Oakland, noon

This is the first game against a team with a new head coach (Hue Jackson).

Oct. 16 – at Baltimore, 3:05

It’s hard to believe this game could be more exciting than last year’s 34-28 overtime loss.

Oct. 23 – at Tennessee, noon

Texans get their first look at new coach Mike Munchak and their former offensive coordinator Chris Palmer.

Oct. 30 – Jacksonville, noon

Texans beat the Jaguars by 17, their second-most decisive victory last season.

Nov. 6 – Cleveland, noon

Browns quarterback Colt McCoy should bring out a lot of Longhorns’ fans.

Nov. 13 – at Tampa Bay, noon

Texans get their first regular-season look at quarterback Josh Freeman.

Nov. 20 – Bye

Nov. 27 – at Jacksonville, noon

Texans can’t have any tougher luck than last season when they lost on Hail Mary.

Dec. 4 – Atlanta, noon

Falcons receiver Roddy White is pushing Andre Johnson for the best in the game.

Dec. 11 – at Cincinnati, noon

Will the Texans see Carson Palmer back at quarterback or a first- or second-round pick?

Dec. 18 – Carolina, noon

Unless it’s a draft smokescreen by the Panthers, Cam Newton could be coming to town.

Dec. 22 – at Indianapolis, 7:20 p.m.

Nobody likes to play on Christmas, especially in a city where the Texans have never won.

Jan. 1 – Tennessee, noon

Unless the Titans re-sign Vince Young, the Texans should be able to close with a victory.

[chuck]

This is easily, by far, the worst schedule for me and my travel that the league has ever offered. It is abysmal for me.

As for the team, they'll have to suffer through only one national embarrassment, a Yuletide assraping in Indy.

[Nconroe]

Nice to see the schedule, at first look, it seems like an easier schedule than last year.

Seems playing three of those really tough defenses that give Texans OL lots of trouble in the past. As New Orleans, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore.

Play quite a few teams emphasizing pass on offense, so hope the pass rush and secondary are improved.

[Joshua]

First thoughts, brutal first month, which it seems like we get just about every season. Only 1 non-noon kickoff and its an away game. So, basically no nationally televised games. Just the latest confirmation that no one outside of these boards thinks this team is relevant or going anywhere.

[Nconroe]

Yeah, if see 32nd ranked defense, hard to be optimistic. but, it is the optimistic time of year. some teams go from 3-13 to playoffs the next so can dream for a while, first six games are kind of brutal,

[painekiller]

I can really see us going 0-6 to start the season, and Bob will still be saying Gary is really getting close.

Please!!!

This is a brutal schedule, and the Texans need to start fast and maintain it, something a Kubiak run team has never done.

[Fonz the Boss]

This is our year guys!!! We will win the division... you heard it here first

[TheMatrix31]

Brutal start.....all-too-early prediction would see the team at 9-7 overall.

[Joshua]

Second thoughts, the first month would be brutal in a regular year but will be incredibly brutal if the lockout stretches into training camp. Indy, NO and Pitt. all have offenses which will likely be able to play at a pretty high level even if there is no training camp. They're offensive units have been pretty stable over the last few years and I don't see any of them needing to integrate any major pieces into their offenses. Any minor issues will likely be covered up by Peyton, Brees, and Big Ben. Looking at the remainder of the schedule, those are easily the 3 worst offenses/QBs to face the first month. Throw in the fact that we're trying to put a brand new 3-4 on the field and it could get ugly. If the lockout goes long enough, we may not even have much of the D installed and will have to play base D (heck, the guys may not even know the terminology yet). Those guys will pick us apart if that's the case.

[HPF Bob]

What concerns me is an early stretch of very physical (dirty) teams all in a row - Steelers, Raiders, Ravens and possibly Titans and how many guys will land on IR from it, particularly if we have a shortened camp and a final exhibition game in the unrepaired Metrosexualdome.

The best news might be if the lockout lasts into October or the NFL puts on scab teams for the first six weeks as we'll miss the toughest part of our schedule or be on equal terms with a lot of scab teams then have our real players come back for the second half.

[TheMatrix31]

Originally Posted by Joshua

Second thoughts, the first month would be brutal in a regular year but will be incredibly brutal if the lockout stretches into training camp. Indy, NO and Pitt. all have offenses which will likely be able to play at a pretty high level even if there is no training camp. They're offensive units have been pretty stable over the last few years and I don't see any of them needing to integrate any major pieces into their offenses. Any minor issues will likely be covered up by Peyton, Brees, and Big Ben. Looking at the remainder of the schedule, those are easily the 3 worst offenses/QBs to face the first month. Throw in the fact that we're trying to put a brand new 3-4 on the field and it could get ugly. If the lockout goes long enough, we may not even have much of the D installed and will have to play base D (heck, the guys may not even know the terminology yet). Those guys will pick us apart if that's the case.

Our offense is no slouch either. Those games will just be shootouts.

[Warren]

Originally Posted by HPF Bob

The best news might be if the lockout lasts into October or the NFL puts on scab teams for the first six weeks as we'll miss the toughest part of our schedule or be on equal terms with a lot of scab teams then have our real players come back for the second half.

If there's scabs then the Texans ought to have an advantage -- think of all those recent Texan players who are out of football. They've been building a potential scab roster for years now.

Weeks 2 and 4 appear to have been set up to be "droppable" if necessary: no division games, no byes, and the teams that play on the road in Week 2 are home in Week 4. So the Dolphins and Steelers would likely be the first games to go.

[Warren]

And each team has the same bye week as its Week 3 opponent, so if the season needs to be compressed that could be done by skipping Week 3 and moving those games to the various bye weeks.

So, if necessary, the NFL could shave the 16-game/17-week season down to a 14-game/14-week version without throwing the schedule too far out of whack (no division games lost, all teams have equal number of home/away games, only one game per team moved). Under that scenario, the Texans' schedule would look like this:

1. Colts
2. Raiders (@ Dolphins cancelled)
3. @ Ravens (@ Saints moved to bye)
4. @ Titans (Steelers cancelled)
5. Jaguars
6. Browns
7. @ Bucs
8. @ Saints (no bye, moved from Week 3)
9. @ Jaguars
10. Falcons
11. @ Bengals
12. Panthers
13. @ Colts
14. Titans

[HPF Bob]

Gotta admit, somebody at the NFL was on the ball to have that all thought out ahead of time and to schedule it as such.

[Keith]

I gotta admit, as a Texans fan, I'm rooting for the 14-game version of the schedule now.

[chuck]

Originally Posted by HPF Bob

Gotta admit, somebody at the NFL was on the ball to have that all thought out ahead of time and to schedule it as such.

To me that plainly indicates that the league has no real intentions of starting the season on time. And as Keith points out, that may not be a bad thing at all for the team. It will certainly reduce their total number of losses.