Schaub to Miss "Some Time"

[WMH]

Originally Posted by barrett

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.

[barrett]

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.

[WMH]

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

[HPF Bob]

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.

[barrett]

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.

[chuck]

Originally Posted by barrett

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.

[barrett]

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.

[NBT]

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.

[barrett]

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.

[edo783]

Originally Posted by barrett

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.

[chuck]

Originally Posted by barrett

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

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.

[Warren]

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.

[Arky]

Originally Posted by Arky

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?

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?