Texans at the halfway mark

[dadmg]

I'm quite impressed with how we've performed to this point in the year. Our early schedule had a really rough patch that had me worried from the moment it was announced in the preseason and we battled through most of it without Andre and a good portion without Mario and are now sitting at 5-3 with a much easier schedule the rest of the way. I'm still quite saddened that we won't have Mario for the playoff run (both for him missing his first shot at the playoffs and for the damper it puts on our chances) but, given the super-short off-season, I wasn't sure if playing this well was going to be possible for us.

This also is an ideal thread to point out that, for the first time in my memory of visiting the site, the Texans are now in the top 5 in Football Outsiders main stat, DVOA a stat that adjusts for strength of opponent. Before this year, we'd usually peak somewhere around 11 or 12 and end up around 14-18 by year's end. This week we move up from 8-5, with the 7th ranked offense, 11th ranked defense and 8th ranked special teams. We've ranked much higher in their offensive ratings before, but not even during Capers best years with Glenn/Sharper/Walker/Payne did our D rank above 15.

[JW295]

Overall, Houston has played well in the first half of the season. I also think they're much better than New England. Just check out the power rankings...

[TheMatrix31]

What's up with you spamming? Ugh.


....I'm cautiously optimistic. Our D is amazing and once we get Andre back, everything will be good offensively.

Wade Phillips has made the world of difference.

[HPF Bob]

I'm reposting this from the "Cowher" thread just because it fits better into the discussion here:

ESPN Playoff Standings

The Texans are currently 6-3 with a 3-0 division record and a 6-2 conference record. Of the seven remaining games:

@ TAM
@ JAX
vs ATL
@ CIN
vs CAR
@ IND
vs TEN

only four are in the conference and three of those are return matches against our own division. Clearly, the game at Cincinnati is the most critical one left on the schedule in terms of playoff seeding if you presume the Texans will win the division (they have a 1-1/2 game lead now with the tiebreaker advantage). Beat Cincy and we have a great chance to be 10-2 in the conference.

There are only four other AFC teams with two or less conference losses. They are (with conf record and their remaining conference games):

Cincinnati (5-1 - vs PIT, @ BAL, vs CLE, @ PIT, vs HOU, vs BAL)
New England (4-2 - @NYJ, vs KC, vs IND, @ DEN, vs MIA, vs BUF)
Baltimore (4-2 - vs CIN, @ CLE, vs IND, @ SD, vs CLE, @ CIN)
Buffalo (3-2 - @ MIA, @ NYJ, vs TEN, @ SD, vs MIA, vs DEN, @ NE)

If we beat Cincy, then the others would have to run the table in their remaining conference games to beat over conference record which is the first tiebreaker after head-to-head (Baltimore beats us on head-to-head).

So, the Texans do have a good possibility to be the #1 seed and go 12-4 as long as their loss is to an NFC team and they sweep their remaining four AFC games. I will say, though, that if New England wins at the Jets this week, they have a very good chance to run the table the rest of the way and be the #1 seed based on a 13-3 record.

[NBT]

It was a helluva game, but the Pats Did Not win.