Houston Texans: Time to admit Hoyer is still Hoyer
By Randy Gurzi
I know Monday’s are called “over reaction Monday” for a reason. A team can drop one game and many fans, media pundits and critics will react as if the whole world is ending.
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I have always tried to remain objective and do my best not to overreact to one game, especially a game where the Texans lost to a team like the Kansas City Chiefs. The fact is the Chiefs are a good team and have been ever since Andy Reid became the head coach.
Offensively the are efficient, and defensively they get after your quarterback early and often. That definition epitomized what happened on Sunday and even head coach Bill O’Brien said several times to give the Chiefs credit for their win.
While all that is true, the fact is when you look at the way the team moved the ball for 54 minutes with Brian Hoyer at quarterback compared to how they moved with Ryan Mallett at that position it is plain to see who should be the starting quarterback.
I will admit, I started to believe maybe Hoyer was the right choice (after a whole offseason supporting Mallett). I guess I believed in O’Brien so much that I felt him choosing Hoyer really meant there was hope for the journeyman quarterback to become more than what he has been in his career.
I started to buy the “Hard Knocks” narrative that Hoyer was a leader and controlled the offense while Mallett was aloof and untrustworthy. I was wrong to start to believe Hoyer could change.
When the lights came on, we saw the same old Brian Hoyer who was average at Michigan State. He was average in New England. He never was around in Pittsburgh or Arizona long enough to earn average status, but then went to Cleveland, and guess what? Yep, average.
For his career Hoyer completed just over half of his passes and had 19 touchdowns and 19 interceptions. The feeling was that O’Brien could get the best out of Hoyer, but instead Hoyer proved that no matter how much perfume you put on a pig, it will still be a smelly pig.
In one game for Houston he completed just over half his passes and had one touchdown and one interception. Sound familiar?
His quarterback rating Sunday was 72.7, which hovers around his career average of 76.6. Hoyer is what he is.
As I stated earlier, his lack of efficiency dates back to his days at MSU where he completed (shocker) 55% of his passes and would up with 35 touchdowns and 23 interceptions for his collegiate career. His senior season was his worst when he completed 51% of his passes and had nine touchdowns and picks apiece.
Hoyer says he felt like he let the whole organization down by throwing an interception on his first pass of the season and following it with a later fumble. He was right about that.
The fact is Hoyer was handed the job, rather than earning it. That may be why Mallett had the reaction that made him look immature. He knew what all he fans had been saying all along Hoyer simply is not a good quarterback and has no business starting for an NFL franchise.
The Houston Texans sit in a good spot as they have a solid run game, explosive receivers and a defense that can keep you in games. Hoyer negates all that with his poor decision making and bad throws.
Ryan Mallett needs to be the starter from this point on and this is not an overreaction to one bad game against a good team. Instead it is a result of a career of performing poorly and proving his critics right. Hoyer may be a decent backup that O’Brien can trust in case of an emergency, but he is not, and never will be, the answer at quarterback for any team wanting to make a playoff run.