Houston Texans: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly – Wrap-up
By Bob Dove
Wrap-up – The Ugly – Ugly would be 6 or fewer wins. How could that happen to a team with this much talent? I’ll answer that question when I figure out how the 2013 Texans returned most the roster from a 12-4 team to finish 2-14.
The 2013 collapse started with Matt Schaub‘s meltdown that included an incredible series of pick-sixes. Schaub’s performance shook the team, especially in the Seattle game where defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory by an inexplicably bad pass. There were injuries and bad luck but the primary problem was a kind of reverse synergy. The team rapidly became less than the sum of its potentially talented parts and eventually collapsed.
There were close losses and blowouts, but for 14 consecutive games the Texans played bad enough to lose. They began to look like they expected to lose, grudgingly at first but easier as the season progressed. The team fired the head coach, and the defensive coordinator stepped-in to the same results.
For that to happen to the 2016 Texans it would probably start with Brock Osweiler. The Texans are “all in” on Osweiler regardless of results. His future is their future.
Team confidence could be shaken if Osweiler plays more like 2-14 Schaub than 12-4 Schaub. Add key injuries (Watt, Brown, Clowney, Hopkins – take your pick), a close early season loss or two, a dash of malaise and you have a recipe for The Ugly.
In 2013 I expected a deep playoff run for the talented Texans. Many Houstonians were talking Super Bowl. Surely the 2016 roster is too talented to collapse…but history has a way of repeating itself.
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