CONTRIBUTED BY: JOHN DAVID SUAYAN
With a little more than half of the 2014 season behind them, the Houston Texans have their fans acting like Susan Powter.
Ryan Fitzpatrick failed to ignite a ho-hum offense. J.J. Watt is deprived of help from his comrades on defense. Injuries piled up, most notably to Brian Cushing and number one pick Jadeveon Clowney. Boneheaded mistakes eradicated any momentum Houston mustered. Loyal yet long-suffering Texans fans have seen it all before – enough to count on both hands – and are now crying out, “Stop the insanity!”
2014 was supposed to be about redemption. With a new coach in Bill O’Brien, the best defensive end in the NFL today in Watt, and a bevy of talent on both sides of the ball, the Texans appeared poised to continue a trend started by the 2012 Indianapolis Colts and furthered by the 2013 Kansas City Chiefs: to go from worst to first. But alas, the squad is wallowing in mediocrity after a decent 3-1 start to the season.
The Texans lost to teams with an elite or a close to elite quarterback, and they lost unnecessarily. A lucky catch (Dallas), last-minute mistakes (Indianapolis), and a nationally televised mid-game collapse (Pittsburgh) did them in. Houston shot itself in the foot in each of those instances.
It took a trip to Nashville, Tenn., home of Houston’s old NFL team, the last Sunday of October for the Texans to get their groove back. Cautious optimism was the theme among the citizens of the H-Town Republic as the Philadelphia Eagles and their high-octane offense came calling on the holiest of Texans game days, Battle Red Day. Beat Philly, control your destiny. Lose to Philly, another trip back to the drawing board. And what happened? The latter.
So Texans fans reached for the panic button once more. O’Brien recently granted the fans’ wishes by benching Fitzpatrick in favor of Ryan Mallett, but Mallett, who only threw four passes in his NFL career, elicits more questions than answers. On top of it all, many a sports pundit refuses to put “Texans” and “playoffs” in the same sentence. Can the Texans faithful ever catch a break?
The Texans are in the midst of the second half of their 2014 campaign. The remaining games look manageable – on paper, mind you – but nothing is guaranteed on any given Sunday. If Mallett could put O’Brien’s offensive scheme in motion that would be great. If J.J. could get some pass-rush help from the rest of the front seven that would be great. If the Texans could commit less or no penalties that would be great.
Then maybe, just maybe, the insanity will stop.
