Points to Ponder

As has been covered on several other websites, the Texans injury bug is back, and with a vengeance.

• DeMeco isn't playing to his normal level. The suspected cause is an ankle injury, but no one knows because DeMeco refuses to go on the Injury Report.
• Zac Diles broke his leg when he kicked himself while running at half speed during special teams practice.
• Matt Schaub injured his MCL and is expected to be out for up to Four (4) weeks.
• Ahman Green, after proving that he still has some gas left in his tank, promptly got injured.
• Dunta still hasn't fully recovered from his knee/hamstring injury last year.
• I think Jacque Reeves has some sort of lingering neck injury. It would explain why he can't turn his head around.

In other news, Duane Brown is still a rookie. This means that despite being a first round pick, he's not ready to play a full game. Some of this seems to be about his talent level, but most of it seems to be about his conditioning level. In some respects, it's a relief that he isn't playing every offensive snap because of his conditioning as opposed to his talent level. Whats worrisome about it, is that he's in the NFL, sohow did he not work on his conditioning more? It should be something he works on over the offseason, and he should be improved next year.

Steve Slaton is still showing flashes of brilliance, but they remain flashes. He remains a big play threat, but on most plays, you can expect him to plow into the line and gain two yards. I can think of two reasons why he keeps running up the middle: (1) The play is being called up the middle in which case Kubiak/Shanahan is to blame, or (2) Outside plays are called, and Slaton cuts inside, in which case Slaton is to blame. If the latter is the case, that has to be worked on, but we still seem in good shape. If the former is the case, then you have to wonder what the coaches are thinking. One of the alleged benefits of Zone Blocking is that it tires out the Defensive Linemen. If we run to the outside (assuming we can seal off the Defensive Ends and get a block on the Outside Linebacker) then we make the interior Defensive Linemen run, tiring them out. If we run it up the middle against Defensive Tackles like Pat and Kevin Williams or Albert Haynesworth, all we end up doing is tiring out our own Offensive Line and Runningback with the added bonus of making for difficult third downs.

Matt Schaub is quickly becoming a source of anger. It's not even directed at him, as much as the situations that he keeps putting the Texans in. I still think that when healthy, Schaub is the answer for the Texans at Quarterback. The problem is that he seems to keep getting injured. I keep hearing that any player who was on the receiving end of the blows that Schaub took would have gotten injured. I've seen the hits, and it's probably true. At some point however, it quits becoming a coincidence or bad luck and it becomes the fault of something that Schaub is doing. Either way, these next four weeks are going to be nerve racking. If we lose, we start talking about who's going to be available in the draft. If we win, we start talking about a Sage Rosenfels led Houston Texans team. Neither one of those outcomes seems particularly appealing.

On Defense, Richard Smith continues to be an anathema to Texans fans everywhere. Assuming that he's in charge of personnel, his decisions are baffling. Even if he's not, he's doing very little with what he's given. Our starting Defensive Line is worthless, with the exception of Mario Williams. Travis Johnson should not be starting, Amobi Okoye has regressed, and Zgonina is the oldest defensive lineman in the NFL, and yet, he still manages to work his way into the starting lineup. The only players who have produced besides Mario Williams are Tim Bulman and Earl Cochran, neither of which is starting. It's absolutely baffling.

At Linebacker, Xavier Adibi continues to suffer from the worst case of the flu mankind has ever seen. This is not to belittle him, it's just frustrating. I know that he lost a lot of weight, and that you can't really control when you get sick, but this is ridiculous. Morlon Greenwood seems to have heard about how excited many Texans fans were with his caliber of play last year, and has made it his mission to make us regret that excitement. As mentioned above, DeMeco is playing injured and Zac Diles, who had been one of the pleasant surprises of the season, is out for the rest of the year after a fluke injury. Kevin Bentley is expected to take his spot in the starting lineup.

Our defensive backs are awful. Reeves and Faggins may be the worst corner combo in the league, Fred Bennet is playing worse than he did as a rookie, and Dunta is even whiffing on plays. It's an ugly sight. The one bright spot has been our secondary play. During the draft, I tried to advance the idea of drafting a Free Safety. I still think that a good FS can take pressure off of our horrible secondary and frees up the Strong Safety to make plays in the run game. We got Eugene Wilson as a free agent after training camp, and he's been as good of a FS as the Texans have had. It's been refreshing. I would still like to see a Free Safety drafted early, but with Wilson, we can do without it if there isn't any value at that position in the draft.

Finally, Chester Pitts has a blog at the Chronicle. At first I was hopeful. His first post was biographical in nature. Nothing wrong with that. The next two posts were about Pitts and some other players going to a Katy elementary school and trying to do the Hula Hoop. At this point, I became a little dubious, but I was still hopeful that we'd get some more substantive posts. The last post made me sad. Specifically this quote:

"Receivers run and catch HOT routes and quarterback's have the ultimate authority of it all. On where and who we are assigned to block, making throws where they need to go and on time. Bet you never would have thought that football was this complex? As long as the quarterback play is great, like we have had, and he gets passes thrown on time, then we look great! If not, it is the complete opposite."

It's not written poorly or anything, it's just disappointing. I was hoping that it would be written with more depth of knowledge. It seems like people reading the sports section of the Chronicle already realize that football was complex. It's written for more casual fans, it just seems like a wasted opportunity to me. Although, as a blogger who hasn't posted anything since October 14th, I really don't have any room to talk.