2012 NFL season outlook: Houston Texans set themselves higher standards-NFL Feature – Part One
It is a fact that the Houston Texans were not contenders of Super Bowl in 2011 National Football League (NFL) season, and they did not reach or play for the title, either. Yet they are the only team to have achieved most from the past season.
It was for the first time in the franchise’s history that they won the American Football Conference (AFC) South division title and made it to the playoffs.
At the end, they fought for the AFC championship but lost. So altogether, the job was well done by Texans, last year, as noted and hailed by almost all commentators and analysts.
The significance of their past season’s success is far higher given the amount of injuries the team had confronted with through out the season.
Texans were quarterback-thin at one stage. The loss of the two quarterbacks, Matt Schaub and Matt Leinart, to respective injuries, in succession of few days, proved to be too much for them to compensate.
They were then left to the rookie quarterback, T.J. Yates, at the No. 1 position. He was their quarterback through out 2011 season.
No one could buy then that Texans could be the playoffs team but almost all of them were proved to be wrong by the team’s latter performance.
The team with the rookie at the starting position toppled all their competitors in the way to the second round. They went on to beat the Cincinnati Bengals in their first-ever wild card game, for the first time.
Even, they came closer to making it to the conference championship game but unfortunately lost the run to the hosts the Baltimore Ravens.
Since being an inexperienced side, Texans were apparently baffled to find an answer to Ravens strong defence line, which had a number of veterans taking on the rookie Yates.
In spite of the loss, Texans were content to have achieved new heights in the history. The feat was rightly and wholeheartedly celebrated by the fans.
The players were hailed as heroes and the entire Texans community sunk into almost a week-long celebrations. All the managers and coaches were equally pleased what they had achieved for the side.
So by all standards it was the greatest ever run of the franchise. It also set new and higher standards for them, and they must come out in the 2012 season to reach to those heights. Else, match them, at least.
It is going to a tough task for the team to achieve the new level of the form. The problem is that Texans have not been there before and one year experience of playing into the past regular season might not be enough for them to capitalise on such an opportunity
once again.
By and large, it seems that Texans have set themselves too high standards that it would be difficult for them to achieve them again in the near future.
The team apparently have started moving towards that direction. With some hustle bustle in the personnel department, i.e. waiver of Matt Leinart and coming back of Matt Schuab, the management is apparently satisfied and will likely leave much of the team
unchanged.
Given that they had a successful season last year, there should not be any need for major changes. However, the managers should be wary of the fact that they are not coming out at their normal position as they used to do in the past.
This time they are coming out as Super Bowl contenders, shortlisted among few top teams, who could make to the title.
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