Houston Texans 2011 NFL season: The most successful run of the league – Part 2
The injuries' problem has been the spotlight of Houston Texans’ 2011 National Football League (NFL) regular season run, without distracting their on-field performance much.
The first of their players who fell prey to the injury problem was their quarterback (QB), Matt Schaub.
He suffered a foot injury and was ruled out for rest of the regular season.
He was replaced by another star QB, Matt Leinart.
He suffered a collarbone injury in his first appearance since his injury in 2009. He too was told to sit out rest of the season after just a half-hour play.
At one point, the Texans became quarterback thin.
With the season halfway through and absence of two QBs prompted the league analysts to rule them out of their projections and predictions for the playoff hopefuls.
It was when the coach, Gary Kubiak, side had half a dozen wins on the table. The coach had no obvious answer to vows.
His only positive of the moment was his silence over the critics. It was probably his wait-and-see approach that he had been contemplating at that moment of time.
The first practical step from the coach towards repairing wide that two QBs’ departure had created was promotion of the fifth draft pick QB, T.J.Yates to the number one, starting spot.
In spite of criticism from a certain quarters he posed his confidence into the rookie. He stuck to his decision until very end of the season.
Kellen Clemens came as the first signee for the Texans as QB of the season.
Their search went then as long as taking of the players out of their retirement to place them at their QB position. The veteran Jake Delhomme was first one to join. He was followed by another veteran Jeff Garcia.
With the signing of two veterans as backups for the rookie Yates at number two and three position, Clemens was let go after a week stay at the Houston.
Their injuries vows did not end there. It was again their wide receiver, Johnson, to suffer same injury after three games he played in middle of the season. He sat out another three for his injury before returning to the side in the postseason.
The Texans successful run towards playoff surprised many. Most importantly, to their critics. They apparently have no answer to you and ambitious Texans side.
Only thing they missed at the end was the experience. The absence of Schaub and Leinart were the difference in the energetic side that topple almost all sides in their way.
They finally lost their way against the Baltimore Ravens. It was just a game before the AFC championship.
The loss did not count much in their performance. It is not the most wins or fewer losses that matter to assessment of their performance, at the end. It was their ability coming out of the scene all of sudden that made them different from other sides.
No one could have thought of the Texans having so far as to playing in the second round of the postseason. It was the turning point in their performance. T
hey have set standards so high that even they themselves find difficult to sustain in the longer run.
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