Texans Players Rally to Defend Matt Schaub
By Josh Hill
The Houston Texans’ Super Bowl dreams ended in the same miserable fashion they did last year; same story, different executioner. But while some people are outright blaming Matt Schaub for disappearing in the biggest game of his life, his fellow teammates are circling around him to protect their quarterback and defend him from the sharp and harsh criticism being fired his way.
MVP hopeful J.J. Watt defended Schaub, saying the people throwing rocks at him have never been in his situation before and need to get a life.
“Have they ever been in his shoes?” defensive end J.J. Watt said via the Houston Chronicle. “If you want to sit here and question our quarterback, that’s fine. But every guy in this room believes in him. We all trust and believe that he can take us there. We’re not going to listen to what the outside world says.”
Schaub did help the Texans surge in both the last 75 second of the second quarter and the middle of the fourth quarter, but most people are ignoring that in light of the fact the Texans got spanked 41-28 in a playoff game.
Schaub himself responded to his critics, saying if fans have lost faith in either him or the team then he doesn’t know what to tell you.
“If anyone out there, any listeners, have lost confidence in me or this team, I don’t know what to say to them,” Schaub said on his radio show on KILT610 AM. “Everyone in this locker room gave it up as much as we could for each other, for our team, for our organization, for our city.
After starting out strong, and dominating the power rankings early in the season, the Texans fell off the map hard as the regular season began to wind down. They lost three of their last four games and four of their last six — including the 13 point loss that dropped the curtain on their promising year.
“Ultimately, we didn’t make enough plays in that ballgame to win the game, but we’re going to go right back to the drawing board, right back to that wall. We’re going to bust through it one of these days.”
Once again, it’s back to looking forward to next season for the Texans. Two straight years they’ve worn the AFC South crown and for two straight years they’re at home watching the AFC Championship game a week after getting pumped in the Divisional round. Schaub’s locked in to a massive contract, so he’s not going anywhere next season.
But something has to happen in Houston, as a loss one year may have been a fluke, but two straight seasons of heartbreak is starting to be more than Texans fans want to bare.