Cursed or just bad luck?
Photo By: The Brit_2
There were no great surprises in last night’s Thursday night football contest. The Eagles returned to form, while the Texans continued to find ways to lose games, and of course Joe Theismann continued to share his folksy wisdom and talents of stating the obvious.
Nonetheless I think there are a few points of concern for both teams going forward.
Perhaps teams in the NFL have found a crack in Tricky Vick’s armor:
- Statistically Michael Vick had another solid game, but the Texans’ last ranked passing defense anticipated many of Vick’s throws, jumped routes, and should have had 3 interceptions. I’m led to wonder if there is something on film that both the Texans and Bears were capitalizing on.
The Eagles are a playoff team, but if there are serious weaknesses to Vick’s game the road to the Super Bowl might entirely depend on who the Eagles playoff opponents are.
Two reasons Texans’ quarterback Matt Schaub deserves much of the blame for last night’s loss:
- Towards the end of the 2nd quarter, at the moment when the Texans had gained the momentum, Schaub threw a screen pass directly in the hands of Eagles defensive line man Trevor Laws for an interception.
- At key points in the second half Schaub was indecisive, made poor throws, and often seemed intent on hitting the feet of his receivers and not their hands.
Houston hasn’t lost their seven games this season because of Matt Schaub, but they have lost those games becuase of performances like Schaub’s from various team players. For Texans fans the losses sound like a broken record. But it’s worse than that…the franchise is exhibiting the signs of being cursed and/or having bad luck.
For Texans’ ownership this is a serious point in the short history of the franchise. They will be tempted to fire the coaching staff, clean house, and rebuild the team. But this never separates a team from its curse or bad luck. The Detroit Lions have attempted this strategy for decades and are still perpetually haunted and prone to the worst of luck.
Instead the ownership needs to hire an outside firm to investigate the source(s) of this curse and/or bad luck. Who knows…it could be the mascot, the type of bbq they serve the players, or even someone with a voodoo doll who is causing the fumbles, interceptions, and continual player mishaps.
Only by seriously confronting the curse or bad luck can the Texans become a winning NFL franchise. We should all wish Houston the best of “luck” in this endeavor.
