The turn of the New Year brings the end of college football and the start of the NFL playoffs, and with that, I wanted to take a moment to give a season and mid-season review of all my Texans’ and my Longhorns’ performances thus far against my expectations:
Houston Texans:
My comfort level with this season: 9/10
Last year:
10-6 and 1st in AFC South
Won AFC Wild Card game against Cincinnati Bengals
Lost Divisional game against Baltimore Ravens
Custom 2025 Sports Life expectation:
13-3 and 1st in AFC South
Get to the AFC Conference Championship
Current Season result:
12-4 and 1st in AFC South
Won AFC Wild Card game against Cincinnati Bengals
This year I have been pretty quiet about my Houston Texans, primarily because I was uncertain if this year’s team was going to live up to my lofty expectations. After last season’s history making campaign, the Texans came into 2012 no longer a dark horse team in the AFC. Vegas had them as 12/1 odds to win the Super Bowl at the beginning of the season and many “experts” picked them to win the AFC.
The city of Houston was buying into the hype and I too was drinking the Texans’ Kool-Aid. From my perspective it was quite simple:
The Texans went to the 2ndround of the playoffs last year on the back of a great defense and a rookie quarterback in T.J. Yates. The defense, which finished the year ranked #2 behind the Pittsburgh Steelers[1], was only going to get better in year 2 of defensive coordinator Wade Phillips’ scheme. The Texans were also getting their starting QB back. If they stayed healthy, there was no reason for them to not contend for a Super Bowl.
So like many other Houstonians, I fully expected the Texans to have a great year. And after last night’s 19-13 Wild Card victory over the Cincinnati Bengals the Texans haven’t disappointed.
Sure prior to yesterday’s victory the Texans had lost 3 of the last 4 games and were trending the wrong direction going into the playoffs. During this putrid stretch, there was the 42-12 shellacking on Monday Night at the hands of Tom Brady, the 23-6 stink bomb of a game against the Vikings and the lost opportunity of clinching home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
At the same time, the Texans have lived to see another day and that’s more than I can say for the Dallas Cowboys (okay that was a cheap shot and I only slightly apologize to my Dallas friends). Defensively they have found a way to keep it together even after losing ILB Brian Cushing. Offensively, they have re-established their run identify. Although next weekend will be a tall order facing Tom Brady at home, it’s been fun watching these boys ball… Not bad for a team that was established in 2002.
Texas Longhorns
My comfort level with this season: 4/10
Last year:
8-5 overall; 4-5 in conference; 6th in the Big 12
55-17 loss to Oklahoma
27-25 victory over Texas A&M
Won Holiday Bowl against California Golden Bears
Custom 2025 Sports Life expectation:
10-3 overall; 3rd in Big 12
Beat OU
Current Season result:
9-4 overall; 5-4 in conference; 3rd in Big 12
63-21 loss to Oklahoma; loss to TCU
Won Alamo Bowl against Oregon State Beavers
Expectations… Expectations … Oh Expectations…
When you are the University of Texas Longhorns and you pull in top 5 recruiting classes year over year over year, the expectation from the fan base (and me included) is the BCS or bust. We can have a detailed conversation about whether or not this is fair, but this is the reality of big time college football especially when you pay your head coach $5.2 million annually, your nine-assistant coaches $3.6 million annually, and you’re the most valuable college football team in the land[2].
After last season’s 8-5 finish, I have to admit that I wasn’t as delusional as some of my Texas Longhorn brethren who believed in their heart of hearts that the Longhorns were one year away from competing for the Big 12 and of course the National Championship. And after this season’s performance, I can honestly say that the Longhorns are not going in the right direction and here is why:
The fact remains that in football defense wins championships. I don’t care how many points you put on the board… If you cannot stop the other team from scoring, you will get beat.
After 13 games this year, the Texas Longhorn defense gave up a total of 404 yards per game and ranked 66thout of 120. As a point of reference, Alabama and Notre Dame give up 246 and 287 yards per game respectively and are ranked 1st and 6th in total defense[3]. It is no surprise why these two teams are playing for the National Championship tomorrow night.
Even looking at last year, Alabama and LSU were ranked #1 and #2 respectively in total defense giving up 184 and 262 per game. Shocker … Those two teams slugged it out at the end of the year for the National Championship.
In year two of Manny Diaz’s defensive scheme, the Longhorns have regressed. In 2011 Texas finished the year ranked #11 in total defense at 306 per game[4]. In 2010, Will Muschamp’s last year, Texas finished the year ranked #6 in total defense at 300 yards per game.
If defense wins championships, the Longhorns are not playing championship style defense and their 66thranking shows this. So although they have performed decently from a win-loss perspective this year, I have to say that the Longhorns are far from getting this ship turned in the right direction.
For the last couple of seasons, the Longhorns have clearly underperformed (that’s the nice way of saying it). For those of you that follow this blog, you all know where I stand on Mack Brown and his future tenure with the ‘Horns (see below). Call me spoiled, but for a team that is supposed to be in the business of winning championships this isn’t good enough.