Build Team To Beat Texans?

[MyBeautifulChineseDoll]

Minus the last two times we went down there and they beat us up pretty bad...

Look you can try to argue however you would like that this year didn't happen or as you said doesn't count but it did happen and it does count and the fact the Texans won the AFC South and were in the running for homefield in the playoffs till the last two weeks of the seaosn and won a home playoff game and gave the Ravens everything could want with their top two QBs on IR, Mario Williams on IR, and Andre Johnson and Foster missing big chunks of the season is impressive. It would be foolish to not view the Texans as a threat. There are already people saying if they come back fully healthy next year they are the team to beat in the AFC next year. That's a good football team they have down there even if Peyton Manning does come back here next year they are going to be the favorites going in in the AFC South.

Coulda'...shoulda' and woulda' don't count.They(texans)still got beat by the ravens in the playoffs(every team suffers injuries).They lost their chance at homefield advantage because they got beat by our very own horrible scrub team this year.They were actually trying to beat us,but still lost(without manning).Let's see if they can take the south from the colts with a manning lead team.I'm not ready to crown them(texans)just yet.

P.S.Williams suffered a nasty injury,and there's no promised he'll still be a threat.Let's see how things shakeout first.

[GoColts8818]

Coulda'...shoulda' and woulda' don't count.They(texans)still got beat by the ravens in the playoffs(every team suffers injuries).They lost their chance at homefield advantage because they got beat by our very own horrible scrub team this year.They were actually trying to beat us,but still lost(without manning).Let's see if they can take the south from the colts with a manning lead team.I'm not ready to crown them(texans)just yet.

P.S.Williams suffered a nasty injury,and there's no promised he'll still be a threat.Let's see how things shakeout first.

You don't have to crown them beacuse they are wearing the crown at the moment.

We'll see what happens next year but if you don't think the Texans are a threat to the Colts next year even with Manning you are going to be one of the very few who feels that way.

[MyBeautifulChineseDoll]

You don't have to crown them beacuse they are wearing the crown at the moment.

We'll see what happens next year but if you don't think the Texans are a threat to the Colts next year even with Manning you are going to be one of the very few who feels that way.

I predict they'll implode(texans).They'll go 7-9 and we'll win the division again(if we have manning).But i like a competitive devision,because it forces us to play every game and not rest starters near playoff time,which is a death sentence(we see examples every year).

[Sting]

No,there not a threat to us.With a healthy manning we win the division and its not even close.The texans weakness is shaub and next year throw in a QB controversy with yates,and they're not even a threat at all.They only reason they won the south this year is simple...we had no MANNING.We'll resume pounding them like cheap steak next year.Heck,they're not even second next year!The titans have j.locker and he looks like a threat.

The Texans have been a thorn in our side even with Manning. Yes, they are a threat. Shaub will be the starting QB next year, Yates will be on the bench. Mark it down. No way is Yates taking Shaub's job.

[GoColts8818]

I predict they'll implode(texans).They'll go 7-9 and we'll win the division again(if we have manning).But i like a competitive devision,because it forces us to play every game and not rest starters near playoff time,which is a death sentence(we see examples every year).

The ironic thing about that is in 2005 the year we had the most rest going into the playoffs the last team we played the starters against and beat a team was a 12-4 Jags team when we were on our way to a 14-2 record. Sometimes a competitive devision isn't enough to avoid that.

[LaughingAtIrsay]

Andre Johnson is getting old, and Matt Schaub has never played an entire season. To be honest they are on paper maybe the best and most complete team in AFC, but the absence of AJ and Schaub is inevitable. They are a team based on many defensive players drafted in the past several years, and Arian Foster is a beast, which means the Texans team we have seen in the playoff may be the best they can put together at playoff time next year. Of course they will be in the playoff again next couple of years.

Andre getting old?? You must be crazy. He's not even 30 yet. Reggie is getting old. Dallas, Dwight thats old. AJ is still young for a WR.

[YOUR GM]

No, I get your point just fine. And you do not build a team to beat another team even in your division. You build a team based on a philosphy and that philosophy entails if you want to be strong offensively or defensively or balanced, then what type of players you need to do that... do you need a superstar QB or a game manager, do you need a big bruising back or well rounded back or both, big play receivers or possession receivers or combinations of all those.

You don't worry about the teams in your division until it comes time to develop the game plan against them.

I agree and disagree. I think you're right in that teams should always build around a philosophy rather than one specific team. The thing about it is, in the past, we were always the dominant team that made our divisional foes draft and build to beat us. I don't think it's a coincidence that all 3 of our division rivals have had the philosophy of a ball control, long drive, keep away offense since Manning has been here.

Just the same, if we don't change philosophies on defense to be more of a physical, agressive, run stopping unit (seeing as how we have MJD, Foster and CJ all in our division to deal with 6 times a season) something is wrong. That's one of the things that drove me most crazy about our previous regime. They never addressed the one weakness that our division rivals always seemed to try and exploit.

[YOUR GM]

The Texans have been a thorn in our side even with Manning. Yes, they are a threat. Shaub will be the starting QB next year, Yates will be on the bench. Mark it down. No way is Yates taking Shaub's job.

I agree, but Schaub is milquetoast. I'd actually prefer he start over Yates because he always chokes when the pressure is on.

[Superman]

Maybe less coffee is in order? lol wow, take it down a notch.

You and Superman aren't processing what I'm saying here.

A team cannot devise a template to build from by simply stating that they want to beat every team in the league. They need a philosophy, a template to follow for drafting and schematic purposes. So they must choose one, not all. "All" cannot be done. This is why SB's are most often lop-sided....because we conjoin two teams that rarely play each other and they harbor completely different philosophies. It is also why the respective conferences tend to take turns in roles of dominance. The NFC ruled supreme for eons it seemed, then it was the AFC's turn.....now the pendulum seems to have swung back to the NFC. Why does this happen? Inter-division/inter-conference parity.

Therefor, choosing to form a template by concentrating on the most successful team in your division should lead to success all around. i.e If they're good enough to beat the best, then they should be good enough to beat anyone. It's akin to chasing the dragon in most cases, but it at least provides focus enough to garner a playoff invite.

I know the mantra and its not only cliche, its bullpies. "Our goal is to win the Super Bowl". Yea right. Sounds great, eye on the prize and all that jazz, right? Truth is, y'all ain't going to no dang Super Bowl if you can't match-up with your division leader. It simply won't happen.

1) You're lumping me in with other people. Coffeedrinker isn't saying the exact same thing as me. We both disagree with you, but we're not making the same points.

2) A team does need a philosophy. I don't think that philosophy should be "we want to be able to beat the best team in our division," because divisions change every year, and because you can beat Team X, but consistently lose to Teams Y and Z, and finish 6-10. The Redskins swept the Giants this year. Good for them. They won five games, and the Giants are in the NFC Championship.

3) We were part of a matchup triangle for a few years. We couldn't beat the Pats, the Pats couldn't beat the Broncos, the Broncos couldn't beat us. Mastering one matchup doesn't necessarily mean that you're good enough to compete with the best teams in the NFL.

To me, the philosophy is "get better." Focus on a couple of aspects that you can improve right away, and then try to plug holes wherever you can.

[ruksak]

1) You're lumping me in with other people. Coffeedrinker isn't saying the exact same thing as me. We both disagree with you, but we're not making the same points.

2) A team does need a philosophy. I don't think that philosophy should be "we want to be able to beat the best team in our division," because divisions change every year, and because you can beat Team X, but consistently lose to Teams Y and Z, and finish 6-10. The Redskins swept the Giants this year. Good for them. They won five games, and the Giants are in the NFC Championship.

3) We were part of a matchup triangle for a few years. We couldn't beat the Pats, the Pats couldn't beat the Broncos, the Broncos couldn't beat us. Mastering one matchup doesn't necessarily mean that you're good enough to compete with the best teams in the NFL.

To me, the philosophy is "get better." Focus on a couple of aspects that you can improve right away, and then try to plug holes wherever you can.

Yep, I think we're all playing a game of semantics. I'll close by saying to be successful, a team must pick its strengths. What these strengths are seems to depend on what their common obstacles present them with.

[BlueShoe]

I posted in another thread how I feel the texans could be the most complete team in the nfl and without a doubt in the afc south. Instead of teams building their teams to beat us in the south we must now all build to best the texans. Here's my post

They are cleaning house Ryan is bringing people in that he wants and they are going to have to build this team to best the texans.

The texans are prob the most compete team in the nfl when healthy. We need to rebuild, change philosophy to get big run stopping d players in here and become a good defensive team while also stayingg the offense powerhouse we are use to. Getting luck is a good step in the right direction to secure the qb position in Indy. Then we just build through the draft and FA these next couple years. I think we will see the best colts team we have seen (most complete on defense and offense) in a long time. I think Irsay, Grigson learned a lot from the manning era. You can have the goat at qb but if you don't put a complete team on the field you won't compete well in the playoffs.

I am very excited for the future with all new coaches and assistants

Do you think the texans healthy are the team to beat next year?

build team to BEAT texans. Typing on iPhone sorry for typo if mod could fix title that would be great.

I don't buy into that. I think the Texans have a good team and are built the right way, but we will have 14 other games on our schedule.

In my opinion, we should start by resolving our QB issue (which we are) and then concentrate on the lines (both sides of the ball). I think it is important that we keep Reggie. I know this isn't normally what teams do (keep an old receiver), but in our case we really need him next year and we could franchise him for around 8 million. We need to become a team with a good mixture of man vs. zone on defense. We can do all of that this season. We can start the process and be successful with tons of room to grow.

[haseo15]

No we don't

Goal is to win your division

Win the Division then the Superbowl, I'd like to see us have a hard nosed defense and a run game/ Really good passing game for our future team. Not sure if it will happen but it would be great to see for the future.

[unitaswestand]

You don't have to crown them beacuse they are wearing the crown at the moment.

We'll see what happens next year but if you don't think the Texans are a threat to the Colts next year even with Manning you are going to be one of the very few who feels that way.

If you want to crown them, then crown their edit !!!!! lol

[Moose Of Woe]

You don't build a team to beat another team.

You don't build a team to win your division.

You build a team to win the SUPERBOWL. If you don't, you're doing it wrong.

[Fx Stryker]

If you want to crown them, then crown their a$$!!!!! lol

[ruksak]

You don't build a team to beat another team.

You don't build a team to win your division.

You build a team to win the SUPERBOWL.

Who's gonna be in the SB though? No one knows, right? So....you might be better off setting your team up to be competitive with teams that you know you'll be playing for the next XX years. If there's a Manning led air show in your division, you'd better be proactive in building your team to handle them. Otherwise you'll NEVER get to the SB.

[AnthonyE]

You do not build a team to beat a single team, that does not lead to a winning games consistently.

Indeed. See Week 1, 2010 and subsequent season from a Texans standpoint.

Andre Johnson is getting old, and Matt Schaub has never played an entire season. To be honest they are on paper maybe the best and most complete team in AFC, but the absence of AJ and Schaub is inevitable. They are a team based on many defensive players drafted in the past several years, and Arian Foster is a beast, which means the Texans team we have seen in the playoff may be the best they can put together at playoff time next year. Of course they will be in the playoff again next couple of years.

Except 09 and 10, right? Manning has never played an entire season, too. Except 98-10.

[TackHammer]

No,there not a threat to us.With a healthy manning we win the division and its not even close.The texans weakness is shaub and next year throw in a QB controversy with yates,and they're not even a threat at all.They only reason they won the south this year is simple...we had no MANNING.We'll resume pounding them like cheap steak next year.Heck,they're not even second next year!The titans have j.locker and he looks like a threat.

Dude!!! As a Texans fan(and a person with an IQ higher then a turnips) I can promise you Schaub will be our QB next year.

And the idea that the Colts can beat us at will like in the past is pure homerism. The Texans destroyed the Colts last year with Manning at the helm.

And on top of that Arian ran for 231 yards in that game.

I hate to break it to you,but the days of the Colts dominating the Texans are over for the foreseeble future. Not saying that wont change at a later date,but for now ....yes.

[TackHammer]

I gave you facts.Go google them yourself.He's missed 16 games in a period of 5 years...that's a full year of missed football.His injuries are spotty and this is 'WHY' he's labeled 'INJURY PRONE'.Its not hard to understand.What don't i understand about the great texan team?I fail to see a viable threat from them.Sure we may split our games head-2-head,but so what?We'll finish 12-4 and they'll go 8-8 or 9-7 tops.How is that a threat?

So let me get this straight. Your saying that Peyton Manning is ageless,people dont get old,trees dont grow,football teams stay the same year after year.

Listen to yourself for a minute.....and you'll realize how ridiculous your statements are.

[shakedownstreet]

So let me get this straight. Your saying that Peyton Manning is ageless,people dont get old,trees dont grow,football teams stay the same year after year.

Listen to yourself for a minute.....and you'll realize how ridiculous your statements are.

you are arguing with a ghost. if you look under his avatar, you'll see BANNED

[hawkeyes]

Not sure they will try to build a team to beat just one team, but I do agree that the Texans are going to be more than a formidable opponent over the next several years. I believe that will leave us fighting for a wildcard spot - even if Manning comes back 100%. If we can get some holes filled it would give us a better shot at splitting the season with them and do our part the rest of the way it might be a good battle.

[TackHammer]

Our awful team went 1-1 against them this year. Manning rarely had trouble beating them, and he'll be back next year, at the healthiest he's been in 4 years. I'm not too worried about the Texans. But yes, they are better than before.

You beat the Teans in a meaningless game after they had already won the division. I wouldnt read to much into it.

[TackHammer]

No they don't. The have a template for beating the Colts and that's it. If they are built to beat the Colts they could possibly get clobbered by the Jags or Titans, then they would be 2-4 in the division.

But that didnt happen did it?

So, you are saying they have not done a good job of building a team to beat the Colts since they are 3-17 against the Colts lifetime. I would rather build a team based on a philosophy, that whole build a team to beat one team in your division doesn't seem to work very well.

[TackHammer]

Coulda'...shoulda' and woulda' don't count.They(texans)still got beat by the ravens in the playoffs(every team suffers injuries).They lost their chance at homefield advantage because they got beat by our very own horrible scrub team this year.They were actually trying to beat us,but still lost(without manning).Let's see if they can take the south from the colts with a manning lead team.I'm not ready to crown them(texans)just yet.

P.S.Williams suffered a nasty injury,and there's no promised he'll still be a threat.Let's see how things shakeout first.

A nasty injury? A torn pectoral is a nasty injury? My God man!!! Everything you post is so far out in left field it's out of bounds.

Do you even watch football other then Colts games?

[TackHammer]

you are arguing with a ghost. if you look under his avatar, you'll see BANNED

Whoops my bad. Oh well...the guy has a football IQ of a second grader,so no loss.

[shakedownstreet]

Whoops my bad. Oh well...the guy has a football IQ of a second grader,so no loss.

it's called internet troll. his posts are designed to get a rise & cause arguments. something one should always be wary of when surfing chat boards

[TackHammer]

it's called internet troll. his posts are designed to get a rise & cause arguments. something one should always be wary of when surfing chat boards

Yeah...Particularly when you dont post a lot on a board. Unlike the guy who plays with dolls with over 500 post.

[kaz]

You beat the Teans in a meaningless game after they had already won the division. I wouldnt read to much into it.

So you're saying home field advantage/first round bye is meaningless? The Colts won the game not because of lack of motivation from the Texans, it was from A) Kubiak keeping Yates on a short, short leash, and B) The Colts outplaying us.

[TackHammer]

So you're saying home field advantage/first round bye is meaningless? The Colts won the game not because of lack of motivation from the Texans, it was from A) Kubiak keeping Yates on a short, short leash, and B) The Colts outplaying us.

Thanks for backing me up...Kubs kept Yates on a short leash. At that point it really didnt matter if we beat the Colts or not,we were'nt getting the bye anyway.

And if you think that we wouldnt have won the game if it realy mattered your nuts.

[Rich Cannon]

I posted in another thread how I feel the texans could be the most complete team in the nfl and without a doubt in the afc south. Instead of teams building their teams to beat us in the south we must now all build to best the texans. Here's my post

They are cleaning house Ryan is bringing people in that he wants and they are going to have to build this team to best the texans.

The texans are prob the most compete team in the nfl when healthy. We need to rebuild, change philosophy to get big run stopping d players in here and become a good defensive team while also stayingg the offense powerhouse we are use to. Getting luck is a good step in the right direction to secure the qb position in Indy. Then we just build through the draft and FA these next couple years. I think we will see the best colts team we have seen (most complete on defense and offense) in a long time. I think Irsay, Grigson learned a lot from the manning era. You can have the goat at qb but if you don't put a complete team on the field you won't compete well in the playoffs.

I am very excited for the future with all new coaches and assistants

Do you think the texans healthy are the team to beat next year?

build team to BEAT texans. Typing on iPhone sorry for typo if mod could fix title that would be great.

No i dont think they are the team to beat. They do have the best running game in the league and an improving defense but saying they are the most complete team in the league is pushing it. Are they the best in our division? Perhaps for now. But with us getting new coaching and a few new FA'S that could change.

[ColtsTexansFan]

As a fan of both teams..i pull for colts when the play head to head..the Texans are way better team now..mostly from Wade and his "D" nobody thought he could turn it around so fast..the texans have a soild 5 year window right now..Also there is no QB controversy..Shaub if healthy..is the starter. The texans coaching staff has came out and said this after the loss to the Ravens..Yates i think will be the back up and Lienart will get the cut.

Williams..is a 50-50 shot of coming back right now..the don't want the franchise him...way too much $...but if he signed a long term deal to lower the $ of per season cap hit, they love that.

Also the Texans are looking for a WR..either threw the draft or FA..and one name that has been tossed out alot is R. Wayne...i don't think McNair will cough up the $ to bring in Wayne but they are def looking to replace Jacoby "hot hands" Jones..

There is even talk that IF Peyton and the colts say it's over...would the texans go after him? I say they will try to get him and trade Shaub..

All big IF's but If the texans can stay healthy next year..big if just like every team..texans are 10-6 maybe 11-5..only way I see the Colts getting to 10-6..Manning is healthy and playing his butt off again..the Colts have the "easy" schedule next year..big help

just my two cents..

[funktacious2]

First and foremost, thank you to MP Nation for a great topic.

Secondly, to anyone who says building to win your division is bogus needs to get their head checked. The Texans are excellent example of this in itself, their an OL powerhouse with a tremendous running game, and what are we constantly bad at? Run defense... Jacksonville? Runs all over us. The Colts are a heavily pass oriented team, the Texans were the 3rd ranked pass defense in this years regular season; Jacksonville was 8th, Tennessee was 14th... Now look at what we've been in the Manning era; we're a pass rushing defense meant to cause chaos in the passing game. We actually had the 15th rank pass defense even in this awful year (However, it is worth noting this is partially based on yards in which most teams just opted to run the ball more lol). We were meant to play from the lead.

I love the idea of looking ahead and I am very excited about the future. I think we do need a bigger run-stopping defense with some talent in the secondary. I know a lot of Indy fans are scared of this because they love to watch the Colts for it's exciting offense, but if you ever go to the games it's all about pumping up that defense and it's so fun and exciting. Indy fans just aren't used to knowing what it feels like to have a big presense on defense. You know it would be fun to be the feared Indiapolis defense.

And it doesn't end there with propects like Andrew Luck (We are so lucky! Pun actually not intended), and the constant flow of talented recievers who come in each year, I see no reason why we can't still turn heads in the passing game, and who knows if we can get a better OL our running game might even be a pleasant surprise.

We can be getting younger, stronger, and cheaper, Indy! Be excited, because this lousy season may very well be the best thing that happened to us since well, our last horrible season where we went on to pick up PM! Unfortunately this may very well ben the Texans time, but I'm already seeing a Jacksonville Indy power struggle down the line. ^_^ (Sorry, Titans )

[Malakai432]

You guys do know Lethal Weapon is on EncoreHd??????? Just thought you guys should know.

[IndyTrav]

Also the Texans are looking for a WR..either threw the draft or FA..and one name that has been tossed out alot is R. Wayne...i don't think McNair will cough up the $ to bring in Wayne but they are def looking to replace Jacoby "hot hands" Jones..

Im glad you said this. I was discussing something the other day to a friend. I have no knowledge of the Texans FO, or the route they are taking, but for some reason I just think...........Desean Jackson would put that team in a SB.

[colts_mp]

As a fan of both teams..i pull for colts when the play head to head..the Texans are way better team now..mostly from Wade and his "D" nobody thought he could turn it around so fast..the texans have a soild 5 year window right now..Also there is no QB controversy..Shaub if healthy..is the starter. The texans coaching staff has came out and said this after the loss to the Ravens..Yates i think will be the back up and Lienart will get the cut.

Williams..is a 50-50 shot of coming back right now..the don't want the franchise him...way too much $...but if he signed a long term deal to lower the $ of per season cap hit, they love that.

Also the Texans are looking for a WR..either threw the draft or FA..and one name that has been tossed out alot is R. Wayne...i don't think McNair will cough up the $ to bring in Wayne but they are def looking to replace Jacoby "hot hands" Jones..

There is even talk that IF Peyton and the colts say it's over...would the texans go after him? I say they will try to get him and trade Shaub..

All big IF's but If the texans can stay healthy next year..big if just like every team..texans are 10-6 maybe 11-5..only way I see the Colts getting to 10-6..Manning is healthy and playing his butt off again..the Colts have the "easy" schedule next year..big help

just my two cents..

I would be all for Peyton Manning to the Texans. With Manning they would win the division easily by beating the Colts twice and probably go 12-4 and get at least one home playoff game. And if they got Wayne on the cheap (which would be alot easier with Manning there) and Johnson, and Foster...watch out!

[shakedownstreet]

I would be all for Peyton Manning to the Texans. With Manning they would win the division easily by beating the Colts twice and probably go 12-4 and get at least one home playoff game. And if they got Wayne on the cheap (which would be alot easier with Manning there) and Johnson, and Foster...watch out!

that's just wrong

[colts_mp]

that's just wrong

But he'd come back to Indy at least once a year! If we release Manning and being the competitor he is, I think he'd want the chance to beat us as much as possible.

[ColtsTexansFan]

I would be all for Peyton Manning to the Texans. With Manning they would win the division easily by beating the Colts twice and probably go 12-4 and get at least one home playoff game. And if they got Wayne on the cheap (which would be alot easier with Manning there) and Johnson, and Foster...watch out!

As a fan of both..i would love to see manning and wayne on the texans...the texans would be scary awesome for a few years..When healthy..Top 3 QB..Top 3 RB..Top 3 WR Top 3 D...and the colts could cont. to rebuild around luck and have a bright future...plus it give me something to aruge with all the texans fans...they couldn't win it all untill Peyton came to town

[The Motto]

We must be better on special teams are special teams have been lethargic for so long it's ridiculous. I think Pagano will change this as the Ravens were very solid at special teams.

[Kenny]

The simple and accurate statement is you don't build your team to beat another team. You build your team to win championships. Irsay is obviously bent on continuing our run of being just that, a championship team. Trust he will do just that.