Tag Archives: Case Keenum

Case Keenum, Connor Shaw and Chase Daniel… Oh My

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0829-vince-lombardi-trophy-2-primary_20100829233719_660_320A couple days ago, the Texans’ chances of making the playoffs seemed entirely reasonable.

Beat the Jacksonville Jaguars at home (expected), have an 8-7 Kansas City team still fighting for a playoff spot beat the 9-6 San Diego Chargers at Arrowhead Stadium (definitely possible) and have the 7-8 Cleveland Browns beat the 9-6 but somewhat struggling Baltimore Ravens in Baltimore (well, it could happen), and the Texans would be in the postseason as a Wild Card team.

On Friday afternoon, things took a decided turn for the worse.

The Browns and Chiefs both ruled out their starting quarterbacks due to injuries. In place of Brian Hoyer and Alex Smith – not world-beaters, but certainly capable players – we are now faced with the prospect of Connor Shaw and Chase Daniel starting in games that the Texans need them to win. Sweet!

Shaw is an undrafted rookie from South Carolina who was still on the Browns’ practice squad as of Friday morning. Daniel was undrafted in 2009 and has one career start in six seasons. In other words, fellow Texans fans: Time to start looking ahead to 2015, and not in a January/February playoffs kind of way. We’re fucked.

There are a few silver linings:

1) Shaw was actually pretty good in the preseason, and it’s not like he can be any worse than Johnny Manziel, and the Browns have managed to win seven games despite subpar quarterback play all season. And the Texans just beat the Ravens with a practice squad quarterback who wasn’t even on their own practice squad (Case Keenum, signed from St. Louis).

2) The one start of Daniel’s career was actually in almost this exact scenario last season – Week 17, against the Chargers, who needed to win to make the playoffs. That game was at San Diego and the Chiefs had nothing to play for since they already had clinched a playoff spot, and Daniel was good enough (21-30, 200 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT, 59 rushing yards) to almost engineer a stunning victory (the Chiefs lost 27-24 on a missed field goal as time expired).

3) If we’ve learned anything from the Texans this season, it’s that you don’t need good quarterback play to win games. And after the improbable “return of Case Keenum” victory over the Ravens last week, it’s tough to rule anything out.

Maybe it’s actually possible that it could all break the right way on Sunday. In some ways, it would actually make sense – this would be how it has to go down for the 2014 Texans to make the playoffs.

If the Texans can indeed make it in with Week 17 victories from Case Keenum, Connor Shaw and Chase Daniel, it could only mean one thing: Super Bowl, here we come.

The Houston Texans are still alive in Week 17: A minor Christmas miracle

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IMG_9345It’s Christmas Eve, Week 17 of the NFL season, and the 2014 Houston Texans are still alive in the playoff race.

It’s not quite a Christmas miracle, but it’s close. Let’s count the reasons why:

  • This a team that went 2-14 last season, fired its coach who had spent eight years building a roster to fit his system, and didn’t add the answer at quarterback – one of the most glaringly obvious holes on the roster and a key reason for said 2-14 season.
  • The Texans have used the following quarterbacks en route to their 8-7 record: Ryan Fitzpatrick, a 10-year veteran journeyman who had never posted a winning record or passer rating above 83.3 in his career; Ryan Mallett, who played in four games with four pass attempts in three seasons before the Patriots traded him for a conditional draft pick in August; Fitzpatrick, two weeks after he was benched for Mallett; Tom Savage, a rookie fourth-round pick who came in for an injured Fitzpatrick at Indy, only to get hurt himself – almost forcing Shane Lechler into action; and Case Keenum, who went undrafted out of the University of Houston in 2012 and 0-8 as the Texans’ starter in 2013, was cut by Bill O’Brien in August, signed by the Rams, cut by the Rams, placed on the Rams’ practice squad and signed by the Texans six days before getting his first victory as a starter against the Baltimore Ravens.
  • Despite having the No. 1 pick in the draft, the Texans have gotten next to nothing from their rookies aside from backup running back Alfred Blue. They also didn’t sign a single high-level free agent and let several key starters go, guys like defensive linemen Earl Mitchell and Antonio Smith and tight end Owen Daniels, without really attempting to replace them.
  • Jadeveon Clowney had more surgeries (three since June) than games started (two). The number one overall pick, potentially a generational pass rushing talent and absolute nightmare next to J.J. Watt, had five tackles and zero sacks and one very daunting microfracture surgery to end his season.

Granted, the Texans play in a terrible division and had a favorable schedule by virtue of last year’s last-place finish. And plenty of NFL teams turn around from worst to first, or at least bad to average. And the Texans were nowhere near as bad as their 2-14 record last season and have two of the league’s most singular talents in J.J. Watt and Arian Foster on their roster.

But I’d say it qualifies as a major surprise that these Texans are still alive with one game left to go. That with Case Keenum as their starting quarterback, they have a legitimate chance to earn a playoff spot on Sunday. Can they beat the Jaguars at NRG Stadium? Of course. Can the Chiefs beat the Chargers in Kansas City? Yes. Can the Browns beat the Ravens in Baltimore? Well… crazier things have happened.

No matter how it shakes out on Sunday, Bill O’Brien deserves a tip of the cap. So does the entire team. They’ve overachieved this season. And now they have a chance to keep on overachieving into January.