After posting one of the top QB seasons in the NFL this year, Matt Schaub shows that Houston's future, is now.
Throughout his career in Houston Matt Schaub has always been a potential guy. If he could only stay healthy… maybe when he matures as a quarterback… etc.
Since departing Atlanta, getting out a situation where he almost certainly would back up Michael Vick for his whole career (or so it seemed, the season before the whole Vick debacle became public) Matt Schaub has been hailed as the quarterback of the future for the Texans. With Sage Rosenfels departing for Minnesota, only to be thumbed aside by the unretiree in dungarees, Houston placed a great deal of faith in their sometimes shaky QB. This year Schaub paid off, in spades.
This year, Schaub became the real deal. He played all 16 games and led the Texans to their first winning season. Could it have been better? Yes, certainly. The Texans lost some close games (against tough opponents mind you) when falling to 5-7 in mid season and a win in any of them would have gotten them into the post season, in retrospect.
Schaub, and the Texans, also had a tendency to post huge early game numbers, but not come through in the clutch – though the QB seemed to rectify this later in the season, including his big 4th quarter against New England to close out the season.
There will always be critics, but the fact is, Schaub put together one of the top quarterbacking season’s in the NFL this year, and he has arrived, as predicted.
He was top 5 in the NFL in any of the significant passing categories: yards per attempt, touchdowns (29), passes for first down (2nd to Manning), completions of 20+ and 40+ yards. He just missed the top five with a quarterback rating of 98.6 (no fever), a result in part of his fairly high 15 interceptions.
The interceptions can in part be blamed on the necessity of taking chances, etc. resulting from the Texans abysmal rush attack.
We’ve left off the big one though. Schaub led the league in passing yardage with 4,770, again, this is partly inflated because Houston couldn’t run the ball, though it could be argued that with a rush attack their passing game would be more effective. Manning would have finished first, in all likelihood, if he was allowed to play 16 full games.
At any rate, the 4770 yards from Schaub are enough to rank 6th, all time. That’s a pretty impressive statistic for any historian of the game. The top 5: Marino, Brees, Warner, Brady, Fouts. Some good company.
This season showed vast improvement for the 3rd year starter. In addition to the fact that he finally made it through a 16 game schedule (and showed toughness in returning from the injury to his non throwing shoulder) Â Schaub’s yards per game increased from 203, to 276 to a robust 298 this season. His TDs per game are on the rise, with interceptions per game on the decrease. With Schaub returning for another season, this Texans team is on the cusp of a break out year.
Yet, Schaub wasn’t selected to the Pro Bowl this year, missing out because Brady, Manning and Rivers were chosen. No real issues here, though Brady’s numbers aren’t at the level of Schaub’s this year, he’s got the name brand recognition which punches his ticket, and he did have a solid season leading the Pats back into the playoffs after returning for injury.
The good news for Schaub is: with the game taking place before the SuperBowl this year, there is a pretty high likelihood that one of these quarterbacks won’t be able to participate. If so, if there is any legitimacy to the process, Schaub will be punching his ticket to Miami.