Texans Still Make Playoffs Without Schaub Texans Still Make Playoffs Without Schaub By Bart Lopez AccuScore Analyst For a limited time try AccuScore membership Free or get 50% off our annual rate from a year ago...sign up for ALL-ACCESS membership The Houston Texans are coming off a decisive 37-9 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, led by quarterback Matt Schaub. Number eight finished with 242 passing yards and two touchdowns. The win came at a significant cost, however, as Schaub suffered a Lisfranc fracture that has him sidelined for the remainder of the season. He will be replaced by backup quarterback Matt Leinart, who has struggled in the NFL after a successful college career at USC and has not started a game since November of 2009. HOUSTON TEXANS W (Rest) W% (Rest) PLAYOFF DIVISION w/ Matt Schaub 3.7 61.7% 92.5% 90.6% w/ Matt Leinart 3.5 58.3% 90.7% 88.5% DIFF -0.2 -3.3% -1.8% -2.1% According to the table above, Schaub’s absence will not have a major impact on the remainder of the Texans' season. Houston’s playoff chances with Leinart are still extremely high at 90.7 percent because the Texans are still heavily favored to win the AFC South at 88.5 percent. This high playoff probability is mainly due to Houston's 2.5 game lead over 2nd place Tennessee and the Colts and Jags just being miserably bad. WEEK 12-17 STATS CMP ATT % YARDS TD INT Matt Schaub 122.4 187.5 65.3% 1405 9.29 3.78 Matt Leinart 130.2 193.2 67.4% 1434 6.66 7.14 While the Texans' season isn’t ruined by the injury, they are a significantly worse passing team with Leinart taking the snaps. Schaub was forecasted to have an impressive 2.5 to 1 touchdown to interception ratio for the remainder of the season. In sharp contrast, Leinart is projected to throw more picks than touchdowns by the end of week 17. In addition, Leinart will attempt more passes than Schaub because Houston is unlikely to play from ahead as often and will have to pass more often late in games. The real impact of Schaub’s injury will be felt in the playoffs when the Texans are facing the best of the best. Opposing defenses will be able to overplay the run with Leinart being a significantly less dangerous passing threat than Schaub. As a result, Houston won’t be able to dominate with its impressive running game led by Arian Foster, and the offense will struggle. The bright side is that the injury came at the perfect time (if there is such a thing), right before Houston’s week 11 bye. Leinart will have two weeks to prepare for Jacksonville, and this is likely his final chance to revive a dissapointing professional career.
