ESPN NFL

A weekly examination of the Texans' ESPN.com Power Ranking:

Preseason: 7 | Last week: 13 | ESPN.com Power Rankings since 2002

Another loss dropped the Texans again, though not as far as last week. Houston fell two spots to No. 15 after its 23-20 overtime loss to the Seattle Seahawks. While I thought last week's nine-point fall was an overreaction to Houston's loss to the Ravens, as I examine the list of teams now ahead of the Texans, it's hard to argue with most of the teams ahead of them.

Last week, the Texans fell below the Indianapolis Colts in the division. This week, both the Colts and Tennessee Titans are ahead of Houston. Though I'm not sure how impressive Tennessee's win against the New York Jets is, they have looked like a good team all year, even in their overtime loss in Houston. The Texans are one spot below the Ravens and one spot ahead of the Falcons. This week's opponent, the San Francisco 49ers, are ranked eighth.

Reading the coverage of the Houston Texans...

Lots more Matt Schaub talk today, starting with this notebook which includes the Houston Chronicle's John McClain spending some time explaining how the Texans handle allowing Schaub to audible. During yesterday's Gary Kubiak news conference, I asked the coach if Schaub had the freedom to audible out of the play that resulted in his most recent pick-six. Kubiak said no. McClain contends that this caused confusion (to which I would disagree as Kubiak was clear Schaub could not change that particular play) but he goes on to explain that there are times when Schaub can check out of plays, and he did that Sunday.

Sean Pendergast of the Houston Press tears apart Schaub's performance on Sunday focusing on what he considered to be plays that drove fans crazy. In his column, he seeks to explain why Texans fans burned his jersey.

Another review of Sunday's game, but this one focuses in places other than the quarterback. Patrick D. Starr of StateoftheTexans.com breaks down a second half in which the Texans did not score any points.

Kubiak disagreed with the unnecessary roughness penalty on Kareem Jackson that cost the Texans 15 yards, writes Dave Zangaro of CSNHouston.com. That play got the Seahawks into field goal range in overtime and led to the game-winning kick.

HOUSTON -- Houston Texans quarterback Matt Schaub spoke to his teammates during a players-only meeting on Monday, Texans safety Danieal Manning said when he joined John Granato and Sean Pendergast on Yahoo! Sports Radio 1560.

"I just want to clear it up," Manning said. "Matt, we're riding behind him 100 percent. I don't think anyone -- of course we were all pissed off about plays, everybody's like that. DBs make mistakes, you want the whole team to be upset, even the player that made the mistake, you should say something. Matt has been a man about this whole time. He told us how he felt, what's going to change, what needs to change. ... On the defensive side players stepping up saying things. I believe at this point today we really have a change in the way that we're going to approach the next game."

Manning said team leaders asked coach Gary Kubiak if the players could have the meeting room to themselves, excluding coaches. One person familiar with the meeting said running back Arian Foster called it.

Defensive end Antonio Smith, safety Ed Reed and receiver Andre Johnson were among those who spoke, per Manning. The meeting followed a 23-20 overtime loss to the Seattle Seahawks, a team the Texans led 20-3 at halftime. Schaub threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown which tied the game.

"Andre said a really lot, meaningful things," Manning said. "You can understand the passion, why he works so hard, the way he is. a lot of guys don't know that. Matt as well. It wasn't a really come to Jesus type of meeting but it was definitely, it was the perfect timing for us."

He's right on that.

The anger and frustration felt Sunday evening was evident from several players in the postgame locker room. I'm not one who thinks that a players-only meeting leads to dramatic changes just on its own, but I do know that a divided locker room can devolve quickly. That they had this meeting and heard from offensive and defensive leaders -- especially their embattled quarterback -- is a good sign for locker room chemistry. We'll see how effective it was this weekend.

Let's keep talking about Texans quarterback Matt Schaub, shall we?

Earlier today I linked a story by Grantland's Bill Barnwell in which he contends the Texans can win a Super Bowl with Schaub. Now here's a story by my friend Mike Silver of NFL Network, who counts Schaub and Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton as the two quarterbacks holding back their contending teams.

Silver says when the Texans were overachieving underdogs, Schaub was fine. But now that expectations have risen, Silver says, he's not good enough.

"In reality, the bulk of the anger shouldn't be directed at Schaub," Silver writes. "Rather, Texans fans should be ticked off at general manager Rick Smith, who didn't explore other options, and [coach Gary] Kubiak, who clearly has more faith in his quarterback than logic suggests he should."

The Texans have been criticized a lot recently for the four-year extension they gave Schaub last year on the eve of the 2012 season opener that totaled $69.7 million. Here's what I found while examining his contract:

The deal averages $15.5 million per year, with a $17.5 million signing bonus. It guarantees Schaub's base salary of $7.25 million this year. Between the signing bonus, this year's base, last year's base and a few workout bonuses, the Texans will have paid Schaub about $29.7 million of that contract by the end of this season.

If they decide Schaub isn't part of their future, they don't have to pay him one cent more. Schaub's 2014, 2015 and 2016 bases aren't guaranteed and in each of those seasons he has a roster bonus that pays him $1 million total if he's active for 16 games. That's $40 million the Texans would not be on the hook for if they didn't want to be.

Whether they will or not will depend on how Schaub plays the rest of this season. As I've been writing, I don't see his performances so far as evidence that the Texans should move on from him.

Had a good Twitter discussion Sunday night with some angry fans who cannot be convinced that Houston Texans quarterback Matt Schaub is better than his backups. During it I realized one thing: there is a difference between being a great quarterback and playing great during a playoff run.

There are certainly better quarterbacks in the league than Schaub, even after the four indisputably elite ones (Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Peyton Manning and Aaron Rodgers). But there are also many more who are much, much worse. Schaub's pick-six was the most costly play of the week, but he's inconsistent, which means he has great games, terrible ones and a lot sprinkled in between. Manning made his flappable offensive line unimportant in Indianapolis and Brady makes mediocre receivers produce. Outside the top four, quarterbacks need help. Schaub's pick was costly, but there was more that went wrong during the Texans' 23-20 loss to Seattle.

I made the point in my post-game entry last night that Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco threw five interceptions in the Ravens' 23-20 loss to the Bills. Flacco isn't a great quarterback. But he did play great during the Ravens' Super Bowl run. Does that change you as a player? His statistics this season would indicate no. Bill Barnwell from Grantland.com drew a similar comparison, using Flacco and Eli Manning as examples of players who have had dubious regular seasons, but won Super Bowls.

Barnwell took an extended look at both Schaub's Week 4 performance and his situation in the grand scheme of things.

Some key lines:

• "It was Schaub's third pick-six in three weeks, but it's not like Schaub has some disease where he throws awful pick-sixes; according to Pro-Football-Reference.com, Schaub didn't throw a single pick-six in either the 2011 or 2012 seasons. He has 10 across seven seasons as the Houston starter, which isn't an egregious average."
• "Pretend, for a moment, that Eli Manning and Joe Flacco had produced the same Week 4 performances this week without any notable run in the playoffs to their name. Would anybody in their right mind look at their days (or 2013 seasons, for that matter) and suggest they were good enough to win the Super Bowl? Of course not! In fact, Giants and Ravens fans would be sitting in the same parking lots saying the same things about how they needed to upgrade at quarterback to have any hope of winning a Super Bowl."
• On Schaub: "he's going to need help from his team, which hasn't offered much: Arian Foster's per-carry numbers are down, as he's averaging 3.8. Andre Johnson got hurt and has missed time over the past few weeks. The team has already been without elite left tackle Duane Brown for the past two games, and star inside linebacker Brian Cushing missed the fourth quarter (when Seattle came back from 20-6 down to tie it up) with a concussion."
• "I feel comfortable saying Schaub is good enough to win a Super Bowl, because I've seen quarterbacks who were worse than him during their season at the helm get hot during the playoffs and win the big trophy. As critical as you are of his throw (and you should be, since it was terrible), there's nothing about it that proves he can't win when it really counts in the longer term."

Analyzing four hot issues from the Houston Texans' 23-20 overtime loss to the Seattle Seahawks:

Was the play call wrong on the pick-six? The play on which Richard Sherman intercepted Matt Schaub was a short pass on third-and-4 with just under three minutes left in the game. The Texans were up seven points and ran four straight run plays on which Arian Foster had gains of 6, 5, 5 and 1 yard immediately before that play. Texans coach Gary Kubiak said the throw was the wrong call.

"I believe we've got to just run the ball, but we run the plays that are called, and we have to make good decisions," Texans tight end Owen Daniels said.

I say both the play call and the execution were wrong. A run play eats the clock and doesn't have as dramatic a floor as a pass play does. Fumble returns for touchdowns are possible, but much less likely than a pick-six, especially against Seattle's transcendent secondary. If they hadn't picked up the 4 yards necessary, so what? Punt the ball, let your defense do what it did for all but one drive. Further, the Seahawks had that play well-scouted, running it in practice all week. Then again, in the situation in which he found himself, there's no excuse for Schaub to have tried to force the ball to Daniels. Up seven with so little time left in the game, he didn't need the first down. It was a bad throw, too.

Is it time to panic? The panic that followed this game was tremendously predictable. Those panicking should remind themselves that the Texans have played only four games and this most recent loss was to what might be the best team in the NFL.

Wilson vs. blitzes: Russell Wilson has been good against blitzes, but he hadn't faced a team yet this season that brings extra pressure quite as much as the Texans do. Wilson was successful against five or more rushers in his first three games, averaging 9.2 yards per attempt. The Texans were much more effective at containing him: He averaged just 4.7 yards per attempt on Sunday in Houston. When Wilson finally got going it was because he used his legs, which he would rather not do.

Rotating guards: The Texans fidgeted with their left guard position on Sunday. Starter Wade Smith rotated with second-year guard/center Ben Jones, who started 10 games at right guard last season. Smith had knee surgery before this season, and last week I asked Kubiak if Smith's knee was still bothering him after he had some rest during the week's practices. Kubiak said it was not, but added that getting Smith ready between games has been a more involved process because of how quickly he returned. Smith didn't appreciate my asking if his knee felt OK. "Why does that matter?" he replied. I said I wondered if the knee was part of why he rotated with Jones and asked what he was told about the rotation. "I felt fine," Smith said, to both questions.

Reading the coverage of the Texans...

Texans quarterback Matt Schaub won't get benched because franchise quarterbacks don't get benched just for making a few bad plays a game, writes Jerome Solmon of the Houston Chronicle. My postgame entry made the same point. There is a big dropoff between Schaub and his backups. Solomon adds that given Schaub's limitations, he can't turn the ball over so much.

John McClain of the Chronicle says losers make the kind of mistakes the Texans made. He also calls this an "awful collapse of epic proportions."

J.J. Watt and Antonio Smith did their own individual celebrations in unison after teaming for a sack in the first quarter. Their reactions postgame were divergent, writes Dale Robertson of the Chronicle.

FoxSports.com's Mike Pereira examines the NFL's lack of a rule on bloody players after seeing Watt's crimson face during the game. Watt had a gash on his nose that resulted in six stitches.

Culture Map's Moisekapenda Bower examines how the Seahawks became the best team in the NFL.

The Seahawks are 4-0 for the first time ever, and the way they got there made J.J. Watt very angry, writes Kristie Rieken of the Associated Press.

HOUSTON -- The Houston Texans' pregame introductions feature starters from one side of the ball running out of the tunnel and through a line of teammates. The announcer declares the first name, then fans chime in with the last name.

Today the Texans chose their offense to be introduced. Coming off a loss in Baltimore without a Texans' touchdown, I wasn't so sure that was a good idea. Fans were polite to start, but after quarterback Matt Schaub threw an interception that Richard Sherman returned for a touchdown, the angst returned.

The boos began then and returned next time the Texans' offense took the field.

What did Andre Johnson think of that?

"Fans are going to be fans," Johnson said. "You have some that are loyal. You have some that are fair-weather, and they only come around when you win."

Johnson has seen both kinds, having been through some bad seasons with the franchise that drafted him in 2003.

"I’ve been here when it was 2-14 and there was hardly anybody in the stands, so I really don’t care about what fans think," Johnson said. "A lot of them don’t understand what players go through. They can talk about what they want to talk about."

HOUSTON -- As Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman glided into the end zone, the quarterback who inadvertently threw him the ball lay on the grass near midfield clutching his helmet in dismay. Houston Texans quarterback Matt Schaub remained still on the ground until the play ended, then turned over and beat the grass with his fists, again a victim of his own mistake.

He knew.

"This one hurts real bad," Schaub said after the game.

It was Schaub's second interception of the game, the first time in his career he has thrown two on third downs. It was also the third pick-six he's thrown in as many weeks. He faked the handoff, then stepped back with blitzing Seahawks safety Kam Chancellor inches from him. Schaub lofted the ball toward tight end Owen Daniels, and perhaps the best corner in the NFL jumped in front of Daniels, as he'd practiced all week.

"It was a keeper play and they had not been biting the keeper most of the game," center Chris Myers said. "Obviously, on that one, he had pressure right in his face."

This one followed a week of discussion from both Schaub and his coaches about decision-making and mistakes. Offensive coordinator Rick Dennison said Schaub knew the cause of his prior interceptions and he knew how to fix them.

They were different situations for sure, but all in critical moments. No matter how well the defense is playing, when your offense allows touchdowns, it is difficult to win.

For many people, Schaub's mistake erased the rest of a game in which he threw for 355 yards, completed 31 passes and had eight different players catch passes. He threw two touchdown passes, led the Texans to a 20-3 lead and appeared to be having a redemption game until his final interception.

Yes, this was bad. Yes, Schaub has played poorly for a stretch of games. But, at the risk of having my press pass burned by these guys, benching him now is not the answer.

Quarterbacks have bad games. Even some of the best quarterbacks in NFL history have had bad games. According to Elias Sports Bureau, no quarterback in the past 20 years has thrown interceptions that were returned for touchdowns in four consecutive games. The current streak is three, held by Schaub, Peyton Manning with the Colts in 2001, Ty Detmer with the Eagles in 1996 and John Elway with the Broncos in 1994.

Let's be clear here. Schaub not is Manning or Elway, but what it's important to keep a cool head when bad stretches happen. Recall, this is the same guy whose play orchestrated comeback efforts against San Diego and Tennessee. And if you say Schaub's play earlier in those games contributed to needing those comebacks, then you have to also consider that Schaub's early play against Seattle created the Texans' early lead.

Can the Texans win regularly with Schaub throwing pick sixes every game? Probably not. And it's unreasonable to expect the defense to constantly bail the offense out. But if he doesn't make those mistakes, he doesn't have to be Manning or Elway for the Texans to win.

Futher there's this point: would the Texans be better off with Case Keenum or T.J. Yates starting? I don't think they would.

While Schaub was banging his fists on the grass in frustration, Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco was in the midst of a five-interception game.

HOUSTON -- Observed in the locker room after the Houston Texans' 23-20 loss to the Seattle Seahawks.

Watt angry: J.J. Watt had bruises on his face, six stitches across the bridge of his nose, dried blood on his hands and pants and a fixed glare staring at nothing as he addressed reporters. Never one to dodge the media like a few Texans did, Watt wanted to get his interview out of the way before showering. "I can't freaking stand losing," Watt said, looking furious at a game that slipped away late. "... Nobody likes to lose, especially like this in your own building." After the questions stopped, Watt turned into his locker and threw something down with an emphatic thud.

Jackson confused: For the second straight home game, cornerback Kareem Jackson bemoaned a penalty called on him in overtime when the official called him for unnecessary roughness, picking a player up before taking him down. "Horrible, horrible, horrible," Jackson said. Jackson said he didn't know what the flag was for and his intention was to just stop the receiver.

Support for Schaub: Texans defensive end Antonio Smith, Jackson, running back Arian Foster and receiver Andre Johnson all expressed support for Matt Schaub, who has thrown interceptions returned for touchdowns in the past three games.