the eyes see more than W/L

A week ago all the voters on ESPN, CBS, Yahoo!, etc. most everywhere else put the Texans at #1 in their Power Rankings. They were 11-1, what choice did they have?

Look at their team. They seem so balanced; so strong in every position. Arian Foster = top level running back. Andre Johnson = top level receiver. J.J. Watt = pass rush specialist. Jonathan Joseph = top level cover man.

Watch the tape. The Texans got blown out at home on Sunday Night Football to the Packers, giving up 6 A-Rod touchdown passes. They were terrible in a win over the Bears. They gave up 37 points and got dragged to OT by the terrible Jaguars. They should have lost to the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving, had Jim Schwartz not made two bonehead coaching mistakes. And now on Monday Night Football, they got carved up by Tom Brady’s Patriots.

This is not a Super Bowl contending team. They are fools gold.

People point to injuries--Brian Cushing was obviously a crucial loss--but everybody’s dealing with injuries. Tom Brady was missing Gronkowski and Julian Edelman. Who cares? Donte Stallworth, Shane Vareen, Brandon Lloyd, welcome to the show.

Gary Kubiak is a bad coach. He should have been fired years ago. Matt Schaub puts up tons of numbers compliments of one of the NFL’s best receivers and running backs, but he’s not a winner. And in the biggest moments and biggest games, they crumble.

The way the NFL is going, there is no doubt that it takes a great quarterback with a good coach to win a Super Bowl; smart leaders that come up big in the biggest moments. That would be Tom Brady, Eli Manning, Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger, Aaron Rodgers, of course (they’ve won previously). I would add Philip Rivers (with a different coach), Tony Romo (with a different team), Matthew Stafford (with a different coach), Josh Freeman, and soon Robert Griffin III and Andrew Luck. The 49ers with Alex Smith could probably win a Super Bowl. I do not include Joe Flacco, Matt Ryan, Jay Cutler, or Matt Schaub.

The Texans are still likely to get a bye and home field advantage in the playoffs. That can probably be viewed as a successful season. But they’ve been more lucky than good. They play their worst when the whole country is watching. They will still get beat in their first playoff game. And that is unfortunate for a team with so many great players.