Welcome back to joke status, Texans

November 9, 4:45 PMHouston Texans ExaminerAlan Burge

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For the younger folks in the crowd who wonder why there are so many Dallas Cowboys fans in Houston, this is the reason.

You see, back in the day, the Oilers were a joke and their games were blacked out in the local TV market while the Cowboys were playing in prime time and usually winning.

People like to watch good football.  That hasn't changed.  And while the Cowboys are a far cry from their dynasty years, the Texans are once again playing football that rivals the worst years of the Oilers - and proceeding to drive their fans away in droves while the old Oilers are 9-0.

And that's a shame since this is such a good football town with fans just dying for a good team.

We thought that good team just might be this year's version of the Texans but they fooled us again.  We bought into that 8-8 season last year like it was real progress, but alas it was just a team-overachieving aberration.   If the Texans aren't careful, blackouts will be creeping over the horizon based on all the empty seats we see every week at Reliant.  [an aside ... Texans please stop pumping in the fake crowd noise for the 'best fans in the NFL' promotion prior to player intros.  It's embarrassing when there's about 20,000 people in the stands and about 19, 900 of them are sitting on their butts wondering who's cheering]

Anyway, I wrote weeks ago about the Texans season being over when they started out 0-4.  Still think I'm crazy?

This is a bad team on many fronts.  And it starts with the head coach.

I've cut Gary Kubiak plenty of slack up to this point because he seems to have the right formula for one side of the ball at least - but when you lack a competent and dependable field general to carry out that plan, what good is it?

Despite the large yards stats, the Texans quarterback play this season has been nothing short of terrible.  Schaub and Rosenfels are turnover machines and are about as careless with the football as any QBs I've seen.  Add to that Matt's inability to stay on the field for more than three games in a row and you have .... well... you have 3-6.

Part of the problem today was the pass-happy game plan that seemed to take over down on Kirby.  And this is where I'm growing frustrated with Kubiak and Shanahan.  Ahman Green and Steve Slaton combined for 8 carries today.   You read that right.  8.

I can see that if the Texans were down 28-7 against a high powered offense but this was the Ravens, and Kubiak had no business abandoning the run so early - especially when the Texans were down only 19-13 at the end of the 3rd quarter and the Ravens didn't totally shut down the run.

We should have known what we were in store for when we saw the Texans down 7-0 early in the game and on a 1st and goal at the Ravens one yard line, Kubiak elects pass and Sage throws the Texans 3rd redzone pick in two games.   Yeah, I know if it worked - great play call.  Well it didn't work.  Somewhere Dom Capers is saying we need to execute better.

There's so much more to address like clock management, use of time outs, etc.  I could fill 50 pages, but I'll spare you because it's like a dead horse carrying a saddle bag full of broken records.

This used to be just about our terrible defense but I'm growing increasingly concerned about our head coach and whether he's cut out to be a head coach.  We know he can coordinate the heck out of an offense, but he and his team just got upstaged... or should I say embarrassed and humiliated ... by a rookie head coach and a rookie quarterback in his own house and that's totally un-freaking-acceptable. 

Kubiak often says 'it's hard to win in the NFL.'  Well, it shouldn't be this hard.  There's no excuses for the turnovers, the terrible defense, not being ready to play, and today the stupid penalties.

Fans don't want to hear the same old stuff about 'we just need to keep working,' Gary.   Whatever you're doing, it's not working.  You seem to have this cloud of worry and woe following you around and it's rubbing off on your team.

• Read the Texans - Ravens gamebook here ... if you dare.
• Memo to the south end zone.  Smart fans don't try to start the wave when their team has the ball.  That was the icing on a really stale piece of cake being served at Reliant yesterday.