Breaking Down Matt Schaub's QB Nightmare

Matt Schaub cannot end his nightmare. 

The Houston Texans quarterback has struggled mightily in 2013, and his Super Bowl contender team sits 2-3 after being embarrassed on national television by the San Francisco 49ers, 34-3, in Week 5. 

Schaub has gone down in history in a bad way, as he's the first NFL quarterback to throw a pick-six in four consecutive games. 

The first pass he threw on Sunday Night Football against the 49ers was intercepted by Tramaine Brock, who promptly took it to the house to give San Francisco an early touchdown lead. 

Let's examine the agonizing funk Schaub is in and how, if possible, he can get out of it.

A Look At Schaub's Horrid Stretch 

The inconsistencies Schaub has demonstrated in Houston's first five games actually began well before the start of this regular season. 

NBC Sports' Evan Silva compiled Schaub's stats starting with last year's Week 11 loss in New England to the Patriots: 

"

Matt Schaub's stats since Wk 14 loss to NE last year: 282-of-432 for 2,917 yds (6.75 YPA), 11 TDs, 14 INTs, 25 sacks taken. #Texans are 4-7.

— Evan Silva (@evansilva) October 7, 2013"

Yikes. 

Those statistics can be broken down to the following per-game averages:

To provide some perspective on Schaub's recent regression, here's how they compare to his other 73 starts with the Texans:

At this point in his career, it's obvious that he's not the type of quarterback to single-handedly win games or carry a team, with flaws in other key areas, on his back for an entire season.

However, those type of quarterbacks aren't exactly abundant in the NFL today.

Just because Schaub isn't like Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Co. doesn't mean he's useless. He just needs a better team around him to succeed. 

The problem is, the talent Houston's assembled around Schaub hasn't faltered of late. 

Arian Foster has averaged 4.3 yards per carry over the last 11 games (nine regular season, two postseason). 

Take away the 35 points surrendered on five Schaub pick-six interceptions during that stretch and another seven points for a kick return touchdown given up, and the Texans defense is allowing a respectable—albeit not fantastic—23.7 points per game. 

With Andre Johnson healthy and first-round pick DeAndre Hopkins in the mix, Houston's struggles as a team can, in essence, be strongly correlated to Schaub's dip in production and efficiency. 

What Schaub's Doing Wrong

Let's dive into the four pick-sixes Schaub's threw this year and try to pinpoint exactly what went wrong on each play. 

The first came against the Tennessee Titans at home in Week 2 and was the least egregious. In fact, Hopkins may have been to blame. 

Schaub had a clean pocket and apparently expected Hopkins to run a traditional comeback route near the sideline. Instead, the rookie ran down the field and Alterraun Verner was gift-wrapped an interception. 

Luckily for Schaub, Hopkins made some huge plays late, and the Texans squeaked out a 30-24 win in overtime. 

The next came in Week 3 against the Ravens in Baltimore. 

Houston came out with trips to the left on 1st-and-10. Tight end Owen Daniels runs a short jerk route, which was essentially rendered useless due to Baltimore playing zone coverage. 

Schaub locked onto the area in which he was planning to eventually throw the football after Daniels came out of his break. 

Because he stared precisely where the ball would be thrown, Ravens middle linebacker Daryl Smith didn't bite on Daniels' initial out-breaking cut and jumped Schaub's short dump off. 

The third pick-six came against the Seattle Seahawks in Week 4 and was the worst decision Schaub's made all season. 

Houston ran one of its offense's bread-and-butter plays—the stretch play-action bootleg to Daniels. The offensive line sells the stretch run to the left, then Schaub executes the play-action fake and finds his tight end on the opposite side of the field. 

Seattle intelligently blitzed from the backside—was the formation a tell?—and Schaub found himself in quite the precarious situation when he whipped his head around after the play-action fake. 

At that point, he should have thrown the ball away. 

Instead, he lofted a pass without his feet set properly that floated into the arms of Richard Sherman. 

Too easy. 

Lastly, Schaub's interception to Brock in Week 5 was due to perfect implementation of the "Cover 2 Trap" by San Francisco's secondary. 

At the snap, Brock and Carlos Rogers appeared to be playing man coverage on Hopkins and Johnson. In reality, the 49ers defensive backs were in zone, which allowed Brock leave his man to step in front of the out-breaking route by Johnson. 

In fairness, that read is likely exceptionally hard for a quarterback to make at game speed, and the out-breaking route is the worst route against that type of disguised coverage. 

What's Next? 

Fortunately for Schaub, his backup isn't majorly threatening. 

T.J. Yates was the Texans starter for a playoff win in 2012, but he doesn't appear to be an upgrade over the veteran. 

He's completed 59.7 percent of his 149 career attempts at a 6.73 yards-per-attempt average and has thrown three touchdowns to four interceptions.

It's hard to gauge Schaub's confidence at this point, but it's safe to assume it's been better in the past. 

Schaub needs to put his interceptions behind him. 

More specifically, he can't lock onto the area in which he plans to throw the football and must hit a few downfield plays so cornerbacks don't continue to squat on short routes.

Things look bleak for Matt Schaub and the Houston Texans, and improvement must come quickly, but the AFC is wide open. 

Follow @ChrisTrapasso