Matt Schaub Is Having His Best and Worst Season Simultaneously for Texans

Matt Schaub is an absolute conundrum. He is the Houston Texans' most irreplaceable player, but in many regards he is having his worst season or one of his worst. However, he is also simultaneously having his best season where it matters most.

The Texans have already lost Mario Williams for the year, Arian Foster for three games and Andre Johnson for at least four games, and DeMeco Ryans has not looked like his Pro Bowl self all year. Despite all of this, the team is looking as good as it has ever looked.

This is even more surprising when you look at Schaub's stats and see that he is completing passes at the lowest rate of his career since becoming a starter. Schaub's completion percentage is at 60.2 percent, which puts him 21st in the NFL. It also puts him behind Tarvaris Jackson, Cam Newton and Donovan McNabb (who is now riding the bench).

Of the first eight games Schaub has essentially had two very good games, one pretty good game, and five poor games. In Week 3 against the Saints, Schaub had 373 yards, three touchdowns, one interception and a 56.4 completion percentage. Unfortunately, the defense wasted his best effort of the season when it couldn't hold on to a two-score lead in the fourth quarter.

He had another good game against Tennessee, throwing for 296 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions and a 78.3 completion percentage.

Aside from those games, Schaub has not been fantastic. Against Oakland he threw for 417 yards and two touchdowns, but he also threw two interceptions and only completed 47.1 percent of his passes. In the other five games he has not broken the 230-yard mark. He is also on pace to be sacked more this year than in any other year in his career.

So how is it that the team has a 5-3 record and sole possession of first place in the AFC South? Schaub has done an excellent job of taking care of the ball. One of the most overused phrases in football is that if you win the turnover ratio, you win the game, and he has done just that for his team.

Schaub is sporting a career-best 13:5 touchdown to interception ratio. He has not put his team in bad situations, and for the first time in his career the defense has stepped up and helped him win games. The team is second in the AFC and fifth in the NFL in turnover margin.

As long as Schaub is able to stay away from the turnovers, the defense and running game are enough to keep them in a game against absolutely anybody. This defense is far from the 2000 Ravens defense, but Schaub is a much better quarterback than Trent Dilfer. I am not calling for the Texans to win the Super Bowl, but I am saying this is a strategy that works, and the Texans shouldn't be afraid of any team in the NFL.