Matt Schaub Injury: What It Means for Remainder of Texans' 2011 Season

The impact of QB Matt Schaub's injury will be felt not only by the Houston Texans but the rest of the AFC. 

With Schaub at the helm, the Texans have had the best record in the AFC and were on their way to home-field advantage in the playoffs.

Ouch.

The Texans have already lost LB Mario Williams for the year and WR Andre Johnson for a long time. Now Schaub looks to be out for the season.

One good thing about this for Houston is the timing of the injury. Houston has an extra week to prepare backup QB Matt Leinart for the next matchup, against divisional foe Jacksonville Jaguars.

However, that is just a short-term comfort Band-Aid.

The Texans then will host the Atlanta Falcons and travel to Cincinnati after that. 

With teams like the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New England Patriots chasing Houston in the AFC for home-field advantage (so weird writing that and it actually be true), Houston cannot afford to lose very many games.

The problem with those two matchups for Houston is that both of them are top-five defenses against the run. This will mean that if Houston wants to move the ball at all, Leinart cannot be a non-factor and rely on just handing it off to Arian Foster and Ben Tate.

Leinart does not have to be great. He just has to be serviceable, meaning no turnovers and make smart plays.

That is pretty much what Schaub has done all season.

Houston is just 23rd in passing offense this season, as Schaub has just two games with more than 300 yards passing (and one 296-yard performance) and only one three-TD performance.

Other than that, he has been pretty much a solid, serviceable QB. 

Schaub has only thrown six picks this season, and that is what I am worried about. Leinart has never been a serviceable QB in the NFL—not once having more TDs than INTs in a season.

That is a recipe for disaster for a team looking to be at the top of the AFC at the end of the season.

Let's not forget about this defense, though.

Even with the loss of Williams and safety Danieal Manning, the Texans defense has continued to impress. It is second in the NFL in sacks, which has translated into forcing turnovers, and is third in interceptions.

If Houston is going to win, the play of the defense is going to be more important than ever. Keeping that defense fresh is going to be key.

Schaub may not have the statistics, but he definitely has been fantastic in third-down situations, finding the right passes to come up with conversions. Houston is currently sixth in the NFL in third-down conversions.

With Leinart, Houston will be forced to go to the run more often and become more predictable. That can only hurt Houston's ability to get first downs and stay on the field—and the defense off it.

Another issue will be the misdirection Houston likes to run. Leinart is left-handed, so he will have to roll out the opposite direction and those plays will have to be flipped.

After going so long with a righty at QB, there will be a transition period. Hopefully the bye week will fix those issues as the first unit get to be more comfortable with Leinart's throwing style. 

Those plays have been the bread and butter to keep the pass rush honest against Houston. If those plays are not effective, Houston will lose a big portion of the play book.

Now, this season is not lost all together. After the Falcons and Bengals games, the Houston Texans will have the Carolina Panthers, Indianapolis Colts and Tennessee Titans remaining on their schedule.

Those are all very winnable games, even without Schaub.

Unfortunately, winning just those three games (including the next game against Jacksonville) might not be enough to keep the No. 1 seed they possess right now.

I have to think they will need to beat either Atlanta or Cincinnati along with those other four games to get to 12 wins. 

However, with Leinart's tendency to turn the ball over like it's going out of style, no game really is going to be easy.—except for maybe the Colts. Not sure a football team exists that the Colts can beat.

In the end, it could be worse. At least it's not Dan Orlovsky.