Tennessee Titans: What Matt Schaub's Injury Means for Titans' Playoff Hopes

Not that the AFC wasn't already wide open enough; now the season-ending injury for Matt Schaub has given the Tennessee Titans new life in making a run to the playoffs.

With Schaub out, the Houston Texans will turn to Matt Leinart as their starting quarterback for the rest of the season.

Despite how thin the Arizona Cardinals were at quarterback, they didn't see anything positive in keeping Leinart on their roster, and that should be a sign right there that the Texans could be in serious trouble.

The Titans currently sit a game-and-a-half behind the Texans in the standing, and they could trim that to a full game if they get a win over the Atlanta Falcons this week with the Texans on a bye week.

The Titans and the Texans won't meet for the final regular season meeting until the season finale at Reliant Stadium, and that could very well end up being for the division if Leinart plays better than expected.

It's safe to say that the Texans' offense isn't going to be nearly as explosive without Schaub at quarterback. Their vertical threat will be extremely limited with Leinart at quarterback.

The Titans' defense has proved to be very successful against limited quarterbacks this season, but has struggled against the really good ones.

One example of this came just this past week in a win over the Carolina Panthers when the Titans completely shut down Cam Newton.

We can chalk up Leinart as a limited quarterback until further notice.

Is it possible that Leinart will turn into the quarterback many thought he would be coming out of the college? Sure, but it's very unlikely. At least not right out of the gate.

This injury is the equivalent of two sprinters going head-to-head, one of them getting out to a decent lead, only to trip up halfway through to allow the other sprinter to close the gap.

Now the Titans will get a huge opportunity to close the gap.

What this injury really means for the Titans is that they have a second chance to make a run at this despite bringing some poor efforts in losses to teams like Jacksonville and Cincinnati.

If the Schaub injury never happened, then it would be hard to argue against the Texans staying in the driver's seat to win the AFC South.

If anything, it would be hard to count on the Titans winning their season finale against the Texans with Schaub under center.

Schaub has smoked the Titans for 12 touchdowns and just one interception since 2009.

The AFC wild card spot will be very hard to attain for the Titans with so many other viable teams fighting for those two spots, so winning the division is really the only option.

Leinart has remained a backup quarterback since 2007 when he was sidelined for Kurt Warner in Arizona.

Now Leinart will have to lead the Texans past another bump in the road, and that's nothing but good for the Titans.