Matt Leinart: Why Houston Texans Season Went Down with Him

It is a sad day for the Houston Texans. For the second consecutive game they lost their starting quarterback for the season.

While the first loss was one they could have bounced back from, this one isn't. The difference is just too dramatic. 

It's sad for the Texans because frankly, they have everything else. They have the receivers in Andre Johnson, Jacoby Jones and Kevin Walter, all of whom have over 300 yards receiving. 

They have a tight end who can catch the ball in Owen Daniels, who actually leads the Texans in both yards and receptions. 

They have incredible runners in Arian Foster and Ben Tate, who could both and probably will, go over 1,000 yards this season. 

They have a defense that is arguably the best in the NFL, giving up the third fewest points and the fewest yards in the NFL. 

In essence, they had enough of a car that all they needed was a driver. Matt Leinart was enough to do that. He had enough NFL experience. To extend the metaphor, he had a driver's license even if he wasn't Tony Stewart. 

Now they are teaching a 16-year-old, pimply faced adolescent to drive using Tony Stewart's car. Imagine a NASCAR race with a "Student Driver" sign on top. That's the position that T.J. Yates is in. It's just too much car for the dude. 

Yates threw his first NFL pass of his life today. It's simply not realistic to expect that he's going to just seamlessly step in and take a team to a Super Bowl. 

Certainly he will learn, and from time to time he'll impress because he has so much "car" around him. But there are also going to be times when crashes into the wall, and the tougher the competition gets, the greater the chances of that are. 

Inevitably they will get to the postseason and once there they will crash. There will be smoke. There will flames. There will be shrapnel flying everywhere. It's will get ugly. 

The Texans have built a Super Bowl-caliber team, and with a healthy Matt, be it of the Leinart or Schaub variety, they are a threat to win the Super Bowl.

Without an experienced quarterback though, the Texans are going to have to wait until next year.