USA Today preseason power rankings

[houstonsportsfan09]

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/2007-07-07-power-rankings_N.htm
I dont know if these have been posted before but here they are. And no I am not trying to say or point out the media hates us or we get no attention. Thats nothing new, Im just showing their PR, although they probably mean nothing.

[HJam72]

I would say they did extremely little research, and really don't care if what they say is true or not--as long as most people are unaware of what a 1/20th effort they put into it.

[painekiller]

Not concerned about preseason ranks. Come talk to me when the season is over.

[Jwwillis1]

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/2007-07-07-power-rankings_N.htm
I dont know if anyone else saw them, but in my opinion, they are way off and suck. Go take a look, especially at the Texans but you might have to scroll down some before you get to them.(hint hint)


Yes we saw it. I added the comment to an existing "the national media hates us" thread named "This is just ridiculous"

[caddy]

I guess they just don't buy " Letting Carr go will improve of offensive line"

[CoogBull]

I'm not impressed with the rankings. I'm no homer, but this team is better than they get credit for. I love bashing this team during the season, but even I can see that they are much better.
Most sportswriters know little about the teams they cover besides basic player names and some stats. Everyone employs heuristics for each team because it is impossible to know every thing about every team. There are little clues that pop into the heads of these guys when dealing with each team.
For the Texans it is "the o-line sucks." That is the first thing that comes up when anyone talks about the Texans regardless of whether or not we improved or not. NFL writers are ignoring the fact that we are draftng good o-line talent in the later rounds. When you talk about Atlanta, the conversation will start with something about Michael Vick. When you talk about Indy people wax poetic about Peyton and their wonderful offense, while not even mentioning their severe problems on defense. The Giants discussions are consumed with Eli Manning and Jeremy Shockey even though both of these players have had some mediocre seasons.
The point is that the Texans are not going to get respect for a long time, perhaps until we win the division. We came out with more wins than predicted last year but no one notices. Yet the Jags get a pass for continuing to under perform.
Most people are complaining about our off season moves and the fact that our QB is "unproven." Schaub is more proven than JeMarcus and Quinn, but the Browns are getting more love than we are and no one questions whether or not JeMarcus will lift the Raiders. All the talk about the Raiders is how their bad front office is hobbling a future superstar.
The Texans are not playoff contenders this year, but they are a legit .500 team. I see a lot of people expecting us to be worse this year than last year, but most of these people are just VY/RB holdouts. The rest of us have moved on and can see that this team is getting better.
I remain firm with my 8-8 or 7-9 predicitons. The addition of Bethel Johnson intrigues and worries me. Will he breakout and prove himself a worthy #2, or will he fizzle like Mathis?
In conclusion, the Texans are better than 31. They will be in the twenties over teams like the Chiefs, Cards, and Raiders. They will break our hearts this year at times, but they will also make them dance on occasion.
Be happy, show your support, and Go Texans.

[texun]

The power rankings seem about right to me - although I would rank us about 4 spots higher. I understand that with the acquisitions, draft picks and trades we made in the off season that we are a much better team than last year. However, the rankings are based on last years performance and this years perceived potential.
I too am tired of being a bottom feeder but until we prove it on the field, we will continue to be at the bottom of lists like this. It's time to prove them wrong.

[TexansTrueFan]

31 ??? Are u serious we werent even the worst team last year and we are that bad on their rankings, Did they not happen to see our Defense the last 10 games of last season, we ranked in the top 10 ! Do these people research any of their choices besides the number 1 ranked team ?

[Sarg]

I actually thought Oakland's write up was even better.
"... the Raiders could approach .500 after four consecutive dismal seasons."
However, they ranked them #32. So apparently every team in the league is going to finish 8-8 or better!

[HuttoKarl]

I actually thought Oakland's write up was even better.
"... the Raiders could approach .500 after four consecutive dismal seasons."
However, they ranked them #32. So apparently every team in the league is going to finish 8-8 or better!



Parity.

[Zagen30]

[|-)]
At this point "TEXANOS OL SI A TEH 5UXX0R5" comments are boring and old.

[Insideop]

I'm not concerned with the preseason power rankings by someone who knows nothing about our team. I don't mind being the underdog because I believe we are going to surprise alot of people this year.
I really believe Kubes and Smith are building a great team, but it doesn't happen over night. Let all the "nay sayers" talk about how we screwed up the drafts and write their stories about how bad we are going to be. All I know is what I've seen on the field last year and who we've taken in the draft and FA these past 2 years has me believing that Kubes and Smith are creating a special team that I hope will be Super Bowl Champions in the near future. Will it be this year or next year? I don't think so, but you never know. Stranger things have happened in sports. Anyway, when it does happen, there will be alot of those "nay sayers" trying to "jump on the bandwagon!" JMHO!

[ObsiWan]

how the hell are detroit and cleveland better than us?
i don't understand why the media hates us so much. our o-line isn't that bad, and thats the first thing that comes to mind when you mention the texans. its all because of bull**** programming network and their ****ed reggie bush/vince young ****.

Because Detroit (Calvin Johnson) and Cleveland (J.Thomas & B. Quinn) drafted the first round guys the talking heads said they should have drafted, like an obedient little franchise. Not like you stubborn, independent thinking Texans.
Oakland behaved too, but they hate Al Davis even more than us.
[:)]

[football-fan]

No, its not the media. Our offensive line was bad last year. Even Flanagan said last year, that the offensive line needed to improve. And he should know, he plays on it.
That's why the Texans were going to take either Joe Thomas or Levi Brown with the 1st pick. But, they were gone.
But, I agree that we are better than Det and Clev.

[koshea]

its not that other teams follow what the media hypes up because before the draft Okoye was one of the most talked about draftees, but once the texans picked him, his youth is going to make him bad and mentaly weak and hes too small

[Zagen30]

No, its not the media. Our offensive line was bad last year. Even Flanagan said last year, that the offensive line needed to improve. And he should know, he plays on it.
That's why the Texans were going to take either Joe Thomas or Levi Brown with the 1st pick. But, they were gone.
But, I agree that we are better than Det and Clev.

OL needing to improve =/= bad OL. An OL could be middle-of-the-road and still need to improve. Heck, the Colts' OL could probably use some improvement (but not that much, although Peyton probably makes them look somewhat better than they are).
And how do you know that the Texans would have taken Levi? I think you might be getting whom the Texans wanted to take with whom the media said they should take. Now Joe Thomas would probably have been the pick for us in the .000000000000000249% chance that he fell to #10, but Levi wasn't a certain thing.

[ubecool454]

how the hell are detroit and cleveland better than us?
i don't understand why the media hates us so much. our o-line isn't that bad, and thats the first thing that comes to mind when you mention the texans. its all because of bull**** programming network and their ****ed reggie bush/vince young ****.
The hatred of the Texans are fueled by the NFL offices in NYC who didn't even want the team here in the first place. They let Bud move because we wouldn't build a stadium for his underachieving team. Why don't they make the Jets move, they allow them to share a stadium. Most of the sportwriters that comment on this team are nothing more than bobbleheads that just go with the flow. They hate that Houston is the 3rd richest franchise in the NFL and haven't won anything yet. They hate Houston so much that they would give a small market team like Tampa the 2009 superbowl instead of bringing it back here. I think the NFL offices in NYC think Bob Mcnair is getting to big to fast. As soon as the 2004 superbowl was over..weeks later Bob McNair fills up his stadium for 20 plus days of sellouts with the rodeo. Let them hate on houston..they will all be looking for space on the bandwagon soon.

[NBT]

We will keep getting this crap from the eastern media heads until we finally start to win and contend consistantly.

[scotai]

This ranking is BEYOND laughable.

Titans, Bills, Browns, Bucks, LIONS....are you FREAKING kidding me?!?!

This season's success will taste THAT MUCH more sweet when we can copy/paste all of their idiotic predictions of the TEXANS in the cellar.

I can NOT wait for the season can begin!

[pushmback]

This "poer ranking" is certainly RANK! It stinks so bad, it ought to be blown up and taped in every player's locker for motivation! Hell, I'm fired up - and I don't even have a locker! Go Texans - ROMP and TROMP this year... revenge is gonna' be sweett!!

[ObsiWan]

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/2007-07-07-power-rankings_N.htm
I dont know if these have been posted before but here they are. And no I am not trying to say or point out the media hates us or we get no attention. Thats nothing new, Im just showing their PR, although they probably mean nothing.

What I want to know is how we lost seven spots in the rankings during the off-season. At the end of the regular season Fox Sports had us ranked at 24 and climbing...
http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/powerRankings
ESPN had us ranked one spot lower at 25.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/powerranking
Maybe the east coast media doesn't really hate us, you tell me. I offer Exhibit "A" - this little submittal from SI.com's Dr. Z in his end-of-season team rankings. He had us ranked 28th behind Washington and Arizona who both finished 5-11 and Miami, who we beat, but like us finished 6-10.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/dr_z/01/03/ranks.part3/index.html
28 http://i.cnn.net/si/images/football/nfl/logos/texans_65.gif (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/nfl/teams/texans/)Houston Texans (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/nfl/teams/texans/) (6-10)
No, I didn't see those surprising upsets that marked their record. I saw them as the worst team in football at 3-13.
Naaah... we're just paranoid; they have all the respect in the world for the Texans. Explain to me how all those teams leap-frogged us during the off-season.

[football-fan]

OL needing to improve =/= bad OL. An OL could be middle-of-the-road and still need to improve. Heck, the Colts' OL could probably use some improvement (but not that much, although Peyton probably makes them look somewhat better than they are).
And how do you know that the Texans would have taken Levi? I think you might be getting whom the Texans wanted to take with whom the media said they should take. Now Joe Thomas would probably have been the pick for us in the .000000000000000249% chance that he fell to #10, but Levi wasn't a certain thing.Thats right, nobody is a certain thing in the NFL. So, Okoye is a sure thing, but Thomas and Brown
aren't. Is this like M. Williams, who didn't get close to expectations?
And your comparing the Colts OF line to the Texans?
I suggest you start watching the NFL football games, instead of of reading about it.