Unsung(?) Hero: Matt Schaub Saves The Day

Maybe the more correct title would be, "Not Nearly Sung Enough Hero," because this week's spotlight player did get some praise - just not enough praise.¹

Let's start with his stat-line for Week Six. As you can see above, Matt Schaub had a great passing day. A week after a dreadful performance, Schaub ended Sunday's game with an impressive QB Rating of 123.9 -  his fifth-best rating in a Texans uniform. As a side stat, the Texans are 15-4 when the better #8 posts a QB Rating over 100.

To make yesterday more impressive, Schaub's big day also came against one of the league's better secondaries - as Kansas City fans were happy to remind us about during the week leading up to the game. Raw numbers aside, Matt Schaub played as good of a game as I can remember.

Sunday was a day where the three-second internal clock was working for Schaub. The two sacks he took were on the fault of the interior offensive line getting beat quickly as opposed to the many coverage sacks he has taken this season. Whenever Schaub couldn't find anyone, he was able to get out of the pocket and either extend plays, find his check-down option, or throw the ball away.

Forcing a pass to triple-covered Andre Johnson? Not this Sunday for Matt Schaub. Half of his completions went to running backs and tight ends. There were no stupid decisions, no stupid interceptions, and the only play where people got nervous was the slant to Jacoby Jones, during the 4th quarter, when Chiefs CB Brandon Flowers tried to jump the route and whiffed.

In the game thread during the fourth quarter, people were expecting the game-losing Stupid INT of the Game, but Schaub remained calm, took what the defense gave him, and marched down the field on three touchdown-producing drives. During his brilliant fourth quarter, Schaub was 11/14 for 155 yards, eight first downs, and a touchdown - the game-winner. Matt Schaub supporter or not, you can't argue against that kind of near-flawless performance in crunch time. As Gary Kubiak said post-game, it takes a special kind of quarterback to perform like that in the fourth quarter. Going forward, we can all hope that #8 continues to perform as he did this past Sunday and not make those mistakes which plagued him in the first month of the season.

Of course, Matt Schaub's not a big spotlight guy. If people want to lavish praise on The Great One or get excited about Owen Daniels' health, he'd probably be all for it because those two make his job easier. He's endured his share of criticism this year for the passing game's sluggish start, but Schaub silently answered back Sunday with one of his best performances in deep steel blue. For leading the Texans to their fourth victory while, somehow, not getting nearly enough praise for his clutch performance, Matt Schaub is this week's unsung hero not-nearly-sung-enough hero.

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1 I have to say that I nearly picked RB Derrick Ward as the unsung hero, but he only had three carries so I went with Schaub. I felt he had gotten lost in the post-game comments, as I said in the post. However, y'all can make a case for Ward, or anyone else, below in the comments.