Bye Week Check-In: Community Projections, Defense

Remember a couple of months ago? We were still in the preseason, anxious for Texans football, optimistic, and all that? You know, before we had to watch the Frank Bush defense go to work for 6 games? It was a good time.

I asked a bunch of you to figure out how many tackles and sacks and so on that certain players on the team would have. The caveat being that the closest finisher would receive something Texans-related that was cheap and on the internet. We've already looked at the offense, so let's focus our eyes on the defense.

Mario Williams
SEASON STATS: 9 tackles, 5 sacks, 6 (assists/forced fumbles/passes defensed/INTs)
PRORATED TO FULL SEASON: 24 tackles, 13.3 sacks, 16 (A/FF/PD/INT)
Tiebreaker: Which defensive lineman will have the second-most tackles? (Amobi Okoye, 8)

Closest BRB members:
myself, 44 tackles, 14.5 sacks, 12 other (Okoye)
krkenney, 45 tackles, 10.5 sacks, 15 other (Smith)
JimboTexan, 43 tackles, 10 sacks, 13 other (Smith)
Rip Jersey, 44 tackles, 13 sacks, 14 other (Smith)
NWestTexan, 48 tackles, 11 sacks, 16 other (Barwin)

Right now, Mario is vastly underperforming his tackle numbers, so almost everyone in the race for this coveted prize undershot the field there. JimboTexan has the most to gain from that, but sacks and other will also play a really big part in the winner. If anyone can nail a perfect score there, that would probably shift the prize to them.

DeMeco Ryans
SEASON STATS: 30 tackles, 1 sack, 19 (assists/forced fumbles/passes defensed/iNT's)
PRORATED TO FULL SEASON: *sob* The same numbers.
Tiebreaker: Asked to provide the number of tackles Brian Cushing would make this season (4, on pace for 24)

Closest BRB members:
Winner: ChadillacSHSU, 85 tackles, 1.5 sack, 37 (A/FF/PD/INT) (-73.5)
Runnerup: me, 96 tackles, 0.5 sacks, 36 (A/FF/PD/INT) (-93.5)

In death, there is life, and as the Texans are shoveling dirt on their already undead defense, at least we can all take solace that ChadillacSHSU bested the competition by undercutting everyone's numbers and having it hold up due to injury. Kudos to you, Chad, if I can call you that. You'll be rewarded at season's end.

Kareem Jackson
SEASON STATS: 19 tackles, 1 interception, 11 (forced fumbles/passes defensed/assists/sacks)
PRORATED TO FULL SEASON: 50.6 tackles, 2.6 interceptions, 29.33 (FF/PD/A/SCK)
Tiebreaker: Asked to provide the number of tackles Bernard Pollard would make this season (35, on pace for 93)

Closest BRB members: 
ChadillacSHSU, 49 tackles, 2 interceptions, 26 (FF/PD/A/SCK)
Joe25: 58 tackles, 3 interceptions, 22 (FF/PD/A/SCK)
kstillwell9: 56 tackles, 2 interceptions, 24 (FF/PD/A/SCK)
krkenney, 45 tackles, 2 interceptions, 8 (FF/PD/A/SCK)
Andre4000: 48 tackles, 5 interceptions, 17 (FF/PD/A/SCK)

Most people decided that Kareem Jackson would either be great or shitty. Ergo, most numbers were either all low or all high, and we didn't have a whole lot of mixed ballots. Those who did mix are ahead right now, and Joe, Chad, and stillwell have to be considered the favorites. krkenney and Andre4000 lead a class of people hoping that Kareem Jackson either gets benched, starts picking off more balls, or completely stops contributing in assists and passes defensed.