Shocking as this may seem, Matt Schaub is arguably the best quarterback in Houston Texans history.

Yet his legacy may be defined by a moment in the Houston Texans 2011 season that could’ve altered history. How could it have been different? There’s only one way to know.

Recently, I’ve been asking myself a question that I sometimes wonder. The 2011 Houston Texans season was a defining one. We now know that Houston started 3-3 before winning four straight games with Matt Schaub as the quarterback. But after the win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, we found out that Schaub was lost for the season with a lisfranc injury.

Houston did recover as third-string quarterback TJ Yates led them to the playoffs with a 10-6 record and a playoff victory. However, the Texans would lose in the Divisional Round vs. the Baltimore Ravens.

While I consider the season a success, I sometimes wonder what would’ve happened if Schaub had not gone down. Would the Texans reach the Super Bowl? Would the Texans reach the playoffs? I decided to find out.

I found a website called WhatIfSports.com, which simulates matchups of past and present teams in hypothetical scenarios.

So I decided to use this website to help me determine what would’ve happened with Schaub in the lineup.

What to Expect!

I’m going to give you the results of the experiment starting with the Jacksonville Jaguars game in Week 12. We will replay the weeks for however long the season goes and compare notes with the actual scores of the season.

Keep these things in mind.

1) Andre Johnson and Mario Williams are in the lineup. I know they were hurt for much of the season and I forgot that they were in the simulations. But we can also add both to the lineup since they won’t be hurt in our trials.

2) This is not to say the results of the experiment would’ve been truly accurate. Just because the score says one thing does not mean it would’ve been like that in real life.

3) I DID NOT in any way try to make the scores favorable to our side. I clicked on the match up once and the results you see our final.

So without further adieu, let’s go back to 2011. That’s Week 12 vs. the Jacksonville Jaguars as previously mentioned.