HOUSTON -- Call it compassion or, perhaps, guilt.

Whatever it was, it brought Houston Texans tackle Ryan Young to the doorstep of rookie quarterback David Carr's Sugar Land home on an off day early in the season.

"From now on, when you get sacked more than two times we're going to pay for your massage," Young told Carr.

Usually, it's the quarterback or the running back buying gifts for his offensive linemen. Still, Carr accepted the offer and, with the exception of only two weeks, he's been getting his aching muscles smoothed out courtesy of his blockers -- which, somehow, seems appropriate.

	Carr (8) reacts to another to yet another disappointing moment this season.

"If we were blocking better, we'd probably have a little more money in our pocket," acknowledged Chester Pitts, the rookie left tackle. "I mean, it's something that I'm not proud about. As an offensive lineman, it's not something you shoot for."

Pitts, sitting for an interview in the (vacant) cheerleaders locker room last week underneath brand-new Reliant Stadium, laughed as he finished his thought. It isn't funny, really, but sometimes it's easier to laugh than cry.

The Texans, you see, have made history of a dubious kind in their first expansion season.

Carr, the first choice in the 2002 NFL draft, has been sacked 73 times through the first 15 games. The individual single-season record belonged to Randall Cunningham, who was decked 72 times when he was a rookie in 1986. This means Carr has absorbed punishment at an unprecedented level. In a season of spectacular assaults on cherished records -- from Marvin Harrison's smashing of Herman Moore's reception mark to Rich Gannon's pursuit of Dan Marino's single-season passing yards to Priest Holmes' run at Marshall Faulk's touchdown standard -- this is a record no one wants.

If you are an offensive lineman, this doesn't generate many pleasant conversations.

"That's all they ask me about every day," said center Steve McKinney. "They're making such a big production about it, but they've got to write about something around here."

Added Pitts, "You're not very proud of it being mentioned in a sentence with your name or your team or your offensive line, but it's a kind of thing where we've earned it, so we have to deal with it."

So, who does Carr feel sorriest for -- himself or the linemen that are also enduring their share of hits for their performance?

"I feel bad for them sometimes, because they get a bad rap," Carr said. "I've got to get the ball out of my hands quicker, the receivers have to get open, the play has to be right … sometimes it's not all their fault."

On paper, the Texans made all the right moves as they assembled their team. General manager Charley Casserly, knowing he was going to take Carr with the No. 1 overall pick of the regular draft, snagged tackles Tony Boselli (Jacksonville) and Young (N.Y. Jets) with the first two choices of the expansion draft back in February. Trouble was, Boselli's shoulders were never quite right. He never played a down for the Texans this season. He said his right shoulder has healed, but the left remains problematic; he hopes to return next year.

And so, the job of protecting Carr's blindside fell to Pitts, the team's second pick of the second round out of San Diego State. Tennessee's Fred Weary, the starting right guard, was the third-round draft choice. Even with veterans Cameron Spikes (left guard), McKinney and Young, it has been a struggle.

"Putting five pieces together in the offensive line is probably the most difficult thing that you have to go through," said Chris Palmer, the Texans' offensive coordinator.

Palmer should know. He was the head coach for the born-again Cleveland Browns in 1999, when quarterback Tim Couch experienced more than his share of turbulence.

"Look at Cleveland," Palmer said, "they're still trying to solve their offensive line situation. I knew this was going to be very difficult."

Said McKinney, "You look around and you see you're playing with rookies, young guys that haven't played and everybody's learning a new system -- all with a rookie quarterback -- we all knew coming in that there were going to be a lot of bumps and bruises."

There are times when six of the 11 offensive players on the field are rookies: Carr, Pitts, Weary and three skill position players (wide receiver Jabar Gaffney and running backs Jonathan Wells and Jarrod Baxter). The results have been predictably gruesome. The Texans are ranked 32nd (last) in total offense and there are those pesky sacks.

	“	You know, you're not dead, you're not in the hospital, you thank God you're fine and you go back, and that's why you wear the pads and why you play the game. ”
		— QB David Carr, on the pounding he's taken this season

"It's something that's going to make you work hard during the season," Carr said. "I look at it that way."

Standing tall
The rousing franchise-opening victory over the Dallas Cowboys produced six sacks of Carr. The follow-up against the San Diego Chargers resulted in a staggering (literally) nine put-downs, followed by four against Indianapolis, then seven at Philadelphia, five against Buffalo, eight versus Cleveland and another four by Jacksonville. And that was only the first half of the season.

There are times when Palmer finds himself up in the press box, binoculars trained on a prone Carr, saying, "Get up, get up, get up."

McKinney and Pitts both say there are times when they ask him if he's OK and Carr nods -- even though he's having difficulty breathing or his eyes are slightly crossed.

"At times," Carr said, "I don't know if I should get up."

But, so far, he's gotten to his feet every time, displaying uncommon courage. He has taken all 881 offensive snaps this season and is on course to become the first rookie quarterback to take each and every potentially painful snap in an expansion team's first season.

In the Texans' first June camp, Boselli came up to Palmer on the sidelines.

"He looks like a pretty good player," Boselli told him. "The only question that the team will have is how tough he is."

So how tough is he?

"How tough is tough?" Pitts asked rhetorically. "David is a man out there."

There have been times -- the San Diego fiasco, for instance -- when head coach Dom Capers has been criticized for leaving Carr in the game. But Capers has said that sometimes leadership is a demonstrated ability.

Said Boselli, "He's stood in there and I've been impressed. I think the value of what Dave's learned this year will lead to a great career and I think he will be the leader of this team."

On several occasions, Palmer and Capers have discussed taking him out for a breather.

"Chris will get on the phone and he'll say some things that I kind of get the hint that he's giving me an out, but I never really get that far," Carr said. "I never really get past that point."

True, according to Palmer. "I've asked him, 'Do you want out?' " Palmer said. "He's come back with a very, very strong 'no.' He's in with both feet, he's going to see this thing through."

Explained Carr, "I like to think that I can get the guys going by giving them a little inspiration after a big sack or a big hit. Sometimes quarterbacks get bad raps for being soft and that's another reason I want to stand in there and take hits for the guys.

"You know, you're not dead, you're not in the hospital, you thank God you're fine and you go back, and that's why you wear the pads and why you play the game."

Considering the considerable chaos around him, Carr has a remarkable sense of calm. He has talked to Peyton Manning, Troy Aikman, Trent Dilfer and others about the horrors of a rookie season. Their advice: This, too, shall pass.

As the season has progressed, so has the line's ability to protect Carr. There were 43 sacks in the first seven games, but the figure over the last eight is a mere 30. Palmer said that his Browns knocked off about 20 sacks from the first-year total in the second season of 2000 and expects the same to happen in Houston. Carr, for his part, says about a dozen of those sacks could have been avoided if he had been smarter in getting rid of the ball.

There is a surprisingly upbeat attitude as the Texans finish off their first season. Maybe it's because the big record -- the team record for sacks -- is beyond their grasp.

Prompted by all the questions, McKinney did some research on the subject and discovered that those 1986 Philadelphia Eagles of Cunningham's allowed an amazing 104 sacks. Seventy-two were credited on the scramble-happy Cunningham who played mostly on third downs, 22 to veteran Ron Jaworski, nine more to third-stringer Matt Cavanaugh and one to running back Keith Byars.

"We're not worried about that record," McKinney said. "We're not going to get that one."

Carr agreed. "Yeah," he said. "No thanks."

Greg Garber is a senior writer at ESPN.com.