The people who should be fired are Rick Smith and the entire defensive coaching staff. Kubiak is an offensive guy. Our offense is not the problem. Our talent on offense is also fine. He obviously has much to say about the talent on that side of the ball. Rick Smith is ultimately responsible for talent on the team and the talent is low. The corners are terrible. The secondary is terrible. The pressure is terrible. He is trying to save the owner money by trying to act smarter than he is. Run him out of town, bring in a hard nose GM, and a big name D coordinator with his own staff.
Who are these "big name" defensive coordinators that are available? The only one I can think of right now is Wade Phillips. Unfortunately, the only way to improve and get an established DC is to offer the head coach job to one of the better current DC out there (like Ryan in Cleveland). Regardless of whether or not Kubiak is here, the defense needs to improve. If they can guarantee that, I don't really care too much if Kubiak stays... problem is, you may not be able to guarantee it without getting rid of him.
Kubiak makes Les Miles look competent at managing games. Case in point from today (there's at least 1 each week): final drive of the 1st half.
The only bad move was not calling a timeout. And that could have been on Matt Shaub. Plus that is pretty freaking small compared to ANYTHING that happened on offense.
I do think Kubiak should get another season but seriously he's screwed up plenty of things on offense. This stupid thing about offensive balance when the defense can't stop the running game. The Colts game where his left tackle was coming off a four game suspension and we gave him no help on Freeney the whole damn game. The horrible clock management decisions every damn game. The lack of imagination in maybe using Slaton in the slot as opposed to Jacoby Butterfingers. There's plenty of blame to go around for Kubes.
The colts game is the one game where the offense really messed up. Not got dominated or beaten, but just made a huge huge mistake.
I agree its pretty small but its just a small example of how bad is game management has been over the years. He is in Schaub's ear, so he could have told him to call a TO. Or he is the head coach, the one in charge, he should have called the TO himself.
Kubiak is in charge of all of them. There is no case for keeping him and not the others. Bottom line is that he is responsible for what this team does. Rick Smith is nothing more than a salary negotiator, working out the contracts for the guys that Kubiak and the coaching staff want and exploring trade options. At most he is equal in power with Kubiak, certainly not a true "general manager".
In a nanosecond. But he's had enough success to probably be able to hold out for a head coaching gig prior to having to become a coordinator again.
Small? What was the final score again? If it was an isolated incident, that would be one thing. He has done inexplicably dumb stuff like this since his 1st game. He isn't going to get better/smarter at it.
So get a true GM then and let him call the shots. I think people who advocate keeping Kubiak are the ones who appreciate his ability to build and run this offense. You get rid of him, a new coach likely rebuilds things from scratch. Especially if its a "defensive minded" head coach... but ultimately, they need defensive improvement far more than they need "game managing" improvement.
Cowhers would be great, but isn't a McNair guy. Who's that former HC of Indianapolis, fairly religious, who is now doing color commentary? He is a McNair guy; and knows the Colts.
Like I said in the rest of my reply, its one more in the many instances of his bad game management. But I agreed with him that it was small compared to everything else that happened on offense today.
No. He's a horrible game manager and doesn't understand how to take necessary risks that other coaches do. Case in point - Running the ball 3 times down near the goal line when a pass on 3rd down gives you a chance to put the game away. Instead you take 3 points and watch your burnt toast secondary give up 70 yards before you can blink.
Don't forget the same thing happened at the end of the half last week. There wasn't as much time, but they had 3 timeouts, and were trying to run a hurry up offense, yet didn't use any of the TOs.
