[Matt Jackson's Twitter] Rick Dennison will be the Texans offensive coordinator

With the tough schedule next year, it's more likely the Texans either fall back or stay status quo record wise.

 

First off, Cowher wanted to come here. Bob should have made the decision to axe Gary 60 - 70 % of the way through the year when it was obvious what was happening. Wait until the end of the year, announce it while having a handshake deal with Cowher already in place.. Guys were healthy and had grown into their roles, yet Kubiak was clearly over his head.
Championship level coaches help put their team in position to win ..not the
reverse.It's my contention that he's a good builder, but isn't the fella to take us to the next level.

Regarding those Jets, it was clear he didn't have us ready to play to start the year against them. The Texans were still in preseason mode. Now, I know we had injuries and needed to grow, but that opener was inexcusable.
Also, if the Texans had taken care of business (in the second half)you would be able to see how much talent we have as they would have dusted NY or Cincy. (in spite of Kubiak) this weekend.


On Slaton ...Yes, the Texans tried to "bulk" him up so he could carry the ball 25 - 30 times/game. In the process he lost his speed to the hole and hurt himself. Then Kubes and co. said they knew about the injury 30 - 40% through the season yet were still trotting him out there.
Instead of evaluating the situation without bias ...... admitting to themselves that they'd made a huge mistake .....And procuring a major missing piece, the Texans sat on their hands.

Make no mistake the Texans had more than enough to go the playoffs and at least win the first game ..... Now, we get that brutal schedule ...and with Kubes at the helm for the duration. I take consolation in that we will add a RB and CB to the show. There are other areas like the DLine where Okoye needs to finish growing up ......But we will have enough to overcome Gary's deficiencies over the course of a season I think.

BUT ....Come playoff time we will pay the piper for not getting rid of him.

It's a shame because this team should have enough talent to contend for the whole enchilada and would have playoff experience from this year tucked into their belts.

 

How do you know this for a fact?

 

It was widely reported that Houston was one of two teams where Cowher wanted to coach next year.

 

everyone was saying how awful our schedule was going to be this year and we did ok. it's impossible to predict an nfl season when the previous one isn't even over yet.

 

There has been speculation about Cowher, but you can't simply say "he wanted to come here". Furthermore, there is no reason to believe McNair would've written him the fat check he wanted, considering he would basically have to makeover the team to fit his style (especially the defense). The Texans simply aren't in a position to be that patient- they have to let this Kubiak team play out, for better or worse, to give it a chance. Otherwise we'll be sitting around for another couple of years of mediocrity while another coach re-tools.

This isn't to say we'll ever get anywhere with Kubiak, because we might not. But McNair had virtually no choice than to give it one more year to play out, especially with so much support from the players for Kub.

As far as the Jets, we were ready to play, it's just painfully obvious that Rex Ryan's defense has our number (going back to last years Baltimore game). Let's just hope we never have to face it in the playoffs.

 

Refman brought this up early and I think it deserves some merit.

I'm not sure how long it would have taken for us to procure the needed parts to make the conversion to the 3-4 and actually implement it. I like to think it wouldn't have taken two years though.

Bob obviously feels we ARE priced into Kubes to a degree, for better or worse, for awhile.

I'll root for these guys, but color me pissed since midseason at what could have been.

Let's hope that we make some nice acquisitions in the offseason and that Dennison has an impact on the sidelines.

Go Texans!

 

Knowing our luck, we'll go 10-6 next year and miss the playoffs by a tiebreaker again and be stuck in the same position we are now about Kubiak (and I think it's a contract year for him).

 

So what do you do? 10-6 but miss the playoffs, its the end of the year, Kubiak's contract is up(assuming he doesnt get one between now and before the end of next year). Give him another one or thanks but no thanks, we're going in a different direction?

 

Edit: assuming he doesnt get an extension between now and before the end of next year

 

Tough call, but I think you have to keep him around. Unless, like this year, you can blame a loss or two squarely on the playcalling/personnel choices (@Jax, @Ariz IMO), which would indicate that Kubiak has not grown whatsoever as a coach.

Or if we go 1-5 in the division again, it's probably time to change. But it'd be hard to go 10-6 and only win one division game with next years schedule as it looks now.

I think by the end of next year, with another draft and FA, it'll be very obvious as to whether Kubiak can lead us. There is no NFC West on the schedule to bulk up the win total.

 

I disagree. Texans are real close to being something special. They need to correct the running game and beef up the secondary. If they can fix these things...mark my words they will make a giant leap from mediocrity to super bowl contender.

 

There's no way to know how hard next year's schedule is going to be until we actually play it. There is so much parity in the NFL that great teams can be bad teams and bad teams can be great teams the following year.

 

While true, I think people fall back on this a bit. Sure, every year a team that was supposed to be good misses the playoffs (Steelers..though, really the only team this year that absolutely falls into that category) and a team that wasn't good the prior year wins 10+ games (Bengals).

But in the whole, and because, as you noted, the only way to know how hard a schedule is is to play it, when it comes to predicting ahead of time, you can do it with some accuracy.

The Texans in division games will continue to be tough. It doesn't matter how good or bad the squads are. The Texans have trouble with these games.

Of the other 10 games, they get San Diego, Baltimore, Dallas, Eagles, Jets, Giants, Broncos, Raiders, Redskins, Chiefs

The Chiefs, Redskins and Raiders have been bad for multiple years now. The Chargers, Eagles, Cowboys have been good during the regular season for multiple years now. The Ravens have now been good for a few years. The Jets are better, and no reason they shouldn't improve. The Giants are hit and miss but tend to at least be solid during the regular season. Who knows with the Broncos?

One of the good teams may suck, but then the Chiefs might get a lot better. In either case, it projects out to be a difficult schedule.

It's been difficult being a Texans fan, but I'm hopeful Dennison will improve the offense and free up some time for Gary to help him take another step towards becoming a solid coach.

 

So Dennison comes from the Broncos AND went to Colorado State?!?

This hire is a no-brainer for Kubiak!

 

While changing the regime may not have changed everything, it sure would have helped. Kubiak is too passive. He has this "aw shucks" attitude to him. I wish Kubiak could be an ass sometimes. Way too relaxed. Plus, I wish he had the balls to look at the crucial plays on field. He always walks to other way or puts his head down.

If Cowher was the head coach, then we would have won a lot of more games this year. This team would not play relaxed just because we are leading. That's the way Cowher coaches.

And there is no doubt in my mind that Cowher would have came here this year had the job been open. He was already trying to assemble a staff (and this is when we were 5-7). I would take an 8-8 season for Cowher to be our head coach. McNair probably wouldn't have fired Kubiak then. He's too friendly and loyal to do that (and I don't mean that in a good way).

I don't have faith in Kubiak, but hopefully with Dennison, it'll change. Maybe Dennison will say "Kubes, a half-back pass in the red zone with Chris Brown? You have got to be kidding me. Throw a fade to AJ.".

 

People were saying how awful that four game divisional stretch would be...and it was awful as the Texans lost all four games. We played the NFC West this year. Nothing compared to the NFC East.

 

granted, there are a few play calls that were horrible, you are knocking a guy who had one of the best offensive productive teams in the nfl...lets not get too knit-picky

 

Uh...okay? And what good has that offensive productive team done for us because we sure as hell aren't in the playoffs. Kubiak doesn't have this team ready to play unless his job his on the line or we're out of playoff contention already. Maybe that means that next year, we'll go undefeated because it's playoffs or bust.

 

Basically, the Texans are a running offense away from being truly great. The inability to run the football, specifically in the red zone and other short yardage situations, is one of the main reasons why the Texans are 4th in total offense and 10th in scoring. That and fumbles. I think the Texans need to work on getting at least one mobile, but large OG so the Texans can do both power and ZBS. Maybe draft a OT with short arms and convert him to guard.