Solomon: 'Enough is enough,' and Texans should fire Kubiak

Two good offensive teams unable to get over a hump due to defensive liabilities. The humps don't have to be the same for the situations to be similar. IMO, it's like arguing it's not the same because one team is called the Oilers and the other the Texans.

 

Probably had something to do with this:

1st and 10 at NYJ 28 (Shotgun) M.Sanchez pass short right to L.Tomlinson ran ob at NYJ 33 for 5 yards.
2nd and 5 at NYJ 33 (No Huddle, Shotgun) M.Sanchez pass short middle to L.Tomlinson to HST 48 for 19 yards (G.Quin).
1st and 10 at HOU 48 M.Sanchez spiked the ball to stop the clock.
2nd and 10 at HOU 48 (Shotgun) M.Sanchez pass deep right to B.Edwards pushed ob at HST 6 for 42 yards (E.Wilson).

The first two passes were underneath routes and the Texans probably got caught thinking that the Jets were going to dink and dunk underneath and not take a chance at a deep ball. So they sat on some inside routes thinking they'd have the deep ball covered with the safety help.

Good throw by Sanchez, terrible, terrible play by Wilson.

 

The Texans defense isn't fighting to get over the hump, they can barely see it. They're horrendous.

To your point that the humps don't have to be the same....well, they kind of do actually. Hence the use of the word similar. The situations can't be called comparable if they aren't. These two situations aren't comparable.

To use a basketball analogy again - it's a lot different situation deciding to replace JVG with Rick Adelman than it isfor the Grizzlies to replace Marc Iavornia with Lionel Hollins. The Grizzlies are trying to get over the hump of not sucking, despite having some modicum of talent, especially offensively, whereas the Rockets were trying to get over the hump of actually doing something once getting to the playoffs. Replacing Iavoroni was a no brainer. He was nothing special as a coach, and his team wasn't going anywhere. Replacing JVG required considerable deliberation.

And while it's not quantifiable, my personal view is that even if the Texans defense was much closer to the hump and starting to crawl up it, the team as a whole wouldn't be any better off anyway, because they'd just find other ways to be mediocre. They haven't been mediocre the same way each of the last 4 years, but they have always been mediocre.

 

Perhaps; but that brings up another thing that irks me about this coaching staff: They tend to get in their own way and outsmart themselves. LET 'EM DINK AND DUNK! They took 25 seconds to travel 24 yards. At that pace, their drive stalls at the 24-yard line.

I would have rushed 4 and dropped everyone else back into deep, wide coverage; Keep everyone in front of you and in the field of play.

 

I know even less about the specific of certain coverages than others here, but even I still don't see how that makes sense. the Jets had no timeouts. The defensive job is to take away the deep ball and the sidelines.

Short of taking away everything and playing solid defense overall, which any 5 year old could have told you this team isn't capable of doing, you'd actually WANT the Jets dinking and dunking underneath down the field, as ultimately they would simply run out of time.

Perhaps they still go down the field and score dinking and dunking, but again, know your strengths. The team has horrible coverage and has been consistently burned by long passes. The linebacking core and tackling at the safety position, at the least, can be described as ok. Let them spend 10 seconds for every 15 yards.

I don't recall and can't find exactly how much time was left before the big play. I see after the catch they called the timeout with 16 seconds left. Assuming that play took 15 seconds (I'd guess it took less, but to be conservative), that means in the first two plays plus the ball spike they gained 24 yards and it took them from 55 seconds down to 31 seconds - or 24 seconds. A yard a second dinking and dunking. They'd run out of clock.

EDIT ^^ Ric, exactly my thoughts. It's just coaching stupidity at its simplest.

 

That's the whole point of going with a dime/prevent. Force them to check down into those underneath routes, tackle them inbounds, let the clock win the game for you.

 

...that's not what they wanted???

 

Last year, I was shocked that McNair extended Kubiak, it was almost like he was taunting the fans. At the time it looked like a really dumb move. Well a year has passed, and you know what, it looks like a really dumb move.

Gary might be the nicest guy in the world, but he has not earned the right to stay on as head coach, but he likely will. Get ready for more of the same. Until the stadium noticeably empties, McNair will chase mediocrity all the way to the bank.

 

Each play they sent 4 deep, 2 WRs on the left, TE and WR on the right. If you look at the spacing as Holmes makes his catch, there's one near each sideline, and one on each side of the hash marks. What are 2 safeties supposed to do when they see 4 men burning their assigned CB/LB, on the outside at that.

Is Allen and Quin supposed to be letting their man get outside, so they can play the sidelines/forceout, or are they supposed to let them inside, so that the 2 safeties aren't forced to cover the whole 50 yard wide field? Reading Millen's trail technique, it sounds like it's a big risk/big reward type thing, this doesn't sound like a play you call when the game is on the line, not when you can let the opposing team cannibalize the clock with inside plays.

 

Didn't say I agreed with the call, just putting out a theory on WTH they were thinking :grin:

 

Yes, as a fan of the Buccaneers for quite some time the weakness in their cover 2 scheme was deep middle(which MLBs like Nickerson and Quarles were able to reduce) and sidelines between the corner and the safety. The TD pass to Ricky Proehl in the 99 NFC championship was in this spot. Why run a defense that has a natural weakness near the sideline?? It makes it really really easy. I mean, if you had to defend the entire field and the Jets had a few time outs it might be a different story. But giving up 6-12 yard plays over the middle where they have to run to the line and spike it seems a lot more preferable to keeping the defense up front allowing minimal deep coverage when the offense is sending 3-4 guys deep.


Oh wait, I guess because when the Texans are trying to get down the field quickly they have all their wide receivers between 5 and 12 yards up the field it means the other teams do it too.

 

Kubiak sucks, and don't be surprised if Uncle Bob replaces him with someone like Jeff Fisher, because excelling at mediocrity is what the Texans are all about.

 

at least Fisher has something other than "ex Bronco" on his resume'. The guy has made the playoffs a handful of times and had a SB team (and was 1/2 yard away from a ring)

 

John Gruden, Jeff Fisher, Bill Cowher. Hell good coordinators have been shown to work. Anything is better than this atmoshpere of losing. This same team as been stuck in neutral for 4 years, that's long enough to make a judgement.


Rick Smith needs to go also. He had one great draft and traded for Schaub, he's sucked ever since then.

 

If Kubiak goes, Smith goes.

However, we could can Smith and keep Kubiak.

Bush is likely gone, Smith is on the bubble, Kubiak is probably safe unless we're 0-4 to finish the year.

 

lol that was so Oilers.

 

absolutely!! looking back on that series, it's unbelievable that what happened ACTUALLY happened.

even VanderTexan who calls the games had a reaction of "NOOOO!! THAT CAN'T HAPPEN!" right after that long pass.

 

What kind of surprises me is that not a single player said a thing about the scheme. It may ultimately be Wilson's fault for not properly executing, so I can understand tip-toeing around that - but Wilson never should have been in that situation!

Which leads to another irk of mine: These coaches, it seems to me, rely much too much on their schemes at the expense of having any feel or gut instinct about their players. Would a deep cover 2 work in that situation... 95% of the time? Probably - assuming you have great, experienced personnel. But Wilson is old and has looked either lost or beaten for most of his tenure here; he's a terrible free safety. So why would you put him in a scheme that forces him to do things he can no longer do?

Scheme cannot cover up a lack of talent! Argh; Hulk smash.

 

So here's what Kubiak had to say about Wilson's culpability on that pass on the sideline.

 

clueless.