so slaton, johnson, walter, daniels, brown, winston, plus mario, demeco, dunta - there's no foundation here? how about this: cowher has always played a 3-4; we're still undoing our last attempt to run a 3-4 - you would have to start completely over (again - hey, third time's the charm, right?), and it would instantly negate your best defensive player. offensively, we're built for the run blocking scheme and to throw, throw, throw - cowher prefers a ball-control offense with big, burly OL. we would have to start completely over (again - hey, third time's the charm, right?), and it would instantly negate your best offensive player. they're a lot closer to being good than they are to needing another complete overhaul. to abandon ship now would be silly. i agree that turnovers have been our achilles heel, but we've moved the ball up and down the field in every single game this year - save for the opener against the steelers. it hasn't just been at the expense of bad teams. that's categorically incorrect. huh?
Does he make good use of timeouts or manage time well? Does he win challenges or does he even challenge the right play? Both are no, and both are instances where he as the coach pulls the trigger. Assuming he has people watching replays, telling him the things that we see as well. Also, he seems stubborn, and that's a characteristic you'll only tolerate from winning coaches.
if you need to replace more than 50% of your starters (and they do - i count 6), there's not enough talent. while i agree there've been some questionable play calls (like yesterday: passing at the ravens' 1 with a turnover-prone QB? or passing from your own 1 with a tunrover-prone QB???), the biggest problem on your list has been the QB turnovers. it literally cost us the colt game and severly hampered us against the titans and vikings, two games they MIGHT have won if they had protected the ball better. i'm not sure they win yesterday regardless but it's certainly a CLOSER game w/o the turnovers. problem is - too many of the turnovers have been courtesy of your back-up QB. i have a hard time hanging that on anyone or thing other than bad luck that he's having to play at all. well, yeah - of course. so why are you arguing they have "some talent" or "enough talent" if you're advocating bringing in a slew of new defenders? and you know, waaaaaaay back in 1999, i suggested shottenheimer. i thought he would have been the perfect first coach for this team but probably not now. cowher, either. the offense is infinitely better. by any statistical or anectdotal evidence available. they can move the ball on anyone and have all year (save the steelers). its the turnovers that are killing them. that's all fair; but i think you need to understand (and accept) how much they truly sucked when kubiak took over. i likened it to taking over a college program that had just been given the death penalty. it makes you appreciate how far they've come but also how much more work is needed to be done.
except craig biggio is a HOFer and the face of the franchise he played for roughly 20 seasons...please don't ever compare the 2 again. thanx!!!!
would you prefer otherwise? selling this regime to the fans, i would think, would be inifinitely easier than starting all over again in year #8. they're closer to being a good team than being a team that needs to be rebuilt.
yeah, if they lose the rest of their games, i definitely want kubiak out of here. most definitely. you think this team is closer to being good than needing to be rebuilt. that's great. i'm not so sure. what they've built so far ain't looking that great. there are pieces i'd keep...but there's no facet of the game where i'd be disappointed to see the texans make major changes in.
i'll be absolutely, positively floored if they lose the rest of their games. if it doesn't happen in season, i think smith will be fired in the offseason. kubiak will then have to prove '08 was a fluke. if they're not 9+ wins in 2009... so... this team is comparable to the '05 team? they've made strides their first two years - statistically and anectdotally: this is an improved team. it takes time to rebuild an organization from top to bottom - notice how the texans are always bunched up with the same sorry teams in the standings? this last-to-first idea is a fantasy unless you're content with one-year anomalies (and those require easy schedules and a lot of luck: the texans, being in the afc south, will never have an easy schedule and obviously, they're having no luck at all). it doesn't happen to truly awful teams. looking at it objectively, how long do you think the raiders or lions or chiefs are going to take to rebuild? do you think they'll be winning consistently in 2.5 years? do you have any doubt the 2005 texans were every bit as bad as those three teams, if not worse?
ric, i'd love an anomaly. i'd love the worst to first, just once. i'd love to see just one playoff game at reliant stadium. i'd love to be a falcons fan this morning. to have the city buzzing over the team. to watch them do something unexpected instead of exactly what i expect of them.
We're 3-6 for a lot more reasons than Sage. Ric, don't you think having the coach basically say "well, we weren't prepared and that's my fault" after every loss is a little...alarming? I don't care if he's deflecting blame away from the players. If he is, WHY? They're big boys who make a LOT of money, they can take it. I'm not saying he should go Dennis Green after ever loss, but at least call a spade a spade, ya know? I get that. Honest question: Is Bill Cower a bonifide 3-4 coach or did he just run the 3-4 in Pitts because that's what they were running (and had the players for) before? The offense has been great against crappy teams and in-between the 20's. I know you say our 0-4 start was due to a hard schedule, so if that's true, then you have to agree that the 3 game winning streak (in which we ran up all those offensive stats) was due to an easy schedule. Maybe a new defensive coordinator will improve our situation. Whose bright idea was it to hire Smith in the first place? The guy had basically no legit NFL experience as a D coordinator. It's frustrating that we're still waiting for this 'leap'. Very frustrating. Maybe Cower isn't the right X's and O's guy, but we sure could use his fire. You can bet Cower wouldn't be saying "aw, shucks...I just didn't have the team prepared, Bob" after every loss.... LOL, just for the record, I'm not lobbying for Cower. Just VERY frustrated with the coaching staff this year. Aren't you? Honestly? How many times can you say that Kubiak has outcoached his opponent in the last 2 1/2 years? I mean, I know we've won some games, but how many of those have been because of coaching? How many close games have we won due to Kubiak's game plan/play calling being the X-factor? BTW, Ric. Looks like Cy Creek actually has a team this year. When did THAT happen??
MM, you know as well as i do that the city of atlanta isn't buzzing.... seriously, though - would you trade places with a brown fan right now? have your one-year before its back to the same ol, same ol? if there wasn't any hope whatsoever, i'd agree. but if they can fill out the roster and make the appropriate changes (and find a way to keep their QB healthy), this team has a nucelus good enough to be more than a one-year anomaly. and the fans will appreciate that far more.
ehhhhhhh.... he cost them the colt game and was flat-out awful yesterday. that's two losses you could very easily pin on his chest and his chest alone. they all do it; you just hear it more often because, well, you're here and... you know, they lose a lot. he would hire the people he knows. the people he knows know the 3-4 defense. i disagree; they moved the ball up and down the field on tennessee. but schaub turned it over. yesterday, they moved the ball pretty effectively against a really good raven D. but rosenfels turned it over. their defense isn't good enough to withstand four turnovers. absolutely. yeah, how about that? wife (cy fair) and i went to see the cc/cf game - pretty impressive.
i think pinning that whole loss yesterday on sage rosenfels misses just how weak this team is, especially on the defensive end of the ball. sage could have engineered 2 more TD drives and we still get our ass handed to us.
My vote is this afternoon at 2pm. ...there will be more excuses, more injuries to point to, and more "baby steps" we'll be asked to celebrate while watching the team beat down floormats and lose winnable games to other teams via boneheaded player decisions, bad clock management, and bad play calling. You heard it here first. This is my prediction for when the Texans are 3-6 at this point again in 2009.
I wish this wasn't true, but I think it is time for Kubiak to go. Our lack of running game would be the main reason. He was supposed to establish the Denver running game here and has decidedly not done so. Without the running game, the Texans OLine does not protect the QB well enough to allow our offense to be successful. We are a better team than when he got here. But we are not on a trajectory of being anything more than a 500 team under Kubiak.
Doesn't his contract end after next year? That would make him a lame duck next season, and how could he possibly command the team's respect under those circumstances?
