Lots of valid points on both sides here....bottom line is that 80% of coaching is motivation and having respect.....the other half (using a Yogi Berraisn here) is having talent. The Texans have a fair amount of the talent part. I think we'd all be pleasantly surprised at what a change would accomplish in terms of a new mindset
i can give one example of the top of my head where this was just absolutely not correct....the Colts MNF game. at half, Arian was averaging over 8 yards per carry on 8 carries. in the second half, he only carried ball 7 times. that's pathetic.
i'm not asking for rings..i'm asking for respectability. i'd love to have the rings. but this town is just hoping to see a playoff team. there is no question the fan base and the ownership would have been plenty satisfied with a playoff appearance....in 5 years of Kubiak, we're still left wanting that.
I assume the "critical" drive last night was the one after Philadelphia regained the lead in the 4Q (27-24)? To be fair, on the two previous scoring drives, Foster carried 11 times for 26 yards including 3 carries that netted -6 yards. (To be fairer, Ward also contributed 2 carries for 15 additional rushing yards.) Schaub, meanwhile, completed 7 of 11 passes on those same drives for 107 yards and 1 TD, converting 2 3rd downs and a 2nd and 12. And on the "critical" drive, he completed his first 2 passes (for 11 yards and a first down) before Brown's false start put them in a 1st and 15 hole. A justified pass (incomplete) made it 2nd and 15 and rendered Foster moot. I think the gameplan there was pretty defensible.
I stand corrected! I was in between the truck and the office for that drive; all I heard was "Foster had zero touches the last drive" and I made my assumption based on Kubiak's body of work. My fault; thanks for the correction.
8-8 is respectable, no? I get your point. A not too careful look at the Eagles roster shows something like 7-11 players on both sides of the ball have five years of experience or less. The Eagles have reloaded and not rebuilt, in a very tough division. If the Texans made the playoffs this year and the three previous and lost in the first round, I strongly suspect that there would be the same amount of hand wringing here, over not getting us past the next milestone. (Recall all of those TMac-never-getting-out-of-the-first-round GARM threads). Thus, my comments wrt Superbowl rings and the lack thereof.
But I think it speaks to how engrained certain ideas become in our minds. Same as "Drayton being cheap" or even "Morey is great" (he's VASTLY overrated, IMO). I don't think Kubiak is a *great* coach; but I think he's better than people realize. But, again, we're so hyper-focused (and football, with it's 7 days between games, breeds finite discussion), I think people are too often discounting Kubiak's positives. Case in point: Everyone complains about Foster's lack of touches in the second Colt game (and rightly so); well, that's because of the multitude of unbelievably successul touches *who* gave him in the first Colt game? Because of a lot of thing he's done well, Kubiak is the one setting his own bar.
arguably not, if it includes pissing away a handful of wins with stupid decisions or directly as a result of boneheaded personnel choices. I see what you're saying here, and there are absolutely those who wring their hands no matter what. Heck, in May 2006 people were calling for Garner to be fired. "Respectable NFL" is something that we've really never had. It starts to get good with Luv Ya Blue, but they can't win in the postseason. It starts to get good with the Run-n-Shoot, but then 41-38 happens on the way to the NFL figuring that gimmick out and rendering it useless.
That's fair. but why would you abandon what was working? he set his own bar, and then he clotheslined himself on it.
That's the problem, isn't it? Why shouldn't we expect a win? The Eagles aren't that good. They were 3-2 at home before last night. The Rams and Raiders both have better home records than that. Do we not expect a win in Oakland or St. Louis either? Man, we really have come to accept mediocrity... I can't believe there were some people saying we were improving because we almost beat the Jets and beat the free-falling titans with their 3rd string QB. I think Katy could have beaten the titans last week. I'm not approaching the question in the thread title based on the last game. I'm approaching it based on the last 2 years. The staff should have been totally overhauled after the (annual) mid-season losing streak last year. We should be WAY BEYOND saying "well, the game was close and it was against a superior opponent..." This is the NFL and you CAN turn things around in 1 year. Chiefs were 4-12 last year and are 7-4 this year Jets should have been 6-10 last year and are 9-2 this year Bears were 7-9 last year and are 8-3 this year Falcons were 9-7 last year (like us) and are 9-2 this year (unlike us...) I'm so tired of hearing about how we were 2-14 when Kubiak took over. That was 5 years ago. It shouldn't take 5 years to build a winner in today's NFL - as evidenced above.
The glass is half full/empty: Is he a good coach because of the first gameplan or a moron for not following a second time? But, look: coaches outsmart themselves a lot. He made a poor decision - but it wasn't a fireable offense; certainly not when you're talking 1 of 11 games.
But name a team that's sustained said turnaround for more than the one year, though. Circumstance and, yes, luck play a big part. Take your Chief example: They're playing 11 games this year against teams with a current losing record. All told, they'll play exactly two games against teams that currently lead a division (and one of those is 5-6 St. Louis). The Texans play 10 games against teams with current winning records and 6 games against current division leaders (including 9-2 NYJ, 8-3 BAL, 8-4 PHI; arguably three of the NFL's best teams). I'm not excusing the Texans, just asking: If Kansas City and Houston swapped schedules, would the Chiefs be 7-4? If KC gets a tougher schedule next year, will this turnaround continue? Again, I'm not excusing the Texans AT ALL. But I think they're too often held to an unreasonable standard. You should definitely be upset and disappointed; but I don't think the 2010 KC Chiefs should have anything to do with it.
