Until those guys (Gruden, Dungy) show interest in coaching again next season I'm not going to factor them in. Have they? Keep Holmgren away.
I'm not totally down with keeping kubiak but I'm pro kubiak. two things that I would like to see. This team not tank, play tough each week and this team play more consistent football from half to half; quarter to quarter. To me this has only been Kubiak's real problem.
I'm not willing to dump Kubes for him. Not enough confidence in him to get the job done, or stay long enough for that matter.
Kubiak isn't a bad head coach, but he seems like an average one. Three years of .500 ball doesn't cut it. One thing that frustrates me is timeout and red flag mismanagement. Seems like too often he is unprepared for unexpected situations. That Andre Johnson drop should have never been challeneged, it was a waste of a timeout.
Yeah, I think my problems with Gary Kubiak are that the things you absolutely attribute to the head coach are not strengths of this team.
He is what he is exactly. an average coach who gets average results. We could be looking at another 8-8 season and that better not keep Kubiak's job. I would like to see him as a coordinator maybe, but head coach no way.
right? the things we complain about with the texans are largely things that get dropped on the door step of the head coach. that's not always fair.
Kubiak is atrocious at time management, and doesn't seem to anticipate what halftime adjustments other teams might make to counter what we are doing. However it would seem that these are skills he can learn and he isn't the one shanking kicks and putting the ball on the turf. If Kubes can get us to 8-8 I say make some solid player moves in the offseason and see if Kubes can duplicate what Jeff Fischer did after 3 8-8 campaigns.
The NFL has a pretty tough standard now where he has to maintain position even if he falls. There is no "ground causes the drop" rule like for a fumble. Add the fact that there needed to be indisputable evidence to overturn, and there was no chance. Of course all the fans were loudly booing, I think Kubiak kinda wanted to appease them.
They flat out choked on Sunday. Not sure as to why. They should not have been afraid of the Colts because they'd played them close the past few years. I think that the close losses and continuous mistakes reflect more on the players than on Kubiak but it will be Kubiak who'll take the fall because it's easier to fire one guy than to fire 20-30 guys. Right now, I see them very close to being one of the better teams in the AFC. They still have a few warts to work out (ZBS, RB) & need to find a few more players on both sides of the ball (safety, DT) but this is not the train wreck it was 4 years ago when Kubiak took over. I keep thinking about how Jeff Fisher took several years to get it right and we could be looking at a similar situation (or not). It appears to me that the folks who are the most upset about the 5-6 record are the ones who had playoff expectations for this season. Since I didn't see them as a playoff team, I just don't feel the same level of frustration. But it has been 16 years since there was a playoff football team in Houston and folks are fed up and I can't fault them one bit.
I get the Fisher correllation, I really do, but it's the continuation of the same mistakes that is making me want to dump Kubes. 1. His clock management is no better than his first year 2. His challenges are still a huge issue 3. His teams often look unmotivated 4. His teams are heavily penalized 5. His teams can't get to the quarterback I'm sure there are many more to add to the list.
Not getting to the QB is not something he's responsible for as the head coach. That's a personnel issue (and perhaps scheme). Now, since he is the real shot caller on the team I think personnel issues are things he shares blame (and credit) in, but the scheme problems don't fall to him at all. He's not the d-coordinator. I wanted the Texans to sign Greg Williams to be the d-coordinator so bad when he was available, but they didn't. My main issue with Kubiak is that regardless of the fact that he's shown a great ability to scheme an offense and to pick talent, I wonder how far a team can go with a coach who has not shown an ability to manage a clock. Be it the final two minutes of a half or the end of a game, Kubiak's game management when the seconds are precious is just bad. Additionally, he consistently burns timeouts with his challenges. I think he's probably got the worst challenge percentage record in the NFL right now. Because of those things, I think no matter how good this team gets, eventually you'll have to replace him to win big. Since I feel that way, I would make the move now if a coach like Cowher wanted this job. However, I would try everything to convince Cowher to agree to, and then try everything to convince the staff to keep the offensive staff in place.
This. This seemed to be the consensus going into the season, I don't think that has changed. It may be even worse considering that we were in good position to the make the playoffs and have now fallen out (as opposed to past years of starting out slow and then finishing strong). It's kind of a shame since a lot of the losses really can't be put on Kubiak (Chris Brown fumble, both of Kris Brown's missed kicks). But all that matters is winning and he really hasn't gotten it done.
One thing that works against Gruden and Holmgren is that, normally, when teams make a coaching change outside of a retirement-type thing, they totally switch styles. If they had a defensive guy, they go with an offensive guy, and vice-versa. I don't know if the team would move from one offensive guy to another. That said, those guys come with major credentials, so maybe that would supercede the traditional switch of styles.
