probably doesn't deserve it. smith more deserving as executive of the year based on hiring wade. Also signing JJo and Manning and drafting Watt, Reed, and Yates.
So when the picks and signings work out, its Smith... but when they don't, they were "Kubiak's calls"... got it. Or, when Smith makes a bad signing, its still on Kubiak because "He chose Smith"... got it.
And only Johnson was considered a "can't miss" prospect. Foster was undrafted. He is supremely talented, but this O-line/system brings out the best in him. Kubiak gets credit for the O-line and system, regardless of what everybody else feels he doesn't deserve credit for.
Nick - "Kubiak gets credit for the O-line and system, regardless of what everybody else feels he doesn't deserve credit for." True, and he's pretty good at developing QB's. All in all, a good offensive coordinator. Still, when the chips are down, I don't want him calling the shots.
I really don't see the Carolina loss on game planning at all. Yates just played terrible, and the Panthers sliced up a defense that seemed like it was reading press clippings. They dominated us, really. Unless you're putting that game on Kubiak, the IND game was meaningless. Even had we won both that game and Tennessee, there's still no bye week and our playoff path (Cincinnati-Baltimore) was exactly the same.
If you're not going to give him credit when he's winning, then don't b**** about him for losing. No other coach lost, arguably, two of his best players on opposite sides of the ball and his first two string QB's and won a playoff game this season. Well deserved.
I already chalked up Carolina to a trap game. That didn't eliminate us from the bye hunt - only if you do it retroactively. Going into IND, we still had a shot at the bye (but no longer in the drivers seat). Once we blew it against the worst team in the league, TEN became meaningless.
The last one got fired the next year. I think only 2 of the 10 past winners is still with the sameteam. More proof the NFL is more about luck and being in the right place at the right time than any other league .
It was no luck that our Kubes addressed damn near all of our Offensive woes before he took over. -We had ****ty QB play -Worst O-line -Our best running back had been a dude who switched his name before getting his career short by injuries ALL of these are our strengths.
Ah. I thought you were speaking with hindsight that the IND/TEN losses cost us a bye. My mistake - that's a fair point.
A lot of you criticizing Kubiak are ignoring the general turnover seen in the NFL every year. To keep any aspect of your team continuing to perform at a particular level is extremely difficult year to year. That is why there is so much turn over between playoff teams and division winners all the time. Yet despite all the injuries to your No. 1 WR, No. 1 QB, No. 2 QB, etc., the offense managed to maintain a winning level. That is impressive. Maybe not as impressive as some of you want, but how often is that level ever achieved?
He should just give it to Wade. Kubiak is a good coach with a damn good offense, but that defense is what flipped this team this year.
kubes is a head coach not an offensive coordinator. his defense under frank bush was one of the worst all-time.
I think wins overshadowed the fact he was doing this *every* week once Schaub/Leinart went down. Oh, sure, some games got away from them and he had to take the chains off Yates. But, by and large, if you look back at all 7 of the games where Yates started and/or saw significant time (so I’m including Jacksonville, not Tennessee), the plan was very obviously to play conservatively and lean on a top 2 defense. And given that Yates was not very good, that Kubiak had already endured long stretches without Foster, Johnson and Schaub… I’m at a loss what would have been a better plan. Can we stop here and at least concede that we’re talking about an extremely high degree of difficulty, trying to replace a Pro Bowl QB and former top 10 pick with a rookie fifth-rounder who didn’t have an off-season workout program and had been inactive for the season’s first 10 games? I think we got perhaps too accustomed to Yates and forgot how wildly unqualified he was to pick up that task. If, a moment after Leinart went down, I had offered Texan fans 4-4, including a division title and home playoff victory with Yates, the line to cash that in would’ve been all the way to Colombia. There was a third road. After watching Schaub, Foster, Johnson and Williams all miss significant time; after losing his top 2 QBs within a week; after clinching a home playoff game and staring at a long-shot shot chance to secure a bye, given competition and your own injured roster… maybe, just maybe, once the division was wrapped up, he turned his attention to getting everybody healthy for the playoffs. Would anyone blame him for being gun shy? Factor in, at best, a mediocre QB who proved a turnover machine, and I can’t harp on him too much. The Texans were 2-1 without Foster; 7-4 in games Johnson did not play/finish; 4-4 without Schaub; 2-2 without Schaub/Johnson. He clinched the division on the road without two of his top three offensive players and won a playoff game without his top 2 QBs. The improved defense was very obviously a major factor in things staying afloat – but Kubiak squeezed enough out of his offense to not waste the defensive effort. To not pause long enough to at least acknowledge that – to harp on meaningless late-season losses when health was such a massive concern – seems silly and why I will maintain he’s being vilified. I’ve been on these boards long enough to know that a lot of us draw conclusions and then hunker down come hell or high water (see; “Drayton is cheap!”). I think for a lot of people, Kubiak dug himself way too large a hole in 2009 and, more so, 2010. But he had a pretty remarkable season last year. Skepticism is one thing – but to not begrudgingly give him any credit? To ask what he did to earn CoY honors when, I would think, what he did was plainly evident, is silly.
So Kubiak's hiring of Bush and subsequent defensive performance is his fault... But the hiring of Wade and subsequent defensive improvement belongs to Rick Smith? Seems pretty fair.
