Are Schaub, zone scheme right for Texans? [Grantland] Hey, Don't F*$% This Up: The Houston Texans' Outdated Offense
I find it strange to call a system completley outdated, when it is sitll capable of winning 10+ games over the last two years. The truth is, the system IS the team. When the system works, the team plays at an elite level. When it doesn't, this team cannot play elite level football with individual performances alone because our individual players aren't good enough of carrying teams by themselves (ie - Schaub).
The offense just isn't dynamic, not anymore. You have Kyle Shanahan who was great here changing things up to favor the personnel. We're still trying to fit guys into a system, it makes acquiring talented players tougher. Just look across the field at Phillips, he seems to welcome players that can play -- he designs the system around playmakers. Around talent. Aggie Kubiak wants to have missionary with his clothes on for the rest of his life, the rest of the league is reading the Kama Sutra. He isn't a bad coach, the scheme can work, but you've got to at least try and get more dynamic with it. Maybe tap it from the back once or twice a month to keep things interesting. Something man.
My question is what does Bob McNair think? It's his team and he hired the GM and HC so he a significant say in the direction and management of the team. After this past season, I'm not sure if I could ignore all these critics and not ask Kubiak to change things up.
First of all, Kyle Shanahan was not the architecht of the offense when he was here... Kubiak was. Secondly, he pre-dated Arian Foster's surge. Had the Texans not had Arian Foster back there (and still were trying to run the ball with Ron Dayne, Ahamad Greene, and Tony Hollings), certainly you'd see Kubiak attempt to spread the ball around and become more "dynamic". Hell, you saw glimpses of that last year when the team couldn't run the ball all that effectively for the first time in three years. I agree that you can't just put anybody out there into this system and expect it to work. The right side of the O-line let this team down last year, and its a big reason why the running game all of a sudden became non-elite. Same goes for Wade's system... as his defense became pretty crappy after Cushing went out and they had no backup LB's. You get back to running the ball at an elite level... and this system looks much better.
Part of me thinks that Kubes isn't quite the "offensive genius" he was made out to be. That he's a good student and learned Shanahan's system in Denver and was able to implement it here. And while he could do that successfully, he's less capable of adapting it, adjusting it, and/or creating anything new. He knows what he knows, but he has his own little box and he's never going to stray too far outside of it, if at all. And if he's stuck in his own little box, that kind of leads to him forcing his players into boxes as well because he's not really going to utilize a player according to his abilities if he doesn't quite fit in to the current scheme. And that leads to either putting players into boxes, making them less effective by not taking advantage of their full scope of talent, or it means they only try to acquire players that fit exactly into Kubiak's offense. I'm not necessarily saying all of that is true, it's just something I think about every once in a while.
Kyle was the OC for 1 year and the offense looked much more explosive. To be a great offensive mind in this era you must be dynamic.
Again... an offense that had a sub-par running game was forced to rely on throwing more... = more dynamic? That offense also had a prime AJ80, prime Owen Daniels (pre-injury), and Schaub throwing for the 7th most yards in NFL history thanks to them throwing far more than running. Finally, while Shanahan was the OC, he only got full reigns of the offense from Kubiak as the season went on. Shanahan was as much the full OC as Dennison is now. Kubiak has always been the man in charge of the offense.
It's not an outdated offense, but it does need to be tweaked (or temporarily scrapped altogether) when we fall behind early. Controlling the clock is great, but it doesn't really work when you're down by 14. See GB and both NE games.
I watched the games, we were more dynamic..... Shanahan and Sherman called the plays, not sure any other OC in Texans history besides those two ever did anything meaningful.
To be more 'dynamic' we need for arian foster to go for a seven year hike in Tibet and resort back to throwing it 600 times a season. There is no doubt we would lead the league in passing, but that would still not guarantee us getting out of the first playoff game. It has to be a team effort, especially DEFENSIVELY. If we hold the pats to 13 points we win that game. I would like some tweaks here and there, as there is a reason why the offense has stalled in the final four games in the past 2 seasons. But the offense in general...it's difficult to be balanced. Many like to poke fun at our offense, but not even the elite offenses can produce an 4,000 yard season with an 1,500 yard rusher. There is something to be said for that. Red zone woes..that's a different topic and where I would like to see the tweaks.
I think the the most important aspect of this "dynamic" offense was due to being a terrible defense and being down consistently, which forced the texans to throw the ball more. Regardless, I think it's naive to think that Kubiak was made by Shanahan.
Team offensive rankings - overall, passing, rushing, points, wins: '09: 4th, 1st, 30th, 10th (24.3/game), 9 '12: 7th, 11th, 8th, 8th (26.0/game), 12 And 2012 is mostly characterized as a "down" year, offensively - the running game struggled, they kicked too many FGs, Schaub faded down the stretch - all true, btw. And the offense was still every bit as productive, if not moreso, that it was in 2009 when it was "dynamic."
The defense was actually pretty decent in 2009 - ranked 13th overall, giving up 20.8 points/game (they gave up 20.7 this past season; ranked 7th overall, btw). Where they were deficient was turnovers: -1 in '09 (+12 this year). But overall, remarkably not bad. 2010 was the year of the epic defensive meltdown - but Shanahan was thousands of miles away by that time.
This times infinity, btw. And, including the playoffs, its 24 wins the past two years. People get way too caught up in the individual moments. Yes, the team needs to evolve, find additional playmakers and put some band-aids on a few wounds. But overall, and as is, this is still a very effective offense. Kubiak and Schaub have been together since 2007; they've ranked 14th, 3rd, 4th, 3rd, 13th and 7th in overall offense - and that's with Schaub missing 16 games over three of those seasons (including the two years they ranked 14th and 13th). New England has their number. This is not uncommon to teams. Flacco and the Ravens were 2-6 against the Steelers between '08-'10; they've since won 3 of 4. Some teams just don't match-up well - but it's no reason to chuck an effective offense because the *rest* of the league hasn't figured you out.
Kubiak is forever stuck in 1997, and I'm afraid that this team may have reached its zenith because of his inability or unwillingness to adapt.
Did anybody really and truly think this before his QB crawled into a permanent fetal position with six games left last year? I have hard time believing fans were grumbling about 1997 offenses when they were averaging 29.3 points/game and winning 11 of their first 12.
