Ex-Steelers Coach Cowher 'open' to a return to the field

More news out of Pittsburgh that Cowher might end up with Texans.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/12/14/cowher-could-end-up-in-texas-after-all/

 

and a punt returner who's botched more punts this year, and who runs *backwards* (when he's not standing still), and a kick returner who might be averaging 15 yards or something per return, and giving up more big plays than creating them.

But you may be right in that I have it "overblown" in light of how brutal they were last night. They've been subpar all year, they were Texans-Defense-2010-bad last night.

Why can't he learn from game film like every other good coach? Why can't this team build a lead?

How many of those fast finishes have ended up in wins? They run out of steam, they throw a pick or fumble the ball, and it's over.

Wouldn't you much rather see them play 4 good quarters? And I said *good*, not "dominant"--I realize it's unrealistic to expect any team to dominate a game for four quarters.

Well, I have to agree with you that D is the biggest problem. But the others, to me, aren't too many lengths behind.

 

special teams have been abysmal, return coverage has been among the worst i the NFL

 

I hope to God this is true and we're not getting played to get Cowher more money.


Good times for a change
See, the luck I've had
Can make a good man
Turn bad

So please please please
Let me, let me, let me
Let me get what I want
This time

 

One glaring problem this year. Every year we have "one glaring problem" and it's almost never the same one.

This year, it's the pass defense. Last year, it was the run defense and red-zone offense. Year before that, it was the O-line keeping the QB from getting murdered. Year before that, it was Carr.

This regime is like a sinking ship. As soon as you plug one hole, you discover another. And you keep sinking.

 

Haven't you joined in with Kubiak pointing to early holes as a reason to abandon Foster?

Dallas game: early hole, so Foster only gets 17 carries despite 6 yards an attempt. Schaub is poor with 2 INTs and 240 yards. Texans only manage a FG in the first half. The D only allowed 10 points....had they gotten even one TD and gone into the half 10-7, maybe they keep feeding Foster and it's a winnable game instead of a laugher.

Indy MNF: Everyone here knew we needed to run all over them. We again only manage a FG in the first half as Schaub finds a way to earn a single digit passer rating (12 at the half, up from 8). Kubiak freely abandons the run, Foster gets only 15 carries despite almost 7 yards per.

If you agree with Kubiak that your hand is forced in regards to pressing the pass when down early.....then it does matter that the Texans don't get on the board in the first quarter.

 

Who cares? They should care that they are losing and it is obviously not working!

If that is truly what they think regarding scripting (and i'm not sure it is), that is an absolutely horrible mindset considering you know the defense is terrible. Essentially saying 'let's not worry about points this half, but we'll figure the defense out and come out firing in the second half' is absolutely stupid from a gameplan perspective. If you aren't scoring points in the first half this many weeks, it's time to change something up and worry about adjusting to the defense later. it's obviously not working, so change it.

But I think they truly believe the scripts will work. I remember a stretch in 2007 or maybe 2008 where we were scoring on opening drives regularly going off of the script. The problem now is that we're too predictable with it, and they stick with it even when we go down 14 points.

 

Because he’s not watching film of how they’re playing *his* team. Look, *a lot* of NFL coaches script. Started with a guy named Walsh. Andy Reid does it, too, off the top of my head. It’s not an uncommon practice at all.

Of course – because they’re having to climb out of a 3-touchdown hole.

In theory, as I understand it, the idea is to keep it close for the first 15-30 minutes, you know: 14-10-ish. Then at halftime, make your adjustments and blow ‘em away in the second half. They do this *every week* - if it’s not by design, then that’s the weirdest trend I’ve witnessed in all my years of watching the NFL.

Again, I don’t get *too* caught up in when they get their yards/points, especially if they are, by design, a second half team. If, in 15-30 minutes, they can post what constitutes a good day for most 4Q teams – I don’t see that it’s *that* big a deal?

Oh, if I listed their issues, the defense would fill the top 5 spots. I don’t know how you can have a historically bad defense and an upper echelon offense and think they’re sharing equal burden.

Look at it this way – and this is by no means absolute or scientific: But in order to win the 8 games they’ve lost, they would have had to have scored: 28, 35, 31, 30, 32, 31, 35, 35. Again, I realize it’s not perfect (they really only, technically, needed 29 last night, for instance) – it’s just to give a roundabout idea of just how deep the hole is the defense is digging. It’s off the charts bad.

 

Ric, I posted something similar to your points above here. I think you're spot on in saying the intent is to be close (not buried) by halftime so you can make your adjustments. That's been where we've been hurt the most this year. By the time we make our adjustments and figure out how to attack the defense the other team is showing us, we're behind 2+ TDs.

 

I think scripting plays probably works a lot better when you have Joe Montana and Jerry Rice on your team.

And yes, Andy Reid still does it but those great Eagle teams were great because of their defense, not their offense.

I think it all started with the whole West Coast Offense craze that took over the league in the aftermath of all the Walsh assistants getting head coaching gigs. Seems like nowadays, teams have caught up with it and figured out how to stop it. Offenses are throwing the ball down the field more and not relying on the short slant patterns as much.

 

Cause lord knows
it would be the first time

 

lol wut?

Eagles Offense Overall Rank

2002: 10th
2003: 18th
2004: 9th
2005: 19th
2006: 2nd
2007: 6th
2008: 9th
2009: 11th

Eagles Defense Overall Rank

2002: 3rd
2003: 20th
2004: 10th
2005: 23rd
2006: 15th
2007: 10th
2008: 3rd
2009: 12th

They were pretty good on both sides of the ball, but arguably better on offense than defense.

 

No. I’ve theorized that Schaub is such a rhythm passer that Kubiak might be sacrificing Foster to get his QB warmed up early for the inevitable shoot-out (again, another fallout of having such a bad defense), but I’ve never agreed with his decisions to abandon Foster.

I *have* argued that you can’t just assume more Foster = more wins. I think that’s a specious conclusion.

Ugly game; they’ll happen to the best of ‘em. But I wanted to point out: “only 10 points” is still a 20-point pace. Let’s talk about the non-Rusty Smith games when they’ve “only” allowed 7, 3 or, perish the thought: 0 points in a first half. It’ll be a REALLY short conversation.

Myself included; I thought he outsmarted himself.

Again, I think the game plan, while you’re figuring out their D, is to keep the score close. That’s impossible with our defense. Absolutely, positively impossible. Four times this year, the Texans have given up 20+ points in the first half. They’ve given up a minimum of 14 in nine of their 13 games. They gave up 13 to the Jets and held Rusty Smith to 0.

All told, they’ve given up 194 points in the first half this year, an average of 14.9/game. But here’s the thing: They’ve given up 161 second half points, an average of 12.4/game. So they’re not making adequate halftime adjustments – they’re still giving up *a lot* of points after intermission. Extrapolating that out over the course of a full 60 minutes, they’d still place in the bottom 10 in points allowed.

 

Presser is about to start, incase anyone wants to check it out...

http://player.radio.com/player/RadioPlayer.php?version=1.2.10420&station=63

 

To clarify: They most definitely want to gain yards, pick up first downs and score. That they're not, for whatever reason, is most definitely a problem.

But the plays are specifically designed to expose how the defense is defending them against certain plays so they can then go to the well that works more often. And, it seems to work as they most assuredly get better offensively as the game goes along.

If more of their games were 7-3, 10-7, 14-10 at the half; if the defense didn't come out of halftime and continue to vomit up points, we'd be seeing a much greater ROI on the scripting, I think.

 

I would tune in, but I think I'll stick needles in my eyes, instead.

 

I'm going to run face first into a wall; good times!

 

We didn't play with any sense of urgency in the first half, and that's my fault.

We've just got to continue to get better.

 

Gary, what do you tell to the fans?

Same I told you last week. We're fightin our tails off. This is why I came to Houston. To win games and win a championship. Nothing has changed there. Not a lack of effort or work. Work will stay the same. We hope to make them proud this week. We're hurting just as bad as they are.

 

HAHA...yep. I do think he sounded defeated this week, last few weeks he sounded mad almost defiant but today he just sounded blah.