QB: C+ RB: A- O-line: B WR: B TE: B- Special Teams: D (A- for Neil Rackers) D-line: C LBs: C- CBs: F+ Safeties: F-
Offense B+ QB B- RB A+ WR B- TE C+ OL A Offense was good, but the play calling was kinda stupid. See the grade for coaching below... Running back was the most difficult position for the Texans ever. The days of Wali Lundy are over. Who was that other guy? Johnathan Taylor or something like that. I like the future of our Running Back spot with Foster and Tate next year. Dre is Dre, and he's pretty good. Wish Jacoby would learn to catch a damn ball. I don't think Owen Daniels is coming back, which kinda sucks. Texans will probably offer him something low, and he's going to walk. The offense over all did a good job of helping out Foster. Defense D DE C DT D CBs D DBs C LB B Yeah... Hopefully, Demeco comes back strong. Hopefully Cushing takes some magical potion. Hopefully, we get a good secondary. I'm not ready to dump Kareem Jackson believe it or not. They need some help. Still not crazy about Antonio Smith. Need help at tackle. Yeah... Special Teams D PK C P D- KOR D PR D Jacoby Jones sucks ass at special teams. Holiday sucked in preseason. They need to bring in a kicker and a punter to challenge Turk and Rackers. Coaching F When something is going good, keep going with it until it stops going good. If they can't stop it, keep running it. Simple as that. Failing to recognize that is stupid.
defense was awful. offense was uneven, but good enough. team, collectively, was 6-10. that sucks. thus... team sucks.
I give them an F+. 6-10 with a couple of games that could have went the other way is a failure. It's not 2-14, but it's still a failure.
P for 'par for the course'. We've won 2 of the last 8 games. In the 1st win, we beat a 3rd string QB. In the 2nd win, we beat a team without it's starting QB and RB - both of whom happen to be the 2 best players on the team. Make no mistake, had the titans and Jags both been at full strength for those 2 games, we would be looking at a 10-game losing streak to end the season. But that doesn't justify firing the head coach. We're on the right track, after all...
Offense: QB: Solid B. Schaub was unstoppable at times and abysmal at others. He was forced to play shootout football because the defense was so bad. He still seems to rush his throws too early when he feels pressure. RB/FB: Automatic A. Foster led the league in rushing showing excellent patience and surehandedness. An amazing feat considering how much Kubiak forced the passing game and how many games we were playing from behind. Leech to the beach, he was great this year. O-line: B. Kept Schaub healthy all year and helped Foster to the rushing title. Backups even stepped up when needed. WR/TE: C+. AJ was AJ... even on a high ankle sprain. Walters disappointed after a solid start and Jones was productive yet made a good number of route running mistakes. OD progressed well from his knee surgery and will be 100% next year while Dreeson made some big plays. ------ Defense: DL: D. Still lacked pressure on the QB. Mario battled injury and there wasn't any form of consistency at all. Okoye was unproductive and Smith was mistake prone. Bit hard by the injury bug. LB: C-. Another unit hit hard by the injury bug. Did the best they could considering that guys were playing out of position. Hopefully Ryans comes back next year healthy. CB/S: F. While there was improvement over the year, virtually the entire unit had no business being on an NFL field this season. I have never seen a secondary abused on a weekly basis. Words cannot express how painful it was to watch them play. --- Special Teams: FG Kicker: A. Bright spot as he was a huge upgrade over Brown. Gets bonus points for tackling like a man. Punter: F. Turk must have an arthritic hip this year. Did a poor job and was a factor in us having poor field position in games. Kickoff Return: F. Steve Slaton's # is 20... meaning we were lucky if he got it to the 20 yard line. Cut this fool. Punt Return: B-. Jones was pretty surehanded and was one of the better punt return guys in the league. He wasn't a home run hitter, but he was solid. ---- Coaching: HC: D. Kubiak is mentally weak and his team reflects that. He consistently made boneheaded decisions and gameplans throughout the entire season. He opted to go with a secondary that was way too young and provided zero veteran help. He should lose his job. OC/other offensive coaches: B. Dennison coached a productive offensive unit. The running game was tops in the league and Schaub was still one of the top passers this year. Their biggest downfall was executing early in big games. DC/other defensive coaches: F. Bush sucks, his schemes suck, his personnel choices sucked... fire this man yesterday.
Anybody that coaches NFL players to such dismal defensive statistics probably deserves an F, but I don't think Bush is that bad. I don't know what can really be done when there is only one guy in the secondary that has decent coverage skills (Quin). IMO, the blame there falls on the GM and head coach for talent evaluation and player selection more than the DC. I'm not saying Bush is the right guy to have, because we could certainly use a more proven guy, but I don't think he should be the target of all the blame.
Here are some interesting tidbits from this wonderful season: - Half of the Texans 6 wins were against backup QBs (OAK, TEN, JAC) - The Texans were 2-6 against winning teams - The Texas were smoked after the bye-week for the 3rd year in a row But we're on the right track. All the other NFL owners told Bob McNair that we're really close. So did Bum Phillips and he's a Houston icon. Let's just fire everyone but the HC and we'll be okay.
Offense- B+- Could have been an A talent wise if they had better coaching. They were generally terrible in the 1st half of games- attribute to coaching preparation and how to attack the other team and adjust to the other team. Basically Andre Johnson and A Foster saved their skin in a couple of the wins, despite the coaching. Defense- F- there is no way any of the players in our secondary could get on the field for any of the top 5 teams in each conf. The corners are not that instinctive and not fast enough to recover from mistakes. The safeties lack good coverage skills and neither are ball hawks. Our secondary needs to be upgraded at every position. I mean Grover Quinn could be a weak link if the other corner could shut down a good receiver. Pollard has fire and occasionally makes good hits but he cannot cover and neither safety impacts the game with interceptions. The linebackers have the potential to be a very good unit, need Ryans back better than ever. Cushing needs to be in a system where he is more disruptive or he needs to step up his game. The DL is a joke. Sometimes it looks like the backups get better penatration. Mario bull rushes too much and needs to learn more moves especially with his arms to get to the QB he has the effort and is the only lineman that actually puts pressure on the OL. The tackles just don't ever collapse the pocket and they are often blocked by one OL. There is nothing disruptive about the DL. They are undersized and supposedly quick but one reason they did better against the run was that teams had so much success passing on them. Just looking at the Jacksonville game you could see them getting it handed to them by a back up RB, The DL needs a makeover. Coaching- F- the first clue was putting Cushing at middle linebacker when Ryans went down, they abandoned the running game against Indy the 2nd game, and the Jets game the coaches called for press coverage during the last 40 seconds instead of a prevent defense and thus handed the game to them. Not to mention the poor preparation for each opponent during the first half of games. When you lose so many close games it falls on coaching not talent. 6-10- is a F for Failure to make the playoffs after starting 4-2
CM for ¡¡¡Ch!ng4d4 M4dr3!!! Good points on the other stuff, but... are you counting the COLTS' opening game? (they were 0-0)...? Is it even fair to say "at least we beat the Colts in the opening game"? Also, we were bad against LOSING teams.
I wish McNair would send the game tapes to Cowher and get an opinion outside the organization on the season, even if he didn't hire him he needs an objective view of the season and the team.
Quarterback : C - Schaub had a down year , and made some incredibly BAD decisions in DECISIVE moments. He still hit his numbers (even though that could be argued as being Fool's Gold), and I guess that has to count for something. Running Back: A+ - Honestly, Arian was by far the brightest spot on the team, and he deserves every bit of praise and accolade he is going to receive this off-season. The man is a stud, and I look forward to seeing him in Texans uniform for a long time. Wide Receivers: B- - As a group, they were incredibly pedestrian, and Kevin Walter's disappearing act in the middle of the season couldn't have happened at a worst time. Jacoby STILL hasn't shown me that he's good enough to be a consistent target, and his punt returning skills have diminished greatly to boot. Andre Johnson is simply a MAN, and I just feel terrible that he had to play through so much pain in such an abortion of a season. Tight Ends: B - Joel Dreessen showed that if we decide to let Owen Daniels walk at the end of the season, we won't be THAT hurt by the loss. However, once Owen rounded into the shape the last 3 games of the season, you could why he's still going to be a big commodity for this team. Offensive Line: B- - I'll give them a B- simply because you don't have the number one rusher in the NFL without help from the line. Their pass blocking HAS to get better, and they HAVE to get better at picking up the blitz, otherwise I think we're going to see our passing attack get somewhat diminished next year. Cornerbacks + Safeties : F - There isn't a letter in the grading scale low enough for this group of sad sack losers. Glover Quin started showing flashes of being a good corner to build on, but even he had his moments of shame through the season. I am simply not excited by anybody on our current roster in this group, and unless we aggressively pursue a big name free agent, they are going to continue to cost us games. Linebackers: C - Obviously losing DeMeco hurt them tremendously, and having a "normally trained" Brian Cushing isn't quite the beast we grew accustomed to last year, but they still did an OK job overall throughout the year. Cushing has a LOT to prove next season given how much of a step back he took this year coming off of his suspension, and we might consider ourselves lucky if we see DeMeco come back before week 6. Daryl Sharpton looks like he could really be a nice find once he gets some experience. Defensive Line: D - Our corners are the worst in the NFL, but this group didn't do them any favors. Our lack of pressure on opposing quarterbacks has become something of a bugaboo for this team, and it seems like every year, expectations are much higher than actual production. It says a LOT when one could argue that the most consistent player in the group was picked up out of the trash heap in mid-season. Also, is it safe to say that Mario Williams is injury-prone? Out of 4 seasons, I believe he has battled debilitating injuries in 3. There is no question how productive he is when he is healthy, but unfortunately, that just has not occurred often enough. Special Teams: F - Losing the field position battle consistently is a great formula for losing games. Matt Turk was amongst the worst punters in the NFL this season based on YPK, and our return game was pitiful. Somebody needs to paint a 20 yard line in front of Reliant Stadium so Steve Slaton won't be able to come in next season. He is the absolute worst kick returner I have ever seen in my 20+ years of watching football. Joe Marciano has either lost his touch, or this team is so devoid of talent and depth that he simply can't do anything with it. Either way, it paints a pretty bleak picture. Something needs to be done, and quickly. Coaching: F - I just cannot justify giving them anything higher than an F after thinking back to the way we have lost games this season. I just don't think they have instilled a culture of intelligence in this team, and it is catching up to them. Regardless of whether it's coaching or it's the personnel, Gary has formed a team that does not know how to close out games, does not know how to manage a game, and does not know how to get out of its own way. Unless he has some sort of epiphany this off-season on how to be a winner, I don't see this changing. Oh, and Frank Bush needs to take the first plane out of this city. Overall: D- - I will give them a D- because of the way they STARTED the season. They showed flashes of being an incredibly dominant team offensively, and if they can just put together an AVERAGE defense, they STILL have a chance to be special (how many times have we heard THAT??) . A LOT needs to be overhauled and changed this off-season, and the front office simply CANNOT afford to go about their complacent ways in acquiring free agents. If they continue to tow the same line, and keep demonstrating their "scared of their own shadow" ways when it comes to making moves, this team is going to plummet into irrelevancy, and they WILL lose their fans. They need to take an aggressive approach with free agents, and taking a calculated risk or two will not set this team back anymore than it already is. They need to be decisive in their defensive coordinator hire, and they HAVE to break out of this good ol' boy network that Bob McNair has held on to so dearly. The bottom line is Bob McNair has drawn a line in the sand with his retention of Gary Kubiak against the majority of fans' wishes, so now he needs to OWN that decision. Stop hiding behind this "good guy" act, and give us the team that we deserve.
By "winning" teams, I mean teams that won more games than they lost this year. The Colts were 10-6, so yes, I'm counting both games against them...
This. I don't give a rat's hinder parts about whether Shaub or AJ get A's or who accomplished what. 6-10. Fail. The end.
Bush put his stamp on this bad defense. Maybe they don't have talent, but 1- nobody on that side of the ball was coached up in any way, from tackling to line jams to coverage. 2- obviously bad play calls where nobody but a pro bowler would be able to recover. 5 yard cushion in goal line situations, press coverage on hail marys.
