http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/don_banks/11/29/week12.snaps/index.html?eref=sihp Musings, observations and the occasional insight in a rather lackluster Week 12 that clearly will save its best for last: Patriots at Saints, where I'll be Monday night in a jacked-to-the-gills Superdome in New Orleans ... • Three games ago, sitting 5-3 for the first time in franchise history, the Houston Texans generated plenty of talk about being headed for the playoffs. Today, all they're headed for is last place in the AFC South. (Check the standings. They're only a Tennessee win at home today against Arizona from being a last-place team). By now, everyone knows the story with these Texans. They have a fatal flaw. They can't finish. They start well, and have their big dreams, but they can't close out anyone or anything. It happened again for Houston on Sunday at home against the first-place and undefeated Colts. Up 17-0 in the first half of a game they had to win, the Texans tightened up and saw Indy reel off a 35-3 run en route to a 35-27 victory. Three games in a row now, against the Colts in Indy in Week 9, and at home against Tennessee and Indy in Weeks 11-12, the Texans have teased but come up small against a division opponent in a big-game setting. Houston (1-4 in the AFC South) had a pair of fourth-quarter leads to protect in the games against Indianapolis, and it managed a fourth-quarter tie against the Titans. But they were losses all, taking the Texans from 5-3 to 5-6 and virtually out of playoff contention in a heartbeat. You have to wonder what more Texans owner Bob McNair needs to see? Gary Kubiak's team can't finish, and because of it, he should be finished after this, his fourth season in Houston. Despite being a trendy pick to make the playoffs, the Texans will only wind up reinforcing the trend they've followed all eight years of their existence and miss the postseason. Houston is now a mind-boggling 1-15 against the Colts, who are still the class of its division. McNair gave Dom Capers the boot as his head coach after four playoff-less seasons, and Kubiak now deserves the exact same treatment. Despite having some of the most gifted players in the league at several positions, the Texans lack heart, killer instinct and the know-how to win. If that's not a reflection on a head coach's leadership, what pray tell is? As December dawns, the Texans are again toast. They should be in the market for a new face of the franchise in the coming weeks, and it's obvious they're in desperate need of a heart transplant, as well. Four years is an eminently fair shot in today's NFL. Kubiak got his chance to make the Texans a winner, and he failed. Better than most, he knows he and his football team have wound up on the wrong side of the bottom line. • Call the Colts fortunate if you wish, but it's their refusal to panic, no matter how dire the situation, that has led to winning a league-record five consecutive games despite trailing in the fourth quarter. I'm not sure what it would take to really bury Indy these days, but you could tell being down 17 points in the second quarter at Houston wasn't going to fluster Peyton Manning and Co. I honestly don't know which of Indy's latest feats is more impressive: The 20 consecutive regular-season wins, just one shy of New England's 2006-2008 league record, its NFL-record seventh straight year of at least 11 wins, or its 11-0 start under rookie head coach Jim Caldwell? Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/20...ek12.snaps/index.html?eref=sihp#ixzz0YIR6BKTL Get a free NFL Team Jacket and Tee with SI Subscription
I thought Texans had to make the playoffs or at worse go 9-7 for Kubiak to save his job. They won't make the playoffs and I don't seem them going 4-1 in the final 5 games so yes I think he will be gone. I think another question is if Rick Smith gets canned. I think he is good at drafting players but he is terrible in Free Agency. In the end, I think he stays. This should be the open job in the NFL if it opens along with the Cowboys if they fire Phillips.
Honestly, I really think this is the time for him to go. It's been long enough for him to implement his system and players. The fact to the matter is that it has NOT paid dividends up to this point. It's time to give him the axe.
Not sure how the running game goes so south in just one year. Though thoroughly frustrated with another season of no playoffs, I'm of the mindset of giving Kubiak another year. There are so many signs of progress, we've been better finishers than we have shown thus far this year in previous years under Kubiak. It's not all on him. Yes, the buck stops with him, but he's not the one missing kicks and throwing dumb INTs. If he can't get the running game fixed next year, it's adios, amigo. If he does get the running game going to compliment the passing attack and an improving defense, I think we're the team everyone expected us to be this year. When people were picking us to be a playoff team this year, I'm sure they were counting on the running game being what it was last year. Without that (and the threat of OD), this is a different team.
I think Kubiak has shown himself to be a really good coach at times and was certainly an upgrade over Capers. But his achiles heel is that his teams are always inconsistent. Not only from game to game but from quarter to quarter. On any give Sunday, the Texans are more than capable of beating any team in the league. But it wouldn't be surprising to see them lose to the bottom feeders of the league either. I think Kubiak is what he is, a good coach who can't get his teams to play up to their talent consistently and I don't think he can take this team much farther than he has thus far.
let's see how this season ends. win out and Kubes gets to keep his job. one more loss means we can't be better than 9-7. i think he should be gone, especially after our 5-3 start.
I'm sick of the "if it weren't for's" of the last three years. I'm sick of saying, "If it weren't for Rosenfails throwing that game away in Indy, and the other game where we should have won, but the refs screwed us over, we would have made the playoffs." I've already said this year, "If it weren't for the 4 last second losses, we'd only have one loss." Hell, that's been my signature post when posting about the Texans. In the NFL, if you're not good enough, you get fired. McNair has to realize this. I heard a segment on the radio the other day that was the absolute truth. The teams that win in the NFL, are the teams with the owners that DEMAND championships. Every owner wants championships, but do they demand them. Do they sit there and, if there team does not at least compete for the best record in the league, fire or release key players and/or coaches? Yes. Bob McNair is currently running one of the classiest franchises in the NFL. Classy doesn't buy wins though. Enough with keeping players and coaches just because "we like them". In the NFL, if you do that, you don't win. This team has the talent. We just need someone to light a fire under our players respective asses, and then we'll be in the playoffs for sure. This is the year to be replacing your head coach if there ever was one. If McNair keeps Kubiak, and this team does not improve next year, boy, that's gonna be a tough pill to swallow.
As I said in the game thread: 5 games to go. 4-1 to save Kubiak's job. 3-2 and it's a toss up. 2-3 or worse and it's good night, sweet prince.
I think some of you are overrating the "talent" we have: Our #2 offensive option (Daniels) is out for the year O-line is hammered with injuries (and recently) starting safety is out for the year and most importantly: the RUNNING BACKS omfg. 2 of the worst running backs in the NFL. No doubt that. Chris Brown shouldn't even be in the NFL, and Steve Slaton is an overweight fumbling piece of crap. and then, we have a joke of a secondary, an absolute joke. the worst and the second worst Corner backs in the NFL, and the worst safety in the NFL (Busing). If anything, I think Kubiak is over achieving with these guys. granted we have great passing game (#1 receiver in the NFL), but without a running game or a secondary, you're not going to win this league.
If his strength is gameplanning, then he's a perfect coordinator. A head coach's job beyond creating a good gameplan.
I really don't believe Kubiak is the man to take this team to the next level, but he should be given the rest of the season to prove (the people whose opinion count) wrong. This team is down but not quite out yet. If the Steelers lose tonight they'd drop to 6-5, which leaves a number of teams at 6-5 followed by the Texans at 5-6; we'd still be within one loss of the final playoff spot. Not sure about the tiebreaker scenarios, although I'm guessing Houston wouldn't hold the edge. So to be safe, let's say we're two games out with 5 to play. They are sill certainly in the mix, especially with Baltimore, Pitt and Cincy having to beat up on each other and a game with the Jags next week for us. But really regardless of whether or not the team makes the playoffs, if he can somehow get this team to start closing tight games, then I think there's a strong case to keep him. There are not that many veteran coaches out there that are proven winners. So I think you're walking almost a tightrope right now with Kubiak. You don't want to get rid of him only to go backwards with the coaching staff, followed by the team. In short you can do a whole lot worse than Kubiak.
I agree with the rest of your post, but I don't think this is the case at all. This is the year of the proven coach - you have Dungy, Cowher, Gruden, Holmgren, and Shanahan all out there. That's a who's who of coaches that's as good as you'll ever have available.
If your head coach can't get the team to execute, he has failed. Simple as that. The Texans are in far better shape than they were at the end of the Capers/Casserly era. But they've plateaued, they're floundering, and Kubiak is not getting more than 80% out of the team on any given outing. He hasn't pulled 4 quarters out of them once this season. Matt Schaub is fine and a keeper. I'm fine with the job Rick Smith has done. Kubiak is demonstrating that he is a top shelf coordinator that isn't likely to take us further than a brief wild card appearance as a head coach. Anything less than 9-7 and it is iron clad that he has to make way for a true playoff coach. Say no to Holmgren and Shanahan. They are nothing more than names and we would backpeddle under them.
Gruden just signed an extension with MNF; think he would coach next year after having done that? I guess maybe if the situation is right. Has Dungy expressed any interest at all in coming out of retirement...and only a year after he stepped down from the Colts too? Highly doubtful Shanahan comes here for reasons already mentioned. So you're left with Holmgren and Cowher. Although I agree with you in theory, there are a lot of proven guys out there; but in reality I think far fewer are actually attainable.
The talent on this team isn't great, but it's good enough to not be this inconsistent. The team isn't always ready to play. That's what a head coach is for.
We have a roster of solidified stars. We just need a coach to put these pieces together and use them properly. The Texans right now are scattered parts of a Ferrari laying on the garage floor. The reason Cowher is interested in this job is because he recognizes the pieces that we have, and how close we are to our goal. A Super Bowl Contender
Absolutely - I don't think the MNF extension would have any effect on a head coaching gig. Coaches often sign extensions to actually coach just weeks or months before moving onto another gig. I believe Gruden has said he would be interested in getting back to coaching at some point. He'd be the one I have the most questions about. I'm not sure if he's looking at getting back in or not. Agreed - but it does fill another spot in another coaching gig, so it reduces the competition for the remaining coaches. For example, if there are 5 coaches and 5 open coaching gigs, it's easier than if there are 4 coaches and 5 open coaching gigs. I'd put Gruden into the realistic mix there, but that said, at least one of the two you listed has stated that he would be excited by the Texans job, so he's more than attainable. I do agree that you don't let Kubiak go unless you quietly make contact with one of these guys and have a pretty good idea you're going to get them. He's not a guy that NEEDS to be fired - he's a guy you consider replacing if you have a better option available. Sort of a situation like firing Rick Carlisle to get Larry Brown.
