Which is the perfect recipe for continued mediocrity. Maybe now you understand why I'm not sold on Kubiak and his coaching philosophy. I believe that it's the David Carr fiasco all over again - where he drew a line in the sand ignoring all the evidence that Carr was done only to end up dumping him. Kubiak appears to have decided that if he is going down, he's going down his way and without compromise so I expect to see more repeats of Sunday - in particular, the after game press conferences. If he fails this year and gets the axe, then it's back to square one (again) because the next coach will have to clean house with players and coaches in order to radically change the style and character of this team which, of course, will eat up another 3-4 years. It's almost it's like the Texans are caught up in their own version of Groundhog Day where they keep repeating the same 3-5 year period. And I would say HELL NO! to both. You want a REAL change? Then go out and find yourself the next Mike Singletarry, Rex Ryan, Jeff Fisher or Mike Tomlin. I've seen enough of Shannahan's system to last me for the next 20 years.
Yup, well put. I bet you could dig up posts of the pro "stay-the-course" crowd early in 2005 season (coming off another crummy draft....) and see pretty much the exact same arguments being made...probably by the same people.....
NO, I'm being REALISTIC. Unlike yourself, I trust what my eyes (and not my heart) are telling me. And my what my eyes are telling me is that in terms of style of play, the Texans are going in one direction while the rest of the league is going in the opposite direction. I maintain and will continue to maintain that until I see different ON THE FIELD, I don't believe that they should be favored over ANYBODY. They have been cut enough slack, allowed to hand out the same excuses over and over again and given enough passes. At this point in time, I don't give a damn about playoffs or won-loss records - I want see a pro football team that goes out there and plays with some pride and intestinal fortitude and not get punked like that. I want to see a team that plays with responsibility and not one that continually talks about the need for it over and over. I want to see a team that can play with physicality and not one that continually talks about the need to play with it. And finally, I want to see a head coach who actually does a good job of coaching and game preparation and not one who continues week after week to offer up the same excuses about his need to do better. Now I ask you, am I asking or expecting too much here?
those are actually two competing ideas. he didn't go down his way, without compromise, on the david carr (wait, that didn't sound right...) - he cut the chord on carr roughly halfway through season 1 and ended it roughly six months later. that wasn't stubborn or hard-headed at all. every coach has a system, and every coach is going to do exactly what kubiak has done - hire *his* guys who are most familiar with his system and that he's most comfortable with. do you really think we'd be better off if he dumped everything he's spent the past however many years learning (and past 3 years building) and went in a totally new direction? maybe we shouldn't go all winston wolfe on singletary and especially ryan just yet. and tomlin inherited a super bowl champion.
No, I didn't say that at all. I said it's possible as in "With the help of God, all things are possible". I didn't say that it was a probable outcome or even a likely one but that for them to make the playoffs, IMO, this is something they'd have to do to pull that off.
Maybe, but I am old school and I like the attitude they bring to the table. I prefer that to the "Well golly gee Beav, I just did a(nother) poor job of having this team ready to play". "It's on me" Whoops! Sorry about that - just had a Tracey McGrady flashback...
careful... i think you're overreacting to a single loss. they were certainly beaten to a pulp sunday; i don't think we should assume that's going to happen every sunday for the next 15 weeks. considering your 20/20 vision, i have to assume you spent most of last year with your eyes closed? probably with your fingers stuck in your ears, too, as you stomped and shouted, "nahnahnahkubiakisbadnahnahnah!"? they were the 3rd ranked offense in all of football last year. how, in the course of 3 hours, did they go from that to an outdated, dying dinosaur of a team? that suddenly shouldn't be favored over ANYBODY? you don't think that's a wee bit extreme? i don't think anyone's cutting them slack or making excuses. some of us just have this *crazy* idea that the season is longer than 3 hours. i don't necessarily disagree with any of this. i'm growing tired of the talk, too. i read demeco's "everyone should be held accountable" babble in the paper this morning and thought, after throwing up, "just shut up and play."
LOL, looks like I picked the right weekend to take off to Galveston for 3 days (without a computer). 52 pages...... This thread should make for interesting reading during lunch today...
What is your opinion on the "new school" coaches like Joe Gibbs, Bum Phillips, Tom Landry, Dick Vermeil, Jimmy Johnson and Bill Walsh? Kubiak is no more "golly gee Beav!" than anyone on that list, and is in fact closer to Mike Tomlin than he is to some of them. Yet they won. Old School. LOL.
actually, some of us openly questioned what in the hell casserly was up to after the 2004 season. he let needed, contributing veterans on defense walk, made a ridiculous, all-in draft day trade for a division 2 tweener, and those of us who watched the games that year saw a team get wiped off the field whenever they matched up with a playoff team and didn't really buy into the playoff hype. our site had numerous articles wondering what was up. no one, of course, saw 2-14 coming - but the signs were certainly there for a come down. that team wasn't built as sturdly as people thought. 2008 was different. when you build something well, it rises in stages - it's rarely a snap-of-the-finger overnight process. if people haven't seen genuine progress these past three years, they're simply choosing not to look. doesn't mean the structure can't crumble, it sure can. but the pieces are in place here. now they have the most difficult step left: getting over the hump. how many years did take the rockets to get out of the first round of the playoffs? or the astros? i don't know if these texans can do it... but i'm willing to give them more than 3 hours to get it done.
hasn't the NFL proved over the last 5+ years that this isn't necessarily true anymore? every year a 10 loss team from the previous season seems to make the playoffs. and every year, the losing super bowl squad from the previous season seems to miss the playoffs.
most of the worst-to-first stories are average or better teams having, for whatever reason - an injury, a hurricane, a dog fighting ring - a really truly awful season then rebounding back to and/or exceeding their previous standard. very few truly bad teams are rebuilt overnight.
agreed entirely...which is why i have a difficult time with the analogies to the rockets or the astros in that post. The Dolphins of last year are a fantastic example of that..going from 1-15 to 11 wins in one season. I don't find many parallels to that in any of the other pro sports.
most people here have forgotten more about football than I have ever learned, but I was among those making "WTF?????" posts in the spring of 2005. *Still* a headscratcher.
crap. "Dear Gary Kubiak, Rick Smith, and Frank Bush: Allow me to introduce you to an actual defensive tackle. Please observe carefully: Thank you for carefully paying attention. Kind regards, 8 Years And Still Waiting"
I think I have settled down where my post is not too crazy Biggest problem I have is with the coaching staff- 1. First of all I am tired of Kubiak trying to establish the run. A little preparation would have shown that the Jets have a pretty good run stuffer in the middle and they added a pretty good run defending LB from Balt. - The real problem is the way the game is schemed. The Texans are a finesse team. They use smaller quicker lineman and they excel in the rythmn passing attack. IN OTHER WORDS- The Texans offense is most successful when they come out in a short passing attack, and use the pass to set up the run. Whether Slaten is slower or not the Texans should have game planned to pass, pass, pass, then sprinkle in the run. A good rythmn passing attack which this team has the weapons to unleash especially with a 3 step drop can get you 2nd and 4's all day. That is the key to the Texans offense good 5-7 yd gains on first down. No we have to try to run on first down and the passing attack never got in synch, they never had any rythmn, it actually looked like the old deer in the headlights offense we had under Capers. 2. Second, Blitz, attack blitz, safety blitz, all out blitz, stunts and blitz, run blitz. Man I cannot believe we did not go all out to rattle Sanchez. Yes we sold out to stop the run but dang the team has to be able to pressure the rookie. I watched the whole first half watching mostly a 4 man rush with the secondary making mistakes on third and the NO pressure on 3 rd down. That was the one team you could go crazy blitzing.- Please don't try it on Tenn. next week- they will kill the defense. They must play more straight up against Tenn. and disguise the blitz better. 3. OK- Slaten is still a very good back. But he sure isn't firing into the hole and he isn't reading the cut back lane and I don't know much but if they can't see it and I can- oh, it can't be that bad. Why didn't they start Chris Brown in the 2nd half. See if he had any burst into the hole. 4. I guess everyone has discussed ad nauseum that their lines whipped our interior lines on both sides of the ball. Texans- the team that can't buy a defensive tackle- actually I think this has been one bad personnel mistake after another. I wouldn't want any of our defensive tackles on a playoff caliber team. There it is, good luck Gary K. against Tenn. you will need to win there to right this ship. I know it's only the first game. Problem is the defense has not defensive run stoppers and a weak secondary. Prove me wrong Frank Bush- otherwise I think 7-9 is reachable and we will be waiting for the shoe to drop in Kubiak.
