SI: Mark Trestman - Schaub's West Coast Roots Run Deep

Looks like the Texans are finally getting some good national press:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/marc_trestman/09/05/schaub/index.html

Schaub's West Coast roots run deep
Texans QB has years of experience in current system
Posted: Wednesday September 5, 2007

The Houston Texans may have hit the jackpot with quarterback Matt Schaub.

There are several reasons he will succeed in Houston, some of which started long before the Texans acquired him from the Falcons this offseason.

Schaub's connection with the Texans actually began in 1994 with a backup QB for the 49ers. After playing behind Steve Young for George Seifert's 1994 World Champion 49ers, Bill Musgrave decided to follow then QBs coach Gary Kubiak and former 49ers offensive coordinator MikeShanahan to the Denver Broncos to back up Hall of Famer John Elway. During that time, Musgrave's understanding of the West Coast offense grew ... to such a degree that Bill decided to become a coach. He was hired in 1997 to be the QB coach in Oakland for Al Davis' Oakland Raiders.

In 2001 and 2002, after coaching stints for Seifert in Carolina with the Panthers, Musgrave became the offensive coordinator at the University of Virginia. Thee he mentored a young Schaub and taught him the West Coast offense.

I evaluated Schaub when he was coming out of Virginia in 2004. I sincerely believe he was playing in the best coached offense in college football and executing the principles of the West Coast offense better than any college QB ever had. It was clear to me by watching the structure of the offense, his footwork and superior accuracy that NFL teams would be all over him.

It didn't surprise me that the Falcons, who ran a system similar to the offense at Virginia, drafted Schaub in the third round. It would be easy for me to say that Schaub should have gone higher, but the fact is that when you can complete 67 percent of your passes over four years at a Div. I-A school, your chances of NFL success is at least reasonable. I enjoyed speaking with Matt at the 2004 NFL Scouting Combine. I didn't see any flaws, just a quiet, somewhat shy young man with obvious intelligence.

It was clear by the tape that Matt had the size and arm strength scouts look for. He had an entire inventory of throws, was accurate and made quick spontaneous decisions in a well-designed offense. Matt had just enough mobility to avoid being caught in the pocket, and showed toughness and reasonable durability playing 40 college games over his career in Charlottesville.

He was reunited with Musgrave in Atlanta, when Bill was hired to coach the QBs. For eight years, three in Atlanta and five at Virginia, Schaub played in an offense he will essentially run next Sunday against the Chiefs in Houston. We know who his head coach will be, but it is ironic that his QB coach will be a young Kyle Shanahan. And his offensive coordinator will be Mike Sherman, a disciple of Mike Holmgren, who preceded Mike Shanahan at San Francisco.

Schaub is 26 and has spent the last three years watching and learning how to handle the pressure of running this offense against NFL caliber defenses. Thanks in part to his training, Schaub has begun to change the culture of the Texans. He has become a factor by practicing more efficiently and bringing the locker room closer together. He also has allowed Kubiak and Sherman to be creative with their play-calling because of his intelligence and fundamental understanding of the offense.

The Texans' issues protecting the quarterback have been well-documented in recent years, but Schaub will help alleviate some of those problems. Under Sherman's direction, he'll be able to change protections at the line to account for free pass-rushers and put the offense in a much better position each play, by changing plays at the line of scrimmage.

And the Texans have confidence in Schaub's decision-making skills outside the pocket, which will help alleviate the pressure on the offensive line. Look for Kubiak to use Schaub like he used Jake Plummer in Denver and for Schaub to make several big plays on the move.

The NFL is about the QB and it always will be. As Schaub takes center stage Sunday, the Texans will be writing a new chapter in their history. And Schaub will be the principle author.

Also, take a look at the front page of SI.com under NFL Breakout Stars for 2007 where Matt Schaub is prominently displayed.

 

I feel that we are now seeing a bit of the revisionist history about Carr (just like we're seeing about JVG on the Rockets side) being the biggest problem with the offense. This has been widely advocated by John McClain (who is sounding more senile every passing day) and while it's simple, convenient and gives one a yummy feeling in the tummy, it's incredibly misleading. And it lets McNair, Casserly & Capers off the hook because, AFAIK, these 3 are far more responsible for what happened than is David Carr.

As msn points out, the OL has been a huge problem from day one and he's right. I don't see how any QB could have lived through what Carr was forced to endure without being adversely affected. From the beginning, they (Texans) did virtually nothing to address the lack of decent protection for Carr and by year 5, the sacks, coaching blunders, drafting mistakes and stupid tactics had taken their toll. Fact is, we will never know what kind of QB Carr would have made because he wasn't given a chance to develop like say, Ben Roethlisberger. Funny but I couldn't help but notice that the Steelers actually protected their young QB rather than letting him get sacked 76 times.

So let's see, they draft a QB no. 1 and then do not put an offensive line in place to protect him. Then they stand by while he gets his ass handed to him for four straight seasons and it's his fault the offense looks bad. Well, shades of Dan Pastorini! So now we are to believe that the QB that they (Texans) setup for failure, the same QB who was sacked 76 times in rookie year (an NFL record) - a QB who was sacked a whopping 249 times in his 5 seasons here - is the main reason the offense has looked like crapola. Yeah, right. If this is the recipe for success in the NFL, then I don't want to know what failure looks like. This entire franchise from the owner on down, has been a train wreck from day one and msn was dead on when he called it The perfect storm of a craptacular NFL existence.

 

Major, the Carr you saw last season had absorbed 4 straight years of beatings, stupid coaching and bad team play. By that time, he was so shell-shocked as a QB, he was virtually useless. The big mystery to me is why the head coach who is supposed to have a keen eye for QBs, couldn't see that. I'm not a Carr apologist by any means because I can clearly see that he inherently lacks competitive drive and leadership. What I object to is all of this "Carr was the main reason the offense sucked. A lot of the sacks were his fault and not the OL's and so on" talk as if to paint him as a total incompetent who was responsible for the terrible offensive systems of the past 4 years all the while praising Matt Schaub as the real deal. Well, Schaub SHOULD look better. The last time I looked, Matt Schaub hasn't been put through the beating that Carr has faced over the past 5 years so he should be in better shape mentally and physically. Plus, as the SI article points out, he's been playing in the West Coast Offense since college so he had damned well better look good running Kubiak's version of the WCO.

This was the same argument that was used against Dan Pastorini when he was getting stomped because the Oilers could not grasp the concept that the OL is there to protect the QB. As I posted before, the parallels between Carr & Pastorini are downright eerie. All I ask that if you want to assign blame for what has happened, then make certain you put the blame where it rightfully belongs.

 

Exactly and when you add in Carr's lack of competitive drive and leadership skills, then what you have is a blueprint for total failure. I don't totally agree with Updawg because Carr does have the physical talent to play in the league but by now, he's such a headcase, he's nothing more than a backup QB if that.