He has a Hall of Fame vote? He's been in movies? agreed...they have contracts, but sometimes you have to make decision, no matter what the costs...as much as everyone rags on Jerry, firing Wade was the right thing, no matter what the financial impact was...Something has to happen to right the Texans ship...why not start now?
Oh, I know. It's just that I don't buy the defense being any excuse for some of Kubiak's real head-scratcher decisions this year. Or the up-and-down effort given by the team this year. granted! that's just really, really weird. and abysmally disappointing.
I wonder if McNair can sell another year of Kubiak if he brings in a GM and defensive coordinator that jazzes fans? BTW, I think a BIG issue here is Schaub, and not many people are discussing it. He's just not the same QB when we're effectively running the football. I think some of Gary's decisions are based around accomodating a rhythm passer that needs to throw, throw, throw to heat up and be effective.
I don't think the runninggame is throwing Schaub off his rhythm. I think the pass protection has been worse, but more importantly, Daniels isn't himself and Walter/Jacoby have not stepped it up. Plus, Andre isn't 100% either.
He has. I know not a lot of people know this because he is so humble and rarely makes reference to it...........
That's the ONLY way Kubes can come back in my mind. The new D coordinator should also be someone who can step in and be an interim HC if Kubiak gets 86'd like Wade Phillips during the season. The more I think about it, you might be on to something here. But Schaub not having good enough pass protection is probably still the bigger factor.
Who was it.....Spencer Tillman I believe it was on "Inside the Game" on ABC13 said the same thing Sunday night. Said Schaub is a rhythm passer.
All true - but look at what he's done in games in which they fell behind and had to abandon the run - his game gets increasingly better: Washington, Kansas City, Jacksonville. Plus all of last year when the offense was virtually unstoppable despite having no running game.
I don't know. Every time I hear this idea, I have flashbacks of Bud Adams keeping Jack Pardee and bringing in Buddy Ryan as the DC. We all know how that turned out.
Actually... that worked out pretty well. I know everyone focuses on the punch and KC collapse. But prior to that, that was a nearly great football team (after week 5). That defense was stout and the offense was just good enough. Ryan transformed that defense into a powerhouse pretty quickly. Personality was the issue there. Buddy had a big one - probably too big for a team concept. I don't see a guy like that coming in here and dirupting things.
My view of what happened this year vs last: 1) Strength of Schedule Our non-divisonal opponents last year were a combined 71-89 (0.443) at the end of the year. This year, they're 26-28 (0.481) and if you leave off the Cowboys that happily routed us, 24-21 (0.533) Don't have time to really delve into it, but I'd bet very good money we faced a higher percentage of impotent offenses last year as well. 2) Personnel The obvious one is, we went from Dunta (1) and Quin (2) to Quin (1) and Jackson (2). Now, Dunta was pretty poor last year, but Quin is still a slight dowgrade. Jackson is a mess that was put out there far too early, and we're all in agreement that the Texans screwed up royally not chasing a veteran (Cromartie, Bailey, other) to solidify Dunta's vacant spot. Losing Ryans as soon as we got Cushing back is a big blow. We know we can't generate a consistent front four pass rush, and Bush is reluctant to blitz when he only has one top LB to work with. It's just as dangerous to send Pollard, given that this secondary is so overmatched as it is. Wilson is a year older, and somehow 4 years older physically. Mario is nursing minor injuries, and history has shown that those take him from elite to average status quick. He's posting his weakest numbers since his rookie year when he was limited by his plantar fascitis. Barwin is gone, and he was one of our precious few players that could get to the QB. 3.5 sacks in a 9 week stretch last year, and he seemed poised to shine this year in 3rd & long situations. 3) We weren't really that good last year. Football Outsiders 2009 Ranked 19th overall as a defense 18th against the pass 16th against the run Teams did 6% better overall against us than the average, 12% better when passing and 2% worse when running 2010 Ranked dead last overall (+31%) Dead last against the pass (+51%)(!!!) #25 against the run (+2%) I'd argue we're even worse against the run than the numbers show, since our secondary is so abysmal teams don't bother running on us. You run early and often to wear down the defensive line, and that's something we don't face often. So far, only KC and Jax have shoved the run down our throats, and both enjoyed long drives and good success from it (228 and 165 yards, respectively). In the end, I'd say we weren't nearly as good as we thought last year, and made a big hubric mistake in thinking we were okay on that side of the ball. Jackson was the only significant addition, and McNair was turned off by Schobel's asking price ($6M?) in August.
True, but I was referencing the fact that the union only lasted 1 year. I don't see it as a permanent solution. I just think that if you're going to effectively cut off the head of your HC like that, why even keep him around at all? Who's to say he stays around under those conditions anyway? I probably wouldn't. I just think you have to fire him or keep him - there's no in between. Stay pat or clean house. To tell you the truth, I still really like your Jimmy Johnson idea. Can you imagine the buzz that would create? All those cowboy fans living in Houston would jump right on the bandwagon. JJOF's? Oh, btw....he's also a pretty good coach.
I will say, the only way I don't get sick to my stomach and consider boycotting the Texans post-lockout if McNair keeps Kubiak around would be if a Parcells-level guy was brought in to run the operations and replaced the entire defensive staff (possibly with the obvious heir apparent to Kubiak). Hell, bring in Jimmy Johnson as that guy and let him take over after a year of Kubiak staying on as a figurehead.
He'd be walking away from millions of dollars with his career shattered. And it's not a completely unprecendented move. Payton did it in NO. Of course the difference is that his hand wasn't forced but, still - no one looks at NO and thinks Sean Payton is a no-good nothing riding Gregg Williams' coattails. Same thing in Green Bay with McCarthy and Capers. McClain (or maybe it was someone else) has mentioned Rod Marineli. I don't know a lot about him but he's the kind of guy you'd look for: the not-quite-good-enough-to-cut-it-as-a-head-coach type (like Williams and Capers). Mike Nolan is another (and the guy I wanted). Yeah, but when you clean house - usually - your football team as a whole has collapsed. That's not the problem here. In fact, it's likely the Texans' offense will be even better next year when Johnson and Daniels will presumably be healthy. So you can blow it all up or fix what is so obviously broken.
What about the different routes and plays that Dennison runs as opposed to Shanahan? Someone posted a couple weeks ago that receivers aren't open nearly as much as last year thanks in large part to Dennison's very uncreative package of routes -- basically (IIRC) a bunch of slants and posts and not much else, while Shanahan's package last year involved a lot of timing stuff, more creative stuff than just the conventional two slants and a crossing pattern kinda deal. Sounded like a good point to me, but I'm not the expert on such matters.
Yeah, and I wondered then whether injury wasn't the bigger factor. I think another factor is familiarity. He played a full season last year at last and teams have more film of him. He's not as much of a surprise anymore. Truth is, as inconsistent as he's sometimes been/seemed, Schaub is having a nice season. He's on pace to throw for another 4,000 yards; he'll be close to a 2:1 TD/INT ratio; and his rating is currently 91.5. Sure, those #s are down from last year - and some of that is because they have a running game now - but they're still pretty good. Bottom line: the Texans have the NFL's 7th ranked passer, leading rusher (leading in TDs, too); 9th-ranked WR (based on receptions; AJ is 4th in total yards) and best red zone offense (unless those #s changed after Sunday). I think any concerns over the *demise* of the Texans' offense are greatly overblown.
