How Tight is the QB Leash? Or is Schaub Just Too Conservative?

[Keith]

Of the many things to pull out of the playoff loss to the Pats was the difference in how the Pats and Belichick seem to let Brady run the offense (recall Belichick hardly looking up when Brady threw a 2nd half TD?) and Kubiak who never seems to let Schaub audible (recall Schaub anxiously waiting the playcall into his helmet during the waning minutes of the 4th quarter?).

There is a problem here for the Texans. Schaub knows this offense by now. There are times when it seems Kubiak won't let him cut loose. There are times too when it seems like Schaub has deeper passing options available though he goes for the safer pass.

There's a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking going on where Schaub is getting tossed by fans in favor of guys like Alex Smith and T.J. Yates. Which if you've ever watched football, you'll know these fans haven't. Schaub is better than both, easily.

Kubiak learned from Shanahan who learned from Bill Walsh to script plays. Old Sept 2000 article from The Sporting News saved here goes into a lot on that, btw (it's a long but interesting read). Of course a lot of teams script plays, but Kubiak seems to have over-scripted Schaub sometimes.

I think it is one thing for Kubiak to use a script to reel in someone a little more free-spirited like Jake Plummer or maybe even a better improvisor like RG3 now with the Shanahans in Washington, but Schaub seems like the opposite where he needs to be given the green light more often to open up the offense more. Schaub waiting for the playcall and huddling the offense with just 9 minutes to play down three scores last night is just insane.

Brady, Manning, Rodgers... I don't see any of those guys having a 4th quarter like the one Schaub had last night, and I don't mean that as a knock on what Schaub can and can't do (like, ahem, throw the out route). Schaub is a 9-yr vet. Kubiak needs to empower him to act like one.