Wade Phillips is the new DC

[coloradodude]

Chuck, You have all the signs of an aging man. Soon football will not have the shine it used to even on tv...your interest will dim.


Anyhoo, the reason you don't fire Koobs is because he had the best run game in the NFL last year. Dominating run game is a key component of a championship caliber team. He was responsible for that. The QB was decent enough. Disagree if you want but the Baltimore game was very impressive in the 4th qtr. Shaubb showed excellent composure, freaky calm.

Defense was absolutely horrible. Defense coach has been addressed, personnel is next. Wade Phillips is a terrible HC but is a very good DC overall.

We are close even though most will disagree.

[WMH]

Originally Posted by coloradodude

Chuck, You have all the signs of an aging man. Soon football will not have the shine it used to even on tv...your interest will dim.


Anyhoo, the reason you don't fire Koobs is because he had the best run game in the NFL last year. Dominating run game is a key component of a championship caliber team. He was responsible for that. The QB was decent enough. Disagree if you want but the Baltimore game was very impressive in the 4th qtr. Shaubb showed excellent composure, freaky calm.

Defense was absolutely horrible. Defense coach has been addressed, personnel is next. Wade Phillips is a terrible HC but is a very good DC overall.

We are close even though most will disagree.

I don't disagree. I can't remember where I saw it, or who I heard it from, but the Texans were voted one of the most exciting teams to watch. Granted, we came up on the short end of those "exciting" games 8 times last year.....they were still pretty damn entertaining.

Here's hoping Phillips has some magic vodoo dust or something, and we can turn that record around and sniff some January football.

If there is January football of course......

[Nconroe]

Originally Posted by coloradodude

Chuck, You have all the signs of an aging man. Soon football will not have the shine it used to even on tv...your interest will dim.

I am just wondering, at what age does this shining diminish you refer to young one?

If true, I must be getting close. What is the medication required to solve this problem? Do you think vitamin D might help? maybe more tacos?

And even on TV, I think that is a bad theory as I am loving the HD TV more and more.

[NBT]

Very well said CD. I agree pretty much in all respects. We had a lot of injuries last year, and the defense really let us down. Koobs wasn't entirely responsible for that. This Draft, coming before FA and all, will be instrumental in whether or not we can reach that next step.

[Joshua]

Originally Posted by NBT

Very well said CD. I agree pretty much in all respects. We had a lot of injuries last year, and the defense really let us down. Koobs wasn't entirely responsible for that. This Draft, coming before FA and all, will be instrumental in whether or not we can reach that next step.

I have to disagree on the injuries and I guess I have a question. What is your baseline for injuries; i.e., are you starting with the notion that we should make it through the season with zero injuries or are you starting with some "average" amount that can be expected due to the violent nature of the sport and concluding ours were above the norm? To me, last year's injuries don't stand out unless you start with the assumption that we should be able to get through the season injury free. However, virtually every NFL team loses several starters to season-ending injuries every year. Nobody makes it through an NFL season unscathed. Looking back at our injuries last year, I wouldn't put our injuries as out of the ordinary for a given NFL season. QB, RB, offensive line all were virtually injury free last year. AJ was dinged up but primarily played through it. I can't think of any significant injuries on offense last year, but I'm probably forgetting something. The defense saw Demeco and Barwin go down (Mario's IR came long past the point where it mattered IMO). Demeco clearly hurt, but Barwin was an unproven, role player who we really didn't know what we were going to get from him. It's hard to say a second-year back-up going down makes or breaks a season. If you really want to see a team that battled injuries, take a look at what the Packers went through last year and they won it all.

[Joshua]

Originally Posted by coloradodude

Anyhoo, the reason you don't fire Koobs is because he had the best run game in the NFL last year. Dominating run game is a key component of a championship caliber team. He was responsible for that. The QB was decent enough. Disagree if you want but the Baltimore game was very impressive in the 4th qtr. Shaubb showed excellent composure, freaky calm.

Wow. After 5 years, all a head coach needs to show you is that he is good for one season at one aspect of one of the 3 phases of the game. That, my friend, is grading on a curve.

Best I can recall, under Kubiak, we had a terrible running game for his first 2 years. Had a breakout year with Slaton that was encouraging. Saw that evaporate the next year and us fall back to sucking again to the point where the Texans were practically taking out billboards to advertise that they would draft a RB in the first couple of rounds. Then, in year 5, put a great running game on the field. By my count, that's 1 really good year, 1 good year, and 3 bad ones. Moreover, there's not much indication that any of this was because of any masterplan by Kubiak. I think even Kubiak admitted that Slaton was never envisioned to be the lead back and all were surprised by his rookie production (and equally pantsed when he failed to back it up his 2nd season). As for Foster, they believed in him going into this season so much that they drafted Tate in the 2nd round. And I'm firmly convinced that the only reason Foster was able to succeed was because of Tate's injury. Kubiak always plays his high draft picks over UDFAs and other scrubs. If Tate had stayed healthy and looked remotely adequate in preseason, I have no doubt he would have been the starter and Foster would have been watching from the sidelines.

[popanot]

Aside from Foster, who might not even have seen playing field had Tate not gotten hurt, there is nothing positive that came out of last year. There are very few positions on this team where we don't need an upgrade, all-out replacement, depth, or serious improvement. And despite getting up off the mat and making most games at least interesting, this team was a bumbling mess most of the time.

The Defense was obviously horrible, but I'd put coaching right there in the sewer with it. I know it's easy to blame coaching, but how can anyone seriously consider Kubiak in the top - or even above average - coaching tier or think he's the answer? He was all over the map as far gameplanning and certainly with in-game adjustments, he buries young players on the depth chart despite the fact a veteran is playing poorly or the game/season is lost, never put any empasis on building a quality D backfield, he hires and keeps a subpar (or inept) coaching staff... Do I need to go on?

Kubiak has done nothing in his tenure to make me believe he has the skill-set to win big in this league. Hopefully I'm wrong. I think Wade will make the D respectable, and hopefully that will be enough to overcome Kubiak's deficiencies. I'm not counting on it, though, because I thought we were on the right track prior to last year and it all derailed. I don't see that we've improved.

[nunusguy]

Originally Posted by popanot

I'm not counting on it, though, because I thought we were on the right track prior to last year and it all derailed. I don't see that we've improved.

But I wonder if the team really regressed last year ? It was a relatively difficult schedule while the 2009 record was perhaps inflated because of a very easy schedule ? In other words the Texans were about a 6-7 win team in both 2009 & 2010.

[chuck]

Joshua, sir, I am considering retiring from football-related posts around here for a while (and there was great rejoicing...) because anything I plan to say or want to say or would say I find already said by you.

[Nconroe]

well, fwiw, if we were to vote on Chuck continuing his posts daily or not, I'd vote yeah, for keep posting. find your posts entertaining and you have good opinions so keep up the posts. and your probably not that old either.

[popanot]

Originally Posted by nunusguy

But I wonder if the team really regressed last year ? It was a relatively difficult schedule while the 2009 record was perhaps inflated because of a very easy schedule ? In other words the Texans were about a 6-7 win team in both 2009 & 2010.

If their feable showing last year was because of how tough the schedule was, then we're in for another long season in 2011. The schedule this year looks a hell of a lot tougher than last year's to me. For the most part, championship teams aren't influenced by the schedule. Good teams make their breaks and overcome their mistakes. Bad or mediocre teams like the Texans make mistakes and provide the opposition with the breaks. Coloradodude brought up the Ravens game and Schaub's poise, but it was Schaub who made the final bonehead play that lost the game. I'm just saying this team isn't talented enough to overcome their mistakes on top of Kubiak's (and staff) coaching deficiencies. I think that has more to do with their record the last few years than the schedule.

[NBT]

Originally Posted by Joshua

I have to disagree on the injuries and I guess I have a question. What is your baseline for injuries; i.e., are you starting with the notion that we should make it through the season with zero injuries or are you starting with some "average" amount that can be expected due to the violent nature of the sport and concluding ours were above the norm?

No.......and since you are taking me to task, I was basically just agreeing with CD that Koobs had a good run game, that Phillips should make our defense better, the Draft will help the team, as will free agency, if we get to have one, and that we had a "lot" of injuries. Make what you want to out of that!