First off, I will acknowledge that I'm pretty much done with Kubiak and have zero confidence that he's the guy to take us to the next level. He's had 4 years to do it and this team has many of the same issues which have plagued it from day one of his tenure. As this is an accountability thread, I thought this is as good a place as any to discuss what Kubiak has accomplished (or not) during his time here.
First the positive, Kubiak has installed a pretty good offense. However, I think our No. 3 ranking last year was somewhat misleading. Our short yardage struggles are no surprise. They have been an ongoing problem for years. While I don't have the stats, my guess is that we are one of the worst short yardage teams in the league. If anyone has the stats, I would be interested to see them. What did surprise me last year was how bad we were in 3rd and long as well. It was about week 10 or 11 when they showed a stat during the Texans game that we were 0-37 in 3rd and 8 or longer. I couldn't believe that. We hadn't converted a single time in 10 weeks? What these two things tell me is that the offense achieves most of its successes off of misdirection and unpredictability. While this is not that unusual in and of itself, at some point, you have to be able to beat the other team even when they know what's coming. Not only have we not been able to do that, but we are truly terrible at it. I don't think you can consistently win until you can do so. I think this also goes a long way toward explaining our redzone woes.
Now the negative. My primary complaint is his steadfast refusal to address the obvious deficiencies on this team. Just to quickly name a few, we have lacked a safety, DT, interior linemen, and back-up RB for years. While I know you can't address all of these overnight, his stubborness on these fronts is stupefying. Seeing teams like Denver and New Orleans (who had 2 of the worst defenses last year) go get Brian Dawkins and Darren Sharper and instantly upgrade the play and mentality of their D drives me nuts. Throw on top of it that both teams went out and actually interviewed proven D coordinators is the icing on the cake. As for a DT, nothing singlehandedly disrupts our offense like a mauling, run-stuffing DT. Kris Jenkins, Ngata, Hampton, etc. all wreck shop when they play us. You would think seeing this firsthand might tip Kubiak off that having a guy like that would be beneficial. Apparently not.
Next, his refusal to even interview, much less hire, someone he's not already friends with is irritating and makes me question his competency. While I realize this sort of thing is common in the NFL, he is dramatically reducing the hiring pool and this invariably will have a detrimental impact. By refusing to even consider other qualified coaches, he is doing the Texans no favors and, quite frankly, abdicating his job responsibilities.
Finally (although I could go on), he clearly doesn't have any idea what he wants to do on defense. We have been cellar dwellers his entire time here and I don't think he has any idea how to change it. Basically, I think they are just running guys out there and hoping they play well, but don't have any real plan. We've started about 5 safeties in 5 weeks. We continually trot out other D linemen as well. One week a guy starts, the next, he's may not even be activated. That tells me they really don't know what they have and are essentially grasping at straws. Good teams don't do this. They know what they expect of their players and try and find guys who can do it.
In short, I don't think Kubiak has much to show for his time here other than a pretty good offense, but one that struggles when they lack the element of surprise. The defense has been an unmitigated disaster for which there doesn't appear to be any cohesive plan to correct. His reliance on his buddies has further retarded this team's development and has prevented this team from pursuing potentially better options. Finally, he seems to truly lack an appreciation for the team's flaws and then excerbates these by routinely placing the game in the hands of our least competent.
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10-11-2009, 06:47 PM
Hybrid Mode
