Official Texans vs. Lions Thread, 10/19/2008

[nunusguy]

Originally Posted by Keith

As for Kubiak... for a guy willing to stick his neck out on a pick like Mario over Reggie, he seems slow to react to problems on defense. I think sometimes someone needs to remind him to get more involved on the other side of the ball.

Honestly, isn't it really possible Gary is in over his head ? And I don't dislike him, I only want whoever the Texans HC is to succeed. He could be a very capable Offensive coordinator and that's it. You know, the old "Peter Principle".
And no he's not bashful about making decisions about the D. Remember he not only decided to take Mario instead of a very popular offensive player(but to Kubiaks credit, a player he correctly recogonized as overrated), if you recall he made the decision to switch to the 4-3 from the Capers 3-4 ?
But one of Gary's problems IMO is that he has a tendency to be just too loyal to a coach or player.
And I've always thought it was very strange that Gary was incapable of wathcing a field-goal attempt in a tight game ? And he's also admitted looking away on other key plays down by the goal-line. Strange for a HC !

[NBT]

It's possible, but with 2 SuperBowl wins behind him as an OC, I find it more than a little hard to believe. The problem, as I see it, is we are better in the second half, 4th quarter having to come from behind. The defense, for whatever reason, cannot hold a lead or put up aggressive numbers. So this week we ran up a big lead, then the offense seemed to sit on it with the exception of the one 3rd quarter TD. The D played out of position, took bad angles, and generally underperformed. The party line was that we need to learn how to finish. Well yes, that is true, but the poor defense is the result of poor coaching as much as personnel. To me the most puzzling question is why hasn't Kubiak shook up that defense?

[Big Texas]

If by shake up you mean fire R.Smith. Then Ok. But so far he has:

benched faggins on a couple occasions

brought him back into the starting lineup.

He called out Travis Johnson practically when he first got here.

he has dropped Okoye to passing downs only.

He's brought bulman, cochran, and the Deljuan Robinson into the rotation.

He brought in "the blind roadrunner" Jacque Reeves

Got rid of the always out of position Glenn Earl, brought in Will Demps

brought in, started, then benched again F. Bennett

Decided to start Z. Diles

Somehow nothin on this list jumps out at me. Until this list improves we will continue to be where we are. A defense with no identity. What are we trying to create here. Or are we just putting square pegs in round holes. Lets pick a defensive identity and create it.

[cadams]

they need a headhunter on defense that receivers have to worry about when they are crossing the middle. big hits rattle receivers and fire up the rest of the defense.

[papabear]

Originally Posted by Big Texas

A defense with no identity. What are we trying to create here. Or are we just putting square pegs in round holes.

You can definitely say that we have no identity on defense. There have been plenty of attempts to shake up the defense...more than just the personnel moves. They have blitzed more recently. I saw Diles blitz several times (it worked once). A few weeks ago they tried to do some Zone blitzing. They played a lot of Zone early....Sun they were in a lot of man. The corners have also been playing closer to the line of scrimmage lately....yes even Petey.

Maybe that's the problem. We keep trying new things and never do them long enough to get really good at them. I don't know if that's the only problem, but I a least see effort there to try new things.