The Kubiak Konundrum

I have my own reasons for rooting for him. If you’re interested I’ll tell you why. But it’s a long story. :)

I was ready for Kubes to go after last year, but I was happy when McNair kept him and hired Wade. While past failures have me apprehensive going into this season, I’m still very optimistic.

And for the record, I don’t think Kubiak’s near as shitty a game manager as others do.

I am not a hater. I basically like Kubes, but his clock managememt (I don’t know what game management means) has been at times more than questionable.

His offensive genius is very noticeable, but I would rather Dennison calls all the plays and then Kubes only has to focus on the clock. etc.

That is my $.02

has the Colts beating the Texans 24-23

I’ve loved what he’s done in developing our offense. His first year here he got Andre 100 catches and under him Andre has become the best WR in the league and we have found offensive stars from all over the place. Whether it’s Vonta, Walter,Owen Daniels, Arian Foster and perhaps Casey. It’s clear he knows offense.

My problem with him is his terrible choice of DC. Richard Smith and Frank Bush had no business being coordinators for this team and their two hirings set the team back so much. They couldn’t evaluate defensive talent worth a damn and Kubiak certainly can’t (but that’s okay because several teams in the league have Head Coaches with an offensive background and are successful). We just need on defense what Kubiak brought to the offense.

I personally think Bob McNair stepped in and made the Wade hiring which was a great move regardless of who was responsible.

This is it for Kubiak though. This team has no choice but to go to the playoffs. Owen Daniels openly stated there will be major changes if the team doesn’t make it and everybody knows that.

towards the end of last season I kind of wanted Kubes to get the axe. But with the hiring of Wade Phillips I agreed with the dissision of Bob McNair to bring him back. But in saying that I hate to admit this but if Kubes dosent make the playoffs this year he will be fired and I honestly belive that it will be a long time tell we get a wining team because this organization will be in a rebuid mode. But hey stranger things have happened I hope I’m wrong.

I thought I was the only one. Good to have you all. First rule about Kubiak’s Cult is you don’t tell anyone you’re part of Kubiak’s Cult, at least not in public. You might get shanked or at least treated like Billy Joe Shaver treats men who talk about his wife.

As much as I like the Kubiak love, where are the naysayers?! I need stuff to look for starting Sunday. Bring it!

Is way too nuanced to hammer out on my Blackberry, especially when I’m supposed to be unpacking boxes. If my wife catches me doing this, it’s curtains. So I’ll have to wait until who-knows-when.

Suffice to say, much respect for bringing this topic up.

While I understand some of the concerns raised about him (halfback pass, down and distance, etc) there are several, more common criticisms that just don’t make sense. The Denny’s Menu, The Script (Dear Lord that does my head in), turning his head on important kicks, calling them “Kids”, saying “We’re goin’ with our guys”, and lastly, the apparent inability to go apoplectic at failed plays, players, or ref’s decisions, also known as, “fire”.

I think his only downfall as a head coach has been his inability to properly assess what’s needed on defence. Some of this goes on Rick Smith’s head and some on Kubes. But after failing miserably with his first two DCs, it appears he realised he needed someone with experience, someone who the players would buy in immediately.

That said, the Hindsight Brigade will always be right and there’s simply nothing that can be done about it – just ask Sean Payton.

Kubiak + Wade is going to be a coaching dream team IMO.

Althought Jordann may may challenge you to some sort of internet battlefight to determine who is holds the title as Kubes’ true last defender.

P.S. You & Jordann should totally make out.

is that he “doesn’t allow Schaub to audible to a different play at the line of scrimmage,” even though both Kubiak and Schaub have repeatedly stated – REPEATEDLY STATED – that they do.

Haters gonna hate I guess.

The season hasn’t started, and the issues facing the other teams in the division have only increased the sense of optimism and excitement around the Texans.

You may not get any real resistance/Kubes criticism until the first loss (depending how the game is lost, of course).

to have his team ready to play all four quarters…. MOTIVATE…….. If he can do that, chalk him in as COY

Is choosing his DC from within. Many of the offensive minded head coaches have a well-regarded guy for their DC (Payton and Gregg Williams comes to mind, and I remember we had a chance to hire Gregg Williams, who runs a 4-3 defense that’d have kept Mario at DE), yet he hires a guy from within that has never been a DC before.

I love his offense; especially when he has a decent running game. The only thing I wish would change about that offense if giving Schaub the power to audible out if he sees something he doesn’t like.

I think Kubes and Ricky have brought in some good talent over the years, but it just hasn’t paid off yet. They’ve missed on some picks, but hit homeruns on others.

His clock management is pretty much inexcusable. I will never understand his decision making process during the two-minute drill of the Jets game last year. How can you not use all of your timeouts? That still baffles me to this day.

2009 was on Kubes. The Texans turned in a 9-7 season which realistically should’ve been 13-3. They outplayed their opponent in four of those games and lost. I don’t chalk it up as missed FGs, fumbles near or on the goal line, and half-back passes costing the Texans those games. When you CLEARLY outplay your opponent, you win. You don’t let costly events beat you. This is what good teams do. They find a way to win ball games.

But I believe a firing would have been justified. Kube’s weakness is his loyalty to friends, and that is where Rick Smith needs to step in. Kube’s needs to acknowledge his weaknesses and learn to work on them, or even better, delegate them. I think he should delegate the clock management to another coach – so he can focus on the big picture.

As far as the Denny’s menu – it is not that he has one, it just seems at times when I think (and a lot of other fans) he should focus his attention elsewhere.

On the challenges – it may be whoever is upstairs fault as much as his, as seeing things field level is not the best perspective of things.

I like Kubes, and I hope for all of our sake he is successful. The ball boy is now the boss – makes for a good story.

It wasn’t all our choice. Someone needed to agree to come here, and I’d have to think we were pretty low on the list of preferences, to most potential DCs. Anyway, we’ve obviously been a huge reclamation project, that much is certain.

Not sure where you get that. It certainly doesn’t apply to me.

after last year. lulz

I don’t claim to be a football genius or anything, it just seems to me that Kubes gets too locked in on his “script” and doesn’t seem to be watching what is happening on the field…..as in, everything you’ve tried AIN’T WORKIN’!!!! That is my biggest personal complaint of him. Formed entirely independent of this site other than research for just wth this “script” was I kept hearing about.

My second biggest complaint is something that will not be seen in any stat sheet, will not be able to be noticed by intense perusal of the sideline during games, and that is….there seems to be some undefinable something that separates the great head coaches from the good head coaches. Something that Kubes seems to be missing since we have been mired in mediocrity since his tenure began. Granted he started w/a great steaming pile of SUCK, but the last three years we pretty much all agree, the pieces were in place (minus a DC obviously) and still the same old same old.

I am very cautiously optimistic though that daddy Smith and grandpa Bob have implemented some sort of division of labor that will allow Wade and Kubes to shine at what they are both obviously great at. Yes I said “great”, it is hard to argue w/the results of either of them at their respective coordinator jobs…..as HC’s? Meh.

Maybe twixt the two of them they can find and capture in the bottle that something that is needed to get this team to the next level.

I hope that Kubiak has an outstanding career in Houston. He has always been one of the most beloved Broncos and will always be welcomed back by our fans. The Texans are fortunate to have such a classy HC.

But you weren’t alone defending Kubiak. I would have completely understood if he was fired last year. That’s the nature of the beast, but I wasn’t sure it was the right move. I felt like we had invested a lot in Kubiak, and that he was getting better at being a head coach. I felt like if we cut him loose he would just wind being very successful somewhere else. We went through the growing pains with him why not get the reward.

The biggest defense of Kubiak after last year was that he never lost the locker room. After that miserable failure of a season key players on both sides of the ball went out of their way to voice their support for him. The term leadership gets thrown around a lot, but I’ve always said you can’t tell who the leaders really are until things get bad. Things got bad and Kubiak still had the team behind him.

If Kubiak was stubborn and not willing to make changes, or the the team had lost faith in him then he needed to be fired. The fact that he was willing to shake things up (even if that order came from higher up the ladder) and that the players were still behind him was enough for me. I would much rather give a promising coach a little more time than to be in coaching carousel like the Raiders.

he’s from Houston and he knows when to be conservative and when to let that go. Seems consistent but maintains a solid element of surprise. So much of the lack of success in the past, from my perspective, seemed to have more to do with a lack of distinguishable talent. He doesn’t lose his cool but you see him getting at guys when he needs to. He seems like a solid father-figure type and he knows the players that get it. Unlike many head coaches this man has actually suited up. He takes this job very seriously and i think as long as he focuses on maintaining a dynamic offense that jumps on teams early on, we can be an elite team. The team is poised to be the most efficient offenses in the league if we can eliminate dumb turnovers off underneath plays and screens like we’ve seen as tough luck plays in the preseason and first game. Good job kubes. Some of us like ya buddy. People don’t realize how bad the team was in a hole when you took over.