Richard Smith - The Pink Soap Blog Post

[Texans_Chick]

I've put together something at the TC Chron blog for those people who want to pink soap defensive coordinator Richard Smith:

Why Texans defensive coordinator Richard Smith needs to be fired

Some of this stuff might be familiar. Some stuff not so much.

I invite you to leave comments on the post if you feel strongly on this issue. You never know what can come from that. Be calm, be rational--you can get more done that way.

[threetoedpete]

Smith may well go out the door. But it says here he won't be out the door before Gary Kubiak. Kubiak's not going to throw him under the bus.

[Texans_Chick]

Originally Posted by threetoedpete

Smith may well go out the door. But it says here he won't be out the door before Gary Kubiak. Kubiak's not going to throw him under the bus.

How do you figure that?

[threetoedpete]

He's forty games into a sixty game contract. When have you ever heard of an Aggie throwing anyone over board ....ever ? They do not do it ....ever. This is all a waist of time. McNair isn't going to throw Kubiack overboard. And Kubiack isn't going to throw Smith over board. That's just the way it is. And anyone with a lick of football sense at all has already figured out Smith is doing with the talent on hand exactly what Kubes wants. Denver has been doing this same thing since I was a little boy and watching them play the Oilers in Jeppesen Stadium....43 years. The only failure here is folks not understanding the game. Come back too me when we have a LB who can get there when they send five or six. And dump a dinosaur DE who isn't constantly hooked at the point of attack and has something left in the tank. Can't make chicken salad out of chicken...you know what. They have holes in the defense and everyone on Kirby knows it.

[GNTLEWOLF]

Originally Posted by threetoedpete

He's forty games into a sixty game contract. When have you ever heard of an Aggie throwing anyone over board ....ever ? They do not do it ....ever. This is all a waist of time. McNair isn't going to throw Kubiack overboard. And Kubiack isn't going to throw Smith over board. That's just the way it is. And anyone with a lick of football sense at all has already figured out Smith is doing with the talent on hand exactly what Kubes wants. Denver has been doing this same thing since I was a little boy and watching them play the Oilers in Jeppesen Stadium....43 years. The only failure here is folks not understanding the game. Come back too me when we have a LB who can get there when they send five or six. And dump a dinosaur DE who isn't constantly hooked at the point of attack and has something left in the tank. Can't make chicken salad out of chicken...you know what. They have holes in the defense and everyone on Kirby knows it.

Yes they have holes in the defense...but why? Who was it that reccommended to the GM those players who are the holes? Why didn't we go after better talent? Was it all cap space related or was some of it simply poor talent evaluation/ player type fitting on behalf of a staff member? Why don't the Texans run some kind of recognizable scheme like the Colts do?
As far as Kubiak not wanting to throw Smith under the bus goes, I think that is admirable but..... I would think His first priority should be the "W" column. And if he plainly sees that he has a coach who is clueless then maybe he should find one who can get the job done. As for Smith doing with the talent exactly what Kubiak wants done.... I hope not....because with all the first rounders on thar D-line...we should be awesome...but we are not.
I am sure that you are right that Smith will not be let go right now. But by season's end, if the defense is still in the lower third of NFl defenses, then I hope Kubiak will be wise enough to make a change. I'm not sure that this team can withstand another season of a really, really bad defense.

[beerlover]

1). Great Post TC. actually might be your best to date I've read & thats saying something.

2).

I think Smith has had enough time to develop a defense where you can see the players play better as a team than they are as individuals. I take no pleasure in writing this up but I think this is a topic that needs to be discussed. I know fans know the defense is bad, they just may not have an idea of how bad it is.

IMO you need better talent to run the 4-3 succesfully than the 3-4. just look @ the Texans defense in 2002 their 1st year of expansion they ranked 16th in total yards allowed (326.9) & 22.2 points per game. flash forward to 2008, the Texans are currently ranked 23rd (341.4) & a staggering 31.6 points per game. In 2002 the Texans did not have Mario or DeMeco both better than anyone on that team. so it has to be either the coaching or the scheme, probably a combination of both.

3). Since expansion the Texans have used 3 #1 picks including David Carr on the offense while using 5 on defense (Jason Babin, Dunta Robinson, TJ, Mario & Amobi) still the defense lags the offense.

4). The Texans defense needs to win the turnover battle too. the offense may be turning the ball over but rank 6th in passing averaging 248.8 yards & 16th in rushing 114 yds. per game. while the defensive numbers are near the bottom they're not achieving takeaways either 21st with 3 interceptions & 2 fumbles.

In conclusion threetoedpete has a sticking point with loyalty of this organanizations commitment to players & coaches, thats where McNair brings in a Reeves type, in this case Ray Rhodes, to evalute his process. If the Texans commit to defense in next years draft/fa they will have the talent to compete in the 4-3 as we witness inklings of the four down linemen in different combinations applying more & more pocket pressure. so if we're all just patient the talent will catch up the scheme & coaching to become a much closer match to its offensive counterpart which = more wins.

[BigBull17]

I hate to defend him, (really, I do) but he has gotten better as the year progressed. He has had people in the right place, but they dont make plays. The Wildcat had been killing everyone, and we shut it down, except for Brandon Harrison allowing a RB to run strait by him. Add in that the O put them in binds and it was a great 2 game stretch. The Colts did next to nothing against our D. Just my.

And because its cool...

[nunusguy]

Thoughtful, constructive piece there T_C.
I wonder if we saw a gleamer of hope, of real encouragement in the 'Phins game in terms of real pressure from our DLine ? Which also makes me wonder why it took so long for low-profile, FA signees like Tim Bulman & DelJuan Robinson to get some regular-game snaps ? In other words is that on Smith or Kubiak ?

[Buffi2]

I thought Smith should go after last year - but I figured it was just an emotional response to a bad defense.

After reading such a well thought out piece as TC wrote - and I do think it is your best yet, TC - perhaps I wasn't so far off after all.

As a line from a song by Mary Chapin-Carpenter says, "The stars may lie, but numbers never do."

Thanks for providing solid reasoning to a not so solid situation.

[Texans_Chick]

Originally Posted by threetoedpete

He's forty games into a sixty game contract. When have you ever heard of an Aggie throwing anyone over board ....ever ? They do not do it ....ever. This is all a waist of time. McNair isn't going to throw Kubiack overboard. And Kubiack isn't going to throw Smith over board. That's just the way it is. And anyone with a lick of football sense at all has already figured out Smith is doing with the talent on hand exactly what Kubes wants. Denver has been doing this same thing since I was a little boy and watching them play the Oilers in Jeppesen Stadium....43 years. The only failure here is folks not understanding the game. Come back too me when we have a LB who can get there when they send five or six. And dump a dinosaur DE who isn't constantly hooked at the point of attack and has something left in the tank. Can't make chicken salad out of chicken...you know what. They have holes in the defense and everyone on Kirby knows it.

We know that McNair will get rid of a coordinator. Kubiak hasn't been a head coach long enough to know what he will do.

[Texans_Chick]

Originally Posted by BigBull17

I hate to defend him, (really, I do) but he has gotten better as the year progressed. He has had people in the right place, but they dont make plays. The Wildcat had been killing everyone, and we shut it down, except for Brandon Harrison allowing a RB to run strait by him. Add in that the O put them in binds and it was a great 2 game stretch. The Colts did next to nothing against our D. Just my.

And because its cool...

The Wildcat is a gimmick offense that the Dolphins use because of their profound lack of talent on offense. Pennington didn't have an offseason with the Dolphins and the Wildcat was instituted to take advantage of having two good running backs and a mess at wide receiver. Wildcat hurt teams mostly because of the element of surprise. It is not surprising that the Texans were mostly able to deal with it other than the inevitable goon play that always happens with this defense.

[Texans_Chick]

Originally Posted by nunusguy

Thoughtful, constructive piece there T_C.
I wonder if we saw a gleamer of hope, of real encouragement in the 'Phins game in terms of real pressure from our DLine ? Which also makes me wonder why it took so long for low-profile, FA signees like Tim Bulman & DelJuan Robinson to get some regular-game snaps ? In other words is that on Smith or Kubiak ?

That you get a pass rush of any sort against the Dolphins isn't something you should get a cookie for. Chad Pennington had a 76% completion percentage and a 122.8 passer rating against the Texans.

If this defense is going to suck this bad, I would like to see players like Molden and Okam get more snaps to develop instead of next year's Anthony Maddoxes.

I don't know what put Molden in a semi-doghouse. As for Okam, you can be concerned about the pass rush all you want, but if you can't get physical to stop the run, it's hard to force passing situations because the other team will be in short yardage a lot.

The Texans defense is a week to week experiment right now. It is the defensive equivalent to Pendry.

[Texans_Chick]

Originally Posted by Buffi2

I thought Smith should go after last year - but I figured it was just an emotional response to a bad defense.

After reading such a well thought out piece as TC wrote - and I do think it is your best yet, TC - perhaps I wasn't so far off after all.

As a line from a song by Mary Chapin-Carpenter says, "The stars may lie, but numbers never do."

Thanks for providing solid reasoning to a not so solid situation.

Actually, numbers can be misleading. I put the numbers up mostly to confirm what your eyes are seeing, and to compare with what others in the league are doing.

The biggest hope for the Texans, as far as the numbers are concerned, is that the Texans strength of schedule has been one of the toughest in the league so far and gets less tough. There are all sorts of stats that indicate that the NFL, with so few games, strength of schedule has a big affect on the W-L totals.

[barrett]

Originally Posted by BigBull17

I hate to defend him, (really, I do) but he has gotten better as the year progressed. He has had people in the right place, but they dont make plays. The Wildcat had been killing everyone, and we shut it down, except for Brandon Harrison allowing a RB to run strait by him. Add in that the O put them in binds and it was a great 2 game stretch. The Colts did next to nothing against our D. Just my.

And because its cool...

i have to agree with this. to say i am expecting the improvement to continue would be a lie, but to say that i am hopeful that it will is true. as long as it continues to improve, and with the addition of Dunta Robinson our secondary should improve quite a bit. Reeves and Faggins are both playing well. if Bennett can step up again and Dunta gets comfortable over the next few games our secondary could become an asset.

the defense as a whole is playing the run better and applying more pressure over the past few weeks. the stats aren't there but i agree with kubiak that it's not about sacks. it's about pressure.

again, i don't expect this team to continue to improve. i expect them to continue to make mistakes that cost us games that we could win. but i am hopeful that the progress the defense has shown and the potential the offense has to be stellar, turn into the winning team alot of us thought we would have this season.

i think this is the wrong time to call for Smith's job.

[Texan_Bill]

Denver's defense has been like this since you were a kid (threetoe)??? Funny, I guess I do have a lick of sense, because I remember the 'Orange Crush' defense being pretty stout.

Anyway, okay so we don't have OLB's that can get to the QB. Fair enough. Why not send a corner. Dunta Robinson had 3 sacks in one year under Fangio. Since Smith took over Dunta has 0 sacks in a season and a half (or 25 games under Smith).

Do any of our DB's have a sack this year?

That's not about talent, thats about scheme and / or philosophy.

Fire Smith ASAP!

[IlliniJen]

Finally, someone talking about sports on the Chron.com! Good, well-reasoned post. Your pedigree as a lawyer comes through, and I mean it thusly: you think things out instead of having purely emotional "fan" responses. Rarity on the chron these days.

[utahmark]

Originally Posted by barrett

i have to agree with this. to say i am expecting the improvement to continue would be a lie, but to say that i am hopeful that it will is true. as long as it continues to improve, and with the addition of Dunta Robinson our secondary should improve quite a bit. Reeves and Faggins are both playing well. if Bennett can step up again and Dunta gets comfortable over the next few games our secondary could become an asset.

the defense as a whole is playing the run better and applying more pressure over the past few weeks. the stats aren't there but i agree with kubiak that it's not about sacks. it's about pressure.

again, i don't expect this team to continue to improve. i expect them to continue to make mistakes that cost us games that we could win. but i am hopeful that the progress the defense has shown and the potential the offense has to be stellar, turn into the winning team alot of us thought we would have this season.

i think this is the wrong time to call for Smith's job.

in the last 3 games the defense has given up close to 30 points a game. in each of those games we have gave up late scoring drives that either cost us the game or should of cost us the game. against jacksonville it was multiple late scoring drives.

it is the right time to be asking for his job.

[Texan_Bill]

There are 4 defenses in the NFL that have allowed first downs on 4th down plays 100% of those attempts...

Washington has allowed 1 on 1 attempted
Oakland has allowed 1 on 1 attempted
St. Louis has allowed 2 on 2 attempted


wait for it



wait




Houston Texans have allowed 6 on 6 attempts.

That's pathetic.

[HOU-TEX]

Originally Posted by Texan_Bill

There are 4 defenses in the NFL that have allowed first downs on 4th down plays 100% of those attempts...

Washington has allowed 1 on 1 attempted
Oakland has allowed 1 on 1 attempted
St. Louis has allowed 2 on 2 attempted


wait for it



wait




Houston Texans have allowed 6 on 6 attempts.

That's pathetic.

Yeah, well, according to some.....it's the players, not the scheme.

[dickieb]

I really would like to know how much of our defensive philosophy is on Kubiak. I guess since he is the head coach - all of it. This makes me wonder if Kubiak is pulling in the reigns on Smith or if Kubiak gives him a lot of freedom and Smith just sucks that bad. I tend to agree we have positions on defense that we would like to upgrade - but so does every other NFL team. I think other - better - coaches use strategy, confusion, or mismatches to gain ground on other teams which is what I think we are lacking. I wish we had a defensive mind that came from a proven defensive power house that had confidence to tell Kubiak exactly what we need to do - I'd kind of like to see that accompanied with a "Buddy Ryan" style punch to the face.