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Richard Justice: what will McNair do if Texans bomb again Sunday ?

N

nunusguy

Hall of Fame
It's not that they're 0-3. It's how they're 0-3. The Pittsburgh game might have been the most embarrassing performance in franchise history.
But if it falls apart again, if the Texans can't even stay close to the Colts, it will be interesting to see if McNair makes some changes. He'd certainly be justified in doing so.
http://blogs.chron.com/sportsjustice/archives/2008/10/if_the_texans_g.html
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I may be Richards biggest fan in Houston ? Actually I may be his only fan in Houston ? I know I'm his only fan on this Board. But it's fun being a contrarian.
I think Richard really likes the Texans, but he could never love them like many of us do because he already had a #1 NFL team before he even arrived on our scene. But it still seems to infuriate a lot of Houstonians that he has
other NFL loyalties besides the Texans ?
But in his blog Justice wonders what McNair might do, if anything, in the event the Texans stink it up again in this weekends home opener against Peyton & the Colts or have something less than an inspiring performance ?
 
I couldn't care less about his NFL allegiances... he does two things that make me not like him as a columnist. 1 - he's unbelievably condescending... which he likes to make you think is an act, but he really does think he's smarter than everyone else. 2 - he constantly writes to incite a response, rather than to give an original or thoughtful opinion. It's like that guy a few weeks ago on this very board who posted "Tony Romo Out for the Season!" and the link was just a link to his website. That kind of behavior really irritates me from a writer.

I did like his piece on Kubiak and the exploration of the mentality of an NFL coach. That was his most readable article in months, IMO.
 
nunusguy said:
It's not that they're 0-3. It's how they're 0-3. The Pittsburgh game might have been the most embarrassing performance in franchise history.
But if it falls apart again, if the Texans can't even stay close to the Colts, it will be interesting to see if McNair makes some changes. He'd certainly be justified in doing so.
http://blogs.chron.com/sportsjustice/archives/2008/10/if_the_texans_g.html
**********************************
I may be Richards biggest fan in Houston ? Actually I may be his only fan in Houston ? I know I'm his only fan on this Board. But it's fun being a contrarian.
I think Richard really likes the Texans, but he could never love them like many of us do because he already had a #1 NFL team before he even arrived on our scene. But it still seems to infuriate a lot of Houstonians that he has
other NFL loyalties besides the Texans ?
But in his blog Justice wonders what McNair might do, if anything, in the event the Texans stink it up again in this weekends home opener against Peyton & the Colts or have something less than an inspiring performance ?
Click to expand...

Many have cautioned against “knee-jerk” changes. However, if the Texans show up with another embarrassing performance, and we are still of the delusion that “things just have a way of working themselves out,” I will be pained by the memories of Capers, Casserly Carr, et al......and the perennial extended excuses for their long term failures.

I am reminded of a quote from a book by Robert Fritz that I recently read........The Path of Least Resistance:

"If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is a compromise."

Mr. McNair may be wise to contemplate these words...........or chance rightfully taking his place at the head of the expanding list of failures.
 
Everything starts at the top. McNair is the guy that hired everybody. Justice is asking a legitimate question. McNair must be feeling plenty of heat. The defense stinks and Kubiak has shown he has a long way to go as a game day coach, experience-wise and decision-wise. Texan fans might be becoming immune to failure. Myself, I am sick of the way the team has performed since its inception. This is the third year these guys have been at the helm. I would not suggest firing Kubiak like Al Davis fired his coach last week. If we get our butts embarrased again, its time to start getting ready to pull the trigger if we need to later in the year instead of making a bad quick decision. If we have to get another coach, I hope it's a proven guy. That would cost a bunch of money, though.
 
I really don't think we're going to be embarrassed in this game. I think that's the least possible outcome.

That said if it were to happen, I'm not sure what the appropriate response is... it SURE as heck isn't to fire the head coach. That would be a huge, huge mistake.

Now, if it's a terrible defensive performance again? I think the decision is clear - it would be time to get a new D. coordinator. Previously I thought it might be a mistake to do that during the season - but if the D stinks it up again, it's a lost season (as far as playoffs go) anyway, so why not get the new guy in so he has more than half a season to get his feet under him, and we go into the off-season with less uncertainty.

That of course all hinges on them getting a new DC on a permanent basis, and not an interim guy who would give the spot up at season's end.

All that said - it's Peyton Manning against two bench safeties... so it would be hard to crush Richard Smith if those guys get carved up Sunday.
 
DiehardChris said:
All that said - it's Peyton Manning against two bench safeties... so it would be hard to crush Richard Smith if those guys get carved up Sunday.
Click to expand...

Well said, doesn't mean I like it or that I'm cutting Smith any slack though.
 
Thorn said:
Well said, doesn't mean I like it or that I'm cutting Smith any slack though.
Click to expand...

I hear you, man. I don't like it either... but it's hard for me to envision a scenario where McNair would want Richard Smith fired after the defense gets carved by Peyton Manning...

Now - if they look terrible on defense against Miami and/or Detroit and/or Cincy? I think that will be enough for McNair to run him IN SEASON.

Clearly all of us are already hoping for Smith to be gone - but I think it will take a disaster against one of those bad teams for him to actually want to make the change during the season.
 
DiehardChris said:
I couldn't care less about his NFL allegiances... he does two things that make me not like him as a columnist. 1 - he's unbelievably condescending... which he likes to make you think is an act, but he really does think he's smarter than everyone else. 2 - he constantly writes to incite a response, rather than to give an original or thoughtful opinion. It's like that guy a few weeks ago on this very board who posted "Tony Romo Out for the Season!" and the link was just a link to his website. That kind of behavior really irritates me from a writer.

I did like his piece on Kubiak and the exploration of the mentality of an NFL coach. That was his most readable article in months, IMO.
Click to expand...

"our little football team"

He put that in a recent article. Smug a lot?
 
Even other owners are making fun of this franchise...we gotta start winning or the jokes get bigger and uglier so RJ has a point of sorts. Are we the only team in the last 7 years to never have a 3 game winning streak in a given season?
 
To me if the wheels fall off this team I think the fall guy has to be the Head Coach and probably more so on The GM for the players that they have been brining in as free agents and the draft picks as well. The Texans drafts have been Horrible other than Mario Williams & Demeco Ryans and probably Steve Slaton but other than those players under this regime they have done a horrible job of bringing in good players.
 
I can't understand why they haven't turned the defense over to Ray Rhodes!!! He has won multiple super bowls as a defensive coordinator and has been a head coach multiple times in this league and Richard Smith can't hold his water.
 
nunusguy said:
It's not that they're 0-3. It's how they're 0-3. The Pittsburgh game might have been the most embarrassing performance in franchise history.
But if it falls apart again, if the Texans can't even stay close to the Colts, it will be interesting to see if McNair makes some changes. He'd certainly be justified in doing so.
http://blogs.chron.com/sportsjustice/archives/2008/10/if_the_texans_g.html
**********************************
I may be Richards biggest fan in Houston ? Actually I may be his only fan in Houston ? I know I'm his only fan on this Board. But it's fun being a contrarian.
I think Richard really likes the Texans, but he could never love them like many of us do because he already had a #1 NFL team before he even arrived on our scene. But it still seems to infuriate a lot of Houstonians that he has
other NFL loyalties besides the Texans ?
But in his blog Justice wonders what McNair might do, if anything, in the event the Texans stink it up again in this weekends home opener against Peyton & the Colts or have something less than an inspiring performance ?
Click to expand...

Everyone doesn't hate him in Houston. Just most of the people on this board. I'm not one of them though. I've always liked Justice, and frankly I think he tells it like it is the way he sees it for the most part. He just isn't one of those sports writers that acts like the team for the city he works in is always great and can do no wrong.
 
One of the things I learned in coaching Little League is when a pitcher is struggling you gotta yank him to show the other players that we want to play good . It's the same thing if the players know there's a problem and nobody does anything about it .
 
I'm not quite ready to see Coach K leave. I think that's he has a good offensive mind. His decision making does scare me. Not so much what I've seen on the field though. Yes, his on field calls have been pretty bad at time, but I think he can learn from these things. The part of his decision making that scares me is his sticking with Richard Smith. for the past 3 seasons, our D has started off bad and for the past 2, it got better after the D got more "simple." This sounds to me that Kubiak had to step in and tell him to fix things. The D is off to another bad start, and while we don't have the best talent on D, we aren't getting them to play up to their talent either. I don't believe the D will improve before the season is over, and if it improves after certain off season additions, it will be to improved player talent and not the coaching. If Kubiak doesn't fire Smith before the season is over, or very shortly after the season is over, I'm fine with McNair firing Kubiak. A head coach has to make the hard decision and I haven't seen that yet from Kubiak. Now the question is who would replace Gary. I'd love some Cowher Power or Marty Ball here in Houston.
 
PHAROAH said:
I can't understand why they haven't turned the defense over to Ray Rhodes!!! He has won multiple super bowls as a defensive coordinator and has been a head coach multiple times in this league and Richard Smith can't hold his water.
Click to expand...

This has been said a thousand times already, but just so we cover everyone - If Ray Rhodes wanted to be a defensive coordinator in the NFL - he would be one. He's one of the most successful DCs in the history of the NFL, he's almost literally a legend as a DC... but his health will not allow him to be a DC. He's had a lot of health issues, and his doctors told him he shouldn't handle the full workload of a DC. He was smart and he took that advice.
 
DiehardChris said:
I couldn't care less about his NFL allegiances... he does two things that make me not like him as a columnist. 1 - he's unbelievably condescending... which he likes to make you think is an act, but he really does think he's smarter than everyone else. 2 - he constantly writes to incite a response, rather than to give an original or thoughtful opinion. It's like that guy a few weeks ago on this very board who posted "Tony Romo Out for the Season!" and the link was just a link to his website. That kind of behavior really irritates me from a writer.

I did like his piece on Kubiak and the exploration of the mentality of an NFL coach. That was his most readable article in months, IMO.
Click to expand...

That is my main beef with Justice as well. However, it seems after he got called out on his remarks about Texans Chick he has chilled in his writing style. Everyone has their not so good moments, hopefully he got the hint and sticks to the decent writing he has been putting out lately.

Kubiak is the HC, I'm not sure how or if he delegates his authority with the OC and DC. If Smith can not get the defense to tighten up then Coach K would be wise to make a decision to relieve DC Smith of his responsibilities. Come Sunday if we see the same old discombobulated defense on the field I for one would not be sad to see a move made.
 
nut said:
Everything starts at the top. McNair is the guy that hired everybody. Justice is asking a legitimate question. McNair must be feeling plenty of heat. The defense stinks and Kubiak has shown he has a long way to go as a game day coach, experience-wise and decision-wise. Texan fans might be becoming immune to failure. Myself, I am sick of the way the team has performed since its inception. This is the third year these guys have been at the helm. I would not suggest firing Kubiak like Al Davis fired his coach last week. If we get our butts embarrased again, its time to start getting ready to pull the trigger if we need to later in the year instead of making a bad quick decision. If we have to get another coach, I hope it's a proven guy. That would cost a bunch of money, though.
Click to expand...

You know, its easy to sit here and blame Mcnair. Lets not forget he did bring in a football guy to acess the situation. It takes time to build a team. At least Mcnair is listening to football people instead of trying to run the show. It will take time. And sometimes people don't make the right call. Unfortunately it takes a while to recover from that. What were you expecting to go from a 2-14 team to a playoff contender in 2 seasons?

Mike
 
The problem with Kubes is that he wants us to be the late 1990s early 2000s Broncos not the 2008 Broncos that actually win.

The offenses he ran then are obsolete now and they simply don't work anymore. The Broncos and Packers left the old Broncos playbook and system behind and started winning
 
Texanmike said:
You know, its easy to sit here and blame Mcnair. Lets not forget he did bring in a football guy to acess the situation. It takes time to build a team. At least Mcnair is listening to football people instead of trying to run the show. It will take time. And sometimes people don't make the right call. Unfortunately it takes a while to recover from that. What were you expecting to go from a 2-14 team to a playoff contender in 2 seasons?

Mike
Click to expand...


Yes, I was expecting that exact thing.

Was I expecting to actually see them in the playoffs? Was I expecting them to make it to the second round or to appear in the AFC Championship game? Was I thinking about taking out a loan to buy some Super Bowl tickets?

Of course not.

I was however expecting the Houston Texans to become playoff contenders in two seasons and what in the world is unreasonable about that? It happens (literally) all the time. Bill Parcells turns a team around in about that much time. He inherited a 5-11 team and went 10-6 the next year. Then he looked things over and decided that he wasn't going to get where he needed to go without a rebuild and did it. One 6-10 season later he was 9-7 twice before leaving and then that team went 13-3 last year.

In 2002 the Titans were 11-5 and then in 2003 they went 12-4. Then they fell to 5-11 in 2004 followed by 4-12 in 2005 while they rebuilt and reloaded. Last year they were 10-6 and in the playoffs. This year they're undefeated.

It just doesn't take as long for a competent team to get itself righted as we are conditioned to believe around these parts. If it takes a franchise 5-6 years to become good enough to contend for a spot in the post-season then they're doing something wrong. In 2005 we were 2-14 and the worst team in the NFL. The only difference between a 2-14 team and a 4-12 team are a couple of bad calls/breaks/days/plays. Everybody below 6 wins is more or less running on a similar amount of on-field talent. The key to the next step (7-9 to 10-6 or so) is the brain trust and leadership. The teams clustered around .500 have some and the ones that stay down below 7 wins consistently don't.

We were 8-8 last season and were in the playoff hunt (as a long shot of course) I think as far along as 12 weeks in, possibly later than that. Expecting 9 wins is more than reasonable.
 
FYI

The Texans will be playing their 100th game. A look at how several other expansion teams fared in their first 100 games:

Team 1st sea. 1st 100

Houston Texans 2002 32-67

Dallas Cowboys 1960 38-57-5

Cleveland Browns 1999 32-68

Jacksonville Jaguars 1995 58-42

Carolina Panthers 1995 46-54

New Orleans Saints 1967 25-70-5
 
CloakNNNdagger said:
FYI

The Texans will be playing their 100th game. A look at how several other expansion teams fared in their first 100 games:

Team 1st sea. 1st 100

Houston Texans 2002 32-67

Dallas Cowboys 1960 38-57-5

Cleveland Browns 1999 32-68

Jacksonville Jaguars 1995 58-42

Carolina Panthers 1995 46-54

New Orleans Saints 1967 25-70-5
Click to expand...

That makes us pretty normal if you take out the Jags and Panthers, who IIRC both had a lot of advantages to start with for expansion teams. It would make only the Cowboys noticeably better than us--and not that noticeably.

PS-Biggest reason the Cowboys did better than us in their first 100 games: 5 ties. How many times have we lost in overtime?
 
Last edited:
I have not made it a secret that I believe that McNair has his hand in this mess.

If this season craters, McNair needs to first evaluate the criteria for selecting coaches and front office personnel. In addition, he needs to evaluate any personal requirements or moral standing requirements of players.

The main reason for selecting coach or player should be winning and winning alone. Very rarely should any coach or player not be considered because of lacking some type of moral character or whatever you want to call to it.
 
If the Texans bomb against the Colts on Sunday, Bob McNair won't do anything. He's the owner of the team, not some message board knee-jerk.

Richard Justice is just a flip-flopping hack pandering to fan discontent. He wouldn't have an honest opinion about something if it jumped up and bit him.
 
I think a lot of you guys just need to chill or find some other way to spend your free time.

Bob McNair is the owner who brought football back to Houston. He's tried to bring in football people and then be patient with them to let them build a good team. He doesn't want to be Daniel Snyder and that's a good thing.

He made a mistake with the first regime. But it was an honest mistake. And in the 3rd year of the C&C, it looked like his approach was paying off. The real truth didn't show up until the 4th year and McNair still tried to be patient.

With this second regime, I don't understand what some of you guys are thinking. There have been some bad moves but there have been some very good moves as well. But there isn't a GM/Coaching staff out there that hasn't made moves that turned out wrong.

I believe we're a much more talented team than the 2-14 or even the 7-9 team of the C&C era. We are not an upper echelon team but we're not a team to take lightly. We're going to win some games this year. We're not going to be vying for the first pick in the draft and I don't expect us to have a top 10 pick, either.

I'm not happy with our DC and I'm not happy with our Strength & Conditioning coach. But I'm fine with Kubiak as Head Coach and Rick Smith as GM. Calling for them to be fired at this point in time seems ridiculous to me.
 
CloakNNNdagger said:
FYI

The Texans will be playing their 100th game. A look at how several other expansion teams fared in their first 100 games:

Team 1st sea. 1st 100

Houston Texans 2002 32-67

Dallas Cowboys 1960 38-57-5

Cleveland Browns 1999 32-68

Jacksonville Jaguars 1995 58-42

Carolina Panthers 1995 46-54

New Orleans Saints 1967 25-70-5
Click to expand...

Not to split hairs here, but the Cowboys and Saints each had nearly a season more to reach 100 games...

just sayin'... ;)
 
Vinny said:
Even other owners are making fun of this franchise...we gotta start winning or the jokes get bigger and uglier so RJ has a point of sorts. Are we the only team in the last 7 years to never have a 3 game winning streak in a given season?
Click to expand...

michaelm said:
Are you referring to Jerry Jones, or are there other instances that you've heard or read?
Click to expand...

I'm guessing that there are 27 team's owners not laughing...... or at least when looking at the value of the franchise.
 
Texan_Bill said:
I'm guessing that there are 27 team's owners not laughing...... or at least when looking at the value of the franchise.
Click to expand...

Value to whom????..........McNair.

Is the franchise value translating into a team performing at a level on par with their financial standing? Is the average fan's monetary investment ($$$$ for tickets, PSLs, parking, paraphernalia, "gourmet" food, etc.) not adding to this enormous "value"...... without reasonable returns? And if the team performs another swan dive this season (as legitimately previously defined by Hervoyel as being a contender for a playoff birth), is it unreasonable for fans to be unhappy with their investment?.........especially in light of the fact that others are basking in their financial success?
 
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