Frank Bush's impact on Defense

How will promoting Frank Bush to defensive coordinator impact the Texans' defense? The consensus is that firing Richard Smith and promoting Bush will be the change the Texans' D needs.

hawk258 said:

How will promoting Frank Bush to defensive coordinator impact the Texans' defense? The consensus is that firing Richard Smith and promoting Bush will be the change the Texans' D needs.

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I am assuming you want information for yourself so I will give you the bit I feel you need to know. Dick Smith played a very vanilla type of defense based on the philosophy of read and react. His defense was not very aggressive, allowed tons of cushion on WRs, and didn't truly utilize the talents of our d-lineman, especially Amobi Okoye.

Frank Bush is promising an aggressive defense. Under this type of defense, they may give up the occasional big play but due to the pressure that will hopefully be put on the opposing QB, this type of defense will likely force quite a few more turnovers than the defense employed by Dick Smith.

The biggest impact may not come from Frank Bush though. If we truly see an improved defensive effort, additions to the team like Antonio Smith, Conner Barwin, and Brian Cushing should get a bit of credit. Can football season get here any sooner?

hawk258 said:

How will promoting Frank Bush to defensive coordinator impact the Texans' defense? The consensus is that firing Richard Smith and promoting Bush will be the change the Texans' D needs.

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The words coming out of everyone's mouths is the same as it was when Smith was the DC: attacking aggressive defensive line, flying to the ball, yadda yadda yadda. We've heard all this before.

The basic defense we're supposed to be playing is basically exactly the same as under Smith. We're hoping for less read & react on the d-line, more disguising of coverages in the defense backfield, and more aggressive play calling from Bush but the essential parts of the defense are the same.

OTOH, our defense got a lot more talented over this off-season. It might have improved a lot even with Smith still at the helm.

Frank Bush was Kubiak's #1 choice all along, just took awhile to get him. He got some time to adjust to the organization, develop feel for the players & address weak links both personel & playbook. make no mistake this is his defense with his people.

The biggest difference I see between him & Richard is how they communicate & relate to both players & coaches. Bush is also a LB specialist, in one year they will go from average to elite, with athletic infusion on the DL & secondary support, not to mention time clock mangement by the offense the Texans D could be a force to be reckon'ed with a far cry from Richard Smith

hawk258 said:

How will promoting Frank Bush to defensive coordinator impact the Texans' defense? The consensus is that firing Richard Smith and promoting Bush will be the change the Texans' D needs.

Click to expand...

Smith was a first time defensive coordinator and Frank Bush is a first time defensive coordinator. Time will tell...BUT, it looks like Bush will have the benefit of better talent to play with, so hopefully he can get more out of his unit than Smith did.

Vinny said:

Smith was a first time defensive coordinator and Frank Bush is a first time defensive coordinator. Time will tell...BUT, it looks like Bush will have the benefit of better talent to play with, so hopefully he can get more out of his unit than Smith did.

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IMO, we should get somewhat of an answer in preseason games. I know I probably sound like a broken record, but having 3 years of Smith's defense injected into our noodles there should be an instant sign of improvement in preseason.

Short version: If we go into the season saying the defense was vanilla due to preseason games, we're screwed.

I think Vinny summed it up the best by saying only time will tell. We've heard the company lines before about how the defense will be improved and how it will be more aggressive and yada yada yada. I think it will though. They should have learned from what didn't work in the last two years, and they should be changing the philosophy from those failures of the past. I think it will be more aggressive though, especially with the new additions that we've added. I expect this defense to be more exciting for sure this year.

Throw out any supposed similarities in coach speak. Look to (a) how different the D looked when they just limited Smith's play-calling options and (b) to the reaction of the players. The base system and nomenclature may be the same but that doesn't mean at all that the players are being asked to play in the same fashion. Just because they aren't moving to a 3-4 doesn't mean the changes won't be significant.

It's not a HUGE reach to be of the opinion this Bush adminsistration will be wildly better than the previous

The Texans are on the cusp of a similar timeline as the Denver Broncos were in 1995. from the Texans official website -

In 1995, his first season as linebackers coach with Denver, the Broncos defense improved from 28th to 15th, then skyrocketed to the fourth overall defense in the league in 1996, including first against the run. The 1997 season saw two of his pupils—John Mobley (162) and Bill Romanowski (117) rank 1-2 on the club in tackles as Denver forged consecutive World Championships with victories in Super Bowl XXXII over Green Bay following the 1997 season and Super Bowl XXXIII over Atlanta after the ’98 campaign. In the latter campaign, the linebacker trio of Mobley (132) Glenn Cadrez (105), and Romanowski (95) led the team in tackles, Romanowski earned his second Pro Bowl berth, and the Broncos run defense finished third in the NFL.

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sub in Cushing/DeMeco for Romanowski/Mobley add Mario along with the DL additions this offseason & you'll see Bush run a very similar style, IMO

I think we are all optimistic. Bush comes with good credentials and both Smith and Kubes(who most of us respect) wanted him. For now that is enough for me.

I liked his answer to my question "For the love of God, can anyone please make a stop on third down." a couple of months ago on mainsite. It was good to see he was just as frustrated as I was and is looking getting teams off the field more often than they did last year.

I have a new question for him though. "what is this blitz thingy and will the Texans use it next year." (thanks to Richard smith I dont know what a blitz looks like and I am surprised when one of our defenders is in the backfield.)

Short answer: I don't know.

I've heard the linethe past few years we're going to be agressive and instead the defense has been timid and hesitant.

They definitely spent some draft picks and afew off-season signing to infuse the defense with some young talent. They got a new DL coach whose guys have a history of at least playing up field and getting after the QB. After Smith they probably also got rid of the weakest link on the coaching staff in John Hoke and replaced him with David Gibbs. I really think that will be the biggest improvement overall, and for once it would really be great to see guys coninue moving forward instead of coming here and regressing.

I think a big part will be what happens on offense, we've offically got a running game Houston! The biggest challenge will be finding a guy that can sub in for Steve Slaton, if we can do that, this offense is going to be lethal. I think having Shanahan call in plays is going to make a difference in several ways, I'm hoping for a more effective red zone offense and that Kubiak can focus on being a HC as opposed to feeling like he has to micromanage the team. Should help keep the defense off the field.

If the offense can punch it in the end zone more often and our defense can manage just one or two more 3rd down stops a game this team could give the NFL fits.