Kubiak wants consistency from Williams

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/fb/texansfront/4179777.html

Coach Gary Kubiak was asked about the first-game performance of rookie defensive end Mario Williams, the first pick in the draft who was in on three tackles.

"He's got a long way to go, just like everybody else," Kubiak said. "(He was) inconsistent. He did some things well early in the game and made a couple of plays early in the second half. But he needs to be consistent, assignment-wise and gap-wise. He's got to get much better, as we all do."

Defending blitz pickup

Veteran running back Ron Dayne, who was signed last week, was not activated for the Eagles game. Kubiak was asked if Dayne might be able to help with blitz pickup since Wali Lundy and Vernand Morency don't have a lot of experience.

"I don't think those two kids did anything wrong in protection," Kubiak said. "They were where they were supposed to be.

"I can't sit here and say Ronnie would have made a difference, protection-wise."

texan279 said:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/fb/texansfront/4179777.html

Coach Gary Kubiak was asked about the first-game performance of rookie defensive end Mario Williams, the first pick in the draft who was in on three tackles.

"He's got a long way to go, just like everybody else," Kubiak said. "(He was) inconsistent. He did some things well early in the game and made a couple of plays early in the second half. But he needs to be consistent, assignment-wise and gap-wise. He's got to get much better, as we all do."

Defending blitz pickup

Veteran running back Ron Dayne, who was signed last week, was not activated for the Eagles game. Kubiak was asked if Dayne might be able to help with blitz pickup since Wali Lundy and Vernand Morency don't have a lot of experience.

"I don't think those two kids did anything wrong in protection," Kubiak said. "They were where they were supposed to be.

"I can't sit here and say Ronnie would have made a difference, protection-wise."

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I'm sure lundy and morency got a earfull in the film room on blitz pickup!!!!!!!

texan279 said:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/fb/texansfront/4179777.html

Coach Gary Kubiak was asked about the first-game performance of rookie defensive end Mario Williams, the first pick in the draft who was in on three tackles.

"He's got a long way to go, just like everybody else," Kubiak said. "(He was) inconsistent. He did some things well early in the game and made a couple of plays early in the second half. But he needs to be consistent, assignment-wise and gap-wise. He's got to get much better, as we all do."

Defending blitz pickup

Veteran running back Ron Dayne, who was signed last week, was not activated for the Eagles game. Kubiak was asked if Dayne might be able to help with blitz pickup since Wali Lundy and Vernand Morency don't have a lot of experience.

"I don't think those two kids did anything wrong in protection," Kubiak said. "They were where they were supposed to be.

"I can't sit here and say Ronnie would have made a difference, protection-wise."

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This is the first thing Kubes has said that I question/disagree with...

(1) If we want more consistency from Mario, perhaps we should be more consistent with where we line him up and...
(2) Our young backs did miss (badly) two blocking assignments that got our QB hammered

And, for the record, I am a huge fan of Kubes but was disappointed with his observations above.

Go Texans!

So far the coaching staff has graded out A++ during the preaseason, and been very disapointing with its candor and playcalling in the regular season.

humbleone said:

This is the first thing Kubes has said that I question/disagree with...

(1) If we want more consistency from Mario, perhaps we should be more consistent with where we line him up and...
(2) Our young backs did miss (badly) two blocking assignments that got our QB hammered

And, for the record, I am a huge fan of Kubes but was disappointed with his observations above.

Go Texans!

Click to expand...

Our RB's weren't in the wrong spot which is what he said....They just messed up technique wise, and they were going against a good defense.....Maybe Kubes gives more credit to the defender that made the move to get past the running back...And he said he doesn't think having Dayne in there would have changed that...Where did he not make sense ? Every running back gets beat by a linebacker or D-lineman occasionally....They didn't do a horrible job...And as far as Mario...He said in an interview yesterday that they were going to try keeping him in one spot...

I've rewatched the first half, and took notes. Morency made a bad cut block on a DE. Owens, released into the field as a reciever, I don't know why Wiegart thought it made sense to let that DE go........ that shouldn't have happened. He left the DE to get picked up by VM(who did as good as he probably could) to help Weary with a DT...

Then I saw one play were Lundy couldn't decide if he should help Owen with Kearse or not. By the time he decides that Owen needed help, David had left the pocket to be chased down by a LB...... Lundy was too late to help... he should've ducked behind those LBs waviing his hand, "I'm open, I'm open"

But I feel there are a lot of misconceptions about the game.
#1) It's being said we only played 1 quarter of football.

We played at least 2(I haven't rewatched the second half yet). But we had the lead in the 2nd Qtr till there was only 17 seconds left in the half.

#2) that Mcnabb had all day to throw.
We were playing good defense, good pressure on the pocket, but Mcnabb very seldom held the ball for more than 2 seconds, and when he did, our guys were there chasing him out of the pocket.

The first touchdown to Stallworth was because CC Brown & Lewis Sanders bit on the play action.... not because of poor pressure by the DLine.

the second big play to Stallworth, Dunta was coveriing Stallworth, & McCleon was covering Lewis. They both ran with their reciever for 10 yards, then they both stopped at the first down marker to cover the tightend.

Stallworth & Lewis keeps running, the only one with them is Demeco, but they are both outside the right hashmarks, and Demeco is running up the middle of the field. Earl & Brown are on the wrong side of the 50 watching all this go down.

Babin is held on this play, and Peek is blocked in the back.

The second big play, Stallworth gets Dunta turned around.Peek is again held.
There were several no calls by the referee...... on several plays.

#3) that David Carr played as well as he could have.

Now I thought he had a great game. I thought he's shown definite improvement since last year, and since the preseason. But he cost us 6 points on the sack when we were on the 7 yard line.

It was 2nd & 7 we had AJ wide Left, Cook wide right. Cook motions to the fullback position. As cook comes to the full back, you can see the safety coming with him, lining up directly in front of Carr. The other safety is lined up over Daniels to Carr's right. There is only a corner back in the defensive backfiled over AJ, he's giving AJ 5 yards, and we are on the 7 yard line.

Carr should know he has man coverage.

At the snap, Owens, Cook & AJ run up, then to the right..... everybody moves to the right. The safety over cook(the only one who could possibly make a play on a pass to AJ, who has the CB 2 yards on his backside. AJ is wide open in the endzone before (32) Lewis?? gets into the backfield.

All this takes place in a long two seconds, which is longer than most of the passes he made in the first half. Knowing the play is designed to go right, knowing they are in man coverage, knowing that they are crowding the line, and your backfiled will be running to the right, to get the safety & LBs to move right, he should've known AJ would be open in the endzone to the left, and someone would be breathing down his kneck from the left.

Instead, he was waiting for Putz to clear the LB underneath, or Owens to cut out from the man who was playing him close.

And this was right after the clock stopped for the 2 minute warning, so he had plenty of time to think about what was going to happen.

But we got a field goal to take the lead with 57 seconds left to play. Why our guys would bite so hard on play action from the 20 yard line is beyound me.

Good assessment, but when the DB is playing 5 yards off of the reciever when they are so close to the endzone, the DB has the edge because he can clearly see the pass better and intended player than the reciever can see the ball and the defender. All the DB has to do is jump on the ball because there won't be a double move because of the lack of time the QB has. Carrs only hope to get the ball to AJ is a quick slant and hope that the LB doesn't fall back into a zone (like Porter did with the Steelers this week.)

SESupergenius said:

Good assessment, but when the DB is playing 5 yards off of the reciever when they are so close to the endzone, the DB has the edge because he can clearly see the pass better and intended player than the reciever can see the ball and the defender. All the DB has to do is jump on the ball because there won't be a double move because of the lack of time the QB has. Carrs only hope to get the ball to AJ is a quick slant and hope that the LB doesn't fall back into a zone (like Porter did with the Steelers this week.)

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Porter was at DE when he dropped into covergae...

If the corner is playing 5 yards off on the goal line the advantage is for the offense all day every day...

* this doesn't pertain to your post but just for the record; it was C.C Browns fault on the play fake and long completion to stallworth...The corner was obviously in some sort of short zone, and thats why he didn't run with the reciever...CC abandoned his zone and let Stallworth run right past him for the score...

SESupergenius said:

Good assessment, but when the DB is playing 5 yards off of the reciever when they are so close to the endzone, the DB has the edge because he can clearly see the pass better and intended player than the reciever can see the ball and the defender. All the DB has to do is jump on the ball because there won't be a double move because of the lack of time the QB has. Carrs only hope to get the ball to AJ is a quick slant and hope that the LB doesn't fall back into a zone (like Porter did with the Steelers this week.)

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AJ had the clear advantage here. the Corner took the outside postion. When AJ made his cut and ran to the right, across the middle of the endzone, right in front of the offensive line, he was wide open as the Corner trailed.

I just want to say thanks for the insight! Its great to hear these types of in depth analyses after the fact.

But there is a great saying that has been kept through the ages: "Hindsight is 20-20" Maybe Carr should have made that read. He didn't. Looking back, it may have been a mistake. But if he was looking at the TEs, the play was probably called for them. When you have a lot of pressure coming from one side, my guess is that its tough as a QB to look that way, especially if its your #3 option. Did he have a lane to throw through? With all that pressure, there is a good chance it would have been batted down.

I'm not saying he made the right choice, just that if he made that one mistake in the 1st half, thats a pretty darn good half of football. We can't expect our players to be perfect. They're human after all.

As for CC Brown's dropped coverage, that is inexcusable. If I recall correctly, the corner WAS in a short zone and stopped on the play, meaning Brown knew that he was the only one covering Stallworth on the deep route. Even if its a run, he should have been down the field with Stallworth. No hindsight quote here

Dwight Freeny had 0 tackles, 0 assists and 0 sacks against the Giants. He was manhandled by Pettigout. You think Dungy would not only like Freeny to show up besides a little more consistent?

Mario is still young. He just turned 21. He probably only has to shave once or twice a week. He is still maturing to full manhood. He still has another 4 years before he has voting priveledges for "Man Law".

xtruroyaltyx said:

Our RB's weren't in the wrong spot which is what he said....They just messed up technique wise, and they were going against a good defense.....Maybe Kubes gives more credit to the defender that made the move to get past the running back...And he said he doesn't think having Dayne in there would have changed that...Where did he not make sense ? Every running back gets beat by a linebacker or D-lineman occasionally....They didn't do a horrible job...And as far as Mario...He said in an interview yesterday that they were going to try keeping him in one spot...

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Well, what he said that surprised/disappointed me was..."I don't think the two kids (RB's) did anything wrong in protection". That is different than "they were where they were supposed to be". He said both and one does equal the other IMO. In that same game, we had a TE (Putzier) blocking on Kearse that looked like he was where he was supposed to be also that sadly, like the RB's, missed his block also. Did he do anything wrong?

Not a real big deal, but it just did not sound right or frankly like Kubiak's normal candor. Doesn't change the fact that I am still a huge fan of Kubiak and what he is doing with the team.

humbleone said:

Well, what he said that surprised/disappointed me was..."I don't think the two kids (RB's) did anything wrong in protection". That is different than "they were where they were supposed to be". He said both and one does equal the other IMO. In that same game, we had a TE (Putzier) blocking on Kearse that looked like he was where he was supposed to be also that sadly, like the RB's, missed his block also. Did he do anything wrong?

Not a real big deal, but it just did not sound right or frankly like Kubiak's normal candor. Doesn't change the fact that I am still a huge fan of Kubiak and what he is doing with the team.

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I'm not sure why he said what he did, but I trust his judgement on whats going on with his team...No coaches are perfect, and since this is Kubiaks first go-round he is sure to make some mistakes...

Consistency and playing hard has always been Williams' problem. He played when he felt like it at NC State and those habits are hard to break. This is not a post dogging Mario, but from what I have heard it has always been the knock on him.

I saw an article about that where it said NC State often had him in contain mode, where he wasnt always meant to go right after the passer, instead, keep him in the pocket. This does make some sense seeing as there was plenty of pass-rushing talent on that D-line other then Mario. Not making excuses, just an explanation I remeber from the draft discussions.

humbleone said:

Well, what he said that surprised/disappointed me was..."I don't think the two kids (RB's) did anything wrong in protection".

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I don't know yet which of Lundy's sacks he's talking about. In the first half of the game, I didn't see Lundy get beat for a sack. I plan on watching the second half tonight.

Morency got beat once, when Weigart basically had no one to block, after he let #75 run past him untouched. I'd imagine Weigart knew the tightend was supposed to release into the pattern....... so I don't know what he was thinking. Like I said, he should have stopped #75, and let the 5'9" Tailback block the dBs & LBs that make it through the line.

I know....... I know....... every now and again, you'll see a little guy chip a big guy...... but no one designs a blocking scheme to work that way. Protection broke down, and a little guy came up big...... that did not happen with Morency on that play, but he can't be expected to. He did what he thought was the best thing in that situation....... a cut block. #75 was just pretty athletic, and avoided the block.

great post TK, however "mcnabb seldom held the ball for more than 2 seconds" is just untrue. a joke started in my area that mcnabb had time to both cook & eat a bowl of chunky soup on each play. after deciding that was inaccurate, we bumped him up to wedding cakes. mcnabb had all the time in the world in the second half (and used all of it), and most of the first. a couple times in the first half babin got close enough to make him throw it, but that was the extent of our pass rush.

i really didnt watch the backs much, and silly me i forgot to record the game, but clearly in the first half one of our backs is cause for the sack when he missed a cut block badly (i'm assuming morency). lundy is still lacking in the area because he sets up way too close to the QB and is convinced he's going to be able to block his man heads up (allowing ends and LB's WAY too close to carr).

as for mario, he's a project. he is, was, and will be for a while - locked on technique. he's overthinking and that's simply something that a rookie has to work out of his system. ryans is instinct without overwhelming physical attributes (perfectly fine for MLB) ... mario's the opposite. overwhelming physical attributes without the instinct. both are going to be great, but mario has the biggest upside and the longer learning curve. the player mario should focus on learning from IMO is spencer ... that kid's got a punch that would make deacon proud. that being said, there shouldnt be a mario post (good or bad) until atleast week 8. if he's an impact before that time it's a bonus, if he's putting up decent numbers from weeks 8-17 he's on track. next year is when we should expect a real impact from mario.

thunderkyss said:

I don't know yet which of Lundy's sacks he's talking about. In the first half of the game, I didn't see Lundy get beat for a sack. I plan on watching the second half tonight.

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When you look, watch the play where Putz is trying to block Kearse and Carr gets sacked. On that play it looked to me like the RB was out of position and should have helped Putz to the outside. But I could be wrong about that.