How bad is the coaching?

[Ibar_Harry]

This seems like a mantra, but I would like to examine a couple of points from last week and this week.

Last week Carr calls his own plays in the 2nd qtr and we come up with a lot of points.

This Week Carr goes to Pendry and says the last time we played the Jags we threw a lot of real short stuff and I can get rid of the ball just as quickly on a fast 5 step drop as the other way and I think they will be looking for the short stuff. I believe that is a relatively accurate paraphrase of what he said.

The coaching staff called the plays for the most part this week, but we did get TD's off of the Deep ball suggested by Carr and their were several other missed opportunities.

Its really beginning to look like Carr is not the problem at all and has far more capability than many have thought. Rather than thinking Carr has to learn, may be the problem is he is being held back to the point of ridiculousness. Are our coaches so controll freeks that no one could ever win under this administration? Is Carr finally comfortible enough to start saying things? Has be been on so tight a leash that he couldn't say anything? I'm the 1st to admit that I have a real dislike for this coaching staff and certainly believe Carr has a lot of capability. But like others I was really beginning to question my beliefs. I think these last two weeks have been a real eye openor. It really has the look of we have wasted a heck of a talent for 5 years.

I'm also sorry to say the goes for AJ, Gaffney, and all of the other receivers on this ball club. I'm certain you can find similar things with respect to the defensive side of the ball. I guess there has been a whole lot wrong for an awful long time. I've been saying that for a long time. If I were McNair I think I would be awfully sick when I think of all of the time, talent, money, and emotion that has been wasted over the last 5 years. Someone said McNair and Casserly looked pretty glum yesterday in the box. I would too given what I think we have in talent. Do we need some more players? Certainly by no means are we perfect, but we are a whole lot better and have a whole lot more talent that the record indicates. It has simply been squandered.

 

[Marcus]

. . . we are a whole lot better and have a whole lot more talent that the record indicates. It has simply been squandered.

If you are going to keep playing your broken record Ibar, then I'm going to do the same.

There has been no time, never, in NFL history, where a fan of a particular team that is on the bottem end of a W-L record, DID NOT think there was more talent than the record indicated. Never!

 

[NederlandTexan]

Yes there has been Marcus. I believe there are many on this board who were Oiler fans. I was one, and in the early eighties we were as bad as our record.

 

[rmartin65]

Coaching was really bad. Everyone should go, maybe the ST coach can stay.

 

[Corrosion]

Carr is a Class Act and has been rather tight lipped about his feelings about the coaching decisions ... Notice he has said Nothing publicly about Casserly and Capers outright lie .... "we'll protect you better" .

Its easy to place the failure of this offense on Carr .... but you have to look beyond his stats .... at the rediculous play calling (which I complained about as far back as last season ) ..... the even worse protection ....the lack of a TE that is multi dimensional .....and finally the fact he has NOTHING to work with at the WR position other than AJ .

There are things that Carr can improve upon , his play action fake could get better , he needs to SELL it better ..... He could look off defenders a bit better ....But as of today I'll keep Carr over most other QB's in the game today .

 

[Jack Bauer]

If you are going to keep playing your broken record Ibar, then I'm going to do the same.

There has been no time, never, in NFL history, where a fan of a particular team that is on the bottem end of a W-L record, DID NOT think there was more talent than the record indicated. Never!

That is most definitely incorrect. I have seen plenty of teams worse than their record even though they were the worst team in the league. A team wins a few games it shouldn't....

Fairly common in the NFL.

 

[cuppacoffee]

If you are going to keep playing your broken record Ibar, then I'm going to do the same.

There has been no time, never, in NFL history, where a fan of a particular team that is on the bottem end of a W-L record, DID NOT think there was more talent than the record indicated. Never!

Wrong! You must not have followed the Oilers?


I am in Ibars camp on this.

Bad coaching is bad coaching. Our players were better prepared when they arrived here than they are now. The coaching they received in college and in their other NFL stops was better than they are getting now.
I also fell into the trap of blaming Casserly and the players for our problems. It's no coincidence that the players we are subbing in now seem to play better than the players they are subbing for. They haven't been receiving as much of the intensive poor coaching from this staff.
His first year here Wand showed lots of promise on the O line. The more this bunch coached him the worse he became. You can't fool your fellow players. Boselli, when he was here, praised Wands ability. I think Boselli has forgotten more about O line play that Pendry will ever learn. Wands treatment will remain a sore spot with me for a long time.

 

[Vinny]

I don't think we are all that talented myself.

 

[LoneStarState]

I think it's a combination of lack of coaching and lack of talent. The most frustrating thing about the state of the Texans is the wasted opportunities the coaches and front office had to acquire (either through the draft, trade or FA) quality depth. Instead, they have wasted draft picks by drafting prospects/projects or trading the picks for below average players.

I will give them credit for drafting Andre Johnson, DD, Dunta, and Jerome Mathis. Beyond that...um, well... never mind... :brickwall

 

[Tulip]

Its really beginning to look like Carr is not the problem at all and has far more capability than many have thought. Rather than thinking Carr has to learn, may be the problem is he is being held back to the point of ridiculousness. Are our coaches so controll freeks that no one could ever win under this administration? Is Carr finally comfortible enough to start saying things? Has be been on so tight a leash that he couldn't say anything? I'm the 1st to admit that I have a real dislike for this coaching staff and certainly believe Carr has a lot of capability. But like others I was really beginning to question my beliefs. I think these last two weeks have been a real eye openor. It really has the look of we have wasted a heck of a talent for 5 years.

Mack Brown/Greg Davis did the same thing to Chris Simms and Vince Young. And it took Vince Young asking Mack Brown to have some faith in him to turn the Longhorns from an almost-great team to a national championship contender.

If I remember correctly, Carr had the same kind of discussion with Chris Palmer between the 2003 and 2004 seasons. Which helped to some degree -for a while.

I do believe that Carr has been stifled and given little responsibility. It's part of the "playing not to lose" philosophy that keeps a team from competing at the next level. There's only so much that talent can overcome. The Texans have the same talent level on offense that they did last year, so it's hard to blame the personnel for what has happened on that side of the ball this season.

Never throwing deep removes one dimension of worry and planning for the opposing defense, and in turn, ends up choking our offense.

I'm like you, Ibar - I'm starting to feel like a broken record, but the depth of culpability on the coaching side is becoming more evident with each game.

 

[stevo3883]

I look at our team and it doesnt seem like we are that talented...

WR we are really really lacking. TE no comment needed. Lb's should be the heart of the defense... bunch of underachievers. all our secondary minus robinson dont really deserve a salary. our dline likes to disappear a lot.

we're not like the jets. Their main excuse for going 3-12 is losing their starting qb's, and their HB going down.

we didn't have our qb and Hb go down. so whats our excuse? bad coaching? usually you still see flashes even through bad coaching. We didnt hold a lead until what the 10th game?

 

[Buffi2]

I'm like you, Ibar - I'm starting to feel like a broken record, but the depth of culpability on the coaching side is becoming more evident with each game.

I'm going to echo that. I'll grant you that some of our players aren't quite 'A' list or even 'B' in some cases.

I have watched players with potential get worse and worse rather than better and better while they are being "coached" (and I use that word loosely) by Capers, et al. Some players show flashes of becoming a good player, but that is seemingly squelched by the coaches.

I honestly can't understand either the actions or philosophy of this coaching staff. This has been the most depressing/frustrating part of this season to me. You would think that coaches would be competitive enough to sit themselves down and ask what the problem could possibly be or, at the very least, continue with a plan that is basically working. I am one fan who will be quite happy when this group is history.

 

[Vinny]

We don't have a legit weak side pass rusher, a second starting CB...we have second day draft prospects who missed several tackles last week at both S spots, no true big play instinctive inside linebacker on the roster outside of Morlon Greenwood (ugh), and probably the worst front 7 in the NFL. On offense we have gotten miserable QB play, miserable line play, poor play out of the TE, and we start Corey Bradford.....we just aren't that talented.

 

[aj.]

[/B]

Wrong! You must not have followed the Oilers?

I was going to say....

I can recall several Oilers teams where the record matched the lack of talent, most notably the '82 team (Munch's rookie season) that had several LYB notables on their way out, Archie Manning at QB and Harold Bailey as the leading WR. They went 1-8 in a strike shortened season. Then there was the 3-13 '84 team (Moon's first year) with Larry Moriarty and Tim Smith as leading RB and WR; and who can forget the forgettable cap cleaned 2-14 '94 squad which I admit underachieved a bit recordwise, but had probably one of the worst QB trifectas in Houston history with Cody, Bucky, and Billy Joe. Yee haw.

 

[Bubbajwp]

I would say AJ, Drob, J Mathis are our only stars.
DD, K Wong, C Pitts, J Gaff are all average.
Everybody else is below average.

Definetly lack talent.

 

[Marcus]

The Oilers? Oh my God! I remember how bad the Oilers were. They didn't have internet message boards back then, but they did have plenty of sports talk shows, and the callers were singing the same blues then about plenty of talent and bad coaching, as they are now.

Blaming it all on coaching is the eternal optimist's quick fix. Change the coaching and you're playoff bound.

In 2006, when they don't win any more than 5 or 6 games . . . well, I guess they will have plenty of talent, right?

 

[dat_boy_yec]

I would say AJ, Drob, J Mathis are our only stars.
DD, K Wong, C Pitts, J Gaff are all average.
Everybody else is below average.

Definetly lack talent.

AJ and D-Rob last year may have been stars, but honestly this yr. they haven't built on what they had last season. Their playing this yr. hasn't stood out. Mathis is a great kick returner, but hasn't been given enough opportunities at wide receiver. I honestly think he needs to work on his catching he dropped a few balls that a supposed star should not. Wong has been out most of the season and to be honest I think Orr has proven he has just as much if not more talent than Wong. Pitts has shown hints of being a good LT but started the season at guard. The lines run blocking is dare I say a little bit above average making me wonder how much better our running game would be with an upgrade at rb. You can't judge the teams talent when the coaching doesn't utilize it well. You say we lack talent, I say it hasn't been utilized properly.

 

[Hervoyel]

There has been no time, never, in NFL history, where a fan of a particular team that is on the bottem end of a W-L record, DID NOT think there was more talent than the record indicated. Never!

True, every word of that. Some of them however were correct. Sometimes the fans are right. No, not always but often they are. It's often been said that the difference in talent between NFL teams at the bottom and the top isn't as great as many people think. I believe there's something to that.

When a Chargers team goes from 4-12 (2003) to 12-4 then the fans who said that were probably right. When a Bears team goes 5-11 (2000) and follows it up wth a 13-3 season then those fans were probably right.

We were 7-9 last year in spite of everything that was wrong with our team. In one year we went from 7-9 to around 2-14 with very few real personnel changes to our team.

The Texans might turn it around next year. It could happen and I'm hardly an eternal optimist.

 

[cuppacoffee]

I would say AJ, Drob, J Mathis are our only stars.
DD, K Wong, C Pitts, J Gaff are all average.
Everybody else is below average.

Definetly lack talent.

Tried to get this to you in another thread, not sure if you saw it or not.
Absolutely nothing to do with this thread or the Texans...

http://www.planetkilmer.com/articles/doc1_sm.jpg

 

[Ibar_Harry]

I started this post because it seemed so strange to see some of the comments that are now coming out for public consumption. I believe we had a number of young receivers like Starling who have been under estimated and wasted. I believe our receivers are very poorly coached and that shows in AJ's performance as well. We had a guy like Kasper who seemed to be a go to guy in the red zone in TC cut. What bothers me about that was he seemed to be getting some accollades and boom he's gone and Bradford is retained with the comments he's just now learning to run routes. I think these coaches are very poor in assessing personnel and do an extremely poor job of coaching the personnel we retain.

So many of you have commented about how our players are getting worse under this coaching staff. Do you remember before the start of his 2nd year AJ trained cataching the ball by utilizing a throwing machine in Florida. I was critical because he was training in Florida rather than with Carr and Company. May be that was the best thing he ever did, because this year was the opposite. Do we have great receivers, no not right now, but I think they are better than Vinny thinks. On defense I agree with Vinny, but I will still say that it may be a bigger coaching problem than a personnel problem. I think different coaching will simply yield a better result.

Oh, yes and on the coaching horizon is another vertern coach who may be in trouble. Does the name Parcells ring a bell. I've read a lot of what you guys are thinking, but I'm really not a fan of anyone up for the position right now. May be Reeves is the right guy, I don't know. My point is we need some one who knows the game and knows how to teach the game. Since the beginning of the season I have wanted some one to come in and start teaching our young players the game as it should be played. I swear none of Capers staff really know how to play or teach the game. I realize that's an over simplification, but it really goes to the heart of the matter. Its not only the game time decisions and planning that is so bad, it's also what they are teaching the young men that is equally as bad. May be we need a college coach like Pat Hill who takes a lot of nothing and makes something of it by teaching them how to play the game. I really don't envy Mr. McNair or anyone else who's trying to decide what to do now, because its been allowed to go so far that's its going to be extremely difficult to turn it around. There are so many bad habits these players have fallen into.

 

[Double Barrel]

I think we've got more talent on this team than our record indicates.

However, that being said, 2-13 is a complete meltdown of the entire team. From the players to the GM, it is a sign that whatever talent we have just isn't moving in a unified direction.

How a 7-9 team can go to 2-13, and have completely different attitudes but most of the same players, is beyond me. It shows me that we have some talent (probably not enough to have a winning season, yet), but also that our coaches are not functional for this franchise.

 

[aj.]

I started this post because it seemed so strange to see some of the comments that are now coming out for public consumption. I believe we had a number of young receivers like Starling who have been under estimated and wasted. I believe our receivers are very poorly coached and that shows in AJ's performance as well. We had a guy like Kasper who seemed to be a go to guy in the red zone in TC cut. What bothers me about that was he seemed to be getting some accollades and boom he's gone and Bradford is retained with the comments he's just now learning to run routes. I think these coaches are very poor in assessing personnel and do an extremely poor job of coaching the personnel we retain..

Neither Starling or Kasper are on an NFL roster so I guess 31 other teams' coaching is horrible too. Kasper never caught on anywhere and the only people giving him "accolades" aside from normal coaches lip service during camp were people on message boards. Starling couldn't make it on the Saints practice squad - how good is that? Errr.. unless of course I expand this misguided argument for you and claim that this coaching staff ruined both of them, setting them back so much that they were unable to get a job anywhere else until they go through the power wash during the offseason to get all the Texans coaches stink off of them.

This is right up there with the "the Texans are stupid because they cut their leading tackler Jay Foreman" argument.

 

[Corrosion]

When Jamie Sharper was complaining about the lack of leadership on this team .... He was talking about the coaching staff . May have gotten him run outa town but he spoke the truth ...

 

[swtbound07]

correct me if im wrong, but i remember starling being a beast on special teams....making quite a few plays, enough to where i remember him anyway.

 

[Ibar_Harry]

Neither Starling or Kasper are on an NFL roster so I guess 31 other teams' coaching is horrible too. Kasper never caught on anywhere and the only people giving him "accolades" aside from normal coaches lip service during camp were people on message boards. Starling couldn't make it on the Saints practice squad - how good is that? Errr.. unless of course I expand this misguided argument for you and claim that this coaching staff ruined both of them, setting them back so much that they were unable to get a job anywhere else until they go through the power wash during the offseason to get all the Texans coaches stink off of them.

This is right up there with the "the Texans are stupid because they cut their leading tackler Jay Foreman" argument.

The only thing I can say is that Kasper seemed to be fitting in here. May be he wasn't. Starling certainly had hands and speed in the past so may be your comment about getting a power wash isn't so bad. How people fit together and work together can be as important as their overall ability. TO has a lot of ability, but he doesn't work together with the team. Some people, despite their perceived ability simply get the job done and no one knows how. They always seem to be at the right place at the right time. The best player is not always the best athlete. I think this staff puts far to much emphasis on quantitative analysis to the detrement of qualitative analysis. I'm not certain what your view is as to what is wrong, but you might want to express it as I'm certain everyone would be interested in hearing. I think the majority opinion now is certainly swaying in the direction of coaching and head coach leadership. Capers staff may be one of the biggest anvils around his neck and may be his biggest downfall.

 

[Big B Texan Fan]

correct me if im wrong, but i remember starling being a beast on special teams....making quite a few plays, enough to where i remember him anyway.

I know what ya mean but not a beast. Steve Tasker was a beast.

 

[aj.]

correct me if im wrong, but i remember starling being a beast on special teams....making quite a few plays, enough to where i remember him anyway.

I think special teams 'beast' might be a bit of a stretch since Starling had only four tackles and one kickoff return in his 8 game career with the Texans. Maybe you're recalling some preseason stuff where he was quite active on punt coverage teams. But that was preseason.

Starling and Kasper were brought up in this thread as 'victims' of Texans poor coaching but for some reason they are both unemployed. Is that poor coaching or maybe just not quite enough talent to stick on a 53 man roster?\

I'm not arguing that coaching is not an issue with this team, but if I was to argue that point, I would start at a position other than WR (like O-line for example).

 

[Bobo]

I think we've got more talent on this team than our record indicates.

However, that being said, 2-13 is a complete meltdown of the entire team. From the players to the GM, it is a sign that whatever talent we have just isn't moving in a unified direction.

How a 7-9 team can go to 2-13, and have completely different attitudes but most of the same players, is beyond me. It shows me that we have some talent (probably not enough to have a winning season, yet), but also that our coaches are not functional for this franchise.

I see it differently. I believe the team never did have a whole lot of talent but they did have a coach and a staff that motivated them to play way, way above their heads for three years and actually got them to within a game of .500. However, this year the inevitable caught up with them and you saw the team for what it really was talent-wise.

 

[billtxus]

I agree. The Arizona game proved the point. Carr calls the plays and they get the most points in a quarter in franchise history, then Joe P calls the second half and they get 63 yards. What more does anyone need to see? The OC has been awful for four years now, doesn't matter who it is. And who's idea was it to change from Carr calling the plays back to Joe? Did Dom approve this? Why mess with something that is working? Were they TRYING to let Arizona back into the game? They are lucky that Warner got hurt or they would have lost thanks to this lame decision.

This obviously shows that coaching is a big part of the problem.

Last Sunday they get a three point lead and Joe P starts sitting on the lead again, too bad Jacksonville wasnt done scoring. Why did he run the ball on third and four on the Jacksonville 25, if he wasn't going to go for it on fourth down? At the end of the 2nd half he sits on the ball running it and then kicks a 50+ yard field goal, nice kick, but why not try for the TD?

 

[SteelBlueToro]

When Jamie Sharper was complaining about the lack of leadership on this team .... He was talking about the coaching staff . May have gotten him run outa town but he spoke the truth ...

I think this is possible...

 

[Corrosion]

I think this is possible...

You think ?....... Think about this , Sharper was a fan favorite .... a pro-bowl calibur player .... the leader of the D .....he was set to make about 4 mil this season if im not mistaken .... Not a HUGE cap hit for a player of his stature .... the Texans were NOT in cap trouble .... give me one good reason why they would let a player like that go for NOTHING ?


Ill give ya that reason .... He spoke out against managment and got fired ... same would happen to you if you basicly told your boss he sucked . Problem is he was right on the money

 

[Hervoyel]

Starling and Kasper were brought up in this thread as 'victims' of Texans poor coaching but for some reason they are both unemployed. Is that poor coaching or maybe just not quite enough talent to stick on a 53 man roster?

And to me that's really odd because you can find plenty of great positions to argue "Texans poor coaching" without ever bringing up these guys (or Jay Foreman).

 

[Frills]

If its pisspoor talent and decent coaching, should Capers keep his job and CC be the only casulty?

 

[Buffi2]

If its pisspoor talent and decent coaching, should Capers keep his job and CC be the only casulty?

In one word...No! Even if all of the players are beyond redemption terrible, that still doesn't excuse the decisions made by Capers which have already been listed numerous times on this board. That would be catastrophic in every way. The fans would be more frustrated than they already are, which McNair would only care because it would cost him more money than he has already lost. Watch ticket sales/jersey etc sales plummet. The players - good, bad, or worse than bad - would be angrier than the fans. I think there would be a line of players begging to be traded to anywhere. The few players who have spoken out have all pointed to the coaching. They should know much better than we do.

 

[Kaiser Toro]

If you love Carr then you must hate the coaching. If you are concerned on how the defense has never materialized into what we expected from a Dom Capers Defense then you must hate the coaching. This was a seven win team in the NFL last year. The investment is all over the place, the lack of execution on instilling a philosophy and or system is apparent.

Ibar your thoughts are good just stop bringing in WR's who get their 15 minutes in the pre season news wires into this debate on coaching. Your logic loses its luster quickly.

 

[eriadoc]

This team is talented enough to be 8-8. The coaching decisions, ranging from incongruous offensive philosophy between Capers and Palmer to player evaluation on guys like Foley, McCree, etc. to the Riley/Wand decision, have turned this batch of individual talent into a group of individuals. The offensive line is a perfect example of a unit not playing as a team. Go back and watch the first quarter of the last Titans game. There is most certainly a talent deficiency on this team, but not to the tune of 2-13.

 

[Hervoyel]

Our defense does well enough for those few plays they aren't running some obscure 3-man-rush zone. If only we'd practice some tackling. We've got guys like Orr coming on for two sacks a game these last few outings.

I think Fangios defense was best in 2002 when we were running it in a simplified form with arguably less talented veterans at some positions. The vets we had in 2002 took as much of it as Fangio could teach them in one training camp and ran with it. Since that year we've watched the entire defense seem to slow to a crawl and become a unit that reacts slowly instead of attacks. Initiative has been taken from them. Even in places where we've tried to get "younger and faster" those qualities have been wasted in our scheme. It doesn't matter how fast you are when you're trying to figure out what this formation means to your assignment. Guys who naturally flow toward the ball are stymied in this defense. We could trade Washington a bag of Cheetos for LaVar Arrington and he'd look like Morlon Greenwood playing here and trying to do things Fangios way.

The simpler they make it the better it works. That should be telling our coaches something. The fact that it's not tells us that they need to go. We could certainly use some players and we've let some talent walk out the door, no doubt about it. Jamie Sharper should be starting for us right now. Steve Foley should be starting for us right now. Aaron Glenn should be starting for us right now. The biggest problem though is that our system stinks and our coaches stink.

I admit though that if we had those guys back and were using our people the way they need to be used it would be a lot easier to decide whether to go for Bush or not. The players we've lost cloud the issue. The players we have who aren't effective but should be cloud the issue. They imply that we need to leverage that pick for talent (and we might need to do that).

We just don't know for certain and that's a damned shame. We should know by now what we have.

 

[Hervoyel]

If you are concerned on how the defense has never materialized into what we expected from a Dom Capers Defense then you must hate the coaching. This was a seven win team in the NFL last year. The investment is all over the place, the lack of execution on instilling a philosophy and or system is apparent.

"a Dom Capers Defense" or in a wider sense "a Dom Capers coached team" is something I haven't seen since the 2002 season (on the defensive side at least) and even then I didn't see it very often.

I've got a bigtime grudge going against the coaching here because I feel like we've been lied to. On the offensive side any fool could see that Dom's conservative idea of an offense and Chris Palmers idea of an offense were going to be trouble. I admit it, I fell for it. I convinced myself it would work and now that I look back at what they were putting together I want to kick myself for every buying into the idea that those two approaches could end in anything but what we've seen this year.

On the defensive side I keep thinking that Fangio's record was right there for anyone to see. I thought he was just the name on the box. I thought I was getting a Dom Capers Defense inside the Fangio packaging.

I think Dom is a good man but I could never accept this staff coming back because I feel like they not only failed at what they were trying to do, I also feel like they did some things that can only be explained by the team intentionally misleading the people following it or gross stupidity on their part.

 

[El Tejano]

Call me crazy, but I believe the team will still benefit from Capers. Don't get me wrong, I want him gone at 3:01pm on Sunday 01-01-06. However, the one thing Capers has done for this team is show them how to be professionals during good and bad times. So I don't think it has been a waste, just definetly not the right mix.

I think the next coach that comes in is going to inherit a real young team that knows how to be professionals and is ready and willing to go to the next level.

 

[big homey]

The o-line is another example of the coaches' failures. When the Giants played the Chiefs they had to patchwork 3 or so spots on their line. The result: Tiki has a 200 yard game. Also the Patriots have worked with their backups for most of the season and have outperformed us.

I don't believe any group of professional linemen could get together and look like the Texans' o-line if they were trying. So I agree, better coaches could get more out of the players. I'm not saying it's the Chiefs' o-line, but no way they should be this bad.

 

[Ibar_Harry]

"a Dom Capers Defense" or in a wider sense "a Dom Capers coached team" is something I haven't seen since the 2002 season (on the defensive side at least) and even then I didn't see it very often.

I've got a bigtime grudge going against the coaching here because I feel like we've been lied to. On the offensive side any fool could see that Dom's conservative idea of an offense and Chris Palmers idea of an offense were going to be trouble. I admit it, I fell for it. I convinced myself it would work and now that I look back at what they were putting together I want to kick myself for every buying into the idea that those two approaches could end in anything but what we've seen this year.

On the defensive side I keep thinking that Fangio's record was right there for anyone to see. I thought he was just the name on the box. I thought I was getting a Dom Capers Defense inside the Fangio packaging.

I think Dom is a good man but I could never accept this staff coming back because I feel like they not only failed at what they were trying to do, I also feel like they did some things that can only be explained by the team intentionally misleading the people following it or gross stupidity on their part.

After all of the things I've said and you ripped me for, you are finally getting it. No, Herv this has been going on for a long time and there is a lot to be said for Dom's problem being his staff. I don't think they know how to coach nor do they seem to know what they are coaching in my opinion. You can look at the O-line and the receivers. People mention the obvious, but not the not so obvious. There isn't a player on this ball club that hasn't digressed. As the one person said, they were better from where they came than once they were here. What's even more sad is there are rumors out there that McNair was hoping that DOM would win enough so that he could make an argument to keep DOM.

In fact if you want a shocking statement, don't be surprised if the assistants are cut loose and Dom stays. Dom has relied on his staff of assistant coaches and they have simply been horrible. This ball club needs a coaches coach, but I don't know where we are going to find one.

Well, Happy new year to all of you. As Roy Rogers used to say "May the good Lord take a liking to you."