Nick Scurfield, as you know, gives us just about the only inside Texans access on the entire internet when he does his live chats on the mothership. Lets see how that worked out after Sunday's demolition at the hands of the Giants:
[Comment From hb in austin]
It seems like a change must be done with the secondary to have a chance at the playoffs. Kubiak is stating he is standing pat with the squad we have. what other changes can we make to improve this area I know an improved pass rush will help but that does not seem like enough right now.
1:08Nick Scurfield: Well, like you said, they're sticking with the young guns that they have back there. Nobody's using youth as an excuse, but those guys will get better with experience.
Nick is right, nobody is using youth as an excuse.
Wait, nevermind, that is actually exactly what the Texans are doing.
Here are just a few Kubiak quotes from various postgamers, all emphasis mine:
(on what changes are available to improve their defense and if they can make a dramatic change) "Oh, yeah. There’s no doubt in my mind that we can and we have to. First off, we have to believe in what we’re doing and I believe in what we’re doing. I believe in who we’re doing it with. Do we have some young players on the back end? Yes, but we’re going with those guys. I’ve told you guys that from the start. We’ve got a lot of improvement to do. I continue to see flashes of good stuff, but there’s no consistency in what we’re doing.
(on if he is worried about CB Kareem Jackson's confidence) "I think Kareem's got a lot of confidence as a person and as a player. People are going to come after him because he's young. We're all young back there. It's not just Kareem. He's just going to have to step to the plate. That's the way we're going and we've got to find a way to get it done."
(on if they can make a defensive turnaround like they did this time last year) "We've given up way too many yards, as I said. There's been a lot of talk about the young guys that we're playing but they're veterans now. They've been out there three times in the regular season and this is our group. This is the group we're going with. I expect us to play better than that. We were playing better than that yesterday, as a defensive football team, for a great period of time, but the consistency is lacking. There has to be a turnaround and it's gotta happen real, real quick.
(on the pass defense being a concern coming out of Sunday's game) "Yeah, we gave up some big plays. They did a great job. They schemed us up pretty good. We really, really struggled. But we did have some good stops in the fourth quarter. (DE) Mario (Williams) just revved his game up I think he kind of took over and made sure (Redskins QB Donovan McNabb) was having to get rid of the ball. Yeah, we've got some things we've got to clean up there. I know we're young back there, but that's no excuse. We've got to get better and get better quick because people are going to throw it on us until we step up and stop it. We've got to improve from that standpoint."
Now of course, Kubiak never blames the youth directly for being a factor; you just won't see that in the NFL. Yet for some reason, possibly because it's an excuse, it sure does seem to come up a lot in these interviews without him being directly questioned about it.
I'm not saying the Texans have made the wrong choice in investing their draft picks in the secondary, I'm not saying the young players can't turn it around, and I'm not saying that Kubiak is saying anything wrong here from the standpoint of a coach. He has to believe in his players, and he has to back them up in the media.
But perhaps, just maybe, the Texans could've both utilized their youth and targeted players that were actually, yano, safe bets to be contributors this year in the secondary too. But that isn't an excuse for losing, don't get me wrong, it's just that...they're losing games they shouldn't have been counted on to win. That's all.