Texans fire OC Slowik

[ganesh]

27 minutes ago, BillsShredder83 said:

Wow, he was a hot name last year for HC.  Anybody interested in bringing him in for a role, a la Joe Brady, in case we lose our OC down the road???  That worked out beautifully really.  Maybe that guy is already on staff, but seems like no

QB Coach

[DrDawkinstein]

1 minute ago, BuffaloBillyG said:

Great opportunity call the guy my that just prepped for the Chiefs defense a week ago to ask "What did you learn and what went wrong?" May possibly be a nugget or two we can use.

 

If not a reason to touch base with him and feel him out as a potential Brady replacement should the Saints come knocking. 

 

I get what you're thinking, but for the amount of times we've played KC over the last 5 years, no one is more familiar with them than McDermott and our staff. They are basically a division rival at this point. Slowik wont have any tips or secrets we dont already know.

[C.Biscuit97]

3 minutes ago, Beck Water said:

 

I don't watch enough Texans games to know if they actually ran Mixon on every first down on nearly every drive.

 

I can look at stats and say their offense is not "super run heavy".  It was predominantly a passing offense last year (57% pass) and the same this year.

 

 

I don’t either but that was the criticism I heard from Texans fans. 

2 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

In fairness to the Texans some of the games I watched of theirs this year the playcalling was downright weird. It was like they were been chosen at random. But they did have major injuries at receiver and the oline regressed. 

 

My worry would be, and it is a worry of most guys off that Shanny tree, how good is he at adjusting when the defense takes away the thing he wants to do? But overall I think he is unfortunate to lose his job. 

 

Wouldn't surprise me if he winds up doing okay somewhere else.

Agree but he’s going to find it hard to have a better qb than Stroud. I still believe in him. He was special last year. 

[BuffaloBillyG]

11 minutes ago, DrDawkinstein said:

 

I get what you're thinking, but for the amount of times we've played KC over the last 5 years, no one is more familiar with them than McDermott and our staff. They are basically a division rival at this point. Slowik wont have any tips or secrets we dont already know.

True. But sometimes fresh eyes see the answers to questions the battle tested didn't know existed. 

 

In a situation bline this doubling up on information isn't a bad thing. Redundancy can be reaffirming. Be nice to know we see the Chief defense the same way other top teams do as well.

Edited Friday at 07:02 PM by BuffaloBillyG

[Augie]

29 minutes ago, Low Positive said:

Last year, he was a hot HC candidate. Now he's out of a job. Life comes at ya fast in the National Football League. 

 

I recall him being mentioned as a candidate to replace McD. Really. Probably not so much now. 

[TheFunPolice]

How do we know that he didn't want to leave and go to Detroit for a better shot at being HC and Ryans accommodated him?

 

Sort of conspiracy theory esque, but it could be a way to get someone in who could be there longer term and also help your coaching buddy out 

[MrEpsYtown]

I could see him being the Jets OC. 

[Beck Water]

23 minutes ago, JohnNord said:

Partly attributed, sure.  But go back and watch the sacks he took this season.  Many were on CJ.   
 

I’ve often heard “sacks are a QB stat.”  That is and isn’t true but more times than not in Houston, I’d argue this was the case.  

 

I'm not gonna go back and watch all the Texans games to make that judgement.  You can't just watch the sacks; you have to watch all the passing attack and ask "where is he going or trying to go with the ball and why?"

 

Stroud had an AY/A of 8.7 last season and an IAY/pass attempt of 9.0.  The Texans offensive identity was clearly built on having a deep passing game and making teams pay if they tried too hard to clamp down on the run and the short/intermediate stuff.   

 

The Bills have a decent run game and they were still struggling earlier in the season (Balt and Hou games especially) when they had absolutely no outside threat that teams could respect.  

 

Can you adjust that to some extent during the season?  To some extent, sure, but you need receivers who can beat man quickly in the short/int passing game and who will read the zone defense with the same eyes as the QB and find the soft spots.  Were there any of those on the roster with so many receivers in the Body and Fender shop?  Don't know.

 

 

Edited Friday at 06:59 PM by Beck Water

[Charles Romes]

Thank god for Kromer

[JohnNord]

15 minutes ago, Beck Water said:

 

Agreed.  I'm feeling like the Texans are scaping his goat.

 

 

Yes, we do over-react about coaches, using the "greener grass" principle. 

I'm not so clear that the Texans offensive problems are on Slowik, though:

1) They had a whole 5 games with their planned-for receiving corps together before Collins got hurt.  8 games total with Diggs.  Then they had 5 games after Collins came back before Dell had that horrible injury.  I felt last year that Stroud's apparent poise and maturity in the passing game was linked to having quality receivers that ran good routes and showed up where he expected.  Didn't have that this season.

2) Stroud threw 5 picks last season, 12 picks this season.  Part of that is shortage of quality WR, part of that is teams having more film on him. 

Either way, I don't think it's entirely on Slowik.  They still won 10 games.

While the healthy offense did look good early in the season, they weren’t exactly blowing teams out of the water.   They had narrow victories about just about everyone and were blown out of the water versus Minnesota. 

 

I follow quite a few Texans fans and many are celebrating this firing.  
 

So yeah there were quite a few factors that didn’t work in his favor, but when your franchise QB regresses that badly you need to make some changes.  

 

[Beck Water]

15 minutes ago, Albany,n.y. said:

One of the best examples is when Rob Johnson & Doug Flutie played behind the same O-line & Rob took a lot more sacks than Doug.  

 

That's true.  Trentative Edwards vs. Ryan Fitzpatrick would be another example.   But in the end, there is something with the Jimmies and Joes - they have to know where to go and when to get there, and make it happen.   For most teams, losing 3 starting WR for most of the season would be fatal to this.

[Big Turk]

40 minutes ago, Starr Almighty said:

I felt like they did a decent job with all the injuries. Odd firing

 

Not really, Stroud was getting sacked all game long every game...their OLine play was terrible.

[JohnNord]

18 minutes ago, Logic said:

 

 

 

[TheFunPolice]

Just now, Beck Water said:

 

That's true.  Trentative Edwards vs. Ryan Fitzpatrick would be another example.   But in the end, there is something with the Jimmies and Joes - they have to know where to go and when to get there, and make it happen.   For most teams, losing 3 starting WR for most of the season would be fatal to this.

 

trent was easily my least favorite QB of the drought era (maybe ever). 

 

The play where he trotted out of bounds on 4th down way short of the sticks with the game on the line without a care in the world was the epitome of his time here. I always wondered if he casually took his helmet off and asked Chan for a mug of hot cocoa after. 

 

I think the team cut him the next week. 

[gonzo1105]

I would have Slowik on my phone dial if Brady gets the HC job with the Saints. Had 2 top WRs injured, a garbage OL, and a QB who was overrated after his rookie season. 

[LABILLBACKER]

36 minutes ago, BuffaloBillyG said:

This is a reminder for all those saying Joe Brady would never take the Saints job. 

 

Slowik I thought did a good job. At various points this year he lost Diggs, Collins, Dell, Mixon to injury. They still made the divisional round. He even interviewed for a couple HC spots this cycle.

 

And out of a job. You got a hop on jobs when you're hot. Bet on yourself and you just may go bankrupt for reasons beyond your control anyway.

If Brady goes, he's the first phone call I'm making.

[Beck Water]

2 minutes ago, gonzo1105 said:

I would have Slowik on my phone dial if Brady gets the HC job with the Saints. Had 2 top WRs injured, a garbage OL, and a QB who was overrated after his rookie season. 

 

I wouldn't. Nothing against Slowik, but I think that Shanahan-tree style offense is a total mismatch for Josh Allen.

[boco357]

Whenever I saw them, they seemed to have good-scripted first drives then went downhill.

[davefan66]

18 minutes ago, Beck Water said:

 

They had time to do all their evaluations and interviews with players, then they turn to the staff.   Maybe the evaluations and post-season interviews turned up some stuff Ryans wasn't aware of or wasn't certain were factual vs. impressions.

Originally I said “late firing”.  Probably wasn’t, just lost last weekend.  Feels like an eternity!!

 

Maybe some stuff came up after the last game. Find it hard to believe if there was internal strife DeMeco wasn’t aware of it.  Then again, maybe that’s their problem in general, lack of communication and Slowik was though to be at the heart of it.

[JohnNord]

9 minutes ago, Beck Water said:

 

I'm not gonna go back and watch all the Texans games to make that judgement.  You can't just watch the sacks; you have to watch all the passing attack and ask "where is he going or trying to go with the ball and why?"

 

Stroud had an AY/A of 8.7 last season and an IAY/pass attempt of 9.0.  The Texans offensive identity was clearly built on having a deep passing game and making teams pay if they tried too hard to clamp down on the run and the short/intermediate stuff.   

 

The Bills have a decent run game and they were still struggling earlier in the season (Balt and Hou games especially) when they had absolutely no outside threat that teams could respect.  

 

Can you adjust that to some extent during the season?  To some extent, sure, but you need receivers who can beat man quickly in the short/int passing game and who will read the zone defense with the same eyes as the QB and find the soft spots.  Were there any of those on the roster with so many receivers in the Body and Fender shop?  Don't know.

 

 

I can agree that the injuries at WR and OL were horrible.  I think the turning point was actually the Diggs injury - not because he was a game breaker but he game Stroud an intermediate outlet to move the sticks.  
 

With that said, I think Slowik was always overrated by the Bills fan base and the media at large.  People wanted to put him on the same level as Ben Johnson as a play caller which I thought was a bit presumptuous.  
 

It looks like Kling Kubiak is being a considered a candidate to take over.  We’ll see what he does next season