Battle Red Blog
When the Houston Texans offense started struggling last year, then-offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik became the target of blame. When the production issues didn’t improve, Slowik found himself promoted to fan.
After what didn’t seem like an all too extensive search, the Texans brought in Nick Calley – a man with connections to… you guessed it… the New England Patriots. Sigh.
Taking a defensive minded head coach like Demeco Ryans and pairing him with an offensive mastermind is next level thinking.
Pairing Ryans with a guy who spends the first 3 weeks of the season making sure the offense is dead last in a pile of significant categories seems treasonous.
Is Nick Caley the right guy for the job?
This will also be a recurring question throughout the season. It will likely go hand in hand with the personnel question. This is important as we get to the acceptance and blame stages. Exactly who gets the blame? Personnel would squarely fall on Nick Caserio and DeMeco Ryans. Coaching would fall on Caley and whoever made the final call on hiring Caley. However, let’s consider some numbers.
- Points: 38 (DAL)
- Yards: 802 (29th)
- Passing Yards: 517 (26th)
- Rushing Yards: 285 (23rd)
- First Downs: 43 (DAL)
- Third Down conversion: 24.34% (DAL)
- Turnovers: 5 (28th)
- Sacks: 8 (25th)
We could go on and on, but I think we all know what is going on. For the uninitiated, DAL stands for dead ass last.
When you hire a general manager and coaching staff in the NFL, your #1 priority is finding people who can beat your divisional opponents. If a team consistently wins in the division, they get an automatic leg-up on the post season. Even if those post season opportunities get squandered.
Caley, in his first divisional matchup last weekend against the Jacksonville Jaguars, managed:
Under his guidance, the Texans find themselves as the only current reigning Division Champion with a winless, 0-3 record.
If this weekend brings more of the same, against the despised BESFs, Caley should get promoted to former OC before 5pm Sunday.
That certainly isn’t to say this is all his fault. However, he was brought in to make the offense work, not make excuses why it isn’t.
The Not-The-Oilers are also sitting at 0-3. Their head coach, Brian Callahan, should also have the butt-warmer turned on afterburner with his stellar 3-17 record in the post Mike Vrabel world of Nashville not-so-professional football. Having a struggling rookie QB is likely his current saving grace. Maybe he and Caley can swap sour-grape recipes in the unemployment line?
A great coach can turn a not-so-great batch of players into winners. A bad coach can take an all-pro team and turn them into...
