No, seriously. But hey, while you’re there - vote for Mario as he’s up for NFL defensive player of the week.

Listen - I like Gary Kubiak. A lot. I wanted him to be the head coach when the franchise began in 2002, but understandably - Bob McNair didn’t think he was experienced enough. Well, thank the football Gods that I wasn’t in charge of hiring the first head coach, because here in 2008 after almost 2.5 seasons under Kubiak - he still seems too inexperienced.

Gary is making a lot of mistakes this season, just like the previous two. He should have something as elementary as clock management and replay challenges mastered by now. Of course, there’s always room for a mistake here or there - that’s just how football is, but as I think we’ll all agree - we get at least one huge gaffe per game from our head coach. Kubiak always takes more than his share of responsibility - but even for me, one of his most fervent supporters - it’s getting old.

The Texans didn’t win because of Gary Kubiak on Sunday. Sure, the Texans ran up 485 yards of offense, but in the end it took a near-miracle to pull the win out. I mean, just in the final drive alone there were two coaching blunders… they waited too long to call a time out early in the final drive, then after the touchdown the team inexplicably had no idea what to do with the extra point! The field goal team lined up… then they came off the field, and the Texans went for a 2-point conversion. How do you not know ahead of time what you’re going to do in that situation?

I’m still 100% behind the head coach, but it troubles me that I can’t point to something and say “here is why Kubiak is improving, just wait and he’ll be just fine.” As with pretty much everyone else, it is my belief that if anyone needs to be fired, it should be defensive coordinator Richard Smith.

When Kubiak came to Houston, it was known that he was going to be an offensive coach - and the offense has improved under his watch. In fact, the offense has improved DRASTICALLY. Now he just needs to figure out whatever the hell it is that’s keeping him from grasping what should be concepts far easier to deal with than offense.

Quickly - some recommended reading. Matt takes a very realistic look at the big picture here. I have to say I agree with almost everything in the article. Nice work from Matt as always.