By Gary Kubiak on his Commitment to Running the Football
October 24, 2012 – 9:45 am by Chris Fedor
After being embarrassed on Sunday Night Football by the Packers, the Houston Texans rebounded in a big way this past weekend. In a battle of the top two teams in the AFC, the Texans showed that there is just no competition right now between them and the banged up Ravens. Houston got back to their bread-and-butter, which is running the ball and playing tough, physical, shut-down defense. Every component seems to be in place for Houston to make a deep playoff run this season and it could validate the Texans’ decision to stick with Gary Kubiak, who has been on the coaching hot seat during much of his time in Houston.
Gary Kubiak joined KOA in Denver on the Dave Logan Show to talk about two of the top rushers in the NFL, Alfred Morris and Arian Foster, being guys that went undrafted, on keeping offensive balance, on J.J. Watt and the steps the defense has taken in the last few years.
On two of the top rushers in the NFL being undrafted free agents:
“First I think you have to give those guys credit. They’re very talented young men, they have gotten opportunities and have taken advantage of them. The biggest thing I learned from Mike (Shanahan) about running the football is you have to be committed to it. We have a zone scheme that we teach but I think just the commitment to it, the way you approach your team. We’re going to run the ball, be physical and we’re going to run the ball if there’s eight people in the box. We don’t care. It’s a mindset that you teach your team and you stay committed to it as a coach and it is kind of your formula for winning. I think everybody has their way of doing things and their way of trying to run the ball but I think the biggest thing I learned from Mike was the commitment to it.”
On keeping offensive balance:
“I think it’s patience in a lot of ways. In the NFL you’re probably down a good 20 snaps per game compared to the college game so if you start to panic and say ‘well I’m only going to get 60 snaps and I have to make the most out of these’ instead of saying ‘okay how do I win this next game?’ And I think you start putting the ball up quite a bit so you kind of have to have patience in what you’re doing and have your formula for winning. At the same time we feel like if we show up on game day and we’re in a shootout and need to throw it 50 times we’ve got the people to do that too. I think the thing that every good team is trying to work towards in the NFL is feeling like you can win a lot of different ways. Everybody starts with a certain formula and goes from there. We’re just hoping were able to run the ball on Sundays, I know that.”
On drafting J.J. Watt:
“No that one was pretty easy. I knew we had the right guy, you know we drafted him, we flew him in and we’re sitting in the draft room in the second round going to our second pick and they announced in our room and said ‘hey listen Watt’s going to walk in with his mom and dad and we’re going to introduce him and everybody give him a hand.’ Him and his mom and dad walked in and we all started clapping. His dad stood up and said ‘hey guys I just want to thank you all for seeing in my son what I’ve been seeing for the last 22 years.’ We knew we had the right guy then.”
On the improvements the defense has made recently:
“We worked really, really hard through the draft and through my early years here trying to build something on the defensive side of the ball but I think the biggest thing is you have to give the credit to Wade (Phillips). He came in here last year and obviously everybody in Denver knows the job Wade did and without a training camp he took a young, talented defensive football team, and we did add a couple of talented players in Jonathan Joseph and Danieal Manning, and without a training camp he did just a tremendous job last year. When you have young players like that and you have a presence of Wade walk into a room it is instant credibility. They really bought into what he’s doing and they know he’s going to put them in position to make plays. Wade and his staff have just done a tremendous job with the young talent that we had here and put it all together.”
Listen to Gary Kubiak on KOA in Denver here
Tags: Gary Kubiak, Houston Texans, KOA in Denver, NFL
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