On the Air w/ Wex: Wade has Arrived, Tuesday Top 5

Wade Phillips met with the media for the first time today since being named the new defensive coordinator for the Houston Texans. He sounded a lot different than any coordinator that Gary Kubiak has hired and that means something since Kubes has hired - count 'em - 7 coordinators in 6 years!! ON offense, it's been Troy Calhoun, Mike Sherman, Kyle Shanahan and current OC Rick Dennison. Dennison is interviewing for the vacant head coaching position in Denver tomorrow, although I wouldn't consider him a a favorite. On defense, Phillips is the 3rd hire, following Frank Bush, who had taken over in 2009 for Richard Smith.

There is a major difference though in the hiring of the DC's - each has been hired b/c the previous DC was fired. Other than his first hire, Calhoun, none of the OC's Kubiak hired were replacing fired coaches. Each of the DC's have replaced fired predecessors. For good reason in each case, especially in this case with Phillips taking over the lowest rated pass-defense in the NFL and one of the worst in most major categories.

Phillips sounded confident and very sure of what he has done and what he can do with this defense. Since he has done it before many, many, many times, it is very easy to believe he can do it again. But before everyone gets sucked in to believe he is some kind of savior, remember his actual history.

The details have all been provided in previous blog entries and can be found in very positive form via the Texans official bio. He's had some good years and some bad years running defenses. Just a lot more good than bad and his defenses almost always pressured the quarterback and forced turnovers. Some notes are below.

- In 9 years as DC or HC in Denver, he had 3 season where his defenses ranked in the top 10 in both points allowed and yards allowed. He also had 3 season where his defenses ranked 20th or worse in both categories.

- In 6 years as DC or HC in Buffalo, his defenses were never worse than 13th in the league in yards allowed, but only 3 times were they ranked that high in points allowed.

- In 3 years in Dallas from 2007-09 prior to his firing after a 1-7 start this season, his defenses were 13th, 20th & 2nd in pts allowed, but top 10 in yards allowed each year. Each of those seasons, his defenses produced at least 42 sacks and forced at least 21 turnovers.

No Texans defense under Gary Kubiak has registered more than 30 sacks in any season. The 2010 defense forced only 18 turnovers and 5 of those came again Rusty Smith and Trent Edwards.

I can appreciate that Phillips obviously has a plan and does things that his players would no reason to doubt. That never happened for the last 5 years. It was obvious the coaching was subpar and the players performance suffered because of it. It'll probably be the case soon, that if the defense continues to have consistent problems and shows no signs of improvement, the issue will be the talent not the coaching.

The Texans have two good coordinators now although they have done nothing to ensure they have a better head coach. No matter what McNair says about Gary being a better coach because of what happened last season - that speech becomes stale when you could've been saying that for about 4 years now.

You can only hope that Wade not only participates on draft day, but has an obvious loud and booming voice when it comes to the selections. I think there's a pretty decent chance that happens.

The Texans offense has always had a plan. The Texans defense now has one, also...too it only took 6 years.
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The Tuesday Top 5 was our top 5 most memorable moments in NFL postseason history. You can catch us on the air discussing our top 5's right here on our blog. (you could just look to the left margin and click the Tuesday's Top 5 link under Matt & Adam Features!!)

Here are video reminders of each play.
5. The Fumble