Aside from DA is anyone really happy with Kubiak's play calling? (2 Viewers)

[MV2]

I’ll say this, while I haven’t loved all his play calling. He’s a heck of a lot better than that we had last year.

It's ridiculous. The O-Line started falling apart week 3. Shortly after he's coaching with two backup tackles playing guard and a center signed off a practice squad the week prior. He lost his speedster #2 WR for the season, his #1 has missed time due to concussion issues and his swiss army knife missed games as well. Not mention he's also started a 5th round rookie QB and folks on here say its the play calling.

 

[JPSaints87]

Seriously what was he supposed to do?

Did you want to see him try to sling it downfield with Carr who can't get the ball 30 yards with his injury and try to throw to Bub Means or was he hurt too?

Kamarra had nearly 200 yards today and we did more than enough to win other than some stupid penalties.

I am so glad you brought up the stats. Because we control the time possession, we have more offensive plays and yardage than the Panthers. Not to mention we were +1 in the turnover margin. But we still lose the game.

 

[SystemShock]

Here's the problem:

He's still a young coordinator, and he has no real leader. It's one thing to have a great offensive mind and certainly he comes from a great tree, but when you don't have a real head coach, it's not going to look pretty.

This doesn't get talked about enough, head coaches not only have to coach and motivate their players, but they have to manage their staff. Dennis Allen isn't qualified to do any of those things, thus here we are.

Allen isn't calling the offense. Kubiak is. Stop making excuses for Kubiak.

 

[SystemShock]

I know. The play calling in games 1 and 2 was so creative. Now it is just stupid. I mean, I understand the injuries and all. But even with that the play calling could be so much better.

He got figured out and he can't adjust. Very evident on game day.

 

[solarbear88]

Nope. Extremely bland.

 

[Saint KayBee]

I don’t understand how this offense can’t protect a small lead. After scoring the TD to go up 5, the defense catches a pick, but the offense stalls after 16 yards. The defense forces a three-and-out, the offense says “hold my beer, we’re going three-and-out AND losing yards in the process.” It’s just ridiculous now. GO MAKE A PLAY!!!!!!!

 

[SoggyBottomBoy]

I don’t understand how this offense can’t protect a small lead. After scoring the TD to go up 5, the defense catches a pick, but the offense stalls after 16 yards. The defense forces a three-and-out, the offense says “hold my beer, we’re going three-and-out AND losing yards in the process.” It’s just ridiculous now. GO MAKE A PLAY!!!!!!!

Context matters.

In the “16 yard drive” you mention the offense picked up about 48 yards of offense but only netted the 16.

After picking up a first down on two runs there were back-to-back holding penalties then an incomplete pass leaving a second and 29. They gained 28 yards in two plays leaving them with the fourth and one the we should have gone for. Instead they lost another 5 yards on the delay of game. That’s 34 yards in penalties in two sets of downs.

I can’t fault KK for that play calling. He had them at fourth and one near midfield and it was decided not to go for it.

In the game the offense put up 427 yards of offense with the patchwork offensive line and no Shaheed and losing Olave early. Failure in the red zone and untimely penalties resulted in more shooting ourselves in the foot, again.

But this thread is about Kubiak’s play calling and, again, I’ll say he did a good job given the tools and circumstances he had to work with.

 

[NUSaintsfan]

No, but I think he’s in a tough spot. Kubiak runs a completely different style of offense than we did before and we didn’t give him the players for that offense. So we’re stuck with some sort of hybrid and on top of that mass injuries. Not sure why to expect more from such an inexperienced OC with few resources.

He isn’t inexperienced as he has had two other stints before and it appears not much has been learned. Anyone else without the name of Kubiak and he wouldn’t be thought so highly of…Just because someone has had experience doing something doesn’t mean he is the right person.

So after four pages of posts a quick recap:
1. KK needs every player healthy to be successful at calling plays. On top of that, he needs Pro-Bowl talent as well…If not, then he he obviously gets a pass.

2. It’s the penalties that hold back his play calling.

Reality - he doesn’t know how to make in game adjustments and doesn’t call plays that maximize the skill sets of the players being fielded.

Who cares about empty yards, the name of the game is to put points on the board and the plays he called in red zone were putrid.

DA chose poorly like many of the coaches he has chosen under his “leadership.”

 

[BBarnes]

It's ridiculous. The O-Line started falling apart week 3. Shortly after he's coaching with two backup tackles playing guard and a center signed off a practice squad the week prior. He lost his speedster #2 WR for the season, his #1 has missed time due to concussion issues and his swiss army knife missed games as well. Not mention he's also started a 5th round rookie QB and folks on here say its the play calling.

Well anyone saying the play calling is the main issue or even a small part of the big problems, yea that’s ridiculous.

However, I said what I said and anyone that understands what they are watching knows the play calling didnt go from being the best offense in the league the first two weeks to what it is just because of injuries. Anyone who thinks that is being borderline just hard headed, we will leave it at that.

Part of it is we played two of the worst teams in the league with almost as much dysfunction as us

We caught them by surprise

Our defense really complemented our offense bc of the crap teams we were playing

And so on. Then the league adjusted, we played better opponents etc. A MAJOR reason for the more vanilla style play calling after that was also due to injury. It’s ridiculous to think this team or offense looks just like this all bc of injuries. Teams deal with injuries all the time and don’t fall completely off the map. We were never as good as we looked the first two weeks with or without the injuries.

 

[DaveXA]

He got figured out and he can't adjust. Very evident on game day.

You're judging him based on an largely incomplete roster. And by a HC who is a poor leader. KK is in a no win situation here. They haven't had anything close to a reasonably healthy offense since week 2.

Also, if players don't execute the plays called...

 

[Poppy]

Its just really hard to say. I think he's fine. I realize we look horrible, but the injuries can't be ignored in order to evaluate Kubiak. The first 4 games, i think everything was fine. I blame it all on Allen. This whole dumpster fire. Loomis too.

 

[dtc]

Nothing we ran was slow developing in weeks 1 and 2. There's more to the story.

we ran for 200 yards yesterday. That's not why we lost.

We lost on bad calls, stupid penalties and the inability to move the ball downfield with no receivers and an injured QB.

 

[dtc]

Bub indeed was injured, he didn't suit up today. And Olave got hurt early in the game, and Shaheed is also hurt.

And McCoy is still out. Having Hill, Kamara and Carr on the field helped some. But it's not enough.

and it had nothing at all to do with coaching.

The coach didn't call the PI on Davis or the ridiculous other calls they made.

 

[dtc]

I am so glad you brought up the stats. Because we control the time possession, we have more offensive plays and yardage than the Panthers. Not to mention we were +1 in the turnover margin. But we still lose the game.

Demario's penalty was a back breaker, but with Olave or maybe our 3rd Center it wouldn't have mattered.

Perhaps with Lattimore or any one of our top 3 CBs it wouldn't have mattered.

The D got pressure. The refs gifted the other team repeatedly and we had a couple penatlies.

In all honesty, if we had one by 1 point yesterday I'd have been pretty happy with everthing about how that game went other than the injuries.

 

[sammymvpknight]

I'd say it's incomplete at this point. Hard to tell what's what with Allen running the show and all of the injuries.

I would say he needs to be evaluated after we get a real HC. But that's just me.

It’s hard to evaluate the team at this point. So much dysfunction and injuries everywhere. I’ve resigned that we could easily be 5+ years away. What key assets do we have under the age of 25? We’re stuck with Carr for a few years at least. We still have huge contracts tied to zeros (player not person) like Jordan and Ramcyzk. Davis has looked like a shell of himself. Lattimore is always hurt and when he’s not…he’s inconsistent…we owe him money. It just seems that we are in lame duck territory for awhile. It sucks…but it has to be blown up. Not a little patch…blow it to pieces. The entire staff…Loomis thanks for your service…goodbye. Scouting department…gone. Goodbye. Entire medical structure. Sorry New Orleans…your large healthcare networks are awful. It’s why good physicians don’t practice there. The Saints have to outsource it. Hire Andrews institute…do something. The Saints are decades behind in medical care and analytics…invest.