Houston Texans: Wade Phillips named interim head coach

Nov 3, 2013; Houston, TX, USA; Houston Texans defensive coordinator Wade Phillips walks off the field after the Indianapolis Colts defeated the Texans 27-24 at Reliant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

The Houston Texans have announced that defensive coordinator Wade Phillips will be the interim head coach in the absence of head coach Gary Kubiak, who is recovering from a mini-stroke suffered Sunday night at halftime.

ESPN.com reported:

"“Kubiak said in a statement Tuesday that he will make a full recovery but isn’t sure when he will return to work.”"

Kubiak collapsed at the 24-yard line as he was leaving the field on Sunday Night Football against the Indianapolis Colts. He was shown in pain, then was transported to an area hospital where he stayed until Tuesday afternoon. The Texans lost to the Colts, 27-24 as they led 21-3 at halftime.

Tuesday Kubiak’s family said he was “doing good.”

I like Phillips as a defensive coordinator, and in this current situation, he’s the best option the Texans have to take over as head coach for Kubiak while he takes care of his health issues. Houston is lucky to have Phillips on their coaching staff in this situation.

Phillips last was a head coach for the Dallas Cowboys for nearly four seasons, and has been the Texans’ defensive coordinator since ’11. He’s been coaching in the NFL since 1969.

This will be interesting to watch play out, because when Phillips took over on Sunday as the head coach the Texans didn’t play as well on either side of the ball. I’m sure the reasoning was they were worried about their head coach in the hospital, as any person would be.

What I worry about is Phillips will have to take some of his focus off the very good Texans defense he’s build basically from the ground up, and use some of his time to make sure the offense and special teams are doing what needs to be to in preparation for the game this Sunday at Arizona.

The Texans are currently on a six-game skid, and not much has went right for them in the second half of games lately.

If the Texans’ offense can keep up with the pace of their first half last week against the Colts, and not fall back into being conservative with their play calling, they can win this game Sunday against the Cardinals.

The defense should be fine, but the offense still has a very young quarterback in Case Keenum that everyone has seen play on the national stage. There are also a lot questions that remain at the running back position with Arian Foster playing just a few snaps the past two games due to various injuries and Ben Tate playing with broken ribs. The health of the two main running backs is far from great.

Phillips now has a lot on his plate, let’s hope he and the Texans can handle it this week. Again, this will be an interesting week to say the least.