Houston Texans fire play-caller Chris Palmer

Sept. 19, 2005, 11:46AM

Texans fire play-caller Chris Palmer
Offensive coordinator ousted following 0-2 start; Pendry takes over
By JOHN MCCLAIN
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
RESOURCES


Chris Palmer, the Texans offensive coordinator since their inception in 2002, was fired this morning and was replaced by offensive line coach Joe Pendry.


The beleaguered Palmer, under fire because the Texans offense has scored only two touchdowns in losses to Buffalo and Pittsburgh, got the word during a meeting with coach Dom Capers at Reliant Stadium.

Contacted today, the Texans said they would not comment until Capers' regularly scheduled news conference at 3 p.m. today.

Pendry takes over the play-calling responsibilities.

Because the Texans have a bye week, Pendry has two weeks to prepare for the next game at unbeaten Cincinnati.

Pendry, a long-time NFL coach who was previously offensive coordinator at Carolina and Buffalo, will try to develop some consistency in an offense that has been unproductive against the Bills and Steelers, the two best defensive teams in the NFL last season.

Interestingly, Pendry was fired by Capers after the 1997 season at Carolina. Although, it was never confirmed, there was specualtion that Panthers owner Jerry Richardson made Capers fire Pendry, who was under fire because his offense was too conservative and unimaginative.

After being fired, Pendry was hired as Buffalo's offensive coordinator under Wade Phillips. In 1998 and 1999, Pendry's first two seasons with the Bills, Buffalo ranked sixth and 11th in offense and made the playoffs in both seasons.

Pendry was part of the Phillips purge after the 2002 season. He was Washington's offensive line coach in 2001 and was out of the NFL in 2002 and 2003 before Capers hired him as offensive line coach last season.
<!-- / message -->

any moron that uses 3 TE's and tries to run up the gut against Pittsburgh all game should be fired on the spot.

After seeing that pathetic offesnive display yesterday, I am not at all surprised. The number of delay of game pentalties/Carr having to call timeout to avoid delay of game penalites was out of hand.

Palmer was supposed to be some sort of offensive genius and a quarterbacks guru when he got the Browns job. He screwed up Tim Couch and he screwed up David Carr, both #1 overall picks.

Nice legacy, asshole..........

Scapegoat written all over this firing!!!! Granted this guy needs to be fired because of that awful play calling, but it makes one wonder, where was the head coach in all this? If you know anything about football, you know damn well that the coach typically has a whole lot of input in the planning of that week's offense and defense. Everything is run by him and he approves it or requests changes. I have never liked it when coaches blame their assitants (thats like John Gotti trying to snitch on his underlings!!!).


Capers is a terrible coach period!!!

If i were still desperate enough i would probably unload a fat wad of cash on the Bengals next week...

texans will be 0-3 (or so i hope since i am a titans fan)