BRIAN T. SMITH WONDERS WHY WEST VIRGINIA.
Bring Texans back home unless West Virginia trip leads to playoffs
Maybe it says something about a big city that struggles to win championships. • Either way, the start was always one of the best parts of Houston’s year. • Devoted fans wrapped in red and blue, lining up as the sun was rising, inching closer and closer to the front of the line. • Music blaring from speakers. Cars streaming into packed parking lots. Curiosity and anticipation dominating the day. • And then the shouting and screaming that didn’t stop.
J.J. Watt bounced down the steps — scorching sun in the background, teammates in shadows trailing No. 99 — in a scene ready-made for NFL Films.
DeAndre Hopkins, Jadeveon Clowney or Brian Cushing followed, with each star taking their turn in the summer spotlight.
There was Bill O’Brien. There was Romeo Crennel.
Heck, there was Brock Osweiler, who for one brief moment in time absolutely looked the part.
We romanticize the heck out of baseball spring training, but the beginning is always distant and quiet. Players randomly show up far away in Florida, going through informal light workouts for days before anything remotely real happens.
NBA camp contains about an hour of excitement. Then we remember the preseason is meaningless and the only thing that matters is the playoffs, which are seven months away.
But the Texans and the start of training camp in this football-first city? Big. Electric. Addicting. And now it’s gone away. West Virginia??? In July?? A better question: Why?
Justifying the move
Here’s what I’ve been told: 1) Because Houston’s heat is so hot, the Texans become worn down at the end of every season. Not true. OK, yes, Houston is HOT. But since O’Brien took over in 2014, his team has gone a combined 9-3 in its last four games of each year. Two of those late surges set up back-to-back AFC South titles and pushed the Texans into the playoffs. And O’Brien’s squad definitely wasn’t exhausted at the end of 2016, when it destroyed Oakland in a wildcard win, then played the Patriots tight for three-plus quarters in New England.
2) Because Houston’s heat is so saturated, the Texans start slow and spend the rest of the season catching up. Also not true. O’Brien’s team began 3-1 during his rookie season and started the same last year, jumping out with 2-0 records each time. Yes, the Texans started 1-3 in 2015. But that was the year of the ridiculous Brian Hoyer vs. Ryan Mallett debate — even Houston’s heat can’t be blamed for that nonsense.
3) Because the Texans will spend a few weeks vacationing together at the supposedly lovely Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., they’ll grow even tighter as a team and their chemistry will improve.
I’m fine with that if it happens. But chemistry and culture haven’t been a problem in the three years under O’Brien. All the key terms — sacrifice, selflessness, next man up — have been widely heard, while the Texans have incorporated key parts of Patriots-speak into their daily language: Do your job; on to next week.
So if the Texans have started and finished well (during the regular season) and chemistry hasn’t been a problem, then why in the heck are they packing everything up, leaving us behind and temporarily moving to West freaking Virginia? Control. Ahh. Now that makes more sense. This is the year of Tom Savage. This is the season where we could spend every week wondering how happy O’Brien really is. This is the time when 9-7 really isn’t supposed to be the bar, but the rest of the AFC South appears to be creeping up and Tennessee is the smart pick to claim the crown.
This is Year Four of O’Brien — the season when it could all start to end or begin to flourish.
New Orleans is hotter and stickier than Houston — I’ve lived in both. The Saints spent the previous three years camping at The Greenbrier. They finished 7-9 every season and are proudly back home.
Questions to answer
One of O’Brien’s main directives (and personal goals) when he took over for Gary Kubiak was to change the Texans. Tougher, meaner, stronger. More disciplined and intense.
They’ve shown it at times. They would have cracked in 2015 after starting 2-5 if they weren’t united and didn’t believe in their coach. They were a quarter away from potentially taking down Tom Brady and Bill Belichick in New England, fighting through it all while waiting for Osweiler to let them down again.
Can the new Texans find an offense in West Virginia? Can Savage start to win us over before it’s already Deshaun Watson time? Can O’Brien, who’s placed so much on his own shoulders, take the next step as a coach and become the elite leader he believes he can be?
That’s what these Texans must discover at The Greenbrier.
If this ends up as 10-6 or better and a third consecutive season in the playoffs, McNair has every right to extend his team’s camp vacation into 2018.
If we’re picking up the pieces in late December, you deserve to spend next July with the Texans back on Kirby Drive, screaming at Watt like he’s a superhero and hoping Hopkins signs your ball.
Average teams worry about everything.
Great teams can win anywhere.