NO FREE PASS HERE
Disabling injuries notwithstanding, O’Brien a factor in 4-8 record
It is just the end of the third quarter, but this is a lost season for the Texans. And a painful one. From the opener, when the chosen starting quarterback crumbled like a saltine cracker under the weight of the Jacksonville pass rush and a believed-to-be-record five players left the game with concussions, to the loss at Tennessee, when that chosen starter looked almost decent until he was again Tom Savage and four players left the game with concussions, the pains and losses have piled up.
The mounting injury list includes the Texans’ most impactful offensive player, their most important defensive player and, of course, J.J. Watt.
Evaluating a coaching staff in a season with just six starts for Deshaun Watson and five for Whitney Mercilus and Watt and with a host of others on the injured reserve list is a challenge.
But it doesn’t preclude said assessment.
While it is impossible to grade homework the dog ate, you can grade an assignment the dog slobbered on. It’s just messy.
Don’t be so quick to give Bill O’Brien a passing grade just because this season has been a mess.
I mean, unless there was an unreported mild traumatic brain injury on the sideline, O’Brien’s horrid late-game decisions and continued clock mismanagement are not injury-related.
I feel confident in stating that had the Texans not suffered a single major injury this season, their record would be better than 4-8. I’m not so certain, however, that O’Brien would have made the proper calls to extract whatever the best is from this roster.
It is great that O’Brien fields a team that never gives up, one that fights when its back is against the turf. It isn’t so great that O’Brien is still learning the finer points of being an NFL coach.
It isn’t so great that O’Brien let his ego get in the way of hiring a competent offensive coordinator, instead choosing to handle those duties himself, which without question has taken away from his overall attention to detail.
You can’t blame everything on injuries.
Questionable decisions
Watson’s torn knee ligament had nothing to do with O’Brien’s illogical fourth-down decision that went against all analytic data late in a winnable game at New England.
Watt’s broken leg played no part in the diveto-defeat strategy O’Brien implemented at the twominute warning in a winnable game in Seattle.
Mercilus’ torn pectoral muscle had nothing to do with O’Brien’s continuously boneheaded misuse of timeouts, the latest playing a huge part in the Titans’ squeezing in a game-changing field goal just before halftime on Sunday.
If O’Brien were a better head coach, the Texans would be better than 4-8.
The Texans’ record should not come with any more of an asterisk than any other failed NFL season.
The Texans have had a 4-8 record or worse through 12 games four other times. Twice, in their first seasons with the team, the head coaches got a pass.
Where was the “he deserves a pass” crowd in 2013 when the Texans suffered as many significant injuries as they have this season?
That year, Arian Foster, who led the league in touchdowns and touches the year before, played just eight games. Owen Daniels, who made the Pro Bowl with a career high in touchdowns the year before, played in only five games.
Starting middle linebacker Brian Cushing and starting safety Danieal Manning played seven and six games, respectively.
Free-agent acquisition Ed Reed started just five games at safety. Ed Reed started five games at safety. (Yeah, Reed’s presence that year was a double negative.)
Quarterback Matt Schaub started only eight games. Matt Schaub started eight games at quarterback. (See Ed Reed explanation above.)
Worse yet, coach Gary Kubiak suffered a transient ischemic attack just before halftime of the eighth game.
After his team lost seven games in a row by a touchdown or less, six of them after his ministroke, Kubiak didn’t get a pass. He got a pink slip.
And that was less than a year after the Texans posted a franchisebest 12-4 mark. So no, O’Brien’s 9-7 record a year ago doesn’t buy him any extra time.
On a side note, don’t be so certain O’Brien is all in on staying with the Texans.
The first ax on an NFL coach this season fell Monday, when the Giants asked for Ben McAdoo’s key card. General manager Jerry Reese, who helped build two Super Bowl championship teams in New York, was also let go.
As many as 10 coaches could be fired this year, meaning nearly a third of NFL jobs will be available. Many of those franchises would be interested in O’Brien, who remains well-regarded in NFL circles, despite his mediocrity thus far with the Texans.
Differences with GM
The working relationship between O’Brien and Texans GM Rick Smith has at times been contentious. O’Brien wants more control. Smith, who started with the Texans a year before Reese took over as general manager of the Giants (clearly, success is measured differently in New York), doesn’t want to give it to him.
Owner Bob McNair, who said O’Brien’s evaluation after this season would determine whether he receives a contract extension, isn’t inclined to give O’Brien more power at Smith’s expense. McNair likes the current balance.
To get more of what he apparently wants, O’Brien will have to look elsewhere.
The idea that the opportunity to coach Watson should outweigh all other concerns for O’Brien could be wishful thinking from those who saw Watson tearing up the league when he got into the lineup.
The Texans were the highest-scoring team in the NFL during Watson’s six starts. They have scored 20 fewer points per game and are in the bottom six in scoring in Savage’s six starts.
Last year, when Watson was in college, the Texans scored the fewest touchdowns in the NFL.
Did O’Brien make Watson, or was it the other way around?
It wouldn’t be outlandish for Smith and McNair to agree with me that any decent coach could be made to look good by Watson.
Smith was so certain Watson would be a star, he pushed hard to trade up in the first round to draft him. While O’Brien preached caution and touted Savage all offseason, Smith told people there was no limit on expectations for the prized rookie.
It is up to McNair to decide who he wants to coach his potential superstar going forward.
Giving O’Brien that spot by default would be foolish.