The blame game
If you’re looking at Watson, that’s the wrong place
Feel free to chastise the sometimes-bumbling head coach, who has talked the owner into giving him nine years of salary (four down, almost five to go) for thus far belowaverage work. Bill O’Brien can take it. As testy as he seems on the postgame podium when he is attempting to answer who, what and why without ever telling us any whos, whats or whys of how his team lost a game, O’Brien gets it.
He has told me that until he wins, he doesn’t deserve nor expect much favorable press.
Roast the owner, who many of you credited with making the life-altering (your life I mean) investment to bring professional football back to Houston only to realize many years later you would have to be a masochist to love this franchise.
Bob McNair can take it, too. If he couldn’t, he would have put you out of your misery and sold the team to somebody like Jim Crane years ago and the Texans would be winning by now.
Make all the disparaging comments you want about the outcoached special teams coach, who before he put on Texans gear was known as one of the best in the business, but two weeks into his tenure has done no better than the subpar group who came before him.
You can even take shots at the former No. 1 overall pick in a draft that has produced two defensive players of the year — neither of which are him — for managing to pull off the rare on-the-field penalty by a player who never stepped onto the field.
As J.J. Watt put it, that penalty was “less than ideal,” which could easily be the Texans’ catchphrase.
What is the perpetual state of the organization? Less than ideal.
You can go in on no-name special teams players who were too clueless to notice a Tennessee Titan standing alone on the field until he was well on his way to a 66-yard touchdown on a fake punt.
You can even call out a kicker whose missed field goal looked like a ball in the drink after using the wrong golf club for an approach.
To reiterate, you have my permission to slam people throughout the organization, from top to bottom, and they earned it with a sloppy performance in a 20-17 loss at Tennessee on Sunday.
But what we’re not going to do is tear down the franchise quarterback as he works to develop into the first quarterback to lead a team from the
City of Houston to a Super Bowl. Have y’all lost your minds? Listen up Houston, I can’t allow you to get comfortable treating Deshaun Watson like he is Brock Osweiler or Matt Schaub or David Carr or Oliver Luck or any of the other several dozen less than ideal men who have taken snaps under center as a pro in this town.
The good news is Watson can take it. To get from where he came to where he is, he has dealt with elements much harsher than your whining about a bad play or two.
The Texans can be infuriating, so I recognize the challenge of controlling your emotions when dealing with yet another of their many public humiliations, but some of you need to get a grip.
Sure, furrow your brow at Watson not throwing the ball away on the last play against the Titans, to give himself one last Hail Mary. No doubt the slip-up merits censure, however, let’s not pretend that play lost the game.
It was the final nail in the coffin of a dead team. A team that arrived in Nashville without a heartbeat and could have been laid to rest in the first quarter.
O’Brien says blame him for the play, so let us do that. Or at least look elsewhere before we turn to Watson.
Watson didn’t give up a touchdown on a junior high-level punt team blunder. He didn’t send 12 men onto the field, forcing the Texans to blow a timeout midway through the third quarter.
Watson didn’t call the unimaginative quick passes outside that netted one yard each on first and second down at the Tennessee 40 in a tie game with eight minutes left.
Watson didn’t let the Titans, whose offense had mustered a measly 119 yards in the game, put together two fourth-quarter field drives that covered 113 yards, 15 of which came courtesy of a Jadeveon Clowney penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct. It was particularly unsporting, considYes, ering Clowney was injured and not playing in the game.
Let’s not forget that Watson, who was 22-of-32 for 310 yards with two touchdowns and an interception against the Titans, is off to the best start an NFL quarterback in this city has ever had.
He has thrown 22 touchdown passes in his eight starts (nine games played). Only one player in NFL history (Kurt Warner with 24) can top that.
It took Warren Moon 28 starts with the Oilers to do it, and the same number of games to pass for him to top Watson’s three 300-yard passing games. David Carr started 31 games before his passes resulted in pay dirt as many times as Watson has.
Watson needs to play better to overcome his horrid offensive line, the team’s suspect coaching and whatever other misfortunes are thrust upon him because he was drafted by the Texans.
The young man, who turned 23 on Friday, has played half a season worth of games in the NFL. He is going to make some rookie mistakes.
But let’s not kill him for a bad game against the Patriots and a few poor plays against the Titans.
After all, he is the one trying to raise the dead here.
It is a less than ideal situation.