OFF THE MAT
Just when you count them out, O’Brien and his team claw their way back
You are still trying to figure it all out. From a bad 0-3 to a somewhat convincing 4-3 in the backward AFC South.
Are these Texans actually good? Who can argue with four consecutive wins?
Deshaun Watson cares so much about winning that he rode a freaking bus to Jacksonville, Fla. So you have to kind of be into the Texans right now. Right?
This, I know: Bill O’Brien’s team should be 5-3 after beating Brock Osweiler’s team before a nationally televised audience on another short-week episode of “Thursday Night Football.”
And while the difference between 5-3 and 4-4 is rather significant when it comes to buying into the Texans as this alreadycrazy 2018 NFL season reaches a midway
point, there’s no denying that O’Brien enters Week 8 again doing what he does best. More with less. Winning when counted out. Somehow finding a way. “That’s the sign of a wellcoached team. To keep guys focused in a time of chaos — well, at least what people think is chaos,” veteran cornerback Johnathan Joseph said Tuesday at NRG Stadium, as the Texans inched closer toward an unexpected reunion with their (former) $72 million man. “The locker room never splintered. Nobody ever started pointing fingers. None of that happened. He kept us focused, kept us working, stayed to what he believes in and right now we’re sitting where we need to be, atop of the AFC South.”
You hate it when O’Brien blames himself after defeats.
Horrible playcalling, he says. Time management (bleep), he says. Slow starts and red-zone woes.
You just want the W and forward progress from your NFL team.
I fully get that. Even when the Texans win, O’Brien can be blunt and confrontational. Considering he’s 35-36 on Kirby Drive since 2014, the it’s-all-onme approach was wearing thin before Osweiler even put on red and blue.
“I think you guys are unbelievable. … People say you don’t play well. Do you have any idea on how hard it is to win an NFL football game?” said O’Brien, after a 20-7 road victory against the Jaguars, which was easily the Texans’ most impressive win of the season. “It’s the most difficult thing to do in professional sports, to go out and win an NFL football game.”
It’s not as hard as beating the 108-win Red Sox in the American League Championship Series. And I’ll always believe that trying to hit a 99 mph fastball, 86 mph slider and 79 mph curveball — in the same at-bat — is the most difficult thing in pro sports. But that is neither here nor there when Houston’s professional football team has won four consecutive games and potentially saved its season.
Watson is playing through multiple injuries and O’Brien is still winning. The Texans rank 21st out of 32 teams in average scoring (22.1), but O’Brien’s squad — again led by Romeo Crennel’s relentless defense — is the only crew in the division above .500. And when the Texans stick together after 0-3, what does the fiery fifth-year coach do? He publicly hands all credit to the players who didn’t give in after the Texans lost at home to the now 1-6 New York Giants.
“J.J. Watt, Johnathan Joseph, Tyrann Mathieu, Deshaun Watson, DeAndre Hopkins, Brian Peters,” O’Brien said. “The leaders on special teams. Brennan Scarlett, Johnson Bademosi. I mean, these are high character guys in that locker room that really understand what it means to work hard. … These guys really stuck with it and now we’ve got a chance to really do something, but we have to do it.”
That probably doesn’t scream Super Bowl LIII to you. But it’s annually brought out the best in O’Brien’s Texans and is one of the main reasons he was brought back after a 4-12 campaign.
O’Brien is still trying to build something on Kirby. Sometimes it impresses and catches your eye. Sometimes it all falls apart. But the work always continues and his team has been in the playoff chase during four of his five seasons.
“When we were 0-3 and now … we’re 4-0, it’s been the same message,” Watson said. “Continue to have faith, continue to do what we do and execute. Do it at a high level and play complementary football — all three phases do their job — and we’ll be just fine.”
These Texans must beat the banged-up Miami Dolphins. You thought falling to Blaine Gabbert’s beat-up Tennessee Titans was bad in Week 2? Just imagine the local boos if Osweiler pushes the Texans back to .500 on national TV.
But the South is clearly there for the taking and only three AFC teams currently have more victories than O’Brien’s squad. Gritty. Tough. Resilient. We’re starting to hear those familiar words again.
Being 5-3 doesn’t tease a trophy during the year of the Rams and Chiefs (and Patriots). But it’s a heck of a lot better than already waiting for 2019 to begin.
“Our fans are dying for a winner,” O’Brien said.
Now, that is the truth.