Losses can’t just be attributed to facing top-caliber teams
Let’s start this one by condensing 19 seasons of Texans history — and the franchise’s 131-159 all-time record — into four excuses.
Oops.
Eras — I meant eras.
1. The Texans were an expansion franchise. What did you expect?
2. The Texans were starting to become good. But Tom Brady’s New England Patriots were great.
3. The defense was good. But Bill O’Brien’s Texans didn’t have a quarterback.
4. The Texans finally got their franchise QB. But then O’Brien became head coach and general manager,
DeAndre Hopkins was traded and the franchise started going backward …
Week 3 of a new season awaits, so this current era is still being played out in real time.
Maybe the team with the worst point differential (minus-31) in the NFL will improve to 1-2 this weekend at Pittsburgh and avoid its second 0-3 start in three years.
But after Kansas City led 31-7 in the 2020 season opener on prime-time national TV, then Baltimore led 30-13 on Sunday inside a near-empty NRG Stadium, the 2020 Texans are seemingly already relying on the same excuse that ultimately defined Matt Schaub, Andre Johnson, Arian Foster, Brian Cushing, Duane Brown, J.J. Watt and Co. during the franchise’s peak from 2011-12.
The mean ol’ Pats were always better then.
The reigning Super Bowl champion Chiefs and SB LIV/LV contending Ravens are just too good now.
I mean, what do you expect when the Texans actually have to compete against the NFL’s best teams?
Tight, close games? Punts on fourth down within the Texans’ 35-yard line before halftime?
Inspiring wins that finally move the franchise forward and start a brilliant new era?
Please.
Leave the annual lofty expectations to the annually disappointing Rockets.
At least Watt showed some early season accountability after the Ravens did the Texans a favor by keeping it within 33-16 this time.
“You’re playing against … two very good teams, two very good quarterbacks, two very wellcoached teams, two great offenses, so you can’t put yourself behind,” Watt said. “You have to play extremely well if you do and obviously these last two weeks we haven’t done enough to win the games. At some point you have to win these tough games against tough teams, good teams, and so I’m sick of losing them, that’s for sure.”
It might not translate on paper. But the frustration within No. 99’s voice was impossible to ignore — especially considering that we’ve been told we’re not supposed to overreact to an 0-2 record after two games.
Watt also, rightly, called out rookie defensive lineman Ross Blacklock for getting ejected before the Week 2 defeat was complete.
“It pisses me off, it’s a very selfish move,” Watt said. “Late in the game, and it’s dumb, very dumb to hurt your team in that type of setting for no reason.”
Fair being fair, the Texans’ offense should call out the Texans’ defense for having the second-worst run defense (198 average yards allowed) in the league.
And the Texans’ defense should call out the Texans’ offense for ranking tied for 27th out of 32 teams in average scoring (18 points), while regularly insisting that the only way to run a contemporary scoring attack is as slow as possible.
This marks the seventh season of the King O’Brien era and his first as the franchise’s official HC/GM.
Isn’t it a little late in the game for weekly apologists to be blaming better teams for the Texans’ obvious shortcomings?
Isn’t that what (no offense) losers normally say?
Brady doesn’t play for the Patriots anymore. Schaub now gets paid pretty good money to watch Atlanta blow big leads.
And shouldn’t it be pointed out that the Texans chose their current path by: trading away Hopkins when the All-Pro wide receiver clashed with the HC/GM; ignoring the offseason idea of defensive upgrades; giving Watson a new set of offensive names during an unprecedented season that featured no preseason games and limited workouts because of the coronavirus pandemic?
That’s not the big, bad Chiefs’ fault. The mean ol’ Ravens can’t be blamed for everything.
The Texans are at least partly responsible for their poor start.
Just ask the man with a 52-46 career record and 2-4 mark in the playoffs.
“It’s the question that we have to answer. We’ve got to realize that it’s a long season, but we also have to realize that we have to play a lot better to be in that category,” O’Brien said Monday. “We’ve been in this position before unfortunately. Many times we’ve gotten out of this position, but it’s a different year. We just have to improve in every area. That’s pretty much all I can tell you. … We’re all frustrated. J.J.’s frustrated. Everybody’s frustrated. No one wants to lose.”
The Texans weren’t supposed to beat the Chiefs and Ravens. They also weren’t supposed to be beaten out of the buildings and kicked into garbage time.
If the Texans begin 0-3, it won’t be the Steelers’ fault.
It will be the Texans doing the exact opposite of what they should be doing in this era with Watson as their franchise QB.