Crennel much calmer than O’Brien, but lackluster starts need to be fixed
The Texans’ deterioration under Bill O’Brien goes back to last season when the team developed the habit of falling behind and having to play catchup.
Since the Texans won at Tampa Bay to increase their record to 10-5, they’ve trailed by double digits in seven consecutive games, including two in the playoffs: 14, 16, 10, 24, 17, 11 and 14 points.
The Texans are 1-6 in those games, including four consecutive losses this season that caused owner Cal McNair to fire O’Brien as coach and general manager and replace him with Romeo Crennel as interim coach.
It will be intriguing to see if Crennel’s coaching style can snap his players out of the lethargy they’ve shown on both sides of the ball.
Crennel, 73, is at the opposite end of the personality spectrum from the explosive O’Brien, who blew a gasket on a regular basis. Crennel is the grandfatherly type who’ll chew
out players when he believes it’s necessary, and he commands respect in the locker room.
Whether Crennel canmake a difference on the field remains to be seen.
Working with offensive coordinator Tim Kelly, perhaps Crennel’s influence will have a calming effect on the offense, relieve some pressure on quarterback Deshaun Watson and his teammates and allow them to be more industrious and consistent — something they weren’t with O’Brien in their first four games.
If the offense continues to stagnate early in the game, getting off to slow starts and being forced to play frombehind, nobody can blame O’Brien for that predicament. It’s a situation the offense has been unable to avoid through four games.
Playing frombehind throws off a game plan and allows the defense to have a better understanding of the offensive strategy. It also puts more pressure on the play caller and quarterback.
The last time the Texans were able to overcome a double-digit deficit and win was last season’s wild card playoff game against Buffalo at NRG Stadium.
The Texans were behind 16-0 in the third quarter when J. J. Watt’s sack, and Deshaun Watson’s 20-yard touchdown run ignited a 22-19 overtime victory.
Since that game, the Texans and Bills have gone in opposite directions. Buffalo is 4-0, leads the AFC East and is trying to dethrone New England as the division champion.
The Texans are 0-4, one of four winless teams and floundering in last place in the AFC South going into Sunday’s game against Jacksonville at NRG Stadium.
That Texans-Bills game was a tale of two teams, one metamorphosizing into a contender for the Super Bowl and the other going down the toilet bowl.
After his sporadic performance against the Texans, Buffalo’s Josh Allen is the most improved quarterback in the NFL this season. Coach Sean McDermott has a smooth operation in which everyone is pulling in the same direction.
Playing for offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, who might become a candidate to replace O’Brien, Allen has 12 touchdown passes, one interception and a 122.7 rating. He also has three touchdowns rushing.
Watson has six touchdown passes — four in the last two games. He’s thrown three interceptions and has a 98.2 rating. He’s rushed for one touchdown. Unfortunately for Watson, he’s also been sacked 16 times.
Now that Kelly is calling plays again, maybe he’ll be more creative early than he was in the first three games before O’Brien took over against Minnesota.
Without O’Brien looming large over the game plan and play calling, Kelly will havemore freedom. Maybe he’ll be able to make a difference in an offense that has struggled.
Despite having Watson, one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks, scoring touchdowns has been an issue with the Texans for the last two seasons. The offense has failed to score 30 points in 16 consecutive games. The Texans scored 31 points in the Kansas City playoff loss, but special teams contributed a touchdown.
In 2019, the Texans’ offense scored as many as 30 points two times in victories over Atlanta (53-32) and Kansas City (31-24). That’s twice in 22 games, including playoffs and this season.
By comparison, the Bills have scored at least 30 points in three of their four games and average 30.7 points.
Something’s got to be done over the last 12 games to kickstart an offense that should be so much more productive because Watson is so talented and has weapons at wide receiver and tight end. It’s preposterous the Texans are averaging only 20 points a game.
A best-case scenario for the Texans would be to duplicate what the 2008 team did. They started 0-4 that season and finished 8-8 in Gary Kubiak’s third season as coach. That would be quite an accomplishment this season considering O’Brien was fired, leaving Crennel to pick up the pieces of a shattered first quarter of the season.