GR IT GETS YOU ONLY SO FAR
If O’Brien is to take Texans beyond this point, the offense, particularly at quarterback, must be seriously upgraded
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — They always end up in the same exact place.
No quarterback. An offense that can’t make a dent. Falling apart while the NFL’s best are still breathing.
The 2016 Texans died Saturday night. And they ended just like Bill O’Brien’s previous two teams.
Wanted: QB. Points: Not nearly enough.
These Texans had O’Brien’s trademark grit and fight. They possessed more heart than 99.9 percent of the country expected. They hung tight, dug in and even stunned Gillette Stadium silent.
Then another barely better-than-average season stopped where it always does: Short of the real thing.
The Texans weren’t good enough and didn’t have enough. Their year is officially over just when the real battle is beginning.
It was 34-16 New England in an AFC divisional-round matchup that started with O’Brien’s team returning to the land of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick as one of the biggest postseason underdogs since we started counting Super Bowls.
It was a weird, messy, freezing night that could have become crazy if the Texans had a real quarterback and an offense to match.
They didn’t for the third consecutive year under O’Brien. And now they’re done.
“We have to play better offensively in order for us to get to where we need to be in this league with the defense that we have. And so I put that on me,” said O’Brien, who fell to 1-2 in the postseason and has lost the two games by a combined 64-16. Bright spots before the doom
Brady was picked off before Brock Osweiler and threw two interceptions unworthy of the NFL’s greatest-ever QB. With 14 minutes to go, O’Brien’s team was within a touchdown drive and literally had a realistic shot to shock the football world. There was a 98-yard New England kickoff return TD, three Nick Novak field goals and a surreal moment in time when the Texans had held the ball for 16:02 and the Patriots had only touched it for 3:09.
In so many ways, it was the toughest and strongest playoff game Bob McNair’s franchise has played after 15 years devoted to a mostly frustrating existence.
“This team did a great job playing against us,” said Brady, who was just 18of-38 passing but threw for 287 yards and two TDs. “They had some good scheme stuff that worked. They have good rushers and they had some good guys in cov- erage, so they had a pretty good scheme.”
And the Texans still lost by 18 points and were out of it in the meaningless final minutes.
The $72 million man was picked off again at the worst possible time and for the third time when the show was already over. Brady and Belichick did what they always do. The 2016 Texans? They just fell away, with three quarters of “Are they really going to do this?” dissolving into what it always has become.
No answer at the most important position in pro sports since Matt Schaub fell apart. An “offense” that again didn’t have its defense’s back. An AFC South winner that was dragged back to reality.
“It starts with me,” O’Brien said. “I don’t point fingers. I look in the mirror. I look right square in the mirror and I figure out what I can do better, and I’m already thinking about that right now. You can’t have the offense where it’s at in this league and expect to win a championship.”
The Texans have never been to the AFC title game. They’ve never seen a glimpse of the Super Bowl. And when SB LI is held in their hometown in three weeks, they could be forced to rewatch the team that gradually exposed their holes and ultimately tore them apart Saturday night.
Osweiler started safe and short. He finished 23-of-40 for 198 yards, one touchdown, three second-half picks and a measly 47.7 rating. He scowled and pouted alone on the sideline when the last bit of hope faded away.
“That frustration was just a culmination of everything that’s taken place,” Osweiler said. The Answer leads to more questions
When the Texans truly needed their biggest-ever investment at the position that has failed them over and over since Schaub collapsed, the man they invested so much in in March was a mid-January dud.
Osweiler wasn’t Brian Hoyer cracking under the big lights in 30-0 Chiefs. But he was a world removed from The Answer the Texans desperately chose 10 months ago.
“It’s very disappointing. … You need to capitalize on great opportunities against a football team like this,” said Osweiler, who for some reason spent his post-loss news conference focusing on the positives in a game that ended the Texans’ season.
O’Brien spent Saturday morning finally insisting he really wants to keep his home in Houston. He still wants to be a Texan. He’s willing to make it work with Rick Smith, McNair’s over-protected general manager, for at least one more year.
“I’ll be back next season,” O’Brien said. “I’ll be the Texans’ head coach.”
When the needless drama ended, the real show began.
Down 14-3 after Dion Lewis torched the Texans the first time, theteam answered by forcing back-to-back Patriots turnovers. Osweiler initially did just enough and O’Brien’s Texans were within 14-13 with two minutes left in the first half.
In a game no one outside the locker room thought the Texans had a shot in, O’Brien’s squad punched back and didn’t relent.
Then Osweiler started giving the ball away again. Then the offense ended the Texans’ season.
“You’re not going to beat the Patriots scoring 16 points,” said O’Brien, in one of the truest statements he has ever made.
Grit allows you to hang for three quarters. Maybe even make the Patriots sweat. But it will take a true quarterback for the Texans to see the Super Bowl.