MENTAL BRAKES
Texans find that stopping costly mistakes isn’t just a matter of snapping their fingers
Don’t think of a big red stop sign.
That didn’t work, did it? Try this: Think of a giant green light.
That’s better.
This is how the brain works, laws of psychology say. This is how one thought is eliminated for another. This is essentially how, through the law of substitution, the Texans can rid themselves of the frequent mental mistakes that have hampered them in six straight losses.
The Texans (1-6) are the third-most penalized team in the NFL. Those 51 yellow hankies doomed offensive drives before they had a chance to begin, killed others that had the potential to score points or bailed out opposing offenses that were about to punt.
Beyond the penalties, the Texans have missed three point-after attempts and two field goals, muffed two punts and dropped seven passes, lapsed on multiple blown coverages and flubbed several defensive alignments.
A team that had little margin for error to begin with has been making critical mistakes it can’t afford to make and a frustrated group of players are soulsearching for effective behavioral change.
Multiple players have said some variation of “we’ve got to move on to the next play” in recent postgame interviews, a cliché that strikes at the root of the issue but doesn’t explain why it’s so hard to move on.
Ross Blacklock, Houston’s second-year defensive tackle, opened up about his own mental hang-ups after last Sunday’s 31-5 loss against the Cardinals, how a missed sack in a previous game haunted him for several plays.
“It was eating me alive,” Blacklock said. “I was forcing to try and get the sack. It would irritate you as a player. Same thing as a quarterback. You miss a wide-open ball. You want to come back to the play eventually. Any position. It’s that one play that might just annoy you because you work so hard at your craft every week. You prepare so hard and when you see it and you just don’t make it, sometimes it’s frustrating finding ways of coping with it and throwing it aside.”
Remember that big red stop sign? It’s the same kind of mental residue that lingers like lead after an eraser’s first stroke. The blemish has the power to dominate all other thoughts and influence subsequent behaviors.
Sean Quinn, a sports psychologist based in California, says a disciplined reinforcement of substituted thoughts can help an athlete move beyond their mistakes. The brain doesn’t think in terms of “don’ts,” Quinn says, so anxious thoughts like “don’t fumble” only fill the mind with thoughts of fumbling and can trigger a fumble.
Quinn often delivers this point to new clients by showing them a TV interview with former Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner, who infamously said 19 days before the 1986 World Series, “The nightmares are that you’re going to let the winning run score on a ground ball through your legs,” a nightmare that manifested in the bottom of the 10th in Game 6 against the Mets.
So, rather than thinking “don’t drop the football,” Quinn has encouraged wide receivers to instead envision the ball in their hands. Rather than a quarterback stressing “don’t throw a pick,” think about hitting a receiver in stride.
“I can change that thought from the big red stop sign to what I want to think about,” said Quinn, who has worked with Texans running back David Johnson. “When I do that, I can get back on track with what I want to do. It creates a sensation of being loose, free and clear, opposed to that tension.”
Texans coach David Culley has sensed that tension with his players. It’s partly why he benched Max Scharping after the right guard committed a holding penalty against the Cardinals. Or why Vernon Hargreaves played cornerback for a series after Terrance Mitchell surrendered a 41yard pass on third-and-23. Or why Eric Murray subbed in for Lonnie Johnson at safety after multiple completions over the middle.
“What happens, I think, is not so much that they overthink, they start to press,” Culley said, “and when they start to press, you know, you kind of get yourself muddied in what’s going on. You can’t go on to the next play after having a bad pla, and I think a guy starts to press when those things start to happen.”
Pressure can be exacerbated by various outside factors. A depth chart riddled with injured starters. A losing streak. A one-year contract nearing its expiration.
All of these factors are beyond any individual’s control — something players will often tell themselves — but Quinn says his clients are often surprised by how much time they actually spend thinking about things they can’t change.
Quinn has an exercise in which the athletes draw two boxes.
In one, they’ll come up with a list of things they can’t control:
Referees.
Bad bounces.
Fans.
Contracts.
In another, they’ll list the things they can:
Effort. Attitude. Preparation. Routines.
“If we can only control so much, why do we put all our focus on the things we can’t control?” Quinn said. “I can’t control that three games ago I fumbled. But what I can control is in the moment what I need to do.”
It’s a more holistic approach.
There was a time when
NFL head coaches used to drill mental mistakes out of their players.
Under Don Shula, the Dolphins committed the league’s fewest penalties from 1976 until 1984, an NFL-record nine straight seasons that former wide receiver Duriel Harris attributed to a notorious portion of practice Shula called “Perfect Plays.”
The Dolphins had to run 16 total plays perfectly. Eight on one hash mark. Eight on the other.
Any mistake committed by any player on any of the eight plays started the drill over.
“We can get this done in 30 minutes,” Shula would say, “or we can get this done in two hours.”
Harris was a rookie in 1976. He still remembers the glares from linemen Larry Little and Bob Kuechenberg. There were perfectplay sessions when Harris waited for the ball to actually hit quarterback Bob Griese’s hands before taking off so he didn’t jump offsides.
“I guess intimidation from them and the demand of excellence from Shula just made you be alert in all senses and you just concentrate,” said Harris, who played for the Dolphins from 1976 until 1983. “If you didn’t do anything else for that whole practice, those 30 minutes you were the most focused you’ve ever been in your life.”
The Dolphins once started the drill over twice.
“Maybe that was the longest,” Harris said. “But a lot of times, we’d go do one hash and you get that done fine and when you get to the second eight, the guys are kind of fatigued from the concentration and somebody’ll make a mistake on number seven and you’ll go all the way back to one. Guys are moaning, cursing and everything, but Shula just wouldn’t have it. He’d make you run those perfect plays and I do believe that’s why we were successful.”
Such practices are archaic, phased out by collective bargaining agreements that placed time limits on practices in the interest of player safety and durability. The 2011 CBA limited teams to 14 padded practices during the regular season, which are limited to three hours plus a walk-through with position coaches that can’t exceed 30 minutes.
“Yeah, if we had it our way, we’d be practicing forever,”
Texans offensive coordinator Tim Kelly said. “But we can’t do anything about the rules. Obviously, the most important thing is having our guys fresh and feeling good and getting their bodies right while still learning the game plan and being able to execute the game plan.”
The Texans will attempt
to sort out their mental mistakes against the Rams (6-1) on Sunday at NRG Stadium. The game will not feature the return of injured starting quarterback Tyrod Taylor as Davis Mills is scheduled to start again.
A handful of players could be traded nearly 48 hours later— joining the departure of running back
Mark Ingram — before the league’s Nov. 2 trade deadline.
But those things are out of their control.
They could focus on executing the perfect play.
Or they could hit a big red stop sign.