New beginning could mean better ending for season hopes
AFC South champs seek to avoid another slow start
The Texans have so much to prove when they kick off against the Chicago Bears at NRG Stadium.
Beginning Sunday, the Texans have to prove they can still be the team that showed heart and guts during their renaissance from a 2-5 start to a 7-2 finish and not the embarrassment that laid a 30-0 egg in the wild-card debacle against Kansas City.
In Bill O’Brien’s third season as coach, the Texans have to prove the promise they showed during their first unbeaten preseason — leading the NFL in scoring, takeaways and defensive touchdowns — wasn’t a fluke but an indication of how they’re going to play this season.
Although they have failed to get national recognition, the high expectations locally show there’s a lot of faith in the team to successfully defend its AFC South crown and not be a laughingstock in the playoffs again. The Texans have a chance to be very good. They have 10 of 11 starters returning to a defense that finished third in the NFL and ranked first over the last nine games.
They have an offense that has under-
gone an amazing transformation with important additions like quarterback Brock Osweiler, running backs Lamar Miller and Tyler Ervin, and wide receivers Will Fuller and Braxton Miller.
If offensive coordinator George Godsey begins the first game with three wide receivers, the Texans will have seven new starters on offense against a Chicago defense that finished 14th, including tied for 22nd against the run.
More speed
No matter what you think about the changes on the offense, there is more speed and athleticism than at any other time in the franchise’s history.
“Every year is different,” O’Brien said. “Even though you may have some of the same players, you have a lot of new players, too, and a lot of different personalities, and your team is different. You have different skill sets at different positions across the board.
“This is a year when I really feel good about the guys on our team. I think we have good guys that really care about each other and care about winning, and they’re going to go out there and compete very hard.”
As O’Brien pointed out, it’s also about coaching and being flexible
to maximize the team’s strengths and minimize its weaknesses.
It’s up to Godsey to figure out how to utilize the new talent on offense brought in by general manager Rick Smith and his personnel department.
And it starts with Osweiler and the most important position on the team.
Osweiler’s impressive performance in the last two preseason games has elevated the excitement level on his side of the ball. Now he has to ramp it up a notch or two against the Bears and subsequent opponents.
Change breeds hope, and with the exception of an offensive line that’s been injury-plagued since the start of training camp, the Texans have fewer question marks entering this season than before
any previous opener.
“There’s definitely some good excitement on our team right now, which is good,” O’Brien said. “I asked some of the rookies, ‘What one thing stood out to you when you walked into the team meeting room this morning?’ and virtually every one of them said, ‘A lot less players.’
“I said that’s why it’s a privilege to play in this league and you have to earn it every day. You can never think that you’ve arrived. That’s the mark of a very good coach and of a very good player — they always have that philosophy of, ‘I have to earn in every day.’ ”
Starting faster
A fast start is paramount to what the Texans want to achieve. They play three of their first four games at home, and they desperately need to start 3-1 before they host Indianapolis in a game sandwiched between road trips to Minnesota and Denver.
Their focus is on the Bears, of course, and there are still some issues to work through — the same issues O’Brien has mentioned since the first preseason game.
One way to avoid being 0-2, 1-4 and 2-5 for a second consecutive season is to start faster in games. Even though the Texans were 4-0 in preseason, O’Brien has harped on this to get and keep his players’ attention on that goal.
“It’s something that we have to concentrate on,” he said. “We can’t make a huge deal about it, but in the end, we all have to do a better job at the beginning of games and at the beginning of the season.”
That’s not the only issue.
“We also have to finish better,” O’Brien said. “I was showing the team some things as far as like end-of-half situations before halftime. Those are critical situations. Endof-game situations, too, obviously.
“We’ve got to be ready to play from the moment we step out of the locker room. We’ve got to be ready to play the game — coaches and players.”