It’s up to O’Brien and Osweiler to fix this mess of an offense

It was a worn-down coach desperately searching for something.

It’s the Texans’ $72 million experiment initially failing before our eyes.

Only two NFL quarterbacks have been worse than Brock Osweiler this season. Those other guys already have been benched.

No coach is as conflicted as Bill O’Brien, who already doubled down on himself as the team’s recently promoted playcaller and is now a theoretical quarterback guru lacking an offense and a QB that work.

The second that Brock Osweiler chose the potential of creating history on Kirby Drive over the actual winner of Super Bowl 50, O’Brien became forever linked with Bob McNair’s flashy present to the Texans.

After seven games, three road humiliations by a combined 85-22 thrashing and more depressing proof the Texans never really change, Osweiler and O’Brien are failing each other, their team and the faithful who finally were ready to believe.

A third-year coach who must make it work with his first-year QB sounds more lost than ever since arriving in Houston.

The QB whose career depends on the offensive brilliance of his coach spent Monday night as a cruel four-quarter punch line on national TV.

Osweiler: Last in the league in yards per attempt (5.7), 30th in passer rating (71.9), 29th in completion percentage (58.2) and 28th in yards per game (219).

O’Brien: Boast- and bravado-less Tuesday as the mastermind of the second-worst scoring offense (16.7 average points) in the NFL.

“That’s a tough one. If I knew the answer to that, I would probably be standing here in a better mood,” O’Brien said at NRG Stadium, unable to explain why the Texans’ 2014-15 attacks did so much more with so much less and so many other QBs.

Hating on Osweiler is the new, cool thing in NFL land. I get it. Trust me.

Northwestern product Trevor Siemian was The Answer on the night that the guys who McNair fired publicly whipped the new-era Texans, who were supposed to be so much tougher and stronger.

When a Broncos fan flashed a homemade sign featuring “How Do You Waste 72 Million Dollars?” and arrows pointing to Osweiler’s smiling face, the football scientist had irrefutable statistical proof.

Osweiler is the first quarterback in NFL history to produce three games in a season with 200 or fewer passing yards and at least 40 attempts in each contest. And after requiring three-plus quarters in Denver to hit the magical 64-yard mark, Osweiler ended the evening with 131 garbage-time inflated yards, which only trailed Jesse Palmer’s 110 in 2003 as the fewest on 40 or more attempts.

Hope dims with lights on

Asked if Osweiler can become a premier QB in his offense, O’Brien never specifically said yes, twice referred to the $72 million man as a “good player” and then stuck to simple everyman generalities.

“He prepares hard. He practices hard,” O’Brien said. “He’s out there every day. He’s in here getting treatment. He’s doing everything that he needs to do to try to be the best quarterback he can be.”

This is about more than just Osweiler (or getting treatment). And the questions will soon change if O’Brien can’t find a way to connect with the Texans’ greatest offensive investment since McNair brought the NFL back to this city.

This was unthinkable in August: Would the Texans bench Osweiler during their week off ?

It should be considered if Matthew Stafford conducts an air raid at NRG on Sunday, Osweiler again can’t find DeAndre Hopkins with a NASA telescope and the Texans crash from 3-1 to 4-4.

“No,” was all O’Brien replied, when the thought of demoting Osweiler was brought up.

Ryan Fitzpatrick and Brian Hoyer got the hard hook the last two years. And their Texans’ selves have run physical and mental laps around their on-field replacement.

Not even pick-six Matt Schaub in 2013 touched Osweiler’s desolation in Denver.

“Brock is working very hard to understand our system and how it applies to different defenses,” O’Brien said. “I don’t think it’s easy to just jump right in and quickly be able to apply a brand-new system to what a top-level defense is doing. We all have to do a better job of coaching and teaching it.”

O’Brien also acknowledged this: “We all have to play better when the lights go on.”

Which confirms everything we’ve thought, felt and seen in regards to how unprepared and unacceptable Osweiler has been when an NFL offense finally belongs to him.

He’s polished, suave and pristine behind a podium.

He has mostly been skittish, erratic and overwhelmed in the pocket. The only time he has handled pressure was when Indianapolis collapsed. He didn’t have the right to call out Texans fans after six games and has lost standing every time a Super Bowl contender has appeared.

Pros and cons

I’ll remind you that the Texans are 4-3, still control first place in their division and would host a second consecutive playoff game if the season ended now.

But we all know that 2016 is about much more than that. And 27-9 Denver, 31-13 Minnesota and 27-0 New England is another way of saying 30-0 Kansas City — but with a risky $72 million pricetag attached to the embarrassment and pain.

I’ll also point out that having one of the worst quarterbacks in the NFL is how we got into this predicament in the first place.

As McNair reminded us in July, Rick Smith isn’t going anywhere.

It’s on O’Brien and Osweiler — together, united, a duo — to fix the offensive mess they’ve created.