Real burst of NRG
Offense’s big day doesn’t alter O’Brien’s message
Bill O’Brien wasn’t going to come into the postgame media session singing The Happy Song, that isn’t his nature.
But I was expecting some joy. A sign of a happy life.
The Happy Song was scientifically engineered to make babies happy, and if you know anything about sports media, we are some big babies.
O’Brien knows that we’ve been getting our Texans whine on the past couple weeks. Because it has mostly been at O’Brien’s expense.
The Texans’ head coach
gives us plenty of fodder.
After beating up on him so, and seeing him come into the interview room, disgruntled, disgusted, disheveled after a loss, this was a day we could trade smiles. Enjoy the good times.
With quarterback Deshaun Watson turning in a near-perfect game running through and around, throwing over and past, helpless Falcons defenders, the Texans waxed Atlanta 53-32 to improve to 3-2 on the season.
It was only the second time in franchise history that the Texans scored more than 50 points in a game, yet O’Brien wasn’t nearly as happy as you might expect.
His semi-sullen demeanor led me to ask if perhaps we were missing something that held him back from being joyous.
“No, we’re not missing anything,” O’Brien said. “We’re just trying to get better.
“Our theme is to do everything we can to try to improve every week because we believe — which I think is a fact when borne out — that the league is about improvement. Like, who can improve the fastest?
“It’s only the beginning of October. So, that was a good win. I’m not taking anything away from that. That’s a good football team we beat. We played well.
“We’ve got another game next week.”
Ah, there we go. The method to his looking like he’s madness.
Let me interpret the coachspeak for you. O’Brien is sending the message to his team that if you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse.
These Texans are talented enough to make some playoff noise. But they’re not good enough to overcome lackluster play and mental mistakes, by players or coaches.
Usually football coaches tell their players to celebrate a victory overnight, then begin to focus on the next opponent.
O’Brien didn’t seem interested in wasting any time relishing Sunday’s victory over Atlanta. At midnight Sunday, he wasn’t planning on being anywhere near a train to or from Georgia.
O’Brien might as well have walked into the press room bopping to Fats Domino’s smooth baritone, because he was on his way to Kansas City … Kansas City, here he comes.
Next up for Houston are the Chiefs (who took their first loss, 19-13, Sunday night against the Colts) at Arrowhead Stadium. It will take another outstanding offensive performance from the Texans to keep up with the highest scoring team in the league.
Patrick Mahomes against a Texans defense that can be feisty and feasted on gives O’Brien plenty to worry about.
One of his strengths as a coach is reading the room of his players. More often than not, he sets the proper tone. He is trying to avoid another repeat.
The Texans felt good about themselves in a loss to the Saints in the season opener. Their response the next week was a less-than-inspired performance at home against Jacksonville.
The Texans felt really good about themselves after they beat the Chargers in Los Angeles. But their ensuing effort resulted in a dreadful 16-10 loss at home to the Panthers.
That wore on O’Brien, who pushed all the wrong buttons as his team was saddled with an inexplicable loss.
Much-criticized as a play caller, O’Brien dialed up a game plan that kept the Falcons off balance. While it is easier to operate in a playbook when Watson is so on-point as he was Sunday, the calls still must be made.
It was a stellar day for O’Brien and a Texans’ offense that had been wildly inconsistent this season.
Houston scored on every possession except the first one of the game, and posted the second most yards in franchise history.
Watson completed 28 of 33 passes for a career-best 426 yards, with five touchdowns, no interceptions and a perfect passer rating of 158.3.
“He did an awesome job of managing the offense,” O’Brien said of his young quarterback. “He ran the show.
“Whoever sends the play in, sends the play in. He runs the show out there. He did a good job of really managing the formations and personnel groupings and plays, and he had a great day.”
So did O’Brien. Even if he is not willing to acknowledge it.
Give the man credit, his entire offense was on this week.
I mean, Watson, who had been sacked 18 times this season, wasn’t sacked at all and was hit only once.
Not to mention, there was not a timeout fiasco. That alone should have had O’Brien doing a happy dance. But before leaving NRG he had already left this game behind.
Let’s see if that approach brings about a different performance than the previous couple times the Texans were pleased with their play this season.
As O’Brien said, it’s only five weeks in and they haven’t done anything yet. They got a lot better against Atlanta, yet still have room to grow.