It just means more
Showdown with greatness offers loaded script, cast for Patriots South
Bill O’Brien. Jack Easterby. Cal McNair.
Bill Belichick. Nick Caserio. Robert Kraft.
A loaded script and cast of characters, right?
And that’s without even mentioning Deshaun Watson, Tom Brady, Texans, Patriots and “Sunday Night Football” inside NRG Stadium.
If New England wins again — the Pats just beat the Cowboys, frustrated Jerry Jones and made Jason Garrett appear shakier than ever — it will technically be just another regular-season “W” for the greatest dynasty in pro sports.
If O’Brien finds a way to beat his coaching mentor for the first time in six attempts, the Texans will improve to 8-4, strengthen their command of the AFC South and have won two of three contests during a three-game run that could define their 2019 season.
But Week 13 in Houston will mean even more to the big names that drive the Texans daily. It will also be a little personal for the do-your-job football factory in Foxborough, Mass., even if the Pats won’t publicly admit it.
New England knows what the Texans tried to do last summer.
“In the NFL, there’s only 32 teams. Sometimes you work in an organization where you know a lot of people and you have a respect for their jobs and what they do, and at the end of the day you try to do the best you can to, at times, communicate and maybe you get a chance to work together,” O’Brien said Monday at NRG. “In that instance, it didn’t really work out. Whatever happened, happened. There’s no hard feelings. We have a lot of respect for the Patriots. I have a lot of respect for Bill. I’m very grateful to Bill for the opportunities he gave me, and then
obviously I have a lot of close friends on the staff over there that I worked with. So there’s none of that (hard feelings), not on our end.”
The Texans were unofficially all up in the Patriots’ business not that long ago. After Brian Gaine was fired in June as general manager, McNair’s franchise — which had already pried Easterby from New England — went hard after Caserio. The Patriots objected, the NFL teased an investigation, the Texans backed down and the suspicious Pats dropped their grievance.
“We have now been made aware of certain terms in Nick’s contract with the Patriots,” McNair said in a June statement. “Once we were made aware of these contract terms, I advised Mr. Kraft that we would stop pursuing Nick.”
Now, New England (10-1) is tied with Jimmy Garoppolo’s 49ers for the best record in the NFL, the Texans still don’t have a GM and Houston’s professional football team is still trying to prove to the rest of the league that it can be something more than a division winner.
Caserio, still employed as the Patriots’ director of player personnel, is listed directly below chairman/CEO Robert Kraft and president Jonathan Kraft on the team’s website.
Easterby has been heavily involved in everything Texans since the offseason. When the AFC South leaders fought off Indianapolis 20-17 on national TV on Thursday at NRG, a video of a postgame locker-room speech by O’Brien — “That’s a hell of a win. And what that does is, that sets you up to be in the hunt,” the sixth-year coach told his players — showed Easterby kneeling directly behind the Texans’ unofficial GM.
When O’Brien proudly pointed toward the ceiling, his players instantly started celebrating a few precious off days. Easterby immediately stood up, shouted and strode forward, while Texans stars DeAndre Hopkins and Whitney Mercilus bounced in the middle of the room near the team’s excited executive vice president of team development.
An overhead sign in the background: “Great teams just care more.”
“I don’t really want to get all into that, relative to that word ‘control,’ ” said O’Brien, who’s also directly involved with the Texans’ offense. “We have a very, very unique setup here. Very unique. It’s not like anybody else in the league, and I really don’t want to get into all of that. … But I did learn a lot from Bill, relative to strategy and evaluation and all those different things. Relative to that, it’s just a whole different setup than what they have in New England. Totally different.”
O’Brien consistently praised the six-time Super Bowl champs. The Patriots’ super-stingy defense, which leads the NFL in average points allowed (10.6) and ranks second in average yards (256.4). Brady, Belichick, New England’s unique running game, etc.
O’Brien found an NFL foothold with the Patriots in 2007, then gradually made a professional name for himself. When he took over the Texans in 2014, Patriots South began. Six seasons later, the Texans are run more than ever the Patriots’ way. But like everyone else in the NFL, the Texans are still trying to figure out how to overcome the annual powerhouse that is New England.
“Just think about the continuity that it takes to do that, the grind, the work ethic, the ability to adapt,” said O’Brien, referring to the Patriots’ NFL-record, 17-year streak of winning at least 10 games. “Think about how the
NFL has changed. The NFL … and all different kinds of rules have changed over the years, relative to personnel, to rules on the field — everything has changed.”
National TV cameras will zoom in on Watson, Brady, O’Brien and Belichick.
Easterby’s name will surely be mentioned.
Maybe Caserio joins the Texans after the 2019 season, finalizing a cross-country pursuit that abruptly stalled when the Patriots and NFL stepped in last summer.
With everything that happened five months ago and the weight that Patriots Week always carries, Sunday will mean more than normal for both franchises.
But O’Brien was also right about this part.
The past is the past. This version of Patriots-Texans will be defined between the lines.
“What does that have to do with Sunday night? I’m not sure,” said O’Brien, after praising another New England accomplishment. “We’ve got to go out there and play our game Sunday night and see what happens.”