San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Culley and staff ‘growing as we go’
HOUSTON — On Saturday mornings, the day before Texans games, the Football Performance Research and Administration department meets with coach David Culley. It’s a spiffy title for a unit made up of three people who research in-game situational football across the league.
Romeo Crennel, a former NFL head coach and longtime defensive coordinator, heads the group with two assistants: Frank Edgerly, a former Patriots scout and Browns assistant wide receiver coach, and Rohit Mogalayapalli, a former Colts scouting assistant who also spent a summer with the Ravens as a performance analyst intern.
Mostly, they operate out of sight.
Only on Sundays might you catch a glimpse of Crennel up in the booth, sitting next to first-year general manager Nick Caserio, both wired into headset communication with Culley on the sideline. Caserio also attends those Saturday morning meetings.
What do they talk about? Show up at the facility. Pull up a chair. There’s the video on the screen, a stream of past scenarios that serve as case studies for what situations could possibly happen to the Texans the following day.
It could be how Chargers coach Brandon Staley aggressively went for it five times in a Week 15 loss to the Chiefs, twice failing on fourth down inside Kansas City’s 5-yard line. It could be how Ravens coach John Harbaugh elected to go for two down 20-19 with 12 seconds left against the Packers
last week, a gamble that crapped out when Tyler Huntley’s pass fell incomplete.
They’ll watch, re-watch and open discussion for the ultimate question.
What would we do?
“Sometimes we agree, and sometimes we disagree on that,” Culley said. “With those guys, it’s all about those analytic numbers. And I get it. I do get it. But in the end, it goes back to my gut feeling on some of that stuff.”
Culley, a 66-year-old first-time NFL head coach, has been clear about his “old school” stance on analytics and game management since training camp when he said, “if I’m not feeling it, we’re not doing it regardless of what that chart says.”
Trends do indicate more
and more head coaches are shifting strategies in favor of analytics that suggest they be more aggressive, and Culley, for his part, adjusted his conservative approach in a loss to the Panthers by going for it (and converting) three fourthdown situations to help gain a 22-9 lead over the Patriots two games later.
But these Saturday morning meetings include more than just fourth down calls and two-point situations. They’re about clock management, too.
Take that 22-9 lead the Texans had against the Patriots. New England stormed back in the second half, and, with the game tied with 1:52 remaining, Culley flubbed a chance to give his offense more time by accepting an illegal shift penalty that negated a Patriots
touchdown. The Texans had no timeouts, so the Patriots drained the clock to 17 seconds, kicked a chipshot field goal, then easily defended a final drive that had a nanoscopic chance of success.
Culley, who said days after the loss he’d have declined the penalty if given a do-over, revealed more about the in-game conversation on Monday. The mistake still irks him. He remembers “like it was yesterday” how the advisement over the headset was “let them score” and “then all of a sudden it didn’t compute to me at that time.”
“From that point on, I’ve learned to be ahead of those things,” Culley said.
Take Houston’s 30-16 win last week in Jacksonville. The Texans led 17-10 with
1:34 left before halftime, and the Jaguars had a fresh set of downs at the Houston 47. The Texans defense kept the Jaguars from converting on four straight plays (including a fourthand-1 QB sneak), and Culley resisted spending any of his three timeouts despite the clock winding down to 21 seconds.
A timeout after the first play might’ve given Houston’s offense more time. A timeout after the second, more time still. But in a one-score game the Texans couldn’t risk giving the Jaguars more time, either. They let Jacksonville fight the clock instead, protected their timeouts and gave their offense ample opportunity to gain 29 yards for Ka’imi Fairbairn to drill a 51yard field goal as time expired to give them a 20-10 lead.
Offensive coordinator Tim Kelly was complimentary of the team’s ability to secure their full allotment of timeouts before the drive. Culley credited the help he receives from Caserio and Crennel in the booth and their game management meetings on Saturday mornings.
“I just feel more comfortable doing those kinds of things,” Culley said, “and we’re growing as we go.”
It’s not common for NFL head coaches to be as candid about their mistakes, much less detail them unprompted. But Culley, who was an assistant coach for 43 years and never a fullfledged coordinator, wasn’t a common hire. A rebuilding franchise, nearing the end of its first year of what Caserio has called a “massive undertaking,” has favored an experienced coaching staff to develop a roster mostly made up of rookies and veterans on one-year deals.
That a general manager would be wearing a headset in the booth isn’t common, either. But Caserio, who held myriad roles in New England’s personnel departments over two decades, told Sports Radio 610 in mid-October that he was in the booth for 18 of those years with the Patriots and that his role in Houston is “more listening than anything else and serving as a conduit if necessary.”
“I just try not to immerse myself or insert myself in situations that’s irresponsible of me to do,” Caserio said.
Culley said Caserio’s ingame input hasn’t yet caught him by surprise. By then, they’ve “talked about those situations” during their Saturday morning meetings and “know when it comes up what’s going to happen.” It’s a weekly ritual, a sounding board made up of veteran coaches, film cut-ups and analytical data that they believe pays off.
“There’s really nothing that’s going to happen in a ballgame that we haven’t seen before or that he hasn’t seen before,” Culley said, “and then we basically decide what’s best for us during that particular situation to do and make those decisions, and that’s been very helpful for me.”