Houston Texans: Two things fans don’t deserve to ever see again
By Neal Sharma
Thing #1: The worst two minutes I’ve seen since 2014
The two minutes I saw before halftime in both, the Houston Texans at Pittsburgh Steelers’ game in 2014 and last week against the New England Patriots, were eerily similar and pathetic. In the last few years I’ve watched the Texans, Bill O’Brien‘s No. 1 issue, in my opinion, is time management. He always tends to pick the wrong decisions on when to go for 4th downs, when to call timeouts, or what plays to call in the two-minute drill.
And if you thought that O’Brien had that problem fixed by now, you best get your head checked my friend.
The Houston Texans had the ball midfield down with two minutes left in the half and the outlook was looking solid for the team to make a strike before the end of the half. The Houston Texans had a strong shot to score some points, cut down a lead, take away a large chunk of the clock and try their best to contain Brady with whatever time is left.
Welp, that went south.
The Houston Texans suddenly forgot how to play the game of football. The offense suddenly found themselves in a precarious 2nd and 23 scenario with less than 120 ticks left.
Hmmm let’s think. It’s 2nd and 23 against the Patriots under two minutes. If they screw up on this play, it will be unlikely that they get a first down on third down, then we will be forced to punt and give Brady plenty of time to score when the half is about to end.
Must Read. Texans: Why now is not the time to panic. light
What I wanted — let’s throw the dang ball and try to get as close as possible to moving the sticks.
What the Houston Texans did — let’s do reverse psychology on Bill Belichick in a detrimental situation and run the ball.
What actually happened — the Houston Texans waste second down, get a few yards on third but definitely not enough, then punt the ball to Brady.
Great work buddy.
The Patriots get the ball and performs the following in chronological order:
Eight-yard run by Hill
11-yard run by Hill
28-yard pass that was “caught” by Rob Gronkowski
One-yard run
Incomplete
14-yard pass caught by Phillip Dorsett
TOUCHDOWN Patriots.
Total amount of time used: One minute, 14 seconds
I could argue that 30 seconds is enough for Brady to score a touchdown, let alone more than a minute before halftime. The reason Brady got the ball was not because of great defense by the Patriots, it was because of the horrible play-calling by O’Brien, the so-called offensive guru.
And this wasn’t the only time play calling was horrible. It was shown throughout the game by the Houston Texans. They were trying to recreate success that they had last year against the Patriots on offense with reverses, fakes and counters.
The Patriots knew it and they shut them down completely.
The Texans never bothered to change their game plan which was detrimental to their goal of winning the damn football game. Thus their offense never showed a turning point. Sure there were a few solid drives but there wasn’t a single drive that made me say, “there’s the Deshaun Watson-led offense I’ve been waiting to see all year.”
And all of this wasn’t what truly pissed me off. It was this so let’s take a look.