Houston Texans: 0-2 start not a death sentence but brings a sense of urgency
Three factors that led to the loss against Tennessee.
Factor #1
Watson has yet to find himself from 2017 before the ACL injury. He started off poorly, which was what he did against the Patriots last year. I thought Watson was nearing that point when he led us back from 14-0 down to take the lead. But then, with the game on the line, Watson makes a dumb rookie mistake. With 17 seconds left and no timeouts, you cannot hang on to the ball that long and then decide to throw it to Hopkins over the middle.
Perhaps teams have suddenly started to figure him out and how he’s been playing. Maybe it’s the fact he hasn’t fully recovered yet. Maybe it’s the beginning of the sophomore jinx. I don’t know. But that loss was on Watson because he has potential to be an elite quarterback. Yet, he has yet to have a game-winning drive succeed. He’s not ready to reach that next step. In time, he will be. But for the Texans to turn things around, you have to make better decisions in the clutch.
Factor #2
Penalties! Stupid penalties always seem to kill the Houston Texans. It doesn’t matter what they do. The Texans always seem to be one of the most penalized teams. It feels like every game sees the team getting penalized more than the opposition and I feel that’s why games are lost.
Today the team had a lot of penalties, including one that I felt was the difference. It came from Jadeveon Clowney, who, mind you, wasn’t even suiting up because of an injury. Guess what? He taunts a Titans player after they make a play and costs the team15 bleeping yards. That led them to tie the game on a field goal.
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This team needs to clean up their act on penalties because potential big plays are being wiped out. If the Texans truly want to be a good team and make a step in the right direction, then they have got to play like they deserve to be a team heading in the right direction.
Factor #3
I could care less about what contract extension Bill O’Brien got, he is in the hot seat this season. You have to do a better job of turning this team around after starting the season 0-2. Granted by some miracle, you pulled it off in 2015. But now, you need to really get the situation fixed or else, you could be fired.
One thing that troubles me about having O’Brien as a coach is what the dynamic of the team will be like. On one hand, this team can still find a way to get the job done even when he’s the head coach. We’ve seen it done in the past when the players can make the plays and the Texans found a way to fight back through adversity in this game even if they lost.
On the other hand, if O’Brien were to be dismissed later on, what would the future of the team be like because who knows what the next coach brings to the table. It’s tough knowing that we have a team that right now is average at best and can only look up. But with O’Brien at the helm, the chances of the Texans making the Super Bowl are pretty much like me running for president of the United States. Not that I have any intentions to run for office, but that shows where we stand.