Houston Texans: Bill O’Brien is coaching himself into the hot seat

The Houston Texans first two games have not gone as planned. Honestly, a lot of the blame falls on Bill O’Brien‘s shoulders, let’s take a look at how he’s coached himself into the hot seat.

Since Bill O’Brien signed to be the Houston Texans head coach in 2014, he has put the blame of each disappointing play, quarter, game and season of football on his shoulders. Constantly using some iteration of the phrase, “This one is on me, we have to play better but most importantly we have to coach better.”

His acknowledgment of poor coaching or play calling has constantly provided Houston Texans fans with confidence that the coaching, of this consistently underperforming team, would ultimately improve.

Well, it is the beginning of the 2018 season, the Houston Texans are 0-2 and the coaching that has constantly been under scrutiny has not improved. What makes it worse is that O’Brien is supposed to be a quarterback guru, however, Deshaun Watson has not looked horrible but he has not looked like the player that made Tom Brady and Russell Wilson fight until the very last possession of each corresponding game.

Instead, he has started the season off looking timid behind a young offensive line, that has been run blocking well but is unreliable in pass protection. And O’Brien has not made the proper adjustments to work with Watson’s skills and an offensive line that he has to work with.

There is not only that but there are the huge fails on O’Brien’s part that has been broadcasted on national TV. So far this year, it’s happened in both games. Let’s examine.

In the first game of the year against the Patriots, O’Brien made multiple mistakes from going for it on fourth down at the wrong moments to a missed opportunity to call a timeout (Something 90% of coaches around the league would have done) and allow not only for the referees to do their job but for their defense to take a well needed rest.

In the second game, the Texans suffered one of their worst losses ever against a Tenessee Titans team that was missing not only their electric starting QB, Marcus Mariota, but was also missing BOTH starters at offensive tackle!

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During the first quarter, the Houston Texans allowed a touchdown on a special teams trick-play on fourth down. When asked about that play, guess what O’Brien’s response was, “That’s a mistake on my part”.

Now on to the last play of the game, when Watson scrambled out the entire clock and heaved a pass that did not reach the end zone. If you watched that play you would know that a young Watson, who is a star but is still young and in need of guidance, could have handled the play a lot better.

When asked about that play, guess what O’Brien’s response was “I think we have to call a better play, put him in a better situation.” said O’Brien. “I think we have to do a better job of designing that play.”

Well, Bill that is your job! That was said to be one of your specialties! This team is too talented to be 0-2 right now and if this team does not make the playoffs it will be on O’Brien. Because like he constantly preaches, the Texans have been constantly out coached and this is on him.