Houston Texans: Five theories that explain Bill O’Brien’s ineptitude
By David Graf
The Houston Texans have suffered and a lot of the blame falls on the shoulders of Bill O’Brien. Here are five theories that explain his ineptitude. Look.
Houston Texans head coach Bill O’Brien had another mind-boggling performance roaming the sidelines on Sunday. Deshaun Watson was electric, combining for 415 yards and a touchdown. O’Brien’s struggles shined brightest inside the five-yard-line for the Houston Texans offense.
The Houston Texans faced goal-to-go situations from inside the five on three separate drives and managed to score one touchdown. The first time resulted in a touchdown on a neat pitch pass to Keke Coutee:
The other drives forced fans to witness Watson take some BRUTAL hits. It’s impossible to defend the play-calling by O’Brien with a quarterback coming off of a major injury.
The first time on 4th-and-goal with only a handful of seconds left in the first half, saw Watson get rocked by Dallas Cowboys linebacker Jaylon Smith. It also made me wonder if Watson would be back to play the second half. Here’s a tip O.B. — don’t overthink it and take the points.
O’Brien returned to this play on a 2nd-and-goal in the third quarter and Watson took a big shot running out of bounds from Randy Gregory and Leighton Vander Esch. It was another unimaginative call and the Texans settled for a field goal.
To his credit, O’Brien acknowledged that the hits were vicious to the Houston Chronicle saying:
"“Obviously, those are plays we want to cut down on and we’re going to work hard to do that going forward because we know that’s not a sustainable way to play to be hit that much. We’re going to work on it and try to improve on that.”"
Watson was just trying to make O’Brien look good and make the play. It’s hard to fault him for wanting to leave it all out on the field but I have no problem blaming O’Brien for not calling better plays.
One has to score touchdowns, especially when any given team is inside the five-yard line and it’s only polarized by the fact that he refuses to add an offensive coordinator to his staff.
So, O’Brien, why abuse your best asset and the only reason why you have a job?
Try these five theories on for size:
The easiest theory is that he really wants to tank again in the hopes that a high first-round pick is used on an offensive lineman. This team isn’t going anywhere in the playoffs with that current offensive line.
This past Sunday, he may have just been trying to save
from himself. I’m not
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sure what kind of history the two have personally but there is a kind of brotherhood among head coaches in the NFL. There are only 32 of those jobs to go around at any time and O’Brien’s job seems safe after signing an extension after last season.
A crazy idea is that he wants to switch positions with New England Patriots’ offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels. Is it possible to trade a head coach for an offensive coordinator and they switch roles for their new teams?
I wonder if Gary Kubiak is available to come back to coaching. At least he won a Super Bowl as a head coach.
Do you agree? Feel free to sound off in the comments section below.