Houston Texans: Coaching change necessary to win big?

The Houston Texans might be the best team in the AFC South, yet something is holding them back. Is Bill O’Brien keeping Houston from winning big? Will a coaching change fix things?

Is Bill O’Brien ruining the Houston Texans‘ season from within? It is very possible that Houston is the best team in the AFC South and one of the four best teams in the conference. However, it sits at just 3-4, good for third place in their bunched-up division. The Texans, with all of their talent, trail both Tennessee and Jacksonville, and O’Brien may be responsible.

Is a coaching change necessary for the Houston Texans to win big? Has O’Brien done enough to keep his job? Houston must decide before the 2017 season slips away.

Two brothers from New York, Dan Salem and Todd Salem, debate the Houston Texans in today’s NFL Sports Debate.

Todd Salem:

Forget that O’Brien started the season with Tom Savage at quarterback. It didn’t take him even one game to hand the offense over to rookie Deshaun Watson. Since that Week 1 loss, Houston somehow has the best offense in the sport and just a 3-3 record. This team scored 33 at New England and lost on the final drive. It scored 34 against Kansas City. This past week, it put up 38 at Seattle and lost on a final drive yet again.

Other than O’Brien getting too conservative or cute late in games, I can’t point to anything specifically he is doing wrong. It is hard to get his defense going when the team’s best player, J.J. Watt, is out for the season, though it was quite a poor showing by the unit on that final Seattle drive that lost the game. Call a timeout Bill! Do something; the guys were getting diced to pieces.

It is simply hard to consistently win shootouts. That isn’t a reliable game plan when one play could leave your team on the wrong side each week. So is this a case of O’Brien letting his roster down, or is this just a small sample of debilitating losses that have gone against the Texans? I lean toward the former, though don’t feel good about it. Houston does have at least five more ‘gimme’ wins left on their schedule, meaning 10 or 11 wins are easily within reach. But the same can be said of both the Titans and Jaguars. This division is surprisingly doing Houston no favors whatsoever.

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After the Seattle loss, O’Brien took responsibility for coming up short in his post-game presser. That is standard coach speak, but he may be right. Since Week 1, the Texans are averaging 34.6 points per game. Before getting shredded by the Seahawks, the Houston defense was also really good once adjusting for strength of opponent. The only nebulous portion of the organization’s performance was what impact the coach was having. I feel like it may be a negative one. O’Brien has never won double-digit games during his Texans tenure. Evidence is mounting to suggest he doesn’t have what it takes to get over the hump.

Dan Salem:

Do the Houston Texans need a new head coach? The simple answer is yes, because coaching will certainly improve or hurt a team’s win/loss record by at least a game or two every season. Bill O’Brien has gotten his Texans to nine wins in the past, but never better. A stronger coach can get you those extra two victories with clock management, play calling, and in-game adjustments. The problem is, there might not be a better coach available for Houston and no change is coming prior to the offseason.

The Texans have won their division in two of the last three seasons, yet finished with a 9-7 record all three years. O’Brien has had a winning record for his entire tenure in Houston, spanning those three aforementioned seasons, yet it feels as though the team has come up short.

To be fair, in O’Brien’s first season the team rebounded from a mere two victories in 2013 to win nine games in 2014. Then in 2015 they won the division and lost in the Wild Card round. The improvement continued last season as they won the division and advanced to the divisional round of the playoffs. So technically Houston has gotten better every season that O’Brien has been their coach.

The flip-side is rather obvious. Houston has an incredible offense now that Watson is under center. The Texans simply need to hold their lead this season, yet have failed to do so. As a fan of the New York Jets, I’m all too familiar with blown leads in 2017. New York’s quarterback has failed to execute, yet the offensive play calling has also hurt my Jets in the fourth quarter. This is the case in Houston.

With Watson, the Texans are the best team in the AFC South, yet the little things have cost them games. Only a few coaches do ALL of the little things right. They are the elite. O’Brien is not an elite head coach, but he is a good one. I’d keep him around for another season or two.

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The big picture of O’Brien’s coaching career in Houston indicates that he will get better. His teams have improved every year, without a proven starting quarterback until now. His teams have won with defense in the past, but the Texans are now winning with offense. Imagine if Houston puts both of those things together. This is O’Brien’s team through and through. He’s shaped it from a mess in 2013 to the perennial winner of the AFC South division. Let him keep coaching this team until the improvement stops, if it ever does.