Congratulations to the Houston Texans! Thanks to the Cleveland Browns’ win on Thursday night over the New York Jets, an unwanted baton has been passed from Lake Erie down to Space City for the honor of having the most consecutive losses in the NFL.
After Sunday’s 27-22 embarrassing home field loss to the formerly 0-2 New York Giants, the Houston Texans have now lost nine consecutive games dating back to mid-November, 2017. With six straight losses to close out a horrible 4-12 season, the Texans have just made it three in a row to start the 2018 season.
Houston has company at the bottom of the standings as a few other teams are “0-for” after the first three games, but even the rebuilding Buffalo Bills won a game on Sunday.
The Texans’ roster would appear to have the makings of at least a competitive 8-8 squad. Quarterback Deshaun Watson and wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins both played for a championship level team at Clemson and should be one of the best pitch and catch tandems in the NFL after having played together in college.
Defensively, the Texans have the NFL’s 2014 number one overall draft pick in defensive end, Jadaveon Clowney.
The Texans also sport one of the NFL’s most beloved defensive linemen, J.J. Watt. Watt did his job on Sunday and picked up three sacks Sunday against the New York Giants.
From the look in the stands, though, the Texans’ stadium crew will be picking-up thousands of other types of sacks after future home games as the bag heads have migrated their way west down I-10 from the pre-Drew Brees era in New Orleans and into the city of Houston.
Four years ago, the ownership of the Texans settled on a coach (Bill O’Brien) from the Bill Belichick coaching tree in New England. O’Brien came to Houston with a resume filled with Super Bowl success in coaching a quarterback named Tom Brady and a nice job as Penn State’s head coach after the Paterno years.
O’Brien’s NFL head coaching success has been rather unimpressive. After posting three straight 9-7 finishes in years 1-3, his Texans went 4-12 in 2017 and are now 0-3 to start 2018.
Last year’s quandary in Houston involved a lingering power struggle between Bill O’Brien and the former general manager, Rick Smith. Somebody had to go, and Smith was sent packing after the 2017 debacle.
Texans’ ownership even gave O’Brien a four-year contract extension and made it clear that they were placing their bets on him.
Last year, O’Brien’s excuses were about some key injuries. After three straight losses in 2018 with a roster full of healthy star players, maybe the problem in Houston goes deeper than the ex-General Manager’s personnel decisions.
Anyone who has watched Houston’s offense under Bill O’Brien will offer comments like “boring”, “unimaginative”, and that’s being nice. Houston has trouble scoring 20 points on most occasions under O’Brien as the Texans’ defense had been the team’s strength the past several years.
As some writers are now suggesting that Houston give-up hope for the 2018 season after just three games and start trading valuable players, your SwampSwami takes a different tact.
O’Brien reminds me of an NFL version of former LSU head coach, Les Miles. He seems very set in his ways (as many former assistants for Bill Belichick seem to be after they become an NFL head coach). Sometimes the head coach must adapt to utilize the best talents of his players.
Houston seems to have its share of NFL-level talent.
It would seem a shame for the organization to ship some of its most talented players to other NFL teams rather than make a change in coaches.
I still cannot understand why Houston Texans ownership inexplicably gave the current head coach a four-year contract extension after a 4-12 season.
Texans fans should start asking Santa to leave a lump of coal for team owner, Bob McNair, and to put the paper bag machine into overdrive as the nation’s fourth largest city looks like it may need a few million paper bags by Christmas!