The Houston Texans have went from 0-3 to first place in the AFC South in a span of four weeks and players on the Houston roster credit the coaching staff for making the happen.
If there is any coach in the NFL doing the past couple seasons that knows what the “hot seat” is that would be Houston Texans head coach Bill O’Brien who is in his fifth season with the franchise as the head coach. Earlier the season the Texans started off at 0-3 and the heat was turned up on the coaching staff and O’Brien was feeling the most heat of all.
O’Brien is 35-36 overall as the head coach of the Texans having three winning seasons, all of which were 9-7 seasons with two trips to the playoffs.
After that poor start to the season where everything was questioned and analyzed the Texans’ defense woke up and became a strong asset to the team. They have helped lead the team to four straight wins while the offense has seen their share of struggles, but did have some nice plays this past Sunday.
That said, the offense is starting to look a little better with Lamar Miller rushing for 100 yards against the Jacksonville Jaguars for the first time since the 2016 season, and even more so Deshaun Watson is playing through injuries to help keep the offer afloat during this current winning streak.
One player on the Texans who credits the coaching staff of the team is defensive back Johnathan Joseph who has seen the good and bad times of the Texans since joining the franchise in 2011. Brian T. Smith of the Houston Chronicle tweeted a quote from Joseph about how O’Brien kept the Texans together after the 0-3 start. The tweet said:
Johnathan Joseph on O'Brien keeping #Texans together after 0-3 start: "That’s the sign of a well-coached team. To keep guys focused in a time of chaos – well, at least what people think is chaos. The locker room never splintered. Nobody started pointing fingers."
— Brian T. Smith (@ChronBrianSmith) October 23, 2018
It is good to see the Texans were able to overcome the 0-3 start after the first three games, and that maybe O’Brien and the Texans coaching staff finally are getting on the right track. The offensive play calling by O’Brien still isn’t where it needs to be, but the defense of Romeo Crennel is playing at a high level and should only continue that trend as the season moves forward.
With the Texans now over the .500 mark and with a game on short rest, if the Texans can wrap up October with a fifth straight win that would really turn down the heat on O’Brien in the hot seat. A win on Thursday Night Football would possibly get everyone thinking about the playoffs being a realistic possibility once again and who would have even though that would happen again this season?