Houston Texans: The success and failures fall on O’Brien with changes in structure

Despite all the turnover that has occurred through the ownership change, head coach Bill O’Brien’s job remains safe for the Houston Texans.

Whether it should be is a whole different question that needs to be asked in and out of the Houston Texans’ organization. The Texans have accomplished a fair amount of success in the regular season that has allowed them to clinch four out of the six AFC South title to get to the playoffs.

However, their playoff success is another story with Houston struggling time and time again to rise from the group of pretenders and become a contender in the AFC.

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Being winners of the AFC South mean very little when teams in the same division as the Texans advance further in the playoffs since that was the case with the Tennessee Titans, who played as well could be anticipated against the rolling Kansas City Chiefs in the postseason.

Although the same outcome occurred last year when the Indianapolis Colts ousted the Texans in the wild-card round of the playoffs, division championships mean very little when it doesn’t lead to Super Bowl championships.

O’Brien’s success as a head coach has been superficial and, to a certain extent, artificial as it hasn’t translated to when it matters in the postseason.

Certain leniency can be given at the start of his tenure in Houston when he coached Brian Hoyer and Brock Osweiler to the playoffs, but he has had two full seasons with Deshaun Watson to very little success in the postseason.

Losing against the Chiefs is no embarrassing matter due to the potent offense led by Pat Mahomes II. However, blowing a 24 point lead and surrendering seven straight touchdowns should be costing coaches and players their jobs. It turns out it has with Anthony Weaver taking over the reins as the defensive coordinator and the Texans dismissing John Pagano as the outside linebackers coach.

It’s justified that the Texans decided to switch lanes in their coaching with the defense regressing this season. Some can be attributed to poor discipline in missed tackles or unfortunate injuries, but a change wasn’t going to be a surprise.

Although the real question should be why O’Brien isn’t on the hot seat? The Texans have changed general managers, offensive coordinators, defensive coaches, but haven’t attempted to change their head coach.

Ownership has given O’Brien more say in the front office before the season started with Brian Gaine’s departure from his role as general manager and now fired Chris Olsen from his role in the front office.

O’Brien has acquired a lot of power within the organization to show for his limited success as a head coach for the Texans, and if things don’t start to change in the seventh year, it could spell the end of his run in Houston.