O’Brien no match for Andy Reid, Watson’s future in jeopardy
Updated Monday, September 14, 2020
Their season opener in Kansas City showed the Houston Texans in the process of wasting the second-most valuable player in the NFL. At $160 million Deshaun Watson is more than a poor-man’s Patrick Mahomes. But Watson’s chances of winning a Super Bowl, as Mahomes did last year, now seem far-fetched, very far into the future.
The Chiefs whacked the Texans 34-20, Thursday night. The great dual quarterbacks dueled fairly evenly, but the difference in supporting casts was vast. As was the difference in the coaching of Andy Reid vs. Bill O’Brien.
Reid stalked the sidelines behind his shield of a facemask that looked like something retrieved from a Star Wars set. O’Brien stood befuddled, seemingly not knowing what to do now that Tim Kelly call plays. The problem is there are only two playmakers, Watson the Besieged and David Johnson, all-purpose running back hoping to quiet the shouting that he’s worth only a fraction of his $13 million salary.
Johnson’s impressive Texans debut – 11 rushes, 77 yards, 1 touchdown – summoned comparisons to Le’Veon Bell when Le’Veon Bell was Le’Veon Bell. Before he met Adam Gase.
But discussion of Johnson’s shifty, crafty running also leads inevitably to DeAndre Hopkins, the weapon of mass destruction that O’Brien traded to acquire Johnson. In his Arizona inaugural he caught 14 passes for 151 yards in a 24-20 upset of San Francisco, which last year had the NFL’s strongest pass defense.
Hopkins has as much claim as any to being football’s best receiver. His absence was clearly felt Thursday night. The Texans could not catch a ball downfield. I could not expunge from my mind a recent Hopkins tweet: “Words can’t describe the feeling I have about being with an organization that’s on the up and up.”
He felt betrayed by O’Brien, the coach/general manager who opposes paying market value for top players not named Watson or Watt. Hopkins signed an extension with the Arizona Cardinals for two years and $54 million not long after the Texans lost the rock of their defense, nose tackle D.J. Reader, to the Cincinnati Bengals of all people for 4 years and $53 million tab.
“Bill O’Brien the GM is killing Bill O’Brien the coach,” said Rex Ryan, ex-coach who’s now an ESPN analyst.
With no Reader, the Texans couldn’t stop the inside power of rookie Clyde Edwards-Helaire, who’s a mere 5-8, 205 pounds. He rushed for 138 yards on 25 attempts. The Chiefs, known for pass obsession, ran 34 times and threw 32.
Rob Ninkovich, former New England Patriots defensive end, said on ESPN: “I saw a Texans defense that doesn’t know how to stop the run. That’s the cause and effect of not having training camp, not playing any preseason games.”
It’s also cause and effect of coaching. In these dire circumstances, Reid, Bill Belichick, John Harbaugh, Sean Payton, Mike Tomlin and Pete Carroll know how to adjust. O’Brien? I have doubts.
O’Brien has won four division titles in five years, but his overbearing personality causes many to join in D-Hop’s shade, believing he’s not a coach you can trust for one reason or other. It’s not that he’s tone-deaf or insensitive. He stood in a long line on a blistering day in Houston to attend the George Floyd funeral. But so often he’s outcoached. He’s slightly better than NFL average, but that’s all. Does Watson deserve more?
About all you can say for the Texans’ opening performance is that David Johnson played well and nobody died. Which should not be taken for granted in these pandemic, shoot-em-up, burn-it-down times. As players were about to arrive at Arrowhead on Thursday afternoon, a man with multiple firearms was shooting – luckily without effect — at workers in the parking lot.
Kelly was perhaps too aware of the inadequacy of right-side pass protection by Tytus Howard and Zach Fulton. Watson is one of the sport’s great deep-ballers, but there was little time for his allegedly fast receivers (Will Fuller, Brandin Cooks, Ken Stills) to go deep, and Kelly wouldn’t risk it. Watson was sacked four times.
The Texans couldn’t get together on much of anything, including pregame protocols.
O’Brien said weeks ago that he would kneel with his players as the national anthem plays. But the Texans skirted that issue Thursday by staying in their locker room for “The Star Spangled Banner” and also for what’s become the Black national anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” It was delivered by 15-time Grammy winner Alicia Keys.
The Chiefs stood arm in arm for both anthems, with only one player, Alex Okafor, kneeling. The Texans hid out on the same day that four Houston policemen were fired for fatally shooting a Black man as he stood alone in a street. The Texans did enter the field for a “Moment of Unity,” which elicited booing from more than half of the semi-distanced Arrowhead crowd of 17,000. As I wrote last week, white people are fine with peaceful protest as long as we don’t have to see it or hear it.
J.J. Watt spoke on television and also tweeted: “The booing was unfortunate during that moment. I don’t understand it. There was no flag involved, there was nothing besides two teams coming together to show unity.”
By unity, Watt means civility, people with differences but without rudeness. To a football team, unity is important even if it no longer means much to the United States of America. We should not read too much into the first game of any season, especially one as disrupted as this, but expect unity to be an issue for the Texans as long as O’Brien is coach or GM.
