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    Texans Coach A Gambler

    The Gambler: Bill O'Brien's bold play calls draw mad praise from a New York sports radio legend, defy local critics

    Chris Baldwin
    Sep 25, 2014 | 2:36 pm

    Bill O’Brien is not The Mad Hatter. The Houston Texans coach will never be confused with the zany, out-there Les Miles. O’Brien won’t be munching on any of NRG Stadium’s field turf anytime soon. Or ever.

    But O’Brien is showing he’s a daring play caller in his own right. This first year NFL coach is unafraid to go bold, unconcerned about occasionally stomping on staid, conventional football thinking.

    That became more apparent than ever last Sunday in New Jersey and it’s a promising sign — one that goes far beyond just this season — that shouldn’t be lost in a 30-17 setback.

    If the Texans are going to be a surprise playoff team this year, they need O'Brien to roll the dice — often.

    When O’Brien’s team comes out a little timid and tentative, he coaches even more fearless. He calls a fake punt, goes for it on fourth-and-one on his own side of the 50 just minutes into the second half. O’Brien is not just going to let his Texans sit back in the doldrums and quietly absorb a beating. He’s going to do anything to change the flow of the game.

    This is the clearest sign yet that Texans owner Bob McNair handpicked the right coach. The Houston media has largely missed this, getting caught up in the end result — which is how the bottom line-orientated O’Brien would probably want it — but the Texans players noticed.

    “When coach sees something he thinks we can take advantage of, he’s going to go for it and call it,” the longest-suffering Texan Andre Johnson says when I ask about O’Brien’s bold calls in the visitors locker room at Met Life Stadium. “That’s a coach’s decision.

    “I love it. The fake punt, going for it on fourth down, that’s being aggressive. That shows he has confidence in the team.”

    New York Loves Bill O'Brien

    It’s easy to see how O’Brien is winning over the Texans locker room. How he has personalities as diverse as Arian Foster and J.J. Watt buying in. O’Brien might look like a guy who could be a Wall Street accountant or a car pool dad, but there’s some gambler in him.

    One that’s rooted in analytical football smarts. Study after study has shown that NFL coaches go for it on fourth down far less than the data screams they should. Going for that fourth-and-one from the Texans’ own 46-yard line — in a game they’re trailing 14-0, a game they need to shift the momentum in — is the unquestioned right call.

    “I love it. The fake punt, going for it on fourth down, that’s being aggressive. That shows he has confidence in the team.”

    The fact the Texans don’t end up making it doesn’t change that one iota. You can debate the play called itself — though if O’Brien worries this offensive line can’t plow ahead for one yard the Texans have more trouble than anyone thought — but there’s no way to argue the decision to go for it on fourth down itself.

    Not with anything but tired, old thinking.

    Yet it's cited as a fault by several Houston sports talk radio hosts. Heck, a Texans fan even stopped me at baggage claim to complain about the fourth-and-one. Seriously? Again, it's a no brainer.

    The same goes for that fake punt. Even if it hadn’t been successful, it would have been a great call. With Ryan Fitzpatrick and the Texans offense doing absolutely nothing, O’Brien needed to find some way to change the tenor of the game.

    He did it by turning punter Shane Lechler into a quarterback.

    “Any time you can do something like that, it’s fun,” Lechler says.

    Yes, even year-old future Hall of Famers can be energized by the O’Brien way.

    It’s a style that plays well on the New York sports talk radio airwaves as well. Mike Francesa — the often scolding signature host of Gotham's sports radio giant 660 AM WFAN — has been praising the Texans coach's offensive innovation on air.

    Sometimes playing smart, "situational" football means going bold and doing what the other team doesn't expect.

    "O'Brien's the guy who came up with the Patriots two tight end offense with Gronk (Rob Gronkowski) and (Aaron) Hernandez," Francesa says. "That's his offense.

    "This guy can coach."

    Francesa goes on to say that while he wasn't quite as sure O'Brien would be an NFL coaching star coming out of Penn State as he was Jim Harbaugh would be coming out of Stanford, it wasn't that big of a gap.

    The Texans franchise desperately needed an original thinker, a coach who attacks rather than reacts and they seem to have found him in a Boston guy.

    Now Texans fans can only hope that O'Brien doesn't become less bold with Fitzpatrick at quarterback. The coach chastises himself for having Uncle Fitz throw on a third-and-19 deep in his own territory — a play that results in an interception — after the Giants loss. And several Houston sports radio hosts and columnists have blindly (and dumbly) made the same argument.

    That interception's not on O'Brien though. That's on Fitzpatrick.

    A bad result doesn't necessarily make it a bad play call. The Texans need to be able to go downfield on a third-and-long when the game's not going their way.

    They must forever bury the stigma of throwing eight-yard passes on third-and-10, the type of thing that too often haunted Gary Kubiak's offense.

    If the Texans are going to be a surprise playoff team this year, they need O'Brien to roll the dice — often. Sometimes playing smart, "situational" football means going bold and doing what the other team doesn't expect.

    "I like that coach is willing to try things," Johnson says.

    You don't play the Raiders every week. A straight-forward gameplan isn't always enough. Against the Giants, O'Brien's daring play calls gave his team a chance to stay in a game they had no business still being in after a disastrous start. That's all you can ask from a coach.

    Bill O'Brien is showing he's not afraid to challenge conventional football thinking in his first few games as the Houston Texans' head coach.

    Bill O'Brien Texans Falcons sideline
      
    Photo by Michelle Watson/CatchlightGroup
    Bill O'Brien is showing he's not afraid to challenge conventional football thinking in his first few games as the Houston Texans' head coach.
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    J.J. Watt Dance Master

    J.J. Watt's supporting cast needs to be shown the money now: Keeping Case Keenum at QB key to retaining rightful MVP's help

    Chris Baldwin
    Dec 28, 2014 | 11:52 pm
    J.J. Watt's supporting cast needs to be shown the money now: Keeping Case Keenum at QB key to retaining rightful MVP's help
    Photo by Michelle Watson/CultureMapSnap
    J.J. Watt spent most of the Houston Texans' season-ending win over the Jaguars dancing.

    J.J. Watt breaks into a shimmy, rolling his hips like he never could in that omnipresent Verizon commercial. The most dominant defensive football player of this generation is forever dancing in the Houston Texans last game of the season.

    It's almost like Watt's determined to prove to everyone that he really can dance — while winning the NFL MVP.

    When you're this good, why not multi-task? So Watt breaks into dance after his first sack, after his second sack and after the safety that accounts for his third. He shimmies after nearly every time that "Turn Down For What" — or "Turn Down For Watt" in Texans land — song blares over the NRG Stadium sound system. Which seemingly happens after almost every defensive play on this rollicking Sunday Funday.

    Watt's day ends with those three sacks (making him the first player in NFL history to record two separate 20-sack seasons), a forced fumble, a safety, six tackles and a 23-17 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. It doesn't add up to a playoff berth for Bill O'Brien's great first-year turnaround story, but that should hardly deny Watt his rightful league MVP.

    "I love this team, love this city. I have a lot of friends here. And I almost feel like we're finally here (as a team). It'd be sad to leave."

    MVP voters who won't vote for Watt now because of no playoffs are essentially saying their decision hinged on whether the Baltimore Ravens would choke enough to completely blow a playoff berth. How does that make sense?

    No, Justin James Watt is the 2014 NFL MVP. He earns it by getting the most out of his freakish athletic ability on every single play.

    "I’m trying to make sure they get their money’s worth and our fans get their money’s worth because they deserve that," Watt says. "I was a kid once. I grew up watching a team, I know what it’s like.

    "You want to be that superstar that every average Joe would be if he was a superstar."

    Watt is that worthy $100 Million Superstar, but even a supernova needs some support. And that's why O'Brien's team finds itself at a critical telling point. Watt played at a superhuman level all season. But the Texans truly took off when the rest of the defense caught on, giving defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel the confidence to unleash his full array of disguised coverages and fronts. Over the last month of the season, the Texans arguably played the third best defense in the entire NFL, behind only the defending champion Seahawks and maybe the Rams.

    Now a huge chunk of that defense — six of the 11 starters — are up for free agency and another vital piece (cornerback Johnathan Joseph) could be facing the kind of pay cut scenario that everyone else is trying to force onto Andre Johnson. Watt's great, but he needs many of these guys for the Texans to go anywhere in the future.

    This Texans defense can be great. If its key pieces are kept together.

    "This is something we can look at and build on," safety Kendrick Lewis says after the Texans play lights-out defense for the third straight week. "We have to pick up where we left off. I believe in the defense that we have here, the type of attitude that we have.

    "It is like blood in the water. We want a taste for more."

    Kareem Jackson's Future Keys All

    Cornerback Kareem Jackson is the No. 1 must sign by far, but the Texans would be wise to re-sign Lewis, nose tackle Ryan Pickett (a perfect veteran fit for Crennel's defense) and linebacker Brooks Reed who has been a consistent playmaker for weeks now as well.

    "Of course," Reed responds when asks if he wants to return. "I love this team, love this city. I have a lot of friends here. And I almost feel like we're finally here (as a team). It'd be sad to leave."

    The most disruptive force in football will be one lonely $100 Million Man, if Houston doesn't retain much of this company.

    Desire doesn't necessarily equal reality in the hard-line NFL though. If O'Brien gave Case Keenum a real chance at quarterback, the Texans would have more money to bring back more of their defensive core — and add more important pieces. But it'd be a stretch to expect this coach to think that way.

    It'd be a shame to see this emerging defense disbanded though. Watt & Friends aren't just making Blake Bortles — an offensively challenged rookie who likely would have been the Texans quarterback if Jadeveon Clowney wasn't in the draft — look lost. They flummoxed Andrew Luck and Joe Flacco in back-to-back weeks too.

    "Our defensive kind of changed late in the year," Reed says. "We ran a lot more disguises, made it hard for quarterbacks to see what coverages we were in. It's allowed a bunch of guys to make plays."

    Watt is not the only making them now — the way he was during that 2-14 nightmare last season. Jared Crick — the third-year defensive end who is under his rookie contract for another season — sacks Bortles, drops a running back for another loss and knocks down a pass against Jacksonville. Reed runs sideline to sideline, tracking running backs with his long hair flapping behind his helmet. Jackson . . . well, the once-mocked Jackson just changes everything for these Texans.

    The most disruptive force in football will be one lonely $100 Million Man, if Houston doesn't retain much of this company.

    "I’d definitely love to be back," Jackson says. "At the end of the day, I understand the business side of it. For me, I just have to sit back and just see what happens."

    This Texans defense has come too far to lose key pieces and essentially be left needing to start over learning Crennel's complex schemes in training camp. Watt's the MVP that everything centers around, but he cannot be Bob McNair's only big defensive buy this football year.

    There's a solution staring the Texans in the face: Give Case Keenum the chance to be the effective, low-cost winning starting quarterback. Develop a passer with tons of potential and keep the supporting stars on the other side of the football.

    "We have a chance to be a really explosive defense," Joseph says.

    Only if they're not torn apart. Even a shimmy-happy MVP cannot do it all by his lonesome.

    J.J. Watt spent most of the Houston Texans' season-ending win over the Jaguars dancing.

    J.J. Watt Texans dance Jags
      
    Photo by Michelle Watson/CultureMapSnap
    J.J. Watt spent most of the Houston Texans' season-ending win over the Jaguars dancing.
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    series/htx-texans
    news/sports

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