I am so proud of my "no" vote in this thread. The moment y'all fire BoB is the moment my entertainment level drops by at least half.
I think r/Texans members are more rational and not overly emotional. This smaller sub forum is like an echo chamber. It’s the same 20-30 fans always complaining about obrien. So it’s no wonder why existing views are reinforced, because It’s the same 20-30 fans reaffirming their opinions.
The biggest reason is that this board has Rockets fans who, right or wrong, believe success doesn't stop at something like 47-35 seasons that lose in the first round. Which is essentially what a successful season for Texans is. With the occasional second round playoff appearance that they had no chance of winning as pinnacle of success. Harden is often criticized on this forum but you know if essentially the equivalent of Harden, the Colts era Peyton Manning who kept getting his ass kicked by the Patriots, were ever on the Texans, he'd be deified and no one would dare speak I'll of his greatness. Yet here people will talk of his defense or too many 3s and all sorts of stuff. In the end different people value different things. This has nothing to do with being rational. Every media and fan outlet outside of Houston thought the Tunsil trade was idiotic but it's considered a great within the Texans community. You cant tell me the entire United States NFL community is emotional but the Texans community is rational here.
BO'B explained the decision on his radio show, and it actually makes sense - both what he was thinking and why he was defensive about it. He thought the offense had an advantage with personnel and he didn't want to call TO and give Jacksonville the chance to substitute and match-up better. That's a very reasonable explanation - not right; not wrong - but reasonable. The "two plays" explanation requires some reading between the lines but if you take the totality of what he's said, it's plainly obvious Watson didn't move with the urgency they wanted and let too much time drain off the clock... that's why he's leaning on "two plays"... Two plays to take advantage of the personnel and Watson dropped the ball (in his mind). Obviously, he's reluctant to throw Watson under the bus so he's instead stumbled and bumbled and tried to belligerently wiggle out of the question and, by extension, looked like a dick and a fool. Seriously, BO'B can be very engaging, very thoughtful - and usually is on his radio show. But the guy is terrible in press conferences. Where's Easterby? He needs to clean that **** up. Anyway... that's the explanation, and, again - had he found a reasonable way to express that... I think people would've been OK with the response because the decision does at least make SOME sense: they called two plays to take advantage of the personnel and Watson didn't execute with the urgency the situation required. Press conference BO'B is head coach BO'B's worst enemy. He's just a disaster at the podium...
I’m familiar with setting up plays etc , so even though I was toungue-in-cheek about it ... I can respect that strategy . Where I still feel the blame falls on BOB is that if the problem was ultimately execution ... then isn’t it his job to have the team prepared for that scenario ? If Watson wasn’t getting up fast enough , why wasn’t BOB screaming in his ear or running up and down the sideline telling them to get a move on ? Also your line of thinking is somewhat flawed , because it’s not like Jacksonville didn’t have timeouts left . If they were in such a bad personnel situation , THEY could have called a timeout . So obviously, the difference was somewhat marginal . In FACT , if bob was thinking along this line ... then Jax could have played us like a fiddle . They can wait till we mozy our way up to the like to burn clock .. THEN call their own TO to sub correctly . Overall it’s not a good situation for BOB . You’re right he needs to explain better , but also at this point he’s made a bunch of questionable time management decisions ... so the simplest and most likely explanation is that he’s not that competent
At first I voted no...now I changed it to abstain to see how this year plays out. I highly doubt O’Brien gets fired no matter what...why?... We hired Jack Easterby him and O’Brien are very close We will hire Caserio as soon as his contract is up. If we didn’t hire Easterby if we didn’t pursue Caserio there might have been a slight chance but now....O’Brien is here to stay.
I also have a feeling and believe once Marrone gets the axe from Jacksonville we will hire Marrone to replace devlin.
Makes ZERO sense unless BoB was only playing for a FG and was afraid of Jacksonville personnel changes preventing that, which if that is the case, he is a coward and playing not to lose. Having enough time to go for a TD trumps trying to prevent the defense from changing personnel. Even if this explanation holds water, which I don't believe it does, then once BoB saw that Watson was burning time, he should have called a timeout.
It makes perfect sense; he was trying to exploit mismatches specifically to score a touchdown. The expectation was obviously that Watson, who had two play calls, would act with greater urgency, and didn't, costing them valuable time. Remember, the headset would not have been active for him to relay a message (HURRY THE F UP!), which is why he's emphasized that they called two plays. They planned it and Watson didn't execute. It is a remarkable sane explanation that BO'B undermines by a) protecting his star QB (smart); b) by being a defensive dick. I would imagine he was hoping Watson would pick up the pace and he didn't want to relinquish what he obviously thought was an advantage. And while I think you're probably right, at what point do you pull that trigger? The clock ran... 20-ish seconds? He was still going to waste time giving Watson the benefit of the doubt. And, again: he could not directly communicate with him through the headset.
Based on the fact he put in two play calls, I'm going to guess the headset was turned off. And he may have been running up and down the sideline - are you sure he wasn't? Yes - Jacksonville could've spoiled it - I never argued it was correct - just reasonable.
If Watson wasn't acting with urgency, then he should have called a timeout. If Watson didn't execute, then he should have called a timeout. There was no reason NOT to call a timeout there. If he couldn't communicate, then he should have called a timeout.
I'm only making the point that the reason they didn't initially call a timeout was sound - not right, not wrong - just sound. The players just didn't execute. Players not executing seems to throw BO'B for a loop; he doesn't adjust well to it. And he struggles to make quick decisions - I think he's probably his own worst enemy. Rather than being decisive, it seems he thinks too much. "If this happens, then that happens, so we need to make sure..... (ball is snapped)" Successful head coaches have an unconscious feel for the game and can process and spit out a decision quickly that is often appropriate, given the situation. I think BO'B over analyzes, panics, and set his team back - there are so many examples of this. He really, and truly needs a common sense coach.
