Bad BO stinks up the place Spoiler Forget, if you can, the $72 million. Ignore the fact the 6-5 Texans are barely clinging to first place. Just look at these numbers through 11 games and tell me what would normally happen in the NFL: 13 interceptions, 12 touchdowns, 72.2 passer rating. A benching. That's what would have happened to Brock Osweiler on Sunday if Bill O'Brien's Texans believed in their backup quarterback a little more. And the bench is where Osweiler would be entering Week 13 if Bob McNair's organization hadn't written shaky No. 17 such a huge check eight months ago. This is where I remind you Osweiler is guaranteed "only" $37 million for two years and there's an early out if this whole franchise QB thing doesn't work. "(Sunday) was personally very disappointing." "I didn't play very good." "I need to play better for us to win." That was Osweiler. Or a skipping record on repeat since Week 1. A drag on the team Osweiler was horrendous in the Texans' most depressing defeat of 2016. It was 21-13 for five-win San Diego. It's another week of endless questions about the one position that continues to drag O'Brien, McNair and these Texans down. Philip Rivers is 34 and in the twilight of his career. He completed 22 of 30 passes for 242 yards, three TDs, one pick, a 116.3 rating, and a surprising victory at Boo City - aka NRG Stadium. He was everything Osweiler (22-of-37, 246 mostly garbage-time yards, three interceptions, zero TDs, 45.6 rating) wasn't during another setback for No. 17. O'Brien disagreed with that. "No, no," said the coach, when asked if Osweiler went backward after a mostly encouraging outing in Mexico City and if the Texans would consider promoting little-seen backup Tom Savage. O'Brien also barely answered the actual questions, instead preferring to point out the obvious: The Texans have a ton of mistakes to correct, and they play at Green Bay next Sunday. Asked if Osweiler is definitely still the Texans' starter, the coach responded with more of the same. "We're going to come in here (Monday), we're going to correct mistakes, and we're going to move on to Green Bay," O'Brien said. Do the Texans play Aaron Rodgers' Packers next week? I have no idea. At least Osweiler was direct and didn't deflect what was staring him in the face. "This is a (darn) good football team. … I let them down (Sunday)," said the fifth-year pro, who has completed just 59.5 percent of his attempts this season and continues to rank at or near the bottom of multiple key passing categories. I'm not convinced about the "(darn) good" part. I do know that for about the 17th time this season - I've lost count, just like I couldn't keep up with how many times the Texans' offense was coldly booed Sunday - Osweiler stressed that he must play better for the Texans to win. We should be past that point heading into December. We're also still waiting for the 300-yard game that has never come. The second it was 21-10 San Diego with 9:52 remaining, there was no hope Osweiler could lead a fourth-quarter comeback and put multiple scores on the board. Think back to the chaos in Mexico City last Monday. The Texans at their 44, facing fourth-and-5 with 3:02 to go. O'Brien opting for a punt instead of keeping the ball in Osweiler's hands and allowing the $72 million man to try to win it. Derek Carr outgunned Osweiler then, erasing three quarters of Texans promise. Sunday was Rivers' turn. The 13-year veteran completed 13 of 16 passes in the first half for 148 yards, two touchdowns and a 14-7 lead. He took what was given, was highly accurate in his decisions and connections, then burned the Texans for a 52-yard floating bomb the moment they dropped their heads. During his backup years in Denver, Osweiler often used his downtime to study starting quarterbacks. Rivers drew his attention and praise. Where's the improvement? "I believe that you always have room to improve and you can always get better by watching others," said Osweiler, who seems to play better when a green laser is directed his way. The Texans obviously can't hit pause on 2016. The Titans are approaching, and Week 17 in Nashville awaits. Indianapolis is only a game out of first, and the Texans are two weeks away from traveling to a place where they've won only once. But in a season when 9-7 isn't supposed to be good enough, the Texans are aiming for barely better than average again, while Osweiler continues to wobble or regress. One of the worst offenses in the NFL hosted one of the league's worst defenses. Osweiler couldn't shoot straight against a man he once studied from afar; the Texans couldn't do anything because of their QB. Almost anywhere else, that gets you benched. With the 2016 Texans, it's hoping the AFC South keeps you afloat and praying for a wild-card game miracle from your overpaid quarterback if you make the playoffs. The Texans would have killed to have Rivers on Sunday. Just like they would have given anything to have Carr in Mexico City. That's how much $72 million has been worth. Game grades Spoiler Quarterback grade: Brock Osweiler, 64.7 Offense shows flashes, but lack of consistency dooms Osweiler and Houston As has been the case several times this year, there were flashes of the quarterback Houston expected Brock Osweiler to be when they signed him to a big free-agent deal this offseason, including a nice deep pass to rookie first-round draft pick Will Fuller down the right sideline, and a key fourth-down scramble. However, the consistency just wasn’t there. For an offense that added a deep threat in Fuller, and has one of the top receivers in the league in DeAndre Hopkins, that throw to Fuller was the lone completion he had on passes traveling 20 yards or further downfield, while he went just three-for-six on throws between 10 and 19 yards. Top offensive grades: WR DeAndre Hopkins, 76.0 TE C.J. Fiedorowicz, 73.7 G Xavier Su’a-Filo, 70.9 WR Will Fuller, 70.7 C Greg Mancz, 69.7 Texans can’t get ground game going Anytime you have a struggling quarterback, being able to rely upon the running game is huge, but it wasn’t something the Texans had at their disposal in this game. They certainly didn’t get away from trying to run the ball until they were forced to throw the ball on every down, but when your top ball-carrier in Lamar Miller averages just 2.9 yards per carry, it has not been a good day. 28 of his 56 yards came after contact, and he forced three missed tackles, too, but the Texans offensive line just failed to create much space. When Miller did get into space, he coughed up the ball for a costly fumble than handed the ball back to the Chargers just when it looked like things were starting to go Houston’s way. Top defensive grades: ED Whitney Mercilus, 85.9 CB A.J. Bouye, 84.7 CB Jonathan Joseph, 84.3 LB Brian Cushing, 83.2 DI D.J. Reader, 79.1 Texans’ edge rushers and cornerbacks play well in loss Despite the loss, the Houston defense featured several good performances, especially in the secondary and on the edges. Edge rusher Whitney Mercilus had a lot of success against San Diego’s offensive tackles on run and pass plays. Cornerback A.J. Bouye continued his breakout season against the Chargers. While he was penalized several times early in the game and even allowed a touchdown in coverage, Bouye also made several tackles close to the line of scrimmage and broke up a pass that led to an interception.
This is not about performance dictating Brock's benching or Savage not showing enough to get a shot. Savage showed enough in preseason. This is about the staff putting all of their hopes in their free agent QB signing and they are now hoping beyond hope that he turns it around. No criticism for him because they don't want to hurt his confidence because they are tied to him for two years. This is job security and professional reputation above team performance. There is no way keeping Brock in is a football decision. Even if Savage was bad in practice he might be better in games. Supposedly Dak is pretty bad in practice. Doesn't matter. A coach trying to win would make a change to see about improving the worst quarterback and one of the worst offenses in the league. This is only about hoping Brock works out, and hoping they don't lose more and more to make them look even worse than they already do.
So are we blaming the refs for this loss as well? I've been saying it all season long, Bill O'Brien is a bad coach and Assweiler is a terrible qb. Kool-aid drinkers celebrated the fools gold wins against inferior opponents and excused away losing to legit contenders "we don't play well in prime time", "those losses were on the road", "he's made improvements, going off starts he's actually still a rookie", "if it wasn't for those meddling refs we would've beaten those pesky Raiders". Look at the **** you ppl have been telling yourselves to sleep at night.You all put your hopes on the back of one guy and hoped the defense would carry this team yet again despite the glaring issues on offense last season, isn't this mother****er a qb Guru, wtf is up with that? This team sucks, our beat writers lie to us and our radio personalities are soft as wet cottonelle. We have poor functional ownership, poor front office scout knowledge and poor coaching, bunch of rah rah nonsense and recycled New England sound bites, this franchise is a joke. If they're going to suck anyway what was the point of letting Andre go? And for the rest of you that still don't know what ineptitude looks like Brock Assweiler makes 18 mil this season, Derek Carr makes $750,000 , Jimmy Garopppolo makes $690,000, Dak Prescott makes $545,000.
i have more faith in O'Brien being able to turn things around if he's given more control of the FO or a competent GM is brought in then anyone else in this franchise. From ownership on down this regime has shown us 15 years of ineptitude based mostly on nepotism. IMO O'Brien didn't forget how to coach, he's simply been given next to nothing in the FO to produce a consistent winner, particularly the total lack of a QB. I'm not absolving him for his mistakes because he surely isn't without fault, but no coach should expect to win at any sustainable clip with Ryan Fitzpatrick as his best QB option in 3 years. Imagine being the coach of a team whose FO passed on a guy like Carr simply because of his last name??? If that isn't being set up for failure I don't know what is.
LMFAO.... the Texans needed a QB, they passed in the second round on the exact need and type of player needed for a POS offensive lineman. If you chose to not compare them, it is wilful ignorance.....
Repped. Glad not everyone is drinking the McNair/Smith Koolade. Look on the bright side, the Texans have the honor of paying Osweiler another 18 million guaranteed next season. Also good to know that the HEAD COACH never even met with Osweiler prior to signing him for $72,000,000 to lead the team.
OBrien was given significant say in personnel. Rick Smith is just the dude who faxes papers. (of course whenever the team starts to suck leaks come out saying he has no say) We need a strong GM who makes the decisions and a coach who focuses on the games.
I'll compare him to other picks, but not to someone that they supposedly didn't have on their board at all - which means there was never any chance to have him on this team. If anything, that's an indictment on the owner of this team. ....if you choose to believe Derek Carr, and the other twitter guys that spew out random "sources" around the time of the draft. Some are smokescreens, some aren't. Carr all but confirmed it a week or two ago when he said they never talked to him. That being said, I'd much rather have Jimmy G than XSF. Though, Jimmy G would probably still be riding the bench by now. Hell, Savage is probably better than XSF, so the question, which will never be answered is, would you rather have Jimmy G and some random fourth round lineman, or would you rather have Savage and XSF? The beauty of the combination of hindsight and sports...
I agree it is an indictment of the owner, he is at the head of this dysfunctional franchise. There is no accountability from the top down in the Texans.... the owner gets pretty close to a free pass from the fans, the GM gets a free pass from the owner and the fans don't even know who the hell is making decisions, the coach is given multiple chances, the QB can be terrible but keeps getting to start because of his contract. The entire organization needs to be overhauled.
You guys do realize that Carr wasn't the 1st QB picked right? Not even the 2nd or 3rd. Everyone thought he was the 3rd or 4th best QB in that draft.
Bob McNair is holding this team back just as much as Rick Smith, Bill O'Brien, or Brock Osweiler. I'll keep watching the games, but as far as emotional investment:
I would give anything to go back to 2014, draft Carr, and come to this forum after the team starts 0-11. Brock sucks, he is the worst QB in the league, but it is really easy to compare him to a red-hot Carr and forget how he started. I am not backing Osweiler anymore, I am done with him. But this hindsight crap is ridiculous. There is no way we would have been patient with Carr to this point in his career.
I remember yelling in excitement when Carr fell. I was saying something like, you're meal ticket just fell into your lap Rick, dont screw it up. He screwed it up.
