Bill O’Brien coached the Houston Texans through an 0-3 start in 2018 and turned it into an 11-5 finish and an AFC South title.
Like surviving a car wreck, it can be done, but it would be better to find ways to prevent future accidents than repeat history in any fashion.
The Texans seem destined to have a slow start with the Kansas City Chiefs, Baltimore Ravens, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Minnesota Vikings right out of the gate. However, coach and general manager Bill O’Brien knows the best prophylactic for a slow start.
“I think early in the season, I think the team that does the best job with tackling, with penalties, with ball security is going to be the team that has the advantage,” O’Brien told reporters Thursday.
Houston is still in Phase 1 of the offseason program. When the Texans are able to start Phase 2, which still doesn’t permit padded practices, O’Brien believes they will have the opportunity to start working on tackling.
“We have a plan in place, really starting with Phase 2 even without pads, to really start honing in on angle tackling and proper tackling and things like that — as much as we can do,” O’Brien said. “We can’t actually do it, obviously. Leading up to when we have pads on, continuing to work the same drills although they won’t be live, so to speak. We don’t do a lot of live tackling.”
The Texans have been able to work on pre-snap penalties on both sides of the ball, which are penalties O’Brien believes the team can control, unlike a judgement call such as offensive holding or pass interference.
“We’ve worked a lot on operation in all three phases and we’ve got to do a better job than we did last year on that in that phase,” said O’Brien. “Once we get to Phase 2, we’ll begin to work more ball security drills, takeaway drills and things like that. That’s going to be a big part of the early part of the season.”
If the Texans can be one of the teams having already found its legs in September, it should give them a head start while the rest of the league adjusts to pro football in the new normal.
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