Tag: bill o’brien

Where does the Texans’ offense go after another prime-time failure?

The Houston Texans offense sputtered in the season-opening loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. Where do they go from here?

After months of speculation, the NFL season kicked off on Thursday night with the Kansas City Chiefs raising a banner, or maybe a billboard, and then taking on the Houston Texans. Starved for football, NFL fans took to the public square that is Twitter and were quick to over-react to every single play.

Football was indeed back.

Early on, a take that many had was that Bill O’Brien fooled us all when he traded away DeAndre Hopkins and got running back David Johnson in return. Johnson was jump-cutting into the endzone, the Texans were on the board, and O’Brien was in the running for NFL Executive of the Year.

Then, the Texans ran out of their scripted plays, and the wheels came off. By the end of the night, social media had moved from praising O’Brien, to wondering how in the world he can fix this offense.

As with many situations, it begins with the guys up front. During his time in the league, protecting Deshaun Watson has been a struggle for the Houston offense. Pro Football Focus charted the quarterback with 227 pressured dropbacks last year – seventh in the league – and he was sacked 44 times, sixth-most in the NFL. Believe it or not, that was actually an improvement from his 2018 season, when he was pressured 281 times – most in the NFL – and sacked 61 times, again a league-high.

Watson was pressured often on Thursday night, getting sacked four times and hit seven. Even when he managed to get throws off, he seemed to be under duress more often than not. Now, pressure is often a function of the quarterback himself, either in terms of being slow with reads or failing to get the ball out on time, but then you see moments like this from right tackle Tytus Howard:

Watson simply does not have a chance here, as Frank Clark is in his lap just as he finishes his drop.

There there is this example from the Houston tackles, where again the footwork is something to note:

It also showed up when Watson was intercepted early in the fourth quarter, when Tyrann Mathieu was able to beat tight end Darren Fells and get to the quarterback, impacting the throw:

So protecting their quarterback is an issue, still. But another loomed large as the game wore on.

They miss Hopkins.

Sure, in time a receiver might emerge that can win in contested situations, and that Watson trusts enough to challenge coverage with downfield, but on Thursday night, that element of Houston’s offense was sorely missing.

That also meant that the Chiefs and defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo were able to drop into some two-high coverage schemes, avoid having to bracket or even double a receiver, and force Watson to challenge windows of their choosing. Take this 3rd down play from late in the first half, with the Texans on the move. The Chiefs show pressure at the snap, even dropping Mathieu down in the box, but then drop him into a Cover 2 look. Watson tries to feather in the vertical route along the right sideline, but both the corner and Mathieu are able to constrict the window, and the pass falls incomplete:

Let’s revisit that earlier pressure on Watson from Clark. This comes on a 3rd and 7 in the second half. Again, you’ll see how the Chiefs are able to play this with two high safeties, without the need to bracket or double any of the receivers:

Here is another example of this, from the first half. On this 3rd and 10 play, the Chiefs again can play with two deep safeties. Watson is pressured – a common occurrence on Thursday night – but even if he had time there was nowhere to go with the football. Routes were covered along with dedicated safety help to both sides of the field.

When they had Hopkins in the fold, there would be situations like this where the defense would be forced to put a second defender either in a bracket or a cone on Hopkins, or to outright double-team him. Now, without a threat like that, the Texans are going to face these types of coverages. Dedicated safety help on both sides of the field, with narrow throwing windows as a result.

When you combine that with the pressure the Chiefs were able to generate on Watson, that is a recipe for disaster.

Now, there are two fixes for this. First, they need to protect their quarterback. Last year, one way the Texans were able to do this was by going with empty formations, spreading out the defense, and giving Watson some quick reads and throws to get the ball out of his hand. Take this play against the Los Angeles Chargers from last season:

Los Angeles brings pressure here, sending five after Watson and using a mirrored tackle-end stunt. But the Texans still have five in to block, so the QB has time to get the ball out. He looks to the right, where a rub concept frees up Fells on a quick slant.

Here is a similar design against the Carolina Panthers. Houston goes empty again and puts Keke Coutee in a stack slot to the right behind Hopkins. Hopkins releases vertically, while Coutee runs a simple curl route. The vertical release – plus the attention paid to Hopkins – creates space for his teammate on the curl route:

See, however, how Hopkins draws the attention from three defenders initially, freeing up Coutee on the quick curl route. Without that element – a receiver that scares a defense – this might be tough to replicate.

This might not have made a huge difference on Thursday night, however:

So even quick game concepts might have been an issue given how the offensive line played against the Chiefs. So there need to be other elements incorporated.

The other thing they might need to do is to go condensed and heavy. In years past the Houston offense has relied on the Yankee concept, a maximum-protection, two receiver design that pairs a deep post route with a crosser working just underneath it, usually off of play-action. That gives you extra blockers to protect your QB, and a chance to hit on some throws downfield:

While they might not have Hopkins to run this with, you can be effective on this design – while protecting your QB – with the receivers they have in the fold.

So sure, tonight was a rough night for the Houston offense. But Johnson made people believe in the trade for at least a drive or two early, and Watson is still an elite talent. With some tweaks to their offense, and perhaps relying on some of what they’ve run in the past, they can shore up protection and get rolling again.

However, I am contractually obligated to include one more image:

Bill O'Brien Texans
(Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports)

We’re back, baby.