Tag: Romeo Crennel

Texans’ Romeo Crennel says ‘take your hat off’ to WR Keke Coutee’s effort against the Patriots

Houston Texans interim coach Romeo Crennel says that one has to respect the way WR Keke Coutee played against the New England Patriots in Week 11.

Houston Texans receiver Keke Coutee has had a rotten 2020 — who hasn’t?

Prior to Sunday’s 27-20 win over the New England Patriots at NRG Stadium, Coutee’s only significant action was in Week 2 against the Baltimore Ravens. The former 2018 fourth-rounder from Texas Tech caught two passes for 11 yards and had a fumble that was returned for a touchdown.

With receiver Randall Cobb injuring his foot in the first quarter against the Patriots, Coutee was inserted into the game, and it didn’t take long for the 5-11, 180-pound slot receiver to find his stride.

“Coutee, I’ll tell you what, you’ve got to take your hat off to the guy because he hasn’t played since Baltimore, but he comes for practice every day,” Crennel said. “He works really hard, and then when he gets the opportunity to go in and play, he shows what his ability is and what he can bring to the team.”

Coutee caught just two passes for 10 yards, but his 6-yard touchdown catch in the second quarter allowed the Texans to build a 21-10 lead over New England, a margin Houston was able to keep padding as the game wore on.

“That’s what I tell all of them, that when you’re not in the game and if you are not there, you need to study, you need to know the game plan because we just don’t know when we’re going to call you up, when you’re going to put you in the game, and when you go into the game you have to perform, and he performed very well,” Crennel said.

Coutee may be called upon to stay in Cobb’s place as the Texans are heading into a short week, and the former Pro Bowler may not be ready for the game. Houston goes on the road to play the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving at Ford Field.

Texans’ Romeo Crennel unsure if LT Laremy Tunsil will be ready for the Lions on Thanksgiving

Houston Texans interim coach Romeo Crennel says that left tackle Laremy Tunsil is still uncertain to play against the Detroit Lions in Week 12.

The Houston Texans still don’t know if they will have their Pro Bowl left tackle when they take on the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving at Ford Field.

After the Texans’ 27-20 win over the New England Patriots Sunday afternoon at NRG Stadium, interim coach Romeo Crennel provided an update on Laremy Tunsil. According to Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle, Crennel stated he was still uncertain about the status of Tunsil for the Week 12 holiday affair.

Tunsil missed the Patriots game with an illness, and did not practice at all during the week. Roderick Johnson played outside at left tackle for Tunsil. Quarterback Deshaun Watson was not sacked once in the win that sent Houston to 3-7 on the season.

Texans vs. Patriots Week 11 live blog: 14-10 Texans, 2nd Q

The Houston Texans take on the New England Patriots in Week 11. Keep up with all of the action here.

The Houston Texans take on the New England Patriots Sunday at 12:00 p.m. at NRG Stadium, where the roof will be open for the first time in six years.

Are you sure you can’t catch the game conventionally? See if FuboTV can help you out.

Check out the inactives. LT Laremy Tunsil it out. Oh, what fun.

If the Texans are able to beat the Patriots, Romeo Crennel will have beaten Bill Belichick for the first time in his career.

First quarter

15:00 — Patriots call heads. It’s heads. They defer.

12:39 — On a third-and-3 from the Houston 47, QB Deshaun Watson has all day in the pocket, eventually evades a pass rusher, has enough room to run, but tries to complete an intermediate route to RB Duke Johnson that falls incomplete.

6:52 — RB Damien Harris rushes for a 9-yard touchdown. Extra point is good. 7-0, Patriots

3:42 — Watson connects with WR Randall Cobb for a 3-yard touchdown. Extra point is good. Trainers are looking at Cobb on the sideline. 7-7

2:13 — S Justin Reid drops RB Rex Burkhead for a 2-yard loss on third-and-10 from the Patriots’ 36.

Second quarter

13:45 — Initially, the Texans picked up a third-and-8 with Watson connecting with WR Will Fuller. However, a holding call against Houston pushed them back to a third-and-18 from their own 29 that they could not convert.

8:33 — K Nick Folk connects on a 44-yard field goal. 10-7, Patriots

3:58 — Watson bulls over S Devin McCourty for a 4-yard touchdown. Extra point is good. 14-10, Texans

3:13 — Newton throws a pass for no gain to RB James White on third-and-7 from New England’s 28-yard line. ILB Tyrell Adams made the open-field tackle.

Texans’ Romeo Crennel has ‘fingers crossed’ punter Bryan Anger can go against the Patriots

Houston Texans interim coach Romeo Crennel hopes that punter Bryan Anger is able to go against the New England Patriots in Week 11.

In the NFL, when a player is injured, it’s next man up.

What do you do when the injured player is your punter?

This is the scenario the Houston Texans will have to face as they gear up for the New England Patriots Sunday at 12:00 p.m. CT at NRG Stadium. Punter Bryan Anger has been limited in practice throughout the week with a right quad injury. Anger is also listed on the injury report as questionable for the Week 11 matchup.

“I’ve got my fingers crossed with Anger,” interim coach Romeo Crennel said Friday.

If Anger is unable to go, the Texans could go with kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn, who was able to execute a fake field goal punt last week against the Cleveland Browns in the 10-7.

“Most kickers can punt some, but whether you want to call them punters or not, I’m not sure,” Crennel said. “I know that he’s punted some balls in practice. But it’s like being a quarterback. A lot of guys can throw in practice, but when you’re back there behind that line with the rush coming, it’s a different deal.”

Should Anger not be able to go for Houston, Texans fans will all be crossing their fingers every time the punt team takes the field.

Texans WR Will Fuller could continue to return more punts

Houston Texans receiver Will Fuller may be used more often to return punts if the situation calls for it, according to interim coach Romeo Crennel.

In the Houston Texans’ 10-7 loss to the Cleveland Browns Sunday afternoon at FirstEnergy Stadium, there was a curious development on the punt returns.

Receiver Will Fuller was back on a punt return and field it for a 13-yard return.

According to interim coach Romeo Crennel, part of the reason to incorporate Fuller on the returns was due to the weather, not anything that normal return, DeAndre Carter, was doing or not doing.

“The decision wasn’t to take Carter out, because he was in the punt return, but we had two punt returners back,” Crennel said. “Carter was the short punt returner and Will was the deep one. The weather had something to do with that. Plus, we have used Fuller in the past to return a punt.

“Sometimes it’s just one or we get a feel for maybe a punter outkicking his coverage and now Will will be able to take it and get started and have a chance to make a big play. We had him deep and Carter short and he was able to field the deeper kick and get it started up the sideline.”

Fuller’s return resulted in Houston setting up first-and-10 at the Cleveland 49-yard line. It was favorable field position the Texans could not use to generate points, as the drive ended in kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn booting a punt from field goal formation.

Crennel indicated they may try Fuller’s hand at punt returner throughout the season.

Said Crennel: “Now, we might continue to do that from time to time. I don’t know if it will be a full-time thing, but we’ve used Will in the past, put him in and let him return one because he can catch it and he has return ability.”

The Texans take on the New England Patriots in Week 11 at NRG Stadium, and it could be another chance for Fuller to get another shot at having the ball in the open field.

Why don’t the Texans go up-tempo all the time since it seems to work?

The Houston Texans offense hums along and scores points when they go into up-tempo. Why not run the offense that way all the time?

The Houston Texans struggled to move the football against the Cleveland Browns Sunday afternoon at FirstEnergy Stadium, which was the key factor in their 10-7 loss.

However, the one drive the Texans actually looked like themselves, even amid the windy conditions on the shores of Lake Erie, Houston moved the ball 90 yards in seven plays, resulting in their lone touchdown of the afternoon. Quarterback Deshaun Watson found tight end Pharaoh Brown for a 16-yard touchdown.

Given that the hurry-up offense on that drive helped Houston pick up chunk plays, why not run the offense at that pace more often?

“Sometimes it does [spark the offense], but if you go up-tempo all the time, the defense kind of gets used to it, gets into a rhythm and gets into an up-tempo rhythm,” interim coach Romeo Crennel explained. “Sometimes, I think we want to know what the defense is going to line up in and kind of have an idea about what they are going to do. Sometimes when you go up-tempo, you don’t have that idea of what they are going to do because they are mulling around and doing stuff that maybe you don’t expect them to do.”

The problem for Houston was they had no run game to balance out their passing attack, or provide another effective gear to their hurry-up offense. The lack of a credible rushing threat has been a problem for the entire season and has been an ingredient to their 2-7 record.

“We slow it down so that everybody can be on the same page about how we want to operate a particular play call,” Crennel said.

While the windy conditions in Cleveland may not have been friendly to playing the hurry-up more often, the climate controlled field inside NRG Stadium is. The Texans go home to host the New England Patriots in Week 11 and ought to consider the effectiveness of an up-tempo offense against a 4-5 club fighting for a wildcard spot or even ultimate first place in the AFC East.

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Texans’ Romeo Crennel explains why he went for it on fourth-and-goal versus the Browns

The Houston Texans eschewed three points for a chance for a touchdown against the Cleveland Browns early in the second quarter, and paid the price.

The Houston Texans endured a frustrating 10-7 loss to the Cleveland Browns Sunday afternoon at FirstEnergy Stadium.

In a game that was akin to a playoff game in the fact elements were instrumental in stifling both offenses, kind of like an all-time 12th defender, points were hard to come by.

It didn’t get any easier for the Texans on fourth-and-goal from the 2-yard line with 12:59 to go in the second quarter down 3-0.

A field goal from kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn, even at that short distance, wasn’t exactly a sure proposition given the nearly 30 mile-per-hour winds. However, three points would have been better than none, especially given that was the ultimate difference in the game.

Interim coach Romeo Crennel believed it was better to go for a touchdown in a game where points would be at a premium that simply tying the Browns.

“On the fourth-and-2, I was trying to get a touchdown,” Crennel said. “I feel that if we get a touchdown in that situation with the weather being what it was, it would help our team quite a bit. We didn’t make it. So, we didn’t get the points on the board.”

The Texans ran a quarterback draw with Deshaun Watson rushing up a congested middle of the line. Defensive end Myles Garrett made the tackle, a loss of two yards and a turnover on downs.

Houston managed to stop the Browns third-and-6 from the Cleveland 17-yard line and get the ball back at the Browns’ 49-yard line. However, they would get no closer than the Browns’ 24-yard line for the rest of the first half.

“So, we go into halftime and it’s 0-3,” said Crennel. “So, now, we got to come out in the second half and do our job in the second half. On the second half, we didn’t take advantage of our position with the weather and didn’t make the plays that we were making in the first half.”

The Texans fell down as far as 10-0 to Cleveland before getting their first points on the board with 5:04 to play in the game. A field goal in that circumstance may have helped them stay tied with Cleveland and find another path to victory in the fourth quarter.

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Report: Texans could name Romeo Crennel full-time coach in 2021

The Houston Texans could stay the course and simply promote Romeo Crennel to full-time coach in 2021.

The Houston Texans were the first team to fire their coach on Oct. 5, and it has given them a head start in identifying potential candidates to succeed Bill O’Brien on the sidelines.

One of those candidates may already be in the building.

According to Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network, the Texans are evaluating interim coach Romeo Crennel for the job, which would make him the fourth full-time coach in franchise history.

While they are still more than a month away from conducting the search to fill their head-coach opening, sources say that one strong possibility is to turn to Romeo Crennel as their full-time coach. It’s currently being debated inside the organization.

Crennel — now the interim coach — is a well-respected, affable, long-time defensive coordinator who has been a head coach in the past. For the Texans, he could serve as a stop-gap coach, allowing the team to get to 2021 with some stability and pushing their true coaching search to the following offseason when COVID-19 restrictions would allow for a traditional in-person search.

No one knows what the country will be like in January, but flying around the country and interviewing several candidates may be challenging, even on private planes. It’s possible that coaching candidates will be interviewed on Zoom. That means a team could invest $30 million or $40 million in a head coach they’ve never met.

One concern in hiring Crennel as the full-time coach is it went horribly for the Kansas City Chiefs in 2012. After going 2-1 with the Chiefs at the end of 2011, including handing the 15-1 Green Bay Packers their only loss of the season, Kansas City gave Crennel the full-time job. He followed it up with a 2-14 record, although he had Matt Cassel and Brady Quinn as his starting quarterbacks, not Deshaun Watson.

What Crennel has infused into the team is a sense of fun, but that may not be enough in 2021.

WATCH: Texans’ Romeo Crennel and DE J.J. Watt play catch at practice

Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt played catch with interim coach Romeo Crennel on practice Friday.

When chairman and CEO Cal McNair fired coach and general manager Bill O’Brien on Oct. 5, one of the driving motivations was to infuse more fun into the coaching staff and roster.

Though the Houston Texans are 2-6 on the season, winning two of their last four games after an 0-4 start, the team is still finding ways to have fun.

During Friday’s practice, the portion that was open to the media, interim coach Romeo Crennel played catch with defensive end J.J. Watt. The 73-year-old legendary NFL assistant even rolled out to throw a pass to Watt, who actually has three catches for four yards and three touchdowns among his career stats.

Playing catch with Watt is just a microcosm Crennel is having during his fourth coaching gig, interim or otherwise.

“I love it,” Crennel said. “When you take into consideration the pandemic and everything that goes along with that, it makes it more difficult. But, the thing that coaches enjoy about coaching is the staff that you work with, the players that you are coaching that you work with, and we’ve had a great group of guys here.

“They work hard, they’re enthusiastic. Even though the record is not what we want it to be, we still feel like we can get something done in the latter part of the season.”

The Texans hope to get something done against Crennel’s first coaching stop, the Cleveland Browns, where he was the man on the sidelines from 2005-08, even leading Cleveland to its most recent winning season with a 10-6 record in 2007. If Houston can prevail over the 5-3 Browns, it will be the Texans’ first winning streak of the season, and it will bring even more fun into the organization as they seek to stay in the playoff hunt despite a horrendous start to the 2020 campaign.

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Texans still preparing to play despite Browns’ recent positive COVID-19 tests

The Houston Texans are preparing to play the Cleveland Browns even though COVID-19 could end up postponing the game.

Cleveland Browns offensive lineman Chris Hubbard tested positive for COVID-19, which forced the club to close team facilities and put a cloud of doubt over the Week 10 game with the Houston Texans.

Even though the NFL has not given any official word as to the postponement of the game, Texans interim coach Romeo Crennel and the players are still getting ready to play Sunday at 12:00 p.m. CT at FirstEnergy Stadium.

“You have to get ready to play because no game has been canceled,” Crennel said. “They have a positive. They will be doing contact tracing probably all day to find out who’s been in close contact and then after that, they’ll make a determination, the league will, about whether the game continues or not. So, in the meantime, we have to prepare like we’re playing, and really hope that we’re playing because we want to play because we’ve been practicing all week.”

The Texans are coming out of their own COVID-19 outbreak as guard Max Scharping tested positive for the novel coronavirus over the Texans’ bye week on Oct. 26. On Nov. 4, outside linebacker Jacob Martin was placed on the COVID-19 reserve as he also tested positive. Outside linebacker Whitney Mercilus and inside linebacker Dylan Cole were placed on the COVID-19 reserve, even though they didn’t test positive, due to contact tracing.

The Texans were able to conclude Cole and Mercilus had been in close contact to Martin due to contact tracing.

“I know our team, everybody has devices on and they’re able to tell how long people have been close and in close contact with each other,” said Crennel. “So, if you’ve got a guy who’s positive, you check him and see how many people he’s been with, how long he’s been with them and then they make the determination.

Just like last week when Martin tested positive, and then they did the contact tracing and two of the other linebackers had to sit out the game because they were close. I would imagine that something similar would happen if [the Browns] have guys who are in close contact for a long period of time, then they will have to sit out the game and they’ll probably go on with the game.”

The Texans want to play, but it all comes down to what the league will allow after further investigation.

“I’m sure [the Browns] want to play as well,” Crennel said. “But it’s kind of out of our hands. We’ll do what we normally do until we’re told that we have to do something different.”