After Sunday’s loss to the Patriots, Texans head coach Bill O’Brien was asked why he did not call a timeout after what appeared to be a questionable catch by Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski in the final two minutes of the first half.
O’Brien could not challenge at that point, but a timeout would have given replay officials time to initiate a review. O’Brien said after the game that “it’s not my job to do that” and the review process that should have taken place did not begin before the Patriots ran another play.
O’Brien revisited the question of not calling a timeout on Monday. He said his answer on Sunday should have made it clearer that not calling a timeout was based on what he heard from coaches watching the play on video, although he admitted with “hindsight being 20-20 ... surely I would have taken a timeout to see if they would at least buzz down to take a look at the play.”
He added that he thought it was a catch.
“On the coaches’ film, I really do,” O’Brien said, via Brian T. Smith of the Houston Chronicle. “He went up, he caught it, he kept both hands underneath it. Now, relative to some TV angles and other video angles that I’ve seen, maybe it was questionable. But from the coaches’ vantage point on the coaches’ tape, it looked like a catch to me. … So I just felt like that was a catch and the clock was running and I felt like I did not want to take a timeout there. I felt like we could still hold them to a field goal in that situation.”
The Patriots scored a touchdown to go up 21-3 before the half. The Texans would rally in the final 30 minutes, but wound up on the wrong end of a 27-20 final score.