Losing a playoff game you once led 24-0 is going to lead to a lot of questions for and about a team’s head coach and Bill O’Brien is facing those questions after losing 51-31 to the Chiefs on Sunday.
O’Brien’s decisions to kick a field goal on fourth-and-one and fake a punt in Houston territory on another fourth down a short time later have come in for heavy scrutiny. The Chiefs scored 28 straight second quarter points to go into halftime with a lead and kept pouring it on after the break as O’Brien couldn’t stop the bleeding.
That outcome may have some thinking that someone else should be coaching the Texans, but quarterback Deshaun Watson was adamant in his belief that O’Brien is the right man for the job.
“There’s no doubt,” Watson said, via ESPN.com. “I mean, you might have doubt, but there’s no doubt. I mean, I love that man. I’m going to play hard for that man. Y’all can say whatever you want to say through all the media and all the writing, but as long as I’m at quarterback, he’s cool with me. He’s got my heart. He’s going to get all of my 110% every time I step on that field. So y’all can say whatever, but [I’ll] always be rooting for that man and going to play hard for him.”
Watson said the “future is bright” for the Texans despite how things ended on Sunday, although it might take some more time for others to shake off the clouds that descended on the team after the first quarter.