Texans are a lost team with no offense

The Houston Texans are going to be terrible this season. I don’t want to write that, because the great city of Houston is going through so much, and while sports are meaningless in comparison to real life events such as a devastating hurricane, a winning NFL team makes for a nice distraction.

On Sunday, Houston was blown out of its own building, 29-7, by the lowly Jacksonville Jaguars. Blake Bortles was terrible, throwing for 125 yards, but it made little difference. Tom Savage started the game and was pulled after one half of football, a half that included six sacks, a scoop-and-score, and a 7-of-13 showing for 62 yards.

At halftime, head coach Bill O’Brien replaced Savage, showing that months worth of talk meant nothing. Instead of assessing the situation rationally and blaming himself and the offensive line, Savage was benched for Deshaun Watson.

Watson, who was the 12th-overall pick in the draft, was woefully overmatched. This is no shock to anybody who watched Watson in the preseason, which until Sunday, we assumed O’Brien was among. Instead, Watson completed 12-of-23 throws for 102 yards along with a touchdown and an interception. Frankly, he looked worse than those below-average numbers.

The Texans have a very good defense, but they have absolutely no offense, and a coach who should be looking for a new job by the end of this season, if not sooner. In fact, throw general manager Rick Smith in that same boat, who has been in that position since 2006, and has presided over exactly two playoff wins.

Smith and O’Brien have not seen much progress since the latter was named as the lead man in 2014. Since then, the Texans have won two division titles, but that was more default than merit. Each of the campaigns have finished as 9-7, with starting quarterbacks ranging from Ryan Fitzpatrick and Brian Hoyer to Brock Osweiler and Savage.

At some point, enough is enough. Houston is going nowhere fast with an offense that can’t scratch out more than a touchdown against the Jaguars … at home. Jacksonville has some quality defensive talent to be sure, but that’s no excuse for looking lackluster and completely unprepared for a season opener, especially considering all the emotional ramifications involved.

O’Brien was brought in largely because of his work with the quarterback position both during his time with the New England Patriots and Tom Brady, as while he was head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions. He was supposed to bring stability to an organization that had none at the sport’s most important position. Instead, it has been a revolving door.

Houston now travels to Cincinnati before heading to Foxborough. The Texans are likely going to be 0-3, and coming home to face the Titans and Chiefs.

If things go completely south, maybe owner Bob McNair finally has the evidence he needs to clean house.