Texans Daily

'Shuffling Deck Chairs': Vikings 31, Texans 23

The 'Titanic' Reference Is A Stretch - But The Houston Texans' 31-23 Week 4 NFL Loss To Previously-Winless Minnesota Did Include 'Change' In The Form Of 'Shuffling Deck Chairs'

Mike Fisher

A "Titanic'' parallel would be overwrought; 1,496 people died in 1912 aboard that ship. But the start to the Houston Texans' 2020 NFL season is, it seems, about dying a "football death,'' slow and painful and featuring deck-chair shuffling where real solutions are required.

Houston coach Bill O'Brien can reach for some positives after Sunday's Week 4 home loss at NRG Stadium to the previously-winless Minnesota Vikings by a 31-28 "almost successful'' score.

And to be fair, it truly was "almost successful,'' with a Deshaun Watson to Will Fuller potential game-extending TD connection overturned by the refs.

But it ends in leaving the Texans at 0-4 for the third time time in team history. And 0-4 is 0-4.

And O'Brien doesn't sound all that positive.

'We weren't very consistent,'' he said. "The plays didn't work. Timmy (Kelly) and I are trying to call plays that work and they didn't work. We're too inconsistent stopping the run.''

The Texans have in recent days considered drastic alterations in personnel (before opting to not - or at least not at this time - sign troubled-but-talented safety Earl Thomas). 

READ MORE: Breaking: Houston Texans are OUT On Earl Thomas

READ MORE: O'Brien Back In Control as Texans Play-Caller?

O'Brien also supervised a drastic alteration in infrastructure as he grabbed the steering wheel of the offense away from coordinator Tim Kelly, O'Brien reverting back to a previous time when he served as his own play-caller.

And Houston scored 23 ... and was an inch from more. But ...

Outside of personnel and philosophy, what else is there to change for a franchise surely aware of the fact that of the last 227 NFL teams to start a season 0–4, just one made the playoffs.

That's a percentage-chance of ... 0.440528634361 percent.

Minnesota got up early on a Dalvin Cook run ...

And later expanded the lead to 17-7 when Cook (27 carries for 130 yards) muscled his way into the end zone again.

The Texans, though, who played before about 13,000 fans in a COVID-19-reduced audience, were not inspired enough by the crowd, not inspired enough by the challenge and not inspired enough by the challenge. ... despite the thrilling ending.

Whatever numbers they posted during the game, QB Deshaun Watson (20 of 33 for 300 yards and two TDs) and the post-DeAndre-Hopkins-era crew were blandly ineffective here. Really, the numbers in the game were as empty as the words they uttered after it.

"I'm pissed,'' said Whitney Mercilus: "We've got to play much more disciplined football.'We've got to play much more disciplined football.''

O'Brien's Texans have an enviable and admirable habit of rallying from 0-2 starts to make playoff noise. And they did rally here. But right now, the only noise that's audible is the eerie groan of the coming iceberg and the irritating scratching of deck chairs being shuffled.

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Mike Fisher
MIKE FISHER

Mike Fisher - as a newspaper beat writer and columnist and on radio and TV, where he is an Emmy winner - has covered the NFL since 1983, is the Texas-based author of two best-selling books on the NFL.