The Texans Finally Have No Choice But to Fire Bill O'Brien After Embarrassing Meltdown vs Chiefs

If the Houston Texans came into Arrowhead Stadium, put up a fight and lost by, say, two touchdowns, we wouldn't even be positing this scenario.

But that's not what happened. The Texans were given a 24-0 head start against the Kansas City Chiefs, managed to blow that lead in under 11 minutes, and then lost after Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Damien Williams put up 51 points (scoring 41 of those consecutively).

And for that, head coach Bill O'Brien's time in Houston should be over. Enough is enough.

Does Bill O’Brien get fired after this?
— Mark Gunnels (@MarkAGunnels) January 12, 2020

Honestly, probably not, but if the Texans want a new direction instead of barely scraping by the weak AFC South and then falling short of the AFC Championship yet again, a change needs to be made.

And it's not like this was misfortune after misfortune. O'Brien PUT his team in this position. Two specific decisions before the half essentially buried the Texans before they even took the field for the final 30 minutes.

The first, which wouldn't have looked nearly as bad if the second didn't happen, came on a 4th and 1 deep in Chiefs territory. O'Brien put the offense out on the field, called a timeout, and then changed his mind and kicked the field goal to make it 24-0. At this point, KC's defense couldn't stop Houston whatsoever, so going for that was a rightfully aggressive move -- extend the drive, stay in KC territory and potentially score a TD if you get it.

This game obviously turned on Bill O'Brien playing not to lose, taking a field goal on 4th-1 instead of going for the throat w Deshaun. If the Texans had gone up 28-0, I believe they'd have won. The Chiefs would have lost heart and started forcing things even more.
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) January 12, 2020

If you don't get it, it's 21-0 and the Chiefs are pinned deep in their own territory. That's OK.

But instead, the Chiefs scored on their very next drive to make it 24-7, and when the Texans got the ball back, O'Brien opted for a fake punt on 4th and 4 deep in Houston's territory. It failed, the Chiefs scored again, and that was the end of the story.

Bill O'Brien's decision to call a fake punt on fourth and 4 at his 31 with a 24-7 lead midway through the second quarter will go down as one of the worst in playoff history if the Texans blow this game as they're trying so hard to do.
— John McClain (@McClain_on_NFL) January 12, 2020

Why do B if you're not going to do A? Why even think about doing A, not do it, then do B without even blinking? Doing both could've saved all of these breathless arguments, but it's all the more puzzling that this was where O'Brien arrived in his decision-making.

Instead, a 24-0 lead turned into a 51-31 loss. A simple L would've sufficed for the Texans. Not one of epic choking proportions marred by beyond questionable decision-making from a veteran NFL head coach. Let's also not forget about the lack of (or nonexistent) halftime adjustments. They gave up another 23 points, scored just seven, and failed to show any sort of fight.

Time to make a move for Eric Bieniemy, Texans fans. You just got plenty of firsthand evidence of why that might be beneficial.