The Houston Texans have been bad and that mainly stems from their offense. While their ground game appears to be running well with Arian Foster and Alfred Blue leading the charge, their passing game leaves a lot to be desired and that falls on quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick. The veteran noted his performance in the loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers was simply embarrassing, but head coach Bill O'Brien stresses that the bad game will not result in a benching.
Houston has lost three straight games and their last four of five. While they remain 3-4 on the year, sitting in second in the AFC South, their playoff chances are looking grim at the moment if this trend continues. A lot of the blame is falling on the inconsistencies of the offense and Fitzpatrick's struggles. Considering Andre Johnson and DeAndre Hopkins are big play targets ranking among the top 15 receivers in yardage, the Texans offense ranks very low in the league. So why not try a change under center? O'Brien will not entertain the idea.
"Fitzy is our quarterback," O'Brien said, via the Houston Chronicle. "When you look at our tape ... you cannot just point to one position and say that's the position that is at fault. There are a lot of positions that need to play better. We need to coach better, all those different things. It all goes into why sometimes we stall offensively. It's not one guy. We're going to continue to work with both of these guys in practice, and we'll see how it improves. And hopefully, it will get better and better, and that will help our offense get better."
The Texans made a trade for Ryan Mallett prior to the 2014 season beginning, giving the team some options. They also have rookie Tom Savage that they drafted to mold for the future. If O'Brien is not willing to try a change, what was the point of the trade? The Texans have some manageable games in their future, including matchups against the Jacksonville Jaguars and two against the Tennessee Titans. If Fitzpatrick cannot get a win, Mallett needs to be under center. According to O'Brien, Mallett is looking good, but the team is not ready to give him a chance just yet.
"I think that Ryan [Mallett] has improved every week. He's getting a better grasp of what we're doing here. I think the things that he's trying to work on - accuracy, just consistent accuracy, things like that," O'Brien said, via the team website. "I think he's working hard to get those to a level where they need to be to be able to play a lot of football in this league."
