Awful performance raises serious questions about Texans, Brock Osweiler

There will be plenty of big tests left. The Houston Texans still have tough road games at Minnesota, Denver and Green Bay and all their division games left.

But don’t tell Bill O’Brien that Thursday’s 27-0 loss to the New England Patriots does not say a lot about the state of his team right now. And we’d likely agree with him.

The Texans were outplayed and outcoached in all three phases of the game and fell to a Jacoby Brissett-led Patriots team that had three full days to prepare for J.J. Watt, Jadeveon Clowney and the rest of a Texans defense that had nine sacks and 21 QB hits over the first two games.

But the step up in class was too much for the Texans.

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Can we please talk about Brock Osweiler? No, the Texans’ $72 million quarterback had nothing to do with the team’s strange play-calling (especially on third downs), the drops by his receivers (not named DeAndre Hopkins) and the shoddy protection. Osweiler had nothing to do with the two crushing fumbles on kickoffs that led to Patriots scores and kept Watt and Co. on the field and gasping for air.

But was John Elway right on Osweiler? Little we’ve seen through three games — outside of a few brilliant Hopkins grabs — suggests he’s an upper-level quarterback yet. The fact that he has O’Brien, who coached up Brian Hoyer with lesser targets around him to similar results last season, makes it all the more worrisome.

The Texans didn’t cross midfield until almost 39 minutes into the game, shortly before the Texans’ pilot fired up the charter’s engines, and the Patriots had built a 20-0 lead by that point with fewer than 250 yards offense. They would not cross the New England 35-yard line all night. If they can’t be competitive in games like these, how can they consider themselves contenders?

Osweiler threw a ghastly first-half pick and had some bad overthrows with open receivers. He finished the game 24-of-41 passing for a mere 196 yards, less than 5 yards a throw. At no point did he look capable of rescuing his team from its throes, despite it being close well into the third quarter. He looked spooked — the same guy who beat Bill Belichick’s Patriots as a member of the Denver Broncos last November in a nervy game that essentially decided home field the AFC playoffs. Where that guy?

Osweiler later gave way to Peyton Manning, and Elway let what everyone assumed was the natural successor walk over a couple million bucks without an obvious Plan B. They said he was crazy. What do you say now?

Want to lay some blame on the Texans’ defense? It’s your prerogative. The third-down tackling was atrocious; way too much YAC. Watt was nowhere to be found. No turnovers against the rookie — no bueno.

Maybe the defense was a bit taxed there after all the third-down failures and turnovers. The Texans’ defense, including penalties, was on the field a soul-draining 25 plays in the third quarter. Everyone has to do their part.

No one can panic, but the eyes don’t lie either. Brissett, for the most part, looked more poised than Osweiler. Of course, the rookie has the best coach in the game on his side, and as good as O’Brien might normally be it’s worth wondering if the Texans overestimated their new quarterback’s capabilities.

(Here’s a brainteaser: Could Belichick beat the Texans with Osweiler as his QB? Mull that over a bit.)

Again, Osweiler was not the reason the Texans lost this game. Not alone, anyway. They looked like your typical Thursday night road team traveling for the game: frazzled, lethargic and unprepared. And this game is perhaps far different without the two fumbles inside their own 25-yard line. But is anyone believing that either of those were going to be 80-ish-yard touchdown drives?

The Patriots laid a blueprint: Use two- and three-deep shells to prevent Will Fuller from getting deep — and wait long enough, and he’ll drop one for you, too. Don’t let Hopkins beat you. Rush four and dare the Texans to run it, but when you do overload a gap, it’s best to do it against the crummy right side of the Texans’ line. There are more holes here than we were maybe willing to admit.

The Patriots didn’t need Tom Brady, they didn’t need Garoppolo or Don’t’a Hightower, nor did they need a fully healthy Rob Gronkowski. Their third-string QB outplayed the Texans’ starter on this night, and it raised questions about the whole operation for a team that had just started to creep into our minds as one of those poor man’s 2015 Carolina Panthers type of teams.

Well, we can forget about all that for the time being. There’s a lot of reassessing going on in Houston, and a healthy portion of it should be directed toward the new quarterback.

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!