Houston Texans coach Bill O’Brien knows that playing a penalty-free football game is very rare, but he would like to see his team get as close as possible.
The Texans had five penalties for 37 yards while the Kansas City Chiefs had just one for five yards. Ultimately, the Chiefs beat the Texans 34-20 in Week 1.
“I think it still comes down to that, playing cleaner football,” O’Brien said. “Last week, we started out, we gained positive yards on the first play. The second play’s incomplete. The third play we jump offsides. If we can play a cleaner game, I think that’s a big part of what is fundamentally making sure that we eliminate the administrative penalties — the false starts, the illegal formations, the neutral zone infractions.”
Penalties were a problem for the Texans last season as they were tied with the Pittsburgh Steelers for the 12th-most penalties in the NFL with 111.
O’Brien doesn’t mind the judgment calls; the mental mistakes bother him.
Said O’Brien: “You’re going to get holding calls. You’re going to get DPIs. Those things are going to happen. Illegal contacts — those things may happen. But it’s the mental mistakes that we have to really clean up because the teams that really did that well, they won for the most part. We’re working hard on that this week to clean a lot of that up.”
The Texans will need every advantage they can cultivate as they take on the Baltimore Ravens at 3:25 p.m. and avoid an 0-2 start.
