Every-Thing Sports
Explaining Bill O'Brien's time management skills
Sep 17, 2019, 6:55 am
Every-Thing Sports
In his six years roaming the sidelines for the Houston Texans, head coach Bill O'Brien has garnered a reputation for his time management skills, or lack thereof. He repeatedly will waste timeouts, not call them, botch end of game/end of half situations, and generally shows a lack of understanding when it comes to situational football. This was particularly apparent when at the end of first half of the Jags game, he held onto two timeouts. When asked about it in the postgame presser, he gave yet another bullshit answer basically saying they executed minus a few missed opportunities on a couple plays.
That was maybe the "toughest" line of questioning O'Brien has faced since coming to Houston. Instead of calling for checks and balances, or even his job, let's try to understand where O'Brien is coming from. Maybe he's just misunderstood? He could be more complex than the thin-skinned arrogant prick we've grown to know and loathe. I've taken a few psychology courses and read a ton of material. Personally, I think I'm qualified to look into what makes O'Brien tick and why he's so bad with time and timeout management. There are several reasons why I think O'Brien may be confused in crunch time. Here's a look into some reasons why he tends to have brain farts:
AJ Hoffman mentioned this on The Blitz that he thinks O'Brien yesterday in hour two that his theory is that O'Brien thinks saving timeouts are a playoff tiebreaker. Giving the way this season is going, he probably thinks piling up timeouts will help his team's chances in a heated playoff race.
In the great Chicken Sandwich War of 2019, O'Brien is #TeamChicFilA. He must think saving timeouts and wasting clock is a way to earn points on the Chic Fil A app. I'm almost certain he's reached red status by now. However, he must believe that the extra timeouts and/or time clock wasting is earning him points on the app that will lead to rewards, which will give him brownie points with the team when he caters lunch after practice. Popeye's never stood a chance because they didn't have rewards points on their app and ran out of sandwiches.
O'Brien does a ton of driving as does most Houston residents when it comes to commuting to and from work. Maybe he's convinced that the timeouts can be converted into gas miles/points he can use. While I can't pinpoint where he lives, one can only imagine that his commute is at least 15-20 minutes like the rest of us. Given that aspect, he's most likely hoarding then to get money back or a discount off his gas when filling up. If he's smart, he'd use Get Upside.
O'Brien thinks stopping the clock late in a half or game is overrrated. He's so overly confident in his play-calling abilities, that he has fully convinved himself that calling timeout is overrated. He believes in himself so much, his confidence has outgrown his belief in time itself.
Here's a theory some of you may not have suspected. O'Brien could be a secretive hoarder. It could be on of those situations in which Mrs. O'Brien isn't fully aware of his secretive hoarding. Henceforth, he's always tried to retain timeouts thinking that he will accumulate them and be able to use them later.
Yet another working observation I've noticed is that he could be so smart, he's a dumbass. Some smarts lack in other areas. O'Brien may be one of us. There are tinmes in which I can't figure out simple things, but I can tell you who blew an assignment or ran a bad route on any given play. O'Brien may be the same way. He's so focused on the macro that he loses track of the micro. Bad combination.
As you can see, we could all be looking at O'Brien the wrong way. Maybe we should be giving him the benfit of the doubt. Maybe we should all be following his lead. Instead, we sit by awaiting his firing while he's busy being the smartest guy on Kirby. Maybe we're all dumbs, and he's a smart? Maybe he has this life thing figured out and we're still stupidly stumbling around looking for answers. I'd hate to live in a world in which O'Brien is the key to life. Wake me up when this nightmare is over.
Romy Gonzalez homered over the Green Monster on the first pitch faced by a Boston batter, Trevor Story added a two-run shot, and the Red Sox beat the Houston Astros 7-3 on Saturday.
Abraham Toro added a two-run drive — one of three homers the Red Sox hit over Fenway Park’s fabled left-field wall — and Story added an RBI double as Boston won its third straight.
Houston’s Christian Walker homered for the second straight day, a two-run shot off Walker Buehler in the first inning.
The benches and bullpens cleared when Astros reliever Héctor Neris yelled at the Red Sox dugout and third-base coach Kyle Hudson at the end of the seventh. But order was quickly restored.
You can watch what happened in the video below.
Benches clear in Boston after Hector Neris intentionally balked Trevor Story to third base because he thought Story was relaying signs. Neris had words for the Red Sox third base coach coming off the field pic.twitter.com/MxWccFu7F9
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) August 2, 2025
After beating the AL West leaders on Roman Anthony’s walk-off single in the series opener on Friday night, the Red Sox erased a quick 2-0 deficit when Story hit his drive in a three-run third against Colton Gordon (4-4) that pushed Boston ahead 4-2.
Story’s shot hit the top of a billboard over the Monster seats and bounced out of Fenway after Rob Refsnyder’s RBI single.
Justin Wilson (3-1) came on in the fifth inning with runners on second and third with Boston leading 6-3 and struck out the only two batters he faced. Aroldis Chapman got the final two outs for his 20th save.
Gordon gave up six runs in four-plus innings.
The Astros loaded the bases in the eighth against Jordan Hicks, but Carlos Correa struck out looking on a 99 mph fastball.
Boston’s bullpen went 4 2/3 scoreless innings.
Astros LHP Framber Valdez (11-4, 2.62 ERA) is set to face Red Sox RHP Lucas Giolito (7-2, 3.80) on Sunday in the series finale.