Bill O’Brien giving Tom Brady a chance to win was the biggest coaching mistake of NFL Week 3

The Houston Texans went into Gillette Stadium Sunday and gave the New England Patriots a hell of a game. Deshaun Watson had the best performance of his young rookie season, while the defensive line terrorized Tom Brady all afternoon. Despite some mistakes and unlucky swings, the Texans found themselves in position to pull off the road upset and send New England to 1-2.

No rookie quarterback has ever beaten Bill Belichick’s Patriots at Gillette Stadium. I know this because Scott Hanson of NFL RedZone said it about 80,000 times on Sunday. But it’s an impressive streak nonetheless. Watson and the Texans were so close to making history and scoring a signature win.

Holding on to a slim 30-28 lead, Watson drove the Texans’ offense down into field goal range, but the drive stalled at the New England 18-yard line. Facing fourth-and-1 with 2:28 left, head coach Bill O’Brien had his biggest decision of the game here.

Going for it gives Houston the chance to drain more clock and possibly kill off the game with a touchdown. The Texans only needed one yard and the run game was humming along nicely with Lamar Miller and D’Onta Foreman, so it wasn’t an impossible task. Kicking the easy field goal would put them up five points, but would mean giving Brady the ball with over two minutes and a timeout left. We’ve seen that movie many times in the past, and it rarely ends well for Brady’s opponent.

O’Brien elected to take the points and trust his defense. And a million voices cried out in terror, because we already knew what was coming.

He sure did, My Past Self! Brady did his thing and the Patriots escaped with the 36-33 win. It’s just the latest in a long line of teams that almost have the Patriots’ number, only to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

When you have the chance to beat Belichick and Brady on their home turf, you take it. Don’t get cute; don’t overthink things. Just go for the jugular and get out of there. O’Brien took the easy way out and paid for it, spoiling an otherwise stellar performance by Watson.

This is why Belichick is the best coach in the league and everyone else is tripping over their shoelaces fighting for second place. All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again.

So congratulations to O’Brien for making the biggest coaching mistake of Week 3, but it was hardly the only one. Let’s run down some of the more notable blunders, starting with some prime NFC East clownball.

Sometimes it feels like the Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants are in a race to see who can lose the game harder.

Pederson started the festivities by punting from the Giants’ 41-yard line. I’m a big proponent of going for it on fourth down, especially in enemy territory, so that already has me cross. He made up for it in the second quarter, but fourth-and-eight might have been stretching it this time. Also, Jason Peters apparently glitched out on that blind-side block attempt.

That’s great field position for the Giants, obviously. With over two minutes left, you figure, OK, Eli Manning can put a drive together and get some points before halftime.

If you thought that, you must not be familiar with the Giants’ offense. They did get to the goal line, but it was all downhill from there. The most infamous play involved Sterling Shepard running the shortest route of all time.

(Before you ask, the ball has to cross the plane, so Shepard’s feet landing on the goal line doesn’t count).

We’ve seen bizarre playcalls where guys run routes short of the sticks on third down, but short of the goal line? How does that happen? You can also file this under Worst Awareness Rating of Week 3. Stretch out that ball, Sterling!

Anyway, Orleans Darkwa got stuffed on fourth down and the Giants got zero points out of the drive. I’m sure that wouldn’t matter later — like, say, at the end of the game when the Eagles made a 61-yard field goal to win by three points.

The NFC East, man.

I thought we were done with this after the Minnesota Vikings’ horror show last week? Not you too, Miami Dolphins.

Losing to the New York Jets wasn’t enough humiliation, apparently.

At least this one wasn’t a pass. Still, it was way too deep in their own territory to run a fake punt. Vance Joseph’s needless gamble cost the Denver Broncos, down 20-16 at the time. The Buffalo Bills got a field goal on the ensuing drive to essentially seal the game.

Riverboat Ron is dead and buried, in case that wasn’t already obvious.