Coach Lovie Smith: Fraudulent & Foolish Take on 1 Texans Win vs. No. 1 Overall Pick
In a season featuring a mountain of mistakes, the Houston Texans are about to make the more grievous error of all ... a fraudulently symbolic "planting of the flag'' atop that mountain that in reality will result in the NFL's worst franchise tumbling backward, downward, into an even deeper chasm.
"We're going to go to work this week,'' said coach Lovie Smith with a certain blind boldness, "and do everything we possibly can to win this last game."
The 2-13-1 Texans on Sunday oppose a Colts team that is 4-11-1, a team that is coached by a TV guy, a team playing Musical Chairs at QB, with Longhorns ex Sam Ehlinger getting the season-finale nod. And so Lovie's worthless "goal'' can be achieved.
And it - an empty victory - will be a monumental mistake.
There is only one way out of the chasm, only one way to climb a positive mountain, a mountain of success. That way isn't to let this coach and these roster members - most of whom will no longer be Texans if and when this franchise ever escapes purgatory - have a single and fleeting feel-good moment in a vacuum in Indianapolis.
Teams scale the mountain by accumulating the best possible players. The Texans have a chance to own the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, a chance enhanced by losing at Indianapolis.
They should therefore lose at Indianapolis.
"Losing on purpose'' can, we will admit, invite the poison of negativity into an organization. But in the case of the Texans?
How could the "poison of negativity'' be more "negative'' and "poisonous'' than it is now?
Smith said the Texans' winning gives them a chance to "add to the story."
But it actually adds nothing.
The Texans can lock up the No. 1 draft pick with another loss. Do that right, and nobody will ever remember an otherwise innocuous Week 18 final score.
And yet Lovie - incredibly - made the argument on Monday that the No. 1 overall pick isn't really better than the next couple of picks.
"Easy to answer that question,'' he said. "How about the No. 2 overall pick? Could that help? Or the 3? ... There's a lot of picks that can help.''
Using that logic, the teams picking behind the Texans ought to call Lovie and offer to trade their pick for the superior Houston pick - straight up.
And Lovie should accept the offer, because after all, what's the difference between picks Nos. 1 and and 2 and 3? They're all the same, right? They can all help, right?
There is a level of stubbornness to this approach, and a level of ignorance, too. "Just try to win, no matter what!'' isn't a valiant way of thinking; it's a lazy way of thinking. And if the Texans, as an organization, really feature this level of illogic as part of their foundation?
Then we just discovered why this is the NFL's worst organization.
By next Monday, the best thing for the Texans might be to relieve Lovie Smith of his duties. But before that - before kickoff on Sunday - somebody in charge around here is obliged to relieve Smith of the authority to make this mindless decision.
The Houston Texans need the No. 1 overall pick. And any decision-maker in the building who cannot wrap his head around that?
The Houston Texans don't need that decision-maker in the building.
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