KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It is time for the Texans to remove Bill O’Brien’s crown.

End the reign.

Down with the king.

Find Deshaun Watson a head coach that the often magical 24-year-old franchise quarterback deserves.

After the humiliation of 51-31 Chiefs on a bleak, depressing Sunday inside near-freezing Arrowhead Stadium, O’Brien made it easy for the Texans.

If chairman/CEO Cal McNair was actually paying attention and demanded real accountability on Kirby Drive.

O’Brien has far too much power with far too little to show for it.

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Since 2014, a dictator who is 2-4 in the playoffs with three embarrassing blowouts has fired, blamed or sacrificed everyone but himself. O’Brien puts on the hard Bill Belichick act but has never come close to winning anything real, let alone six shining rings.

And for six wildly unpredictable, ultimately insulting seasons, the Texans’ head coach/de facto general manager/offensive play caller has annually told you the truth with these simple yet profound words: It’s on me.

“We have to coach better,” said O’Brien, after he somehow turned a buzzing 24-0 lead into his lifeless team’s being outscored 51-7.

It was the worst playoff defeat in Texans history. It was the biggest meltdown in franchise history.

It was the Texans three quarters away from hosting the AFC championship in Houston, then yet again becoming a national laughingstock at a time when seasons, careers and franchises are defined.

It was one more painful reminder — and my lord, the list is so darn long — that King O’Brien is clearly holding the Texans back.

He is a bully who doubles as a dictator.

He furiously screams “Screw you, (expletive)! You suck, too! Hey! You suck too, (expletive)!” at a fan inside the tunnel of NRG Stadium — at the same time his team is being demolished 31-3.

And when O’Brien tries to explain a game-changing decision to go for a fake punt on fourth-and-4 at his own 31-yard line with the Texans up 24-7 early in the second quarter and momentum wavering in the balance, his explanation fails, just like his team.

“We felt like we had a look, and it just didn’t work,” O’Brien said.

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The Chiefs scored their second touchdown 23 seconds later. Then the house started burning, and all the Texans could do was watch it burn.

“I do not know. We have to look at everything,” said O’Brien, producing no answer when asked what keeps holding the Texans back. “I would not be able to answer that right now. We have to look at everything.”

Look at this:

30-0 Chiefs in Houston during the 2015 playoffs.

21-7 Colts — it started as 21-0 and the Texans booed off the field — at home during the 2018 playoffs.

16-0 Buffalo late in the third quarter at home last weekend, which required an overtime miracle from Watson.

51-31 Chiefs on Sunday, as the Texans gave up 28 second-quarter points and 23 more in the second half.

Find another NFL team that would proudly and publicly back its HC/GM/OC after that (bleep).

Never mind.

There isn’t one.

Only the Texans. Only McNair’s franchise, despite having DeAndre Hopkins and J.J. Watt in their primes.

O’Brien inherited both of those players. He has personally clashed with some of the Texans’ biggest names in franchise history. Trading up for and drafting Watson wasn’t his idea. Former No. 1 overall pick Jadeveon Clowney, O’Brien’s first draft selection, was devalued before being traded away at the wrong time.

O’Brien also gave up two future first-round picks and a second-rounder during a season that began with a nasty front-office power play and tampering charges and ended with a torching at Arrowhead.

Who survives that chaos, especially in the cutthroat NFL?

Fact: The 2016 Texans, with a severely disappointing Brock Osweiler at quarterback, were a better overall team than the ’19 Texans with Watson at QB.

“I feel like we are moving in the right direction,” O’Brien said. “We did a lot of good things this year.”

Only if hanging another worthless division banner in the NRG rafters is enough.

Mike Vrabel’s tough Tennessee team just beat New England and Baltimore on the road, ended up as the best team in the AFC South, and is one win away from the Super Bowl. Jacksonville made the AFC Championship Game in 2017 and almost reached the NFL’s final stage. Indianapolis played for the AFC championship in ’14.

The Texans are 0-4 when they reach the divisional round and, of course, have never seen the AFC Championship Game as participants.

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Patrick Mahomes was clearly the better quarterback Sunday, but Watson is clearly good enough to win a Super Bowl.

After six seasons and with so much sweeping change on Kirby in his name, O’Brien is not.

Could Watson, Hopkins, Watt and Co. eventually pull the Texans’ head coach to the big game one day? Maybe.

But find another NFL team that would blindly see things that backward way.

Don’t waste your time.

There isn’t one.

Longtime Texans owner Bob McNair loved to preach patience. When he finally fired Gary Kubiak in 2013, the ex-Texan left town to win a Super Bowl with Peyton Manning in Denver.

Kubiak never had one-tenth of O’Brien’s power on Kirby, and there was a clear system of checks and balances when the Texans went a franchise-best 12-4 in 2012.

O’Brien fooled the Texans into believing he deserved a crown. Now, frustrated team employees walk on eggshells while Patriots South keeps flatlining in the second round.

O’Brien looked exhausted again Sunday. He was also overwhelmed during critical, game-defining moments — Go for it on fourth-and-1? Burn a timeout? Fake punt? — and completely outcoached at the exact time the Texans needed him to lift them above the fray.

The story is always changing. Certainty is fleeting in the NFL.

But with everything we’ve learned and seen since 2014, this feels more like the truth than ever before: The Texans must find another coach who can help Watson lift a Super Bowl trophy.

brian.smith@chron.com

twitter.com/chronbriansmith

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