HOUSTON – For weeks, head coach Bill O’Brien and the Houston Texans have felt some version of shook, just like most of the city surrounding them. Communities are wrecked, families displaced and there is a long, expensive cleanup ahead. But the Texans – like many NFL teams after a disaster – have been clutched as a three-hour side door to reality. A hopeful escape.

But looking at O’Brien on Sunday afternoon, there wasn’t much of a diversion. And even less gratification in distraction.

Instead, the Texans coach retained that familiar expression after a stunningly one-sided 29-7 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. It was the face of a coach absorbing the reality that this is an NFL franchise still grappling with some familiar and lasting problems. And like the story has gone for so long in Houston, it starts with the quarterback. The position in which O’Brien’s endorsement is – at best – shaky.

View photos Deshaun Watson provided the Texans a spark in the second half but the Texans were in too big a hole on Sunday against the Jaguars. (AP) More

For the second time in three years, O’Brien’s chosen starting quarterback didn’t survive the hook through the first game of the season. In 2015, it was Brian Hoyer yanked for Ryan Mallett in the fourth quarter of a home-opening loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. On Sunday, it was Tom Savage – who had earned the starting job in O’Brien’s eyes – pulled at halftime for rookie Deshaun Watson, after the Texans fell behind 19-0.

And like the Hoyer/Mallett dustup of two seasons ago, it comes with no realistic spin. Either O’Brien was admitting that he made a mistake in endorsing Savage as the starter, or he’s sending the message that he can’t be patient enough to let the guy who earned the job work his way through one bad game (in this case, a lousy half). And it might be a little of both.

As O’Brien framed it Sunday, “I thought [Savage] was trying to do the best that he could. [The benching] was just a decision I made to try to get something going.”

To be fair, Savage was bad in the first half. He often held the ball too long and had almost no ability to extend the play when the pocket eroded – which it frequently did. His six sacks were partially his fault, along with an offensive line that looks like it needs the Texans to resolve the holdout of left tackle Duane Brown immediately. As in, get Brown back in the fold before Thursday’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals.

Beyond the quarterback and offensive line, Houston still looks like it’s lacking big playmakers on offense. The return of injured wideout Will Fuller (collarbone) could help that, eventually. As for the defense, well, it had issues tackling and making big stops consistently. Even when it had an opportunity to turn the game after Watson opened the second half with a touchdown drive to pull the score to 19-7, the unit wilted.

View photos J.J. Watt and the Texans couldn’t match their fiery intro once the game started against the Jaguars. (AP) More

That was surprising because the talent suggests the defense is the most emotional driving barometer of this team. Particularly on an afternoon charged with emotion, most evident when defensive end J.J. Watt’s entrance to the stadium brought down the house with a roar before kickoff. Even coming off that emotional wave, Watt and the defense was uncharacteristically flat.

“It’s not good when that’s the highlight of your day,” Watt said of his entrance. “Obviously that was a good moment and it was downhill from there for the rest of the day. … There’s only one way to go from here and that’s up. Can’t play much worse.”