It’s about time for Bill O’Brien to get some consideration for the NFL Coach of the Year Award.

I don’t know what is your criteria for the award, but I know a terrific coaching job when I see it.

O’Brien and his staff are doing an outstanding job.

The Texans finished 4-12 last season, so they’ve already made a five-game improvement during their nine-game winning streak that catapulted them into first place in the AFC South — three games ahead of Indianapolis and Tennessee.

“He makes sure we know what we have to do to be successful,” cornerback Kareem Jackson said about O’Brien this week.

There are several coaches who deserve consideration for the award but none more than O’Brien through 12 games of the season.

Like the Texans, Chicago has leap-frogged from worst to first in its division. The Bears have a 1½-game lead over Minnesota in the NFC North. In Mike Nagy’s first season, the Bears have gone from 5-11 to 8-4, a three-game improvement.

Better wins than Bears

The Texans and Bears have benefited from playing last-place schedules, but their strength-of-victory percentage is interesting — Texans .458 to the Bears’ .380.

Other playoff contenders behind the Texans in strength of victory: Pittsburgh (.423), Baltimore (.411), Kansas City (.408), Indianapolis (.389), Los Angeles Chargers (.352) and Seattle (.339).

With four games left in the season, joining O’Brien and Nagy in my top-five candidates for coach of the year are the Seahawks’ Pete Carroll (7-5), the Chargers’ Anthony Lynn (9-3) and the Chiefs’ Andy Reid (10-2).

The more I watch the Texans, the more I’m impressed with the coaching job.

O’Brien helped the Texans crawl out of an 0-3 hole. To win nine consecutive games isn’t luck. It’s about good coaching and playing. It’s the mental and physical parts of the game. It’s about preparation during the week in meetings and practice and being ready for the opponent before carrying out the game plan.

O’Brien and his coaches have kept their players focused. When they were 0-3, they didn’t criticize each other or the coaching staff. They kept a lid on saying anything controversial. They said all the right things about winning just one game.

And then they won in overtime at Indianapolis. And they haven’t lost since Sept. 23.

After the first three defeats, fans and media howled for O’Brien to be fired. The players didn’t let the growing controversy affect them. The goal was to stay the course and win one game.

“It’s all about getting one win,” Jackson said. “He talks to us about the details and paying attention to the keys to winning the next game. He always points that out to us. He does a great job of making sure we know what those things are.

“We’re a confident team. We’re expecting to win. He has us doing what we need to do as far as preparation during the week, and then we let it rip on Sundays.”

A few of the things O’Brien has helped the team overcome began with a shakeup in the offensive line, the most troublesome area on the team that’s shown gradual improvement in pass protection and significant improvement in run blocking.

They lost right tackle Seantrel Henderson for the season in the opening loss at New England. They started different combinations in the first three games.

Overcoming adversity

They survived losing five cornerbacks in the first seven games. At one point, they were playing all safeties because of injuries.

The offense lost its second-best receiver, Will Fuller, for the season and has been able to withstand a recurrence of Keke Coutee’s hamstring injury to a point where they don’t know when they can count on him to play.

General manager Brian Gaine made a shrewd trade at the deadline to acquire receiver Demaryius Thomas, who caught two touchdown passes in last week’s victory over Tennessee.

O’Brien helped Deshaun Watson by changing the strategy after he suffered a partially collapsed lung and a broken rib in an overtime victory over Dallas before getting obliterated in a victory over Buffalo. As the play-caller, O’Brien’s emphasis on the run over the last six games has paid off considerably.

During those six games, the Texans have averaged 34.8 carries and 172.3 rushing yards. For the season, the Texans are third in rushing with 140.8 yards a game.

Their identity is to run the ball to control the clock and keep Watson upright. O’Brien’s strategy has elevated the run blocking by the linemen and tight ends and has rejuvenated Lamar Miller and Alfred Blue.

As a result, Watson isn’t getting hit as much. In the last six games, he has thrown 12 touchdown passes and two interceptions, both in the victory at Washington.

As always, O’Brien is quick to take the blame for losing and even quicker to credit the players for winning. And the players have been getting a lot of credit over the last nine games.

Fans and media might get tired of O’Brien’s approach to credit and blame, but the players love it. And that’s another reason they have the winning streak and pursuit of a first-round bye and home-field advantage. Both would be a first in Texans’ history.

john.mcclain@chron.com

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