The day after the Texans reach 7-6 and stay alive in 2014, their first-year head coach strides down a darkened hallway on the ground floor of NRG Stadium. He paces past blank walls that once bore oversized images of pro football stars, confidently tossing a water bottle in the air without pausing for the catch. He carries on rapid-fire conversations with three people at once, his voice showing off proud New England roots, his words always sounding down to earth. Then Bill O'Brien starts messing around with a longtime friend.

"This guy thinks he was a coach," O'Brien said jokingly.

The guy was. So John Harris, the Texans' in-house gridiron guru and Football 101 professor, laughs back at the man with whom he first started trading inside jokes two decades ago.

Last week, Harris mentioned a Texans play similar to one he ran during his high school coaching days.

A smiling O'Brien glanced back with an "Are you freaking kidding me?" look, while TV cameras rolled for another "Texans Telestrator" episode.

This week, the duo are set to break down a 27-13 victory at Jacksonville, which kept the Texans in the AFC playoff race and handed O'Brien the most first-year wins in franchise history.

O'Brien has changed the Texans' soft culture, ended the pain of 2-14 in 2013, endured the fragile first year of No. 1 pick Jadeveon Clowney and survived two quarterback changes, all while instilling mental and physical toughness in a team that often wilted during past season-defining moments. Twenty-two years devoted to a criss-crossed, unorthodox coaching tree are beginning to bloom. O'Brien's resilient Texans are relevant with the Colts waiting in Indianapolis in Week 15.

More Information Texans update Record: 7-6. Today: At Indianapolis, noon. TV/radio: CBS; 610 AM, 100.3 FM and 1180 AM (Spanish). First-year foundation Bill O'Brien's first year hasn't been perfect, but the Texans have consistently been sharper and more focused - first in takeaways (29), 26th in penalty yards (644) - than a 2013 team that finished an NFL-worst 2-14. Offense Category Avg. 2014 2013 Points per game 24.2 T-12 31 Total yards per game 350.2 15 11 Rushing ypg. 137.1 4 T-20 Passing ypg. 213.2 24 T-15 Time of possession 29:52 19 6 Third-down pct. 38.3 23 21 Defense Category Avg. 2014 2013 Points per game 20 T-7 T-24 Total yards per game 373 25 7 Rushing ypg. 109 15 23 Passing ypg. 264 28 3 Third-down pct. 37.8 8 8

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A fiery yet cerebral leader is about to get some face time.

"This is, quote-unquote, my wheelhouse," O'Brien said. "I don't like coach's shows, where there's a rubber plant right there and you're asking me some stupid question. I'd rather talk football."

Game tape of Arian Foster's 51-yard, C.J. Fiedorwicz-led touchdown run is ready to roll. But before O'Brien begins video teaching and Harris slows fast-paced images to match his friend's words, a 45-year-old husband and father of two makes an unexpected announcement.

"I'm going to wear a hat from now on," said O'Brien, referencing the dark-blue Texans cap on his head.

With lights blinking and cameras zooming, no one in the room asks about the fashion change. The busy silence doesn't matter. The punch line - honest, direct, sarcastic and 100 percent O'Brien - is ready to be delivered.

"(My wife) watches this - I don't know why," O'Brien said. "She's like, 'Your head is horrendous. Please put a hat on.' "

Loves his football

Ryan Fitzpatrick said it was too soon.

The Texans have three regular-season games remaining. They haven't won in Indy or made the playoffs yet. Anything definitive said about O'Brien's first year spent breathing life into the NFL's worst team last year should wait a few weeks.

Then a journeyman QB handpicked, promoted, benched and re-promoted by O'Brien captured the Texans' new coach better than anyone on the team's evolving 53-man roster.

Some coaches fake it, Fitzpatrick said. Some don't truly believe in the religion of football. O'Brien never fakes anything and sincerely lives the sport. The Texans were hooked from their first encounter with the screamer/jokester and haven't let go.

"One of the biggest things about coach O'Brien is that he commands respect," Fitzpatrick said. "Right when he stepped into that team meeting room, he had everybody's attention. It was very easy for everybody to respect what he had done as a coach. And now, getting to know him as a person, respect that he's a good husband and father.

"It was really (refreshing) for me this year to come in and see his energy and passion. He's a football coach because he loves the game of football."

O'Brien's devotion has translated into a little better than average in 2014. The Texans' offense has sometimes thrilled but often been frustratingly inconsistent. The defense has improved under new coordinator Romeo Crennel yet is prone to big plays and letdowns. The primary talent that has driven this year's team is left over from the best years of Gary Kubiak's run, which peaked at 12-4 in 2012.

But key, controllable issues that plagued the Texans during their horrific 2013 fall - intensity, discipline, focus - have been answered with the team's new attributes under O'Brien. Near comebacks against the Dallas Cowboys and Colts in Weeks 5-6 have been followed by the team's resilience after losing quarterback Ryan Mallett to a season-ending injury in Week 13. The Texans are becoming the tough, gritty group for which fans have longed.

"He's learned how to do this from his past experiences, and it shows," said NFL Network analyst Steve Mariucci, who coached San Francisco and Detroit from 1997-2005. "He's very solid in what he does and what he believes in. He's managed that team through some tough times. Not only has Bill kept hope alive, he's kept that team playing better and better."

Last year's Texans failed, then quit on themselves. O'Brien's Texans have only gotten stronger as the season has unfolded, shaking off minor (Arian Foster, Brian Cushing) and major (Clowney, Mallett) injuries, while riding the two-man show of J.J. Watt and Foster into late-season playoff contention.

"I give a lot of credit to the players," O'Brien said. "I know it hasn't always worked out the way we wanted to. As we look into the future, we want to be a lot better than 7-6 at this point in the year. But these guys have really put a lot of time into it.

"If we can eliminate mistakes and keep playing hard, then we're still in the hunt. We're playing meaningful games in December, which is an important part of the vision, and that's good for the first year."

Meeting of the minds

Veterans were a critical part of O'Brien's vision.

At Penn State, his initial hurdle appeared insurmountable: Keeping as many players committed to the Nittany Lions as possible, while the program was engulfed in a national scandal.

With the Texans, O'Brien's first challenge was less career-defining but just as integral to his 2014 success. The team was a preseason Super Bowl contender a year ago, then collapsed when real expectations arrived. To get the best out of his rebuilt Texans - which features core vets from the team's 2011-12 rise - O'Brien knew he needed to connect with experienced athletes whose opinions carry weight on and off the field.

After becoming Bob McNair's third coach in January, O'Brien attended the NFL owners meetings in March in Orlando, Fla. The first-year coach was surrounded by friends and familiar faces. He also was outranked by fellow football lifers who had spent decades learning what O'Brien would encounter on the fly during his first year in Houston. Reshaping a roster, diving into the draft and remaking the team's image were one thing. Getting the heart and soul of the Texans to believe in him all season was another.

"One of the things that I wanted to do when I came back from that owners meeting was making sure I did a good job of communicating with the players," O'Brien said. "And maybe they wouldn't always agree with what it was. But at least they knew what I was thinking and at least I knew what they were thinking. And a lot of times we have come to an agreement on it, because these guys are men - they're professional football players that care about winning."

Let there be carts

Cue the leadership council.

Turning his open-door policy into an actual open door, O'Brien regularly has met with veterans all season. Players share ideas, offer critiques and request changes. The coach does the same, bonding with his team while balancing football as a business and sport. Athletes as diverse as Danieal Manning, Brooks Reed and Kareem Jackson have participated in the council. The tangible benefits: Transport carts that replaced forbidden Segways, carrying tired Texans to and from practice; Bible study moved to a more player-friendly time before game days; a hipper musical playlist, which became more hip-hop.

"From day one, he's treated us like men," offensive tackle Duane Brown said. "He hasn't come in and tried to be like a dictator or 'Do this and do this and do that.' The mutual respect has been there. With everything that we get, we have to abide by the few rules that we do have."

As for the carts?

"The carts were a surprise," Brown said. "He was pretty adamant about it when he came in. That was a big win. That was huge for us to get those carts."

Not everyone on the council - which players said meets about once a week and alternates members - is a full open-door contributor.

"I don't suggest anything," Reed said jokingly. "I literally just sit there and listen. There's a lot more older vets in there than me, so I just kind of nod my head pretty much."

When the Texans are granted a council request, O'Brien's sharp wit often follows the players' win.

"Isn't that enough for you guys?" Manning recalled his coach joking at practice.

With the NFL's coaching carousel beginning to spin - Dennis Allen was fired by Oakland; Marc Trestman (Chicago), Jim Harbaugh (San Francisco) and Rex Ryan (New York Jets) have been in the headlines for weeks - O'Brien clearly has made first-year inroads with a team that was falling apart this time a season ago.

He can yell, stomp and steam with the best of them. He also cares. And he wants to win.

"You have to be on your P's and Q's and giving 100 percent effort all the time or you're out the door," center Chris Myers said. "As long as you're taking care of your business, he's a good friend, too. He's going to crack jokes with you and keep it lighthearted, even out at practice.

"Some people don't always understand Bill's comedy and we don't always approve of the music that he picks for the practices. But aside from that, the balance that he has between being a head coach and close to all the guys is great."

The hat is covering his head and O'Brien is being O'Brien.

His wife asked him to shave. He's sporting Victory Monday scruff.

"I always forget to shave on Mondays," O'Brien said.

One of the Texans' video personnel mentions they went to St. John's for high school. The name's the same, but it's not the St. John's Preparatory School O'Brien attended in Danvers, Mass., near Boston.

"I went to the real St. John's," O'Brien said, not giving an inch.

Just the start

In the minutes before Foster's TD is played back on the telestrator, O'Brien jokes about a yearbook photo that featured him saying he wanted to dunk a basketball by 30 - "That was just some deal" - Penn State players tweeting the joke-worthy image and Frank Caliendo's impersonation of Merril Hoge.

"Caliendo, he doesn't even know who the (heck) I am," O'Brien said.

The coach every Texans fan knows broke down the tape. Then O'Brien returned to a dark hallway.

This is just the start, he said. Next year's Texans will be much different than this year's Texans. Being 7-6 in mid-December isn't what he wants. But after 2-14 and so much change, the sight of football in January isn't lost on a first-year coach who spent months tearing down and building up everything around him.

"We're in it," O'Brien said. "It's a great feeling to know that if you keep winning there's a reward at the end of making the playoffs. For this year's team, that's a hell of a goal."