ARLINGTON, Texas -- The phrase "complementary football" is a favorite of Houston Texans head coach Bill O'Brien's, right up there with "it's not life threatening" and "I'll ask Dr. (insert last name of player who is not a doctor)."
He emphasizes the need for each of the Texans' units to help the others as best they can. Early in the fourth quarter of Sunday's 20-17 overtime loss to the Dallas Cowboys, came an example of how not to do that.
J.J. Watt stuffed Cowboys running back DeMarco Murray for no gain on first down at the Texans' 20. Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo went deep and safety Kendrick Lewis read him well enough to intercept the pass at the Texans' three-yard line, returning it to the eight.
With the ball back in their hands, the Texans' offense went three and out, finishing that drive on their own 15-yard line, their second consecutive drive having gone three-and-out. The Cowboys returned the ensuing punt 38 yards, and four plays later, Romo threw a two-yard touchdown pass to Dez Bryant. The Texans had quickly, and unnecessarily, gone down 10 points.
They climbed out of that hole, this plucky group.
"They should get credit for their tenacity," Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said.
But they shouldn't have needed to do that.
"We had a lot of changes in the first half to capitalize off of mistakes they had," receiver DeAndre Hopkins said. "But we just couldn't."
Their regular formula of running the ball well and forcing turnovers on defense won't work against better teams if those turnovers lead to nothing. And the teams they face will get better from here.
"This game is so much about momentum," Texans quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick said. "Getting those big plays and coming up empty -- it's one thing to start it out three and out, but to have such momentum shift with a turnover and then not do anything with it, that's a really disappointing part of what we had today."
Fitzpatrick was frequently off target, especially early on. As he has before, he improved in the second half. He helped show, too, the Texans' offense is occasionally capable of doing what it needs to do. See: the Houston's 45-yard game-tying drive that ended with 41 seconds remaining in regulation.
They ran the ball well on Sunday. Arian Foster outgained the league's leading rusher DeMarco Murray, 157 to 136. Foster averaged 6.8 yards per carry, but curiously, when the Texans needed two yards to keep an overtime drive alive on third down, they opted to throw the ball to Foster instead.
"I don't know," O'Brien said when asked why the Texans didn't keep running Foster. "I have no idea."
They punted the ball away and Bryant's theatrics won the day. Covered perfectly by Johnathan Joseph, Bryant wrestled the ball away from the veteran corner, making a 37-yard catch in field goal range that made the game's ending inevitable.
It was inevitable by that time, but it didn't have to be.
More of that complementary football O'Brien preaches constantly might have changed the outcome of this in-state tussle.