Texans Will Get More from DeAndre Hopkins If Bill O'Brien Spreads the Field

One of the single greatest catches of the decade happened last week. DeAndre Hopkins one-handed a ball behind his body and reeled it in. Of course, it didn't count—it was too good to count—because Hopkins wasn't lined up properly at the snap.

However, it may have done more to open up Houston head coach Bill O'Brien's mind as far as utilizing Hopkins more.

In the postgame press conference, O'Brien told reporters that "[Hopkins is] a really, really good young player who has an excellent future. We need to do a better job of getting him the ball."

In some ways, that one-handed catch has epitomized Hopkins' career in Houston. The talent is so evident that a certain Football Outsiders writer predicted that Hopkins would catch 90 balls this season.

But because of mental mistakes—not running the correct routes, not breaking the correct way, etc.—the Texans mostly utilized Hopkins as a long-ball threat on an offense led by Matt Schaub and Case Keenum. That's like putting a custom cake shop in the middle of a gym.

The Texans, no matter what O'Brien says, would probably rather throw to Hopkins three or four times a game in the midst of running the game clock, as they did against Oakland.

Given their newfound shortcomings in run defense—golly, who would've thought that sticking a street free agent, a rehabbing Brian Cushing and an undrafted free agent in the middle of the field wouldn't have turned out well?—though, the Texans are going to have to come up with a plan for when the game script goes south.

Houston did show some signs of life in the passing game during the second half on Sunday. Intriguingly enough, they came when Houston went with an empty-back set and spread the formation out.

If O'Brien really does want to get Hopkins the ball, spreading the field is the best way he can do it.

Ryan Fitzpatrick is a quarterback who is going to miss some open receivers with both poor throws and poor vision. If the Texans spread the offense out, though, Fitzpatrick's weaknesses will be harder to take advantage of.

Either Fitzpatrick will have an easily defined hot read on the blitz or a better chance to use his only positive trait—his mobility—with less trash in the way at the line of scrimmage.

Credit: NFL Game Rewind

Here's the first play of Houston's second third-quarter drive from last week, after it fell behind 17-0. With an empty-back formation, I've put down all the routes as they happened (I'm not accounting for option routes on a play call I don't know.) Fitzpatrick's first read is Hopkins on the inside slant:

Credit: NFL Game Rewind

The New York Giants play a soft zone against it, and Hopkins' route is wide open. Easy pitch and catch, easy yardage.

On the very next play, the Giants change it up and run man with a single high safety against the empty set:

Credit: NFL Game Rewind

This time, Hopkins is not Fitzpatrick's first read. But because of the route concepts, he and tight end Garrett Graham create a natural pick action that crosses up New York's underneath defenders:

Credit: NFL Game Rewind

Easy catch again. Even with a rusher bearing down on Fitzpatrick from the outside, he's able to put this throw where it needs to be.

Almost all of Houston's passing-game offense has ground to a halt when it's gone out of traditional sets. It invites more things for Fitzpatrick to look at and try to figure out, and that wreaks havoc on his process from time to time.

Kathy Willens/Associated Press

Houston may be reluctant to use this formation going forward because, with Arian Foster out, it doesn't have a back it can trust to run routes and the ball competently.

Thus, it could be something of a tell if running back Ronnie Brown hits the field, as he's the team's only competent receiver and blocker.

I'm also not claiming the spread is Houston's chance to turn Fitzpatrick into a dynamo—he is what he is. This is how Houston can most easily get the ball into Hopkins' and Andre Johnson's hands and let them make plays.

The Texans can achieve passing mediocrity by making it completely transparent that Fitzpatrick is going to option one, option two or scrambling.

That's the offense he ran most comfortably in Buffalo, and it's clearly the one he's most comfortable with.

That's about the best way they can use Fitzpatrick, and that's the upside of Houston's pass offense: the Chan Gailey Buffalo spread with better receivers than Buffalo ever had.

Rivers McCown is the AFC South lead writer for Bleacher Report. His work has also appeared on Football Outsiders and ESPN.com. Follow him on Twitter at @riversmccown.