O'Brien's been solid everywhere except Houston. He was a total disaster in Houston, but he was good in New England, good at Penn State, and he's been good at Alabama. What's crazy is for as bad as O'Brien was at Houston, he STILL finished with a better record than Dennis Allen has.
Year 1 - 9-7 from 2-14 the year before
Year 2 - 9-7 won division blasted at home by Chiefs 0-30
Year 3 - 9-7 won division, won wild card round, lost at NE in divisional round 16-34
Year 4 - 4-12 last in AFC South - this was Watson's rookie year
Year 5 - 11-5 won division lost to Colts in wild card 7-21
Year 6 - 10-6 won division, won wild card, blew giant lead to chiefs in divisional lost 51-31
Year 7 - 4-12 - fired half way thru the year
That's not all that bad and had he not blown that 30 point lead to the Chiefs in the divisional round I think the guy is still coaching the Texans. I know the AFC South is bad but the guy won his division 4 of the 7 years he was coaching there and that is going the first 3 years without a QB, go look at the folks they started.
Hubris was his mistake when he made himself GM and traded D-Hop away plus blowing a 30 point lead to the Chiefs is what did him in.