At some point, the Houston Texans are bound to get the respect they deserve. Maybe. Eventually. At least that's what one would think.
Just four teams won at least one playoff game in each of the two most recent postseasons, and just two of those teams successfully qualified for this year's playoffs. One of those teams is, of course, the Texans, who are set to open up the playoffs on Monday night as the No. 5 seed on the road against the No. 4 seed Pittsburgh Steelers.
Yet the Texans appeared to be nothing more than an afterthought when Amazon Prime Video's post-game team unearthed their "time capsule" predictions from Week 2 after Saturday night's NFC Wild Card game between the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears.
Houston Texans' playoff win apparently didn't count
Among the things with which the five analysts – Charissa Thompson, Andrew Whitworth, Tony Gonzalez, Ryan Fitzpatrick, and Richard Sherman – were tasked back in Week 2 was to pick one of the 18 teams that failed to qualify for the 2024-25 postseason that they felt would qualify this season.
Gonzalez and Sherman inexplicably picked the Los Angeles Chargers – yes, a playoff team from a year ago.
Even more inexplicably, none of the other three called them out on it; in fact, Gonzalez and Sherman were both praised for being "correct".
There were six possible correct answers, including the New England Patriots, the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Seattle Seahawks, the Chicago Bears, the Carolina Panthers, and the San Francisco 49ers.
The Chargers weren't even one of the 12 teams they could have picked and simply been wrong about, because they literally did make it to the postseason 12 months ago. And of course, they got absolutely dismantled by the Texans in what turned out to be the first game in NFL history to end in a 32-12 score.
Justin Herbert, who had thrown just three interceptions throughout the entire regular season, was picked off by Houston's defense four times in that game.
So sure, the Chargers did qualify this year. But they weren't an eligible answer, since they also qualified a year ago.
How could anybody forget that beatdown?
Better yet, how could it have been forgotten all the way back in Week 2, at which point the Chargers had only played one additional game since the matchup unfolded?
Given the fact that the Texans have long been somewhat of an afterthought in the postseason field, having only ever played the opening game of Wild Card weekend on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. CT at NRG Stadium (eight times out of eight, up until this year...), perhaps we can forgive Gonzalez and Sherman for this oversight.
However, in the future, our recommendation would be to focus less on getting Fitz to take his shirt off every week and focus more on attention to detail, especially when that detail could not have been more obvious.
Perhaps this year's Texans team can leave a mark that makes everybody remember exactly how they played – and hopefully, exactly who they beat.
With the Texans-Steelers game set to wrap up Wild Card weekend, both teams will know exactly where they'd be heading if they win before the game even starts. As of now, however, there are still four possible Divisional Round opponents for Houston ahead of today's Buffalo Bills-Jacksonville Jaguars and Chargers-New England Patriots games.