The overlooked upside with the Houston Texans schedule

By Josh Wilson | Oct 21, 2015

The Houston Texans 2015-16 season hasn’t been glamorous by any means so far. Starting off the year with having Hard Knocks by HBO check in on them and publicize their training camp wasn’t ideal, and from there, it’s been largely downhill.

Defensive end J.J. Watt spent the offseason working on his game, but it’s clearly not been enough to win games for the Texans. Going into week seven, they sport a record of 2-4, not what lots of people would have predicted for the team before the season began.

While some fans are starting to already lose interest in this team and keep their eyes on next year instead of this year, there’s a different storyline that should get some attention, and it’s the blessing of a schedule that poses some ease. While some think that the team’s season is lost, I would like to provide another angle–the team is about to hit a stride and win four out of their next five games.

Starting off, the losses that have taken place this season have mostly been noble losses, two of them coming to teams that are either still undefeated, or were undefeated up until this week.

More from Houston Texans News

Out of the next five games, three are against teams with losing records. The two that remain with winning records (Cincinatti Bengals and New York Jets) aren’t as perfect as they seem. The Bengals are undefeated, but what impressive teams have they really beat? Their most impressive win was an overtime game against the defending NFC Champion Seattle Seahawks, who have been incredibly unimpressive this year, with the same losing record (2-4) as the Houston Texans.

The Jets came away with some wins that I’m skeptical about too, since two of their wins were agaiinst teams that have had their struggles this year–the New York Jets and the Washington Redskins.

Those two games–in my mind–are toss ups for the Texans. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Bengals come off of some huge momentum with the undefeated season they’ve got going and beat the Texans, but I wouldn’t be caught off guard to see the Texans keeping up in the fourth quarter. The same goes for the Jets.

The other opponents aren’t doing well this season, and the Texans might even be considered favorites in some of the games. The Miami Dolphins, Tenessee Titans, and New Orleans Saints all have losing records at the moment, and the Texans defense could really jab at any of these team’s offenses.

The Saints seem to be the opponent to be worried about, and the Titans could be too, as long as Marcus Mariota is back in time to play the Texans. The Texans offense will have to try and run stride-for-stride with these teams, which could be hard. It’s not impossible, though.

The point is that the Texans could really hit a groove going into the middle section of the NFL schedule. Coming off of a win against the Jacksonville Jaguars, momentum could easily be carried over that leads them to greater teamwork, and overall a boosted team morale. A bye week within these games also could help them relax, regroup, and take some time to figure out what’s going right and wrong.

The Texans are just one loss behind the division-leading Indianapolis Colts (although the Colts pose an impressive 3-0 division record), and it’s not an unheard of scenario where they end up having a better record than the Colts by week 9 or 10. There’s still a lot of season left for the Houston Texans.

Next: Brian Hoyer Starting To Find His Groove

More from Toro Times

Home/Houston Texans News