Coming off of a bye week, the Houston Texans will thrive
By Josh Wilson
Starting off a season 1-5 is not good for any team, especially not one that had high expectations attached to it like the Houston Texans. But things may be looking up for them.
Despite things seeming to fall apart especially with drama attached to quarterback Ryan Mallett, a bye week placed at just the right time may push them to succeed for the rest of the season. The Mallett drama was nonsense, but it was quickly pushed out of the way, and the Texans won their very next game against the Titans, 20-6.
On top of that, Houston has won two of their last three since their disappointing first six games. Despite a not-so-great record of 3-5, they’re holding their ground and still in the running for the division lead given that the rest of the division has had a tough year too. The leading Indianapolis Colts sit at just 4-5, and have a bye week this week. So if the Texans could escape Monday Night Football with a win, they would be tied for the division lead, which any fan should be excited about who knows how the year started.
But that’s where things get shaky. The team has to go up against a good undefeated Cincinnati Bengals on prime time TV. If fate tells us anything, it’s that the Bengals are going to win. At the same time, this screams “trap game” for the Bengals, and they could get the curse of prime-time television put on them against the Texans. In the past few years, when the Bengals have seemed to be decent, they always happen to find a way to mess it up.
Even this year, I’m failing to see much elite about this team. The caliber of teams they’ve beaten isn’t impressive, at least not to me. I’m not saying this would be an easy win for Houston, but they may surprise people with how well they keep up.
After that game, the Texans are set up to win, facing the New York Jets, the struggling New Orleans Saints and Buffalo Bills, and then the Colts, Titans, and Jaguars again. The only sure-loss I see in their schedule is a matchup against Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in between the Bills and Colts.
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This bye week gave the team time to rejuvenate. J.J. Watt went to a Houston Rockets game and had fun, playing around by trying to check in at the scorer’s table. Besides this, they’ve had a lot of time to reflect on their season so far, and have a perfect setup to the next half of the year.