What is the most wins the Houston Texans have had in a season?
With this being the second weekend without any NFL, Sundays are a good time to look at the all-time record book of the Houston Texans to see what some of the bests are in franchise history.
For this week, the thought was to see what the best regular season is in Houston Texans history, and that season was back in 2012 when the team had a 12-4 overall record but lost in the divisional round of the AFC Playoffs.
In that season, the Texans won their second straight AFC South championship, which was the second in franchise history. During this season, Matt Schaub was the starting quarterback for all 16 games, while T.J. Yates did play in four games.
Schaub in ’12 had 22 touchdowns and 12 interceptions, passing for 4,008 yards, completing 64.3 percent of his passes. Also, that season Arian Foster was the leading rusher on the team with 1,424 yards (4.1 yards per carry) on 351 carries with 15 touchdowns. Foster even had 40 receptions for 217 yards and two touchdown catches.
This all-time Texans team also had Ben Tate and Justin Forsett carrying the football in ’12, as Tate had two touchdown rushes and Forsett had one rushing score.
Andre Johnson was the leading receiver for the Texans back in ’12, totaling 1,598 yards receiving on 112 receptions with four touchdown catches. Johnson averaged 14.3 yards per catch in this season.
Think about this … the Texans were so successful because they had a “big three” with Schaub, Foster and Johnson leading the way on offense, and the offensive line was capable to block for Foster and that run blocking allowed so much success for Foster. Schaub was sacked 27 times in ’12.
Houston Texans: 12-win team had a quality defense too
J.J. Watt was the NFL Defensive Player of the Year, as his numbers speak for themselves with 20.5 sacks, 69 solo tackles, 39 tackles for loss, and 43 QB hits. Watt also had four forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries, and 16 passes defensed.
Kareem Jackson led Houston with four interceptions, and as a team the Houston Texans defense collected 15 interceptions.
Another positive part of the season came during the offseason when the first-round pick was Whitney Mercilus, who played for the Texans for parts of 10 seasons and was one of the better draft choices in franchise history.
Looking back in this quick take on the team that had the most wins in a season for the Texans, they were just the second team in franchise history to have a double-digit winning season, and since then only two other Texans‘ teams have achieved that feat which came in 2018 (11 wins) and 2019 (10 wins). The first Texans team to win 10 games was the ’11 Texans.
All in all, the ’12 Texans were a solid team, but they ultimately lost in the playoffs in the divisional round game against the New England Patriots. Houston did win in the wild card round vs. the Cincinnati Bengals to go 1-1 in the playoffs.
The Texans didn’t go as far as they wanted to in the playoff during their 12-win season, but they were an exciting team to watch with Watt on defense being the top player on the unit, and the offense that had high-quality players at wide receiver and running back.
What are your favorite memories of the 2012 Houston Texans? Let us know.