In most instances when a team is staring down an 0-3 record after the first three weeks of the year, whether that was due to a lack of talent, good luck or resilience, it's a pretty safe bet to assume that this team's season is on the verge of cratering.
In Houston's case, talent clearly wasn't the issue that contributed their 0-3 start to the season. You could make the case that when the NFL's Top 100 player list is revealed for 2026, few teams will have as many players on the list as the Texans will.
A lack of good luck could certainly have been the case, considering Houston was winless despite allowing just 17 points per game in three one-possession losses.
The big question after the first three weeks of the 2025 season was just how resilient the Texans would be. Was this a roster and coaching staff equipped to handle a few early haymakers, or did this team with immense talent and high expectations have a glass jaw, just ready to be knocked out of postseason contention before we could even get our Halloween decorations up.
It wasn't until the Texans started racking up some wins -- three in their next five games -- before we knew for sure this team wasn't going to die easy, and it took an improbableseason-saving comeback win over the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 10 to alert everyone that Houston was emerging as a potential powerhouse, threatening to peak at the right time.
But inside the Houston Texans locker room, there were no lingering doubts. No second-guessing the process. No panic. At least not from the franchise quarterback who was brought to Houston almost three years ago to steady the ship in situations such as this one.
"I never thought we were going to just keep losing. We weren't getting blown out. It was by one score every time," Stroud told DJ Bien-Aime of ESPN.com. "I really thought we were going to go 14-3. I was talking to Jake Andrews after practice, and he was like, 'We are going to win out.' I told him, 'I know we're super close.' But I didn't go, 'We need to march the comeback right now,' I was like, 'Let's just win this game.'"
14-3 turned out to be just a bit ambitious, but not too far off of what the end result of the regular season would be. 12-5 turned out to be a sufficient enough finish for the Texans to earn a Wild Card berth and make the postseason for the third straight year. Now, with a win over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night, the Texans could advance to the Divisional Round for the third straight season as well.
As daunting as it may seem to have to go on the road and win in the postseason -- something the Texans have never done in their previous 23 seasons in the National Football League -- what this team has learned throughout this season was that they're equipped to beat any opponent put in front of them. Victories over the San Francisco 49ers, Jacksonville Jaguars, Los Angeles Chargers and Buffalo Bills were proof of that.
"We can beat any team in this league," tackle Tytus Howard told ESPN. "Us getting that win [against the Bills] set us up for the rest of the season. It let us know that we take care of what we need to take care of, and not hurt ourselves, we can beat anybody."