DeMeco Ryans claims the Houston Texans are a different team ahead of their rematch with the Colts but are they?

The Houston Texans will have to defeat the Indianapolis Colts if they hope to see an 18th game this season. It seems like an easy thing to do on paper but the Houston Texans have not had a great go of it the last few weeks due to injuries and poor play. Now, with just one game left to go, they have to beat a team they've already lost to once before.

That game ended 31-20 and while rookie C.J. Stroud nearly had 400 yards passing, the offense didn't do much outside of some late action in the second half and the defense was nowhere to be seen. That was the game that the Colts lost fellow rookie quarterback Anthony Richardson for a spell and the team turned to Gardner Minshew.

Nope, they're going to see largely the same team before who dropped a 31-point outing on their head. The one saving grace is that both sides of the ball are playing better, at least compared to Week 2.

So it's not even like the Texans can rest on the fact that they'll see a different quarterback in round two of this two-round fight. While the Texans are without Tank Dell, they also have back Noah Brown and are relying on Devin Singletary more.

It's why Texans rookie head coach DeMeco Ryans believes this is a different team than the one that faced the Colts the last time around, telling the media (via Sports Illustrated).

"We’re a completely different team, they’re a completely different team. For me, it’s all a fresh start. For us, I don’t really put much weight on the first game of the year. I start watching and I’m like, ‘Man, who is this team?’ It seems like that was so long ago, playing that second game, so fresh start for both teams. I think they have different players in, we have different players in. It’ll be a fresh start."

The Texans, especially on defense are much improved, especially with the late-season addition of Derek Barnett, who has been a wrecking ball since joining Houston's front four a few weeks back. He and Will Anderson Jr. will prove to be a tough out for the Colts, and that's just assuming that Jonathan Greenard isn't back on the field by then either.

If all three are there, the Colts will face one of the most brutal front fours in football over the last half of the season.