There's plenty of room to quibble about whether the Houston Texans offense is actually on track following five solid quarters of play that have come against the Tennessee Titans and Baltimore Ravens. But what is indisputable coming out of Week 5 is that the Texans defense may even end up exceeding the lofty expectations they entered the 2025 NFL season with.
Now it's important to note that the Ravens were without two-time MVP Lamar Jackson, and the Titans are probably one or two losses away from firing their head coach. It's not as if the Texans D has put the shackles on the Greatest Show on Turf Rams, the Peyton Manning-era Indianapolis Colts or even a fully healthy Ravens squad. These are a pair of teams that are in complete disarray.
The difference is, there's proof of concept with the Texans defense. It's a unit that we knew we could trust heading into the season, and even when the win-loss record looked a lot worse than it does presently, those losses weren't on the shoulders of the Texans D.
In their three losses to start the year, the Texans had limited their opponents to a total of 51 points, the lowest total for any team post-NFL/AFL merger that started a season with three consecutive losses. Now through five games, the Texans have allowed only 61 points, by far the top mark in the NFL. And really, the only defenses that are worth comparing this year's Texans to are some of the best units we've seen over the last quarter-century.
As I pointed out earlier in the week, the Texans are on pace to finish the season as one of the top scoring defenses in modern NFL history. Here's the very same table I provided on September 30 -- which inlcudes every defense since 2000 that allowed fewer than 13 points per game throughout an entire season -- updated to account for Houston's 44-10 win today.
Team | Points Allowed Per Game | Regular Season Record | Postseason Result |
|---|---|---|---|
2000 Ravens | 10.3 | 12-4 | Won Super Bowl |
2000 Titans | 11.9 | 13-3 | Lost Divisional Round |
2025 Texans | 12.2 | ??? | ??? |
2002 Buccaneers | 12.3 | 12-4 | Won Super Bowl |
2006 Ravens | 12.6 | 13-3 | Lost Divisional Round |
2005 Bears | 12.6 | 11-5 | Lost Divisional Round |
2001 Bears | 12.7 | 13-3 | Lost Divisional Round |
What made Houston's defensive dominance so impressive, and a little puzzling, over the first four weeks of the season was that they hadn't turned opponents over at the rate they did last year. But after forcing just three turnovers in those first four games, the Texans matched that total in Week 5 alone, picking Cooper Rush off three times -- Jalen Pitre had two, Kamari Lassiter had the other -- on the afternoon.
If that's a sign of things to come this year, the Texans really could make it to the end of the season with a great chance of remaining in this illustrious and incredibly successful group. And if CJ Stroud and the offense is capable of spotting the defense a lead to play with, who knows how dangerous this Texans defense can be.