Conventional wisdom told us that once the Houston Texans fell to 0-3 to start the 2025 season, it likely meant that as the season came to a close, this wouldn't be a team playing meaningful football games into December. After all, there's barely any track record of teams escaping from an 0-3 hole to make the postseason, and the Texans didn't necessarily look the part of a team destined to buck major historical trends.
Yes, the Texans defense got off to a strong start, but it wasn't so promising just yet that it looked like a unit that could prop up one of the league's most ineffective offenses, particularly once they were already in a three-game hole. That offense... yuck. Really until the 4th quarter of their Week 4 win over the Tennessee Titans, Houston's offense was looking like it might be one of the worst groups in the NFL.
Slowly but surely though, the Texans offense began to round into shape. Maybe Davis Mills coming in for a concussed CJ Stroud was the spark the unit needed, or maybe that's purely coincidental. Meanwhile, although Houston's defense was never the problem, as the group starting forcing more turnovers and accounting for more sacks, it felt like this team was getting more and more dangerous.
Now, as we approach the first weekend in December, you could make the case that Houston -- currently 7-5 -- may be the most dangerous team in the AFC, and yet right now, they're not even in the Playoff field.
But that's a testament to the culture of winning that DeMeco Ryans has created in his short stint in Houston, as well as a nod to the job that general manager Nick Caserio has done in building this roster that's loaded with high-character, hard-working players.
Notice the emboldened and italicized buzzwords up above? Well those are just a few of the descriptors you could tag this Texans team with. Members of the organization had quite a few of their own.
"We have that true resolve," Ryans said, per DJ Bien-Aime of ESPN.com. "No one play is going to get us in a tank and nobody's going down. Everybody understands it's a 60-minute battle each and every time we step out there, and we're playing full 60-minute games now, and that's the difference."
"It comes down to discipline," Danielle Hunter told ESPN. "That's the biggest thing. At the beginning of the season, there was one play where one guy would be out of position, whether it be offense, defense or special teams. Football is a game of inches. It's a game of whoever makes the least amount of mistakes, the team that's more disciplined. That's the team that comes out on top."
"Everybody is just finishing -- from special teams, offense to defense," safety Calen Bullock noted. "Everybody is just going out there believing and doing their job and knowing that their brother is going to do the job already."
“Everybody's been coming up to work with great energy, great vibes, and we’re just going to gel and play complimentary football, and that’s what you got to have in this last push," Will Anderson Jr. explained.
Pick whichever of those words are your favorite and feel confident in running with it when talking about the Houston Texans. They're all accurate.