If we head back to 2019, the Houston Texans had won the American Football Conference (AFC) South Division for a 6th time, making the playoffs in the process. Sadly, that is all they have won in their history, failing to ever win an AFC championship or even make it to a Super Bowl final.
Come back to the present day, and the Texans are far from anywhere near winning another division title this season. In fact, they sit rock bottom alongside the Jacksonville Jaguars, with both franchises currently recording just one win each, alongside five losses. It’s safe to say that no NFL expert picks will have them as favorites going into any of their matches this season.
But why have the Houston Texans gone from a regular division winning side to a franchise who are just left at the bottom propping up the rest of the table? Well, let’s take a quick look at their seasons so far and the reasons as to why their form this season has been all over the place.
The season so far
The preseason was actually a good one for the Texans, managing to win two out of their three fixtures. And they weren’t against trash opposition either, they managed to comfortably beat both the Green Bay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys. Before losing their final preseason game 16-23 to the reigning Super Bowl champions, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
They then carried on that positive form into their season opener which saw the Texans host the Jacksonville Jaguars, a team who managed to snap up the first round draft pick, quarterback Trevor Lawrence. He was tipped to be one of the best quarterbacks of his generation and this would be his first major test when the Jaguars visited the NRG Stadium.
But the Texans managed to get their season off to a great start, as they beat the Jaguars convincingly with a 37-21 scoreline. But sadly, it was all downhill from there. It all started in Game Week 2 when they lost 31-21 visiting the Cleveland Browns, before they would be battered at home by the Carolina Panthers 9-24. The Texans then followed up that with three more losses to the Buffalo Bills, New England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts.
Who is next?
Up next the Texans (1-5) head on the road to visit the Arizona Cardinals (6-0) on Sunday 24th October. And it’s not likely to be a fun trip for the Texans if they can’t improve their current form, with the Cardinals currently undefeated in the 2021 season. In fact, if they’re not careful, this could potentially be one of their biggest losses of the campaign.
What is going wrong?
A lot of hate has been directed towards the Texans, but without fair reason. They dislike them purely for having player Deshaun Watson on their roster. But despite his sexual misconduct charges, he is still a quality player. And if he didn’t play for the Texans, someone else would snap him up. At the end of the day, Watson is the man who has potentially done wrong, not the Texans. And even then he’s been quite ungrateful for the support they have shown him with talk that he is trying to force a move.
It doesn’t help though that his skills aren’t being utilized, often with the coaching staff calling plays that leave him with little option to get the ball forward successfully. But it wouldn’t be the first time that they’ve made bad decisions around recruitment and utilization of players, just look at their handling of DeAndre Hopkins. They let him go to the Arizona Cardinals, the team they face next in the NFL, and he tore it up with them following his move there.
Another problem is inconsistencies, especially with the defense. You see them play one quarter in a game, and be able to shut out the opposition completely. Then the next quarter and they collapse. It’s like they forget how to mark players making runs, are too scared to challenge to intercept passes, and if a player gets past them, they look like they’ve given up and conceded they’re going to let the opposition score another touchdown.
But scoring is a problem too. At times, players struggle to break free of the defending players. They either run into them, or just struggle to get around them. And they pay too much attention to them rather than looking at where the ball is coming from, which has led to many incomplete passes this season. But then in the next game they’ll easily put 20+ points on the board. Although many of those do come from kicks, rather than touchdowns. And whilst kicks can edge a result for you, you can’t just rely on them to win you games.
Where do they go from here?
Potentially the best thing would be for them to plan for the future and rebuild. They need to head back to the drawing board, look at the coaching staff, the tactics and the recruitment. And they need to get people who want to be there and give their all for the team. At the moment, it doesn’t feel like this is the case, and the Texans fans deserve better. There are rumours that Watson could actually be on his way out, and this could present them with some excellent trade options to strengthen the side.
The Texans have fallen from the great heights of that 2019 season, their last division title winning season. A season where they recorded a record 10 wins. There is no reason the Texans can’t get back to that kind of form. But it will take time, and patience. But if the Texans’ owners wait too long to make changes, then it could be the case that they keep regressing. And they could fall further behind AFC South rivals with the likes of the Jaguars clearly planning for a positive future with Lawrence hopefully leading them to some championship titles.