Houston Texans look to make unlikely Super Bowl run
It took the Houston Texans four games to get their first win of the 2018 season. Now, Bill O’Brien’s team finally hopes to go on a sustained postseason run.
The Houston Texans are only the sixth team in NFL history to reach the postseason after a 0-3 start. They are the first franchise headed to the playoffs after such a dismal opening since the 1998 Buffalo Bills managed the same feat. For those interested in history, the others include the 1981 New York Jets (0-3), 1982 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (0-3), 1992 San Diego Chargers (0-4) and 1995 Detroit Lions (0-3).
Of course, Bill O’Brien’s club is the first to overcome such a start to win a division title since those aforementioned Chargers. And it’s also worth noting that the Bolts are the only one of the previous five clubs to actually win a playoff game after such a disappointing start.
So what should we expect on Saturday at NRG Stadium when Deshaun Watson, DeAndre Hopkins, J.J. Watt and Jadeveon Clowney take the field when the Indianapolis Colts arrive in Houston for the second time this season?
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The longtime divisional rivals split their two-game set in 2018, with the road club prevailing in each instance. So can Andrew Luck and a much-improved Colts’ squad defeat the Texans for the second time in five weeks?
The key could be as simple as which team does a better job of keeping its quarterback out of harm’s way. A year ago, with Luck sidelined for the entire year, Indianapolis allowed a league-high 56 sacks. This season, the Colts gave up an NFL-low 18 quarterback traps. In 2018, it was Watson who was dropped a league-worst 62 times.
Back in Week 4 at Indianapolis, O’Brien’s team came up with a 37-34 overtime win. In that contest, the Houston pass rush sacked Luck four times. Four weeks ago at Houston, the Texans got to the Colts’ signal-caller two more times in what proved to be a 24-21 setback. All told, Romeo Crennel’s defensive unit had one-third of the 18 sacks allowed by Frank Reich’s club in 2018 — three of those by defensive end J.J. Watt.
But back to the Texans. NFL history tells us that getting to the playoffs after a 0-3 start is tough and winning a postseason game is even harder. And if O’Brien and company pull this off, is the team capable of reaching the conference championship game for the first time in the franchise’s brief history?
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The Houston Texans are 11-2 in their last 14 games. The Colts are 9-1 in their last 10 outings. O’Brien has seen Luck riddle his secondary twice this season. Can Watt, Clowney and Crennel’s defense cool off one of the more balanced attacks in the league at the moment? It figures to be quite the challenge for the AFC South champions.