(SportsRadio 610) - It was right there within their grasp. All the Texans had to do was lose one more game.
It seemed to take more effort to lose 13 games this season than it did for the Texans to beat Indianapolis 32-31 on Sunday afternoon.
The week leading up to the regular season finale, Texans head coach Lovie Smith said the team's draft position wouldn’t factor into their approach against the Colts.
While Smith wouldn’t be expected to say anything on the contrary, he delivered the most hollow win in franchise history before being fired Sunday evening.
The win squandered the organization’s opportunity to start their clock now.
They blew an opportunity to control the entire NFL Draft in April.
Following the game, head coach Lovie Smith explained the situation, and managed it the only way he knew how.
"All right, this is the option that I had. So, you're saying, hey, guys, playing this last game, all that you've been working for all your life, you play to win, forget that, lose the game on purpose," Smith said. "I think that would be a hard one to get by. They wouldn't expect me to say that. I didn't. Each week our game plan to be to win the game. It's kind of simple as that. That's what we followed through on today."
There is nothing Texans fans needed or wanted to see by way of individual player success or achievement Sunday.
One game wasn’t going to decide anyone's fate.
Unfortunately for chairman and CEO Cal McNair, Sunday's win sealed it for the organization with the number two pick.
The 17 previous weeks showed fans all they needed to see, and much of it consumed with anticipation of owning the top pick in the April draft.
No one wanted to see quarterback Davis Mills engineer a touchdown drive on the team's opening possession for just the second time this season.
Certainly no one wanted to see him lead a game-winning drive for the third time in his career.
Those aspirations had long since come and gone.
On Sunday, all of it was unwanted and unnecessary.
Rooting for the team in your city to lose is unconscionable.
At least it should be. But, in this case it felt so necessary.
Houston shouldn’t ever want to do it again. It’s a violation of everything that is supposed to be good and romantic about sports.
Players aren’t in the business of tanking, they’re in the business of doing what’s necessary to stay on the field, make money and win.
Players don’t tank. The NFL isn’t rigged and no, the team isn’t cursed.
The organization is drowning in the aftermath of incompetence and gross negligence.
The opportunity to repair itself from its past failures seemed within grasp if not for relinquishing control Sunday afternoon thanks to a Mills Hail Mary heave to tight end Jordan Akins.
The Texans (3-13-1) won a game, and it feels so empty.
Now, even more questions exist than do answers, and it will remain as such for the foreseeable future even despite the team firing Lovie Smith just hours after the game had ended.
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In the meantime, Cal McNair has the weight of the city on his shoulders.
How much of the burden can general manager Nick Caserio take from him?
Together, they must find a way to quickly bring relevancy back to this football team and restore the pride a once loyal and vibrant fan base had in it.
That path was just made to be a little more difficult than it already was, as controlling the draft has been relinquished to Chicago because of an empty W.
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With more picks (11) than any other NFL franchise entering the draft in April and the seventh most - projected - money to spend this off season, a drastic turnaround is needed.
At the moment, it seems a lot less possible than it was before Sunday.
The Bears are now on the clock.
So are you Cal.
Shaun Bijani has spent the last 16 years covering the Houston sports scene for SportsRadio 610. Follow him on Twitter @ShaunBijani.
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