(SportsRadio 610) - For the last three weeks, the Texans had played some of their best football against the likes of the Dallas Cowboys, Kansas City Chiefs and Tennessee Titans.
Two of those three teams have Super Bowl aspirations while the Titans are set to play in a win or go home game against the Jacksonville Jaguars next Sunday.
While fans and media types are more concerned with the organization holding onto the number one overall selection in the upcoming April draft, players were hoping to compound the energy they’ve built with better play in recent weeks.
Instead, they came out flatter than a pancake and played their worst game of the season against a team that didn’t need to play it all.
The 31-3 drubbing at the hands of the Jaguars was their worst margin of defeat since they were blown out by the Indianapolis Colts by the same score in week 6 of last season.
Texans veteran defensive tackle Maliek Collins was beside himself after the game and called out the teams pride lack of pride.
“As a team we’ve got to be more prideful than that, we’ve got to put a cap on that,” Collins said. “It should never be 31-3. It took me back to memories like last year. You know we’ve been losing but nothing looked like that so far this year. You know it comes a time in a season where you know, you gotta have pride.”
With just one game remaining on the schedule, for many, that time has long since come and gone.
Veteran defense end Jerry Hughes, who recorded his ninth sack of the season in the loss said after the game that the team was well aware that the Texans, as an organization, had beaten the Jaguars nine straight times dating back to the 2017 season, alluding to the Texans having possibly taking the Jaguars for granted.
“It’s like having a fight with your little brother, if you beat them nine times, you’ve got to be ready for the tenth one because they’re going to throw the whole kitchen sink at you,” Hughes said. “They came out, they were playing with playoff energy, they were playing like a team who wanted to win and we just couldn’t match it for some reason.”
Imagine that.
A team that hasn’t been favored once all season, that had won just twice in the previous 17 weeks, taking on one of the hottest teams in the AFC and taking them for granted?
The Texans finished the home portion of their 2022 campaign winless for the first time in franchise history with an 0-7-1 record.
A product of Alief Taylor high school, defensive end Obo Okoronkwo said after the game that not being able to win at home all season is especially upsetting.
“Very disappointing, especially being a Houston guy,” Okoronkwo said. “Last home game of the year, definitely wanted to give the fans a nice show, let them know that we’re gonna go into the next year with improvement. We didn’t get to get that done today but hopefully the fans know we’re still working, we’re still trying to get better you know, it’s gonna get better.”
The Texans finishing the season winless at home and becoming the first team to do so since the 2017 Cleveland Browns, seems all too appropriate.
NRG Stadium hasn’t felt nor looked like home all season long as the stands have in large part been occupied by fans from the visiting team, a win on Sunday would’ve fallen on deaf ears and likely enraged more people than not.
While the organization prepares for its most important off season in franchise history, with franchise altering decisions to be made, the only win that matters in the near term is a loss next weekend.
The Texans will win, if they lose to the Colts or if the Bears beat the Vikings.