At some point, when so much goes wrong, does a National Football League team just quit?
Now, this question is more addressed in the final weeks of a season when the fallacy that some teams may pack-it-in with an eye on improving their draft position. For the record, that is bogus. The players and coaches are battling to keep their positions and don’t give a rat's ass about the advantage of losing a game that may result in someone new taking their job.
Still, we have seen through the years that while most teams will show up every week with intensity in their game with the hope of cracking the playoff field, there are those teams that we have observed collectively go through the motions. Those teams, seemingly playing with a collective surrender that this just isn’t their year.
Might the Houston Texas be moving toward that white flag territory now?
They came into this campaign with high hopes after winning the AFC South Division the prior two seasons. Their head coach, DeMeco Ryans, was locked into his role with as much job security as an NFL mentor can have. They had a quarterback in C.J. Stroud that hadn’t matched his rookie season brilliance last year, but with promise to reemerge among the top NFL signal callers with the boost of getting his top receiver back, Nico Ryans, who was sidelined with an injury for much of 2024.
The Texans opened with a narrow loss in Los Angeles to the talented Rams and came home to take a lead over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after the two-minute warning in a Monday night game. Then, their near win slipped away as Baker Mayfield led his Buccaneers on a length of the field drive for the winning touchdown in the final seconds.
In third week action, they met the Jacksonville Jaguars in Florida and battled all that day when late in the fourth quarter Collins caught a pass for a first down in the red zone with the game tied … and then fumbled the ball away. Trevor Lawrence proceeded to lead his Jaguars the length of the field for the winning score.
If you would have thought this was rock bottom for the Texans, you would have been right. In the next two weeks they outscored their opponents by a combined 70-10 score while beating the Tennessee Titans and Baltimore Ravens.
After their bye week, more trouble. A loss on the road to the Seattle Seahawks was followed by a must win conquest of the San Francisco 49ers at home, which was accomplished by a 26-15 score. Now, with the tough Denver Broncos coming to town, a win here vaults the Texans back into the playoff picture.
More trouble. In the first quarter Stroud is knocked out of the game with a concussion and his backup, Davis Mills, never gets the Texans into the endzone. Five field goals are not enough to hold a fourth quarter lead that melts to another agonizing close loss, this one by three points.
Stroud is going to miss tomorrow's game too, still in concussion protocol, and Houston is forced to go with their suspect backup. Once Stroud was ruled out, the point spread on this game shifted from the home team favored to the visiting Jaguars currently giving a point or more on the line.
In the words of Jim Mora, “Playoffs!, PLAYOFFS?”
That is what Ryans could be saying this week with his team struggling to stay ahead of the worst teams in the league and four games back in the win column to the team that leads their division race, the Indianapolis Colts.
Time to pack it in? Time to accept this is just not their season? Overmatched without their starting quarterback?
No. No. No.
Qoxhi Picks: Houston Texans (+1) over Jacksonville Jaguars