The Houston Texans looked like a team void of any fight entering the NFL playoffs after dropping five of their final eight games of the regular season (not counting the finale played by backups), including the last two losses by a combined 37 points to the Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens. Real Super Bowl contenders.
On Saturday, the Texans showed they might have more fight left in them than we were led to believe.
Houston put a beat down on the Los Angeles Chargers, getting to Justin Herbert for nine quarterback hits, four sacks and four interceptions en route to a 32-12 win. It was the Texans’ biggest win and most points in a game since Week 11, and it gives them some nice momentum to carry into Arrowhead for a rematch against the Chiefs as eight-point underdogs.
The spread for this weekend’s divisional playoff game is by far the biggest on the AFC side and matches Kansas City’s Week 16 margin of victory when they beat the Texans 27-19 as 3.5-point favorites. That game is also when the Texans lost Tank Dell to a season-ending injury, leaving a struggling offense even more shorthanded and eliminating all hope of a late-season turnaround.
However, that was before we saw Houston’s defense put on a show like the one they put on Saturday.
The Texans dominated the Chargers, and it wasn’t just turnovers. They held LA to 3-of-11 on third downs. Herbert completed fewer than 50% of his passes. Chargers running backs averaged just 2.8 yards per carry. LA’s offense couldn’t sustain drives, and a 10-6 halftime deficit eventually snowballed into a blowout. It was convincing enough to believe the Texans can cover +8 against a rested but potentially rusty Chiefs team that was rarely the best version of itself before getting to rest its stars the last two weeks.
For the Texans to pull off a stunning upset, C.J. Stroud and the Houston offense will need to play better independent of their defense. Otherwise, the same thing they did to the Chargers can easily happen to them — especially against playoff Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes. But if Houston’s defense matches its last effort, we may be looking at a Texans cover and a game that remains competitive into the fourth quarter regardless of how good the offense is.
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