The Houston Texans won the AFC South for the second straight season, fourth time in five years, and the sixth time in franchise history, which is the second-most since the division’s 2002 inception.
However, they were capable of so much more and they failed to capture it.
Here are four reasons why the Texans underachieved in the 2019 regular season.
1. losses to inferior teams cost them a bye
Let’s say the Texans weren’t good enough to beat the Baltimore Ravens in Week 11 after coming back from London. Fair enough; after all, no team that came back from London this season won their next game.
However, the Texans dropped winnable games against opponents that could have helped them get a bye in the AFC playoffs.
The first was to the Carolina Panthers 16-10 in Week 4. The Texans were coming off of a 27-20 win at the Los Angeles Chargers. They could have amassed a three-game winning streak. Instead, Houston went 1-of-3 in the red zone with receiver DeAndre Hopkins throwing a telegraphed pass to running back Carlos Hyde that was intercepted.
The second was to the Indianapolis Colts 30-23 in Week 7. After coming off of a big win at Arrowhead Stadium against the Kansas City Chiefs, the Texans couldn’t keep the momentum and couldn’t execute, losing the turnover battle 2-1 and going 4-of-12 on third downs.
The third was to the Denver Broncos in Week 38-24 in Week 14. After the greatest regular season win in the Bill O’Brien era, the Texans came out flat and fell behind 38-3 to rookie quarterback Drew Lock, who was making his first career road start.
If Houston even has one of those wins back, Week 17 means something more as a 12-4 finish would give them the No. 2 seed over Kansas City and New England as Houston would have the head-to-head tiebreaker over both.
How much readier could J.J. Watt be if he had another week of practice to get ready for the playoffs?