The Houston Texans were ahead of the Kansas City Chiefs 24-0 on their home turf at Arrowhead Stadium in the AFC divisional playoffs.
With the wildcard Tennessee Titans beating the No. 1 seed Baltimore Ravens the night before, the Texans laid the foundation to upset the No. 2 seed Chiefs in the conference and allow Houston to host the AFC Championship Game for the first time in city history, let alone franchise history.
Instead, the Chiefs outscored the Texans 51-7 to punch their ticket to the conference title game en route to a win in Super Bowl LIV.
The Texans are moving on from the loss, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t learning from it still.
“I think not learning from that situation would be naïve of us,” Watt told reporters on Aug. 1. “I think that you have to understand what happened in that situation. You have to let that situation fuel you and let that fire build within you knowing how terrible that felt.”
For Watt, it is the third time in his career the Texans have been stymied in the divisional round. The three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year was on injured reserve in 2016 when the New England Patriots bounced Houston out in the divisional round.
The Texans just can’t seem to crack into the NFL’s final four.
“We have to learn from it, grow from it and be able to handle what comes next after that,” said Watt. “So, no, I don’t think that we’re necessarily ignoring it or moving on from it. We learn from it and then we grow and build off of it. That’s our goal and I do think that learning from a situation like that does get us closer to where we want to be in terms of our goals of winning a championship.”
The new playoff format adds an extra team per conference, which strips the No. 2 seed of its first-round bye, a privilege enjoyed since 1990. Nonetheless, the Texans have to equip themselves with knowledge from past experiences to produce better outcomes in future postseasons.
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