The Houston Texans took a whipping at the hands of the Baltimore Ravens 41-7 Sunday afternoon at M&T Bank Stadium.
The loss sent the Texans to 6-4 on the season and blew a chance to get a tiebreaker over the No. 2 seed in the AFC, which would have gone a long way towards securing the club’s first ever first-round bye.
With a 34-point loss on the road, coach Bill O’Brien is thankful for the mental challenges that come in preparing for the rematch with the Indianapolis Colts on such a short week.
“I actually think that’s probably a good thing,” O’Brien told reporters Monday. “I think that these guys, we have a resilient locker room.”
The Texans regrouped at 2:00 p.m. and had a squad meeting with a walkthrough scheduled for Monday evening. They also had other meetings relating to special teams, offense, and defense throughout the night.
“These guys will be ready,” O’Brien said. “They’ll be very focused. They’re a great group to coach. They realize that in the NFL it’s a week-to-week business and we’ve got to do a much better job this week, obviously.”
The Texans will have to be more focused than they were in Week 11. A loss to the Colts would ensure Houston suffered a series sweep for the first time since 2017 and virtually delivered Indianapolis the AFC South. With a game in hand against the Texans already, the head-to-head win technically gives the Colts first place in the AFC South ahead of the matchup. A loss would drop Houston to 6-5 on the year and elevate the Colts to 7-4. Even if the Texans were able to tie Indianapolis, the series sweep would keep Indianapolis a game ahead and pit Houston in a race for one of the conference’s two wild-card spots.
“On a short week, I know that these guys will be very focused,” said O’Brien.