The Houston Texans’ biggest win of the season, bar none, was their 28-22 victory over the New England Patriots on Sunday Night Football. Recency bias aside, the win was against the best team in the AFC at the time and on the grandest of regular season stages.
Now that the Texans produced such a big win, the challenge versus the 4-8 Denver Broncos is to not overlook their opponent and keep the intensity level just as high and the focus just as fine tuned.
“We don’t want to have a letdown,” quarterback Deshaun Watson told reporters Wednesday. “That’s not the type of guys we have in that locker room. Then the leadership we have, we’re not going to allow it.”
The Pro Bowl signal caller, who was the first passer this season to throw three-plus touchdowns against the Patriots, isn’t buying that the Broncos are a bad team just because of their 4-8 record.
“Denver is a great 4-8 team, if you want to look at the record, but we don’t look at the record,” Watson explained. “Every team is really good and you’ve got to turn the page and be prepared each and every week. You can’t have no letups, because you will get embarrassed. We’ve got to come out there and just how we prepared last week, we’ve got to prepare the same way and try to go out there and make plays.”
The Broncos could theoretically match the firepower of the Texans if receiver Courtland Sutton has a big game and if defensive end Derek Wolfe spends more time in the Texans’ backfield than they would like. Running back Phillip Lindsay and complement Royce Freeman could take time off the clock and compact the game and force the Texans’ offensive brain trust to abandon the run and get anxious.
Denver pays their players, too; they could beat Houston, and Watson and the rest of the teammates know this.
Said Watson: “They’re going to come in ready to go and we’ve got to come ready to go and bring a lot of energy. It’s going to be a great AFC, December game. So, it’s going to be good.”
The Texans face the Broncos Sunday at noon CT at NRG Stadium.