The Houston Texans have nothing to play for in 2020.
At 4-9, they are eliminated from the playoffs as the Indianapolis Colts, their Week 15 opponent, and the Tennessee Titans are running away with the division at 9-4. The wild-card race has also outpaced Houston with the Cleveland Browns (9-4), Miami Dolphins (8-5), Baltimore Ravens (8-5), and Las Vegas Raiders (7-6) clearly ahead in the standings.
However, interim coach Romeo Crennel isn’t going to pack it in with three games to go in the regular season.
“My deal is we’re in this game, we play this game to win, and there’s a season to be played,” Crennel said.
Part of the reason why fans and media are curious about whether the Texans will shut things down is to protect the health of quarterback Deshaun Watson. It would be better to have Watson healthy and ready to work with a new coaching staff in 2021 rather than working through rehab on an injury sustained in any one of the three meaningless games.
For Crennel, shutting down Watson creates a Pandora’s Box.
“Then if you shutdown Watson, should you shutdown the team and everyone go home with three games left?” said Crennel. “And we’re in the NFL, and there are certain rules about playing. I think probably if you shutdown your team and didn’t play the games there would be tremendous fine involved. So, we’re going to play the games and try to play as many as we can.”
Crennel’s real concern is how well the players will respond against the Colts after taking a 36-7 beatdown at the hands of the Chicago Bears in Week 14.
“I think the thing is you point out to the players where they are, what they need to do, show them what they have not been doing, show them what they have done in the past, and try to build on the things that are good things, and try to eliminate the negative aspect of their game,” Crennel said.
Houston completes their season series against the Colts Sunday at 12:00 p.m. CT at Lucas Oil Field.
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