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If winning a meaningless Week 17 game guaranteed victory in the first game of a team’s playoff run, qualifying teams would come out with the gusto of Opening Day.
However, there are no guarantees in the NFL, and teams with playoff spots locked up and unable to help their seeding treat Week 17 as a dress rehearsal for the playoffs; an encore of the third preseason game.
The Houston Texans, win or lose against the Tennessee Titans Sunday, want more than anything to capture the momentum necessary to get their second playoff win of the Bill O’Brien era.
“I think when you look at what we’ve done, we’ve done what we were supposed to do,” O’Brien told reporters Thursday. “We’ve done what we were supposed to do up to this point in the season, meaning we’ve we won the division.”
The Texans took care of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 23-20 in Week 16 to secure the AFC South title. As such, their rematch with the Titans doesn’t matter as they also can’t get out of wild-card weekend and obtain one of the conference’s two first-round byes.
All the Texans are playing for is elusive, fickle momentum that may be with them in a victorious locker room Sunday but depart during pregame warmups before their wild-card playoff game.
“I guess it depends on how the team takes it,” quarterback Deshaun Watson told reporters Thursday. “It can be a team going in locked into the playoffs and lose two straight, come in and be on fire. So, it really depends on how that team and how that locker room take that momentum and how they apply it to the next preparation once you get into the playoffs.”
Watson was limited in Thursday’s practice with a back issue. The Texans have to proceed with caution against Tennessee and not risk their field general to further injury that could compromise his effectiveness in the playoffs.
“I think that we need to play well on Sunday,” said O’Brien. “That’d be a good deal for us headed into the following week, and that’s what we’re going to try to do.”