What do Texans fans think after Houston’s big loss in Minnesota?
Tomorrow, the Houston Texans will host the Jacksonville Jaguars in hopes of getting back on track with a win against a division opponent. Still reeling from the blowout loss last week against the Minnesota Vikings, the Texans fans at NRG Stadium will be looking for improvements in pass defense, fewer turnovers, and fewer false start penalties (I’m looking at you, Laremy Tunsil!)
But, what do the readers of Battle Red Blog think of the Houston Texans right now? Where would they rank Houston among all other NFL teams? Well, they’d rank them right here:
Of the Texans-centered pollsters we gathered, Houston ended up seventh in the top ten teams entering week four of the 2024 NFL Season. Similar to several of the journalists and columnists I referenced in my week four NFL Power Rankings recap, Texans fans have put their team at the top of the rankings, albeit a little bit lower than they were last week. After that big loss to the Vikings, Houston isn’t in the top five anymore, and they’ll need to put in the work to find themselves bumping shoulders with Kansas City again.
Although, it still feels a little wild to see them up this high in the rankings, doesn’t it? Surrounded by elite company fits the bill from a fanbase rooting for a suddenly resurgent team, but in that same respect, it’s still a crazy development to see the Texans consistently ranked this high as opposed to where they occupied the rankings from 2020 mid-2023. This time last year, Houston was still climbing its way up from the bottom ten of the league after notching its first win of the C.J. Stroud era against the Jacksonville Jaguars. One year later and gearing up for another match versus Jacksonville, Houston couldn’t be in a more radically different position in the NFL zeitgeist.
Confidence is still high among Houston fans, but it’s taken a big hit since last week. This is an 11% drop from last week’s results, where 96% of voters were confident in in the team’s direction. That’s a significant drop off in just one week, which reflects how surprising that big loss was to Texans fans. I think we’ve all gotten used to thinking this Houston team is one of the league’s best, and losing in blowout fashion usually isn’t something that happens to the league’s best teams.
The blame goes all around, too. A loss like this isn’t caused by just a few players, but a few players’ mistakes certainly stood out more than others. Who was most to blame for Houston’s big L?
Well, I guess it was someone else! Realistically, though, I imagine the vast majority of voters that selected “someone else” were talking about head coach DeMeco Ryans. Such a heft amount of penalties will naturally lead fans to blaming the coach for not having the players more prepared. Laremy Tunsil still received a third of the vote though, what with his SIX PENALTIES against Minnesota. For one of the best left tackles in the NFL, this is simply unacceptable.
The pass defense didn’t get much love, either. Most voters didn’t believe the pass defense was all at fault, and in fact, the defense as a whole was much improved in the second half of that football game. But, it can’t be understated how a few of those big Sam Darnold passes in the first and second quarter sent Houston down a hole that they would never be able to climb out of.
So, what should the Texans focus most on improving for tomorrow’s game?
Fewer penalties would be HUGE against the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Glitter Kitties are 0-3 and coming off one of their worst losses in recent history (hey, just like us!), so they’ll be coming into Houston extremely desperate for a win. Quarterback Trevor Lawrence will be locked in, determined to have a perfect game so that his team can avoid certain doom at 0-4.
As much control as Houston has had over this division rivalry, I’m still worried that tomorrow’s game will be difficult. The Texans can’t allow any opening for the Jaguars to exploit, and that starts with penalties. A few false starts can ruin a drive and give Jacksonville another chance to gain a lead on Houston, and I’m sure Jags’ coach Doug Pederson has plenty of ideas for getting ahead of Houston early after watching how Minnesota dismantled them last week. They might come out of the gate firing deep right away, so a big game from Derek Stingley Jr. and rookie Kamari Lassiter might be required to win this football game. That, and avoiding penalties!
The Houston Texans face the Jacksonville Jaguars (-6.5) on Sunday, September 29, at 12:00 CDT.
GO TEXANS!!!