Texans visit Indianapolis desperate for first win
HOUSTON—A season so promising just a few short weeks ago is on the verge of falling apart for the Houston Texans.
One of only three winless teams in the NFL, the Texans are desperate to get a victory on Sunday against the Colts and try to salvage their season.
“We have to win this game,” safety Tyrann Mathieu said. “We just have to win.”
After going 4-12 last season, the Texans had high hopes entering this year with the return of J.J. Watt and Deshaun Watson, who both parts of last season with injuries.
Instead three straight close losses have the Texans searching for ways to escape the NFL’s basement.
“These are close games and it’s the team that doesn’t beat themselves that ends up winning, and we’ve been beating ourselves too much,” coach Bill O’Brien said.
It is Houston’s worst start since opening the 2008 season 0-4. If you add the six games they lost to end the 2017 season, the Texans have lost nine straight. It has been more than 10 months since they won a game with their last victory coming against the Arizona Cardinals on Nov. 19.
Watt said the importance of ending the skid this week can’t be overstated.
“We have to,” he said. “We don’t have one. Haven’t had one in a long time so we really need to get a win. It’s very tough opponent, a very tough place to play so we have to go on the road and put our best foot forward.”
The Colts aren’t doing much better than Houston this season and enter the game 1-2. But the Texans haven’t had much success against Indianapolis and have a 7-25 record in 32 meetings. They’ve had even more trouble in Indianapolis where they’ve won just twice in 16 visits.
Despite their struggles, O’Brien isn’t worried about the psyche of his team and knows that getting a win against an AFC South opponent will go a long way toward getting things on the right track.
“We’ve only played one divisional game,” he said. “We’ve got a big one this week. So, we just have to keep grinding. There’s no other way out of it. There’s no choice. I think when you have the role that I have, it’s easy. There’s no choice. You have to go to work and you have to figure it out.”
For Watson, trying to end a skid is a new experience. Watson, who helped Clemson to a national title in the 2016 season, lost just two games combined in his last two seasons in college. He said this stretch has already taught him some lessons.