Don’t worry about Broncos
NFL games can turn on a couple of plays, but Texans-Broncos won’t be one of those
Anything can happen, but Denver likely won’t be winning at NRG.
Undoubtedly, Bill O’Brien knows his team is better than the Denver Broncos. A lot better. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have gone out of his way to tell his team and anyone else who would listen how good the Broncos are. “It’s very rare that the games aren’t close in this league,” O’Brien said. “It’s set up that way. It’s a very, very evenly matched league and I think our players understand that, and they have to know that it’s going to take great focus to beat Denver.
“Denver’s a very good football team. I don’t really care what their record is. Denver — put the tape on. Once you put the tape on of Denver and you see Von Miller and you see their rookie quarterback, the way he’s playing, you see their running game, you know they’ve got Vic Fangio on the sideline. Like, you better get focused. You better be focused on Denver. I think that our players understand that.”
On any given Sunday, blah, blah, blah.
OK, that isn’t all coachspeak. O’Brien is right. Most Texans games, like most NFL games, tend to come down to a possession or two, with just a few
plays determining who wins or loses.
This shouldn’t be one of them. This is a game in which the Texans should roll. A home game against a weak opponent with a rookie quarterback after you just impressed with a nationally televised win over the Patriots is ripe for a blowout.
Beating the Patriots showed they could beat any team in the league. Not winning this one convincingly would indicate they are still capable of beating themselves.
That the Broncos won’t provide much of a challenge is beside the point. The Texans are playing against themselves Sunday.
Can they rise up and deliver a dominant performance?
Sportsbooks list the Texans as 9½-point favorites. That’s too low. But I’m not advising you to bet your hard-earned money.
Even with it being “Battle Red Day,” and the franchise handing out red pompoms to fans, there won’t be much buzz for this one.
With gorgeous weather — of course, the roof will be closed — some tailgaters probably won’t even bother to come into the stadium. Those that do will be part of a late-arriving crowd.
Denver is the least-interesting opponent the Texans will host this season, but we can learn a lot about O’Brien’s team.
The Texans’ point differential is unimpressive. They have scored just 22 points more than their opponents, the worst of the 10 teams with at least eight wins.
Compare that to the Ravens and Patriots, whose differentials are 187 and 177 points, respectively, and you see why the Texans won’t be projected to make a deep playoff run.
Shockingly, the Cowboys have better odds of winning the Super Bowl than do the Texans. While “America’s Team” is always overrated, the Bayou City’s squad is almost always underrated.
How the Texans handled the Patriots will mean little if they turn around and mishandle the Broncos.
The Broncos’ defense is solid. But Miller, their most impactful player, has a knee injury and might not play.
That O’Brien referred to Drew Lock, who will start and play in his second game Sunday, as “rookie quarterback” instead of by name isn’t a slight. Lock was decent in Denver’s 23-20 win over the Chargers.
Decent shouldn’t be anywhere near good enough at NRG Stadium against a team that has
Super Bowl aspirations.
Yeah, Super Bowl. You know, that game they hold every year that the Texans never get to play in?
There have been better Texans teams than this one, but this is arguably the best chance to make a title run.
The only thing worse than preparing for a game expecting a romp is not preparing at all. Knowing the importance of the final month of the season, O’Brien isn’t about to let his team overlook the Broncos.
So he has coached them up. Which should result in a huge Texans victory.
O’Brien will tell us afterward that the Texans beat a really good team. Such a win would go a long way toward proving that the Texans ARE a really good team.