Texans get chance to prove themselves
With Watt’s return and Watson’s talent, team can show it’s more than just an opening act
Saturday afternoon marks the fourth day of a new year, but already there’s a touch of the familiar in the air, a hint of Auld Lang Syne, as Houston’s NFL franchise prepares for its playoff opener at NRG Stadium.
The Texans host the Buffalo Bills at 3:35 p.m. in the first of four wild card games this weekend. At stake is a chance to play in an AFC divisional game next week at either Baltimore or Kansas City on the road toward Super Bowl LIV on Feb. 2 in Miami.
It’s the sixth time the Texans have made the playoffs in 18 seasons, and each time they have played on a Saturday afternoon. If the NFL were a comedy club, they would be the opening act leading, in this case, to Tom Brady and the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots taking the field for a prime-time affair
against Tennessee.
But, seriously, who cares about time slots? It’s the playoffs, already.
“It’s like the first day of school,” said running back Carlos
Hyde, the team’s leading rusher, as he prepares for the first playoff game of his six-year NFL career.
“We’re here again. We’ve checked off that box,” said cornerback Johnathan Joseph, whose nine career playoff games rank second on the team. “Now it’s about taking the next step.”
The Texans are 3-2 in five wild card games, the most recent a 21-7 loss to Indianapolis a year ago, and Saturday’s setup is not wholly dissimilar to last year’s. As was the case in 2018, the Texans were 3-2 in December, failing to win a first-round bye that would have given them a week off for rest and recovery.
The Bills, meanwhile, hold a decidedly morbid place in the history of Houston playoff football. On this selfsame weekend in 1993, Buffalo rallied from a 32point deficit to knock the Houston Oilers out of the playoffs in the largest comeback in NFL history, a game that still inhabits the nightmares of aging baby-boomer fans across Houston.
That game, though, was from a different century, involving a departed team with a different name and different colored laundry. All that matters for the 201920 Houston Texans, coach Bill O’Brien said this week, is the moment and opponent at hand.
“This isn’t about last year, two years ago, 1993. It’s not about any of that,” O’Brien said. “This is about Saturday at 3:35, for three hours, three and a half hours, however long it takes, who can be the team that can execute at the highest level the most consistently. That’s what it’s about.
“If you start focusing on anything else, you’re going to be in trouble.”
Same franchise, new faces
While there are ample similarities to ponder, each team and each season is its own animal. New to the Texans roster this year are such names as Pro Bowl offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil, receiver Kenny Stills, running backs Hyde and Duke Johnson and cornerback Bradley Roby, each of whom will be counted upon for significant contributions.
Saturday’s spotlight, however, is more likely to fall on the Texans’
established standouts — among them quarterback Deshaun Watson, receiver DeAndre Hopkins, linebacker Whitney Mercilus and, back in action after missing the second half of the season with a chest injury, defensive lineman J.J. Watt.
Watt, of course, can change any game, be it a matinee or a prime-time showcase. It was on a Saturday afternoon in the 2011-12 playoffs that he launched his path toward three Defensive Player of the Year awards with an interception touchdown return against Cincinnati.
Five years later, however, Watt was forced to leave the field with an injury during what became a 30-0 wild card loss at NRG Stadium to Kansas City. He’s seen both ends of the spectrum, and he spoke with teammates this week about the precious value of each playoff opportunity.
“I’ve been through the 2-14 where you’re going through some tough times, and I’ve been through winning the division, going to the playoffs, going to the second round a couple of times,” he said. “You can’t ever take it for granted.
“That’s the message I was trying to get across to the young guys. Some of these guys, it’s their first year in the NFL, and so you win the division, you go to the playoffs and you’re kind of like, ‘OK, this is just what you do.’ Well, no, you have to take advantage of every opportunity you have and with the talent that we have in that locker room and the guys that we have. You have to take advantage of your opportunities.”
“It’s that important,” Watt added. “It’s the playoffs.”
Mercilus, who has played on four of the Texans’ five division championship teams, said older players have spent the week expressing the urgency of playoff football to their younger teammates. “Guys want to go after the (championship) ring,” he said. “You lose, you go home. You win, you keep going. Guys are focused on the little details.
“It’s up to us to express to guys who haven’t been in this position how good it feels to win and move on.”
Getting the ‘buzz’ back
Saturday’s game arrives at the end of what has been something of a lull in fan interest regarding the Texans.
Television viewership in Houston
for Texans games this season was up by about 6 percent from a year ago, in keeping with leaguewide trends, but has tailed off noticeably in the four games since a prime-time win Dec. 1 over the Patriots. Viewership for that stretch of two wins and two losses dropped about 10 percent below the season average.
The game Saturday is a sellout, as has been the case for each Texans game since the team’s inception in 2002, but about 2,000 tickets in the lower bowl alone were listed for sale as of Friday afternoon on Ticketmaster’s NFL Ticket Exchange website.
Watt acknowledged that some fans may have a wait-and-see attitude about the Texans, who have yet to advance beyond the second round of the playoffs.
“That’s fair. I don’t disagree with that,” he said. “It’s up to us. We have to work and earn it and win. Like I said, I didn’t ask for the buzz back, I said I want to earn it back. So that’s what we’re trying to do.”
While it has the unfashionable Saturday matinee slot, Bills-Texans could develop as a highlight of the NFL’s first playoff week, said ESPN analyst and former defensive lineman Anthony “Booger” McFarland, who will call the game for ESPN and ABC with Joe Tessitore.
“I think this will be the best game of wild card weekend,” McFarland said. “You have a team that feels like it can beat anybody in Buffalo against a team that has been here before in Houston, led by one of the brightest young quarterbacks in the NFL. I think it will be great TV.”
One year removed from the playoff loss to Indianapolis, and with arguably the best player in franchise history back in the lineup, the Texans have much to prove and much to attain as the playoffs begin.
Playoff football, Watt said, takes forever to arrive, and it can be over before you know it — and, all too often, before you’re ready for it to end.
“It’s going to happen fast. It’s going to come by fast,” he said. “The game is going to go by faster, the plays, the players play a little bit faster than the regular season. Everything just speeds up.”