From 0-3 to 2-1, thin line makes a vast difference
HOUSTON — The Texans aren’t printing playoff tickets three games into the season, but ask any player in the locker room how it feels to start 2-1 compared to 0-3 last season, and he’ll be excited to describe the difference.
Defeating the Los Angeles Chargers 27-20 Sunday gave the Texans back-toback victories and kept them in a first-place tie with Indianapolis in the AFC South. At this time last season, they were languishing at the bottom of the division.
“It’s a huge difference from last season,” safety Justin Reid said Monday. “You can feel it in the locker room. It’s just a bigger buzz going around the building. We don’t feel as suffocated (at 0-3).”
The Texans earned an impressive victory over the Chargers, climbing out of a 17-7 halftime hole and outscoring them 20-3 in the second half.
“Winning a game like this against a big-time team that was 12-4 last year in that kind of fashion is big,” safety Tashaun Gipson said. “These games can build momentum.”
The defense had to stop quarterback Philip Rivers on the last drive to secure the victory.
The Texans registered five sacks, including two by J.J. Watt and 1½ by D.J. Reader, and knocked down Rivers an additional 12 times.
“We had to get a win like that on the road,” outside linebacker Whitney Mercilus said. “It’s huge.”
Mercilus, who had a strip sack that set up a touchdown and two tackles for loss, was one of the many players on both sides of the ball who made big plays.
The defense was able to stop Rivers’ desperation drive at the Texans’ 34 with 11 seconds remaining when he threw incompletions on third and fourth down.
Beating a good team on the road like the Texans did Sunday should give them a lot of confidence when they face that situation again. But first they have consecutive home games against Carolina and Atlanta with a chance to start 4-1 for the first time in O’Brien’s six seasons as coach.
O’Brien doesn’t want to hear about the past or any games beyond Carolina at NRG Stadium, but that’s not going to dim the excitement created by the victory over the Chargers or damper fans’ expectations for a team trying to win its division for the fourth time in six years.
“What’s happened in past years has nothing to do with this year,” O’Brien said. “Let’s think about the things we’re doing well and try to keep doing them well and think about the things we need to improve on.”
The Texans are wellschooled in playing close games that aren’t settled until the final seconds.
In the first three games last season, they lost by seven (at New England), three (at Tennessee) and five (New York Giants). Then they rallied to win back-toback overtime games over Indianapolis and Dallas to jump start a nine-game winning streak. The Texans didn’t play a game decided by more than seven points until Week 7 when they won 20-7 in Jacksonville.
They began this season with the two-point loss at New Orleans on a 58-yard field goal with no time remaining before rebounding for a one-point conquest of Jacksonville that wasn’t secure until Reid stopping Leonard Fournette on a two-point conversion run.
The familiarity of playing so many close games should be beneficial for the remainder of the season.
“It’s (2-1) decent to be at that record at this point,” O’Brien said. “All of these games have come down to the last minute, and I think that shows our team’s learning, especially over the last two weeks, to play 60 minutes, that it takes 60 minutes.”
That seems to be O’Brien’s motto — playing for 60 minutes and not letting up.
“These guys are playing hard, and they’re doing a good job of taking care of their bodies and being able to withstand those type of games,” O’Brien said. “That has to continue. It’s only the third week, and we’ve got a long way to go. We need to keep building and trying to get better.”