Hottest teams in the NFL? Don't forget to include the Texans after their big win over Titans
The second-longest winning streak in the NFL? That would belong to the Houston Texans. The New Orleans Saints have won 10 in a row, and the Texans are right behind them at eight straight.
Three games into the season, it seemed more likely that Bill O’Brien would be fired by now than the Texans having won eight in a row to take control of the AFC South. But after shaking off a slow start against the Tennessee Titans to cruise to a 34-17 win on Monday night, the Texans are 8-3 and have a two-game lead in the AFC South.
The Texans have looked very good during some games in the winning streak. They played well on Monday night. In others, they’ve been fortunate. It all counts the same. Houston is one of the NFL’s hottest teams and unless there’s a really strange turn of events, we’re a little more than a month from seeing Deshaun Watson’s playoff debut.
Texans’ two stars have come back strong
A few things have contributed to the Texans’ surge. It’s no surprise that getting J.J. Watt and Watson back to dominant form was a big part of the turnaround.
Watt made plays on Monday night, including nine tackles and 1.5 sacks. He had a sack and a forced fumble on a key third down early in the fourth quarter. There were major concerns about how he’d come back after a bad broken leg last season, and back issues before that. He looks great again.
Watson does too. He might have looked a little rusty early in the season, coming back off ACL surgery, but no more. Watson threw two nice touchdown passes to Demaryius Thomas, then looked fast on a 15-yard touchdown run in the second quarter. It wasn’t Watson’s flashiest game, but he was good yet again.
The Texans have other high-end talent, like DeAndre Hopkins and Jadeveon Clowney. That’s why it was so strange when Houston was 0-3 to start the season. Then, it just changed.
Texans in control of AFC South
The Texans have caught some breaks. Colts coach Frank Reich, who has otherwise been excellent this season, made a weird call late in overtime to go for it on fourth down in his own territory. The Texans got a stop, a short drive and a win. Cowboys coach Jason Garrett didn’t go for it in overtime even though Dallas was in Houston territory. The Texans happily took the punt and drove for the game-winning score. The Broncos made some huge strategic errors and then missed a field goal at the end of a Texans win in Denver. A two-point win at Washington was punctuated by the Redskins losing quarterback Alex Smith to a horrible leg injury midway through the third quarter.
So Houston has gotten a little lucky. That’s OK, because every team on a winning streak that long will catch a little bit of good fortune.
Regardless of how the Texans got here, they look dangerous. The pass rush is as good as any in the NFL, and it constantly got to Marcus Mariota on Monday night. Watson is an incredible talent, and if Thomas continues to blend in the offense well after coming from Denver in a midseason trade, he and Hopkins are a dangerous duo.
The Texans practically eliminated the Titans from the division race on Monday night. All they realistically have to do to win the South is hold off the Colts, and even getting a first-round bye is still on the table as well. Eight games ago, that didn’t seem possible.
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Frank Schwab is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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