{"id":207154,"date":"2024-12-30T11:30:24","date_gmt":"2024-12-30T16:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=207154"},"modified":"2024-12-30T11:02:51","modified_gmt":"2024-12-30T16:02:51","slug":"texans-rough-road-to-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/12\/30\/texans-rough-road-to-playoffs\/","title":{"rendered":"Texans Look To Re-Group Following A Rough Road To The Playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Houston Texans entered the 2024 season looking to improve on a breakout season from a year ago. And, early in the year, it looked as if the up-and-coming young squad was poised to take a major step forward. However, after streaking to the top of the AFC South Division, they’ve lost three of their last five games. They now stand at 9-7, after an absolute drubbing at the hands of Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens<\/a>, 31-2. While it’s not a total freefall, and the team has clinched the division, they are certainly limping to the finish line. Injuries and inconsistent play have marred what should have been the team’s coronation as a powerhouse in The League.<\/p>\n

Houston Looks To Right The Ship<\/h2>\n

With one game remaining in the regular season, coach DeMeco Ryans<\/a> hopes that the light switch goes on before the NFL’s ‘second season’ starts. And his players certainly had a lot to reflect upon after getting ripped apart by the Ravens.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have more than enough time to really get this thing figured and see what kind of team we want to be,\u201d said Pro Bowl defensive end Will Anderson Jr<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like we got to go back and check ourselves and see who we really want to be,\u201d defensive end Danielle Hunter stated. \u201cI think that\u2019s the biggest thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, the players don’t feel like they are too far away from being a perennial power in the NFL<\/a>. Despite a tough stretch late in the season, the team still displays confidence as it prepares for another trip to the postseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a thin margin,\u201d Pro Bowl<\/a> left tackle Laremy Tunsil said. \u201cWe make mistakes and they capitalize on them. Play a team like that and we can\u2019t make mistakes. It\u2019s not talent; it\u2019s details. It\u2019s injuries, too. We\u2019re banged up. I don\u2019t want to blame it all on injuries. Watch the film, bounce back, fix our mistakes. We\u2019re still in the playoffs. We can\u2019t dwell on it. It\u2019s a bad L.\u201d<\/p>\n

Texans Take On Tennessee This Week<\/h2>\n

Houston will close the Texans on the road against the Tennessee Titans<\/a> (3-13). Although the division title has already been wrapped up, they will look to close out strong against one of the NFL’s weaker teams. No matter the outcome, Ryans’ team will host the highest-ranked AFC Wild Card team. Right now, the potential opponents could be the Ravens, the Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a>, or the Los Angeles Chargers.<\/p>\n

Main Image: Thomas Shea-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the 2024 campaign comes to a close, the playoff-bound Houston Texans have been struggling mightily and must right the ship before the post-season begins<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3904,"featured_media":207176,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14,54,6431],"tags":[50,174,114,1305,970,58,9559],"class_list":["post-207154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-texans","category-editorials","category-nfl-teams","tag-afc-south","tag-baltimore-ravens","tag-houston-texans","tag-laremy-tunsil","tag-nfl-playoffs","tag-tennessee-titans","tag-will-anderson-jr"],"modified_by":"Drew Crabtree","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3904"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207154"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":207177,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207154\/revisions\/207177"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}