With the Arizona Cardinals coming to NRG Stadium this afternoon, Houston Texans fans are bound to spend some time thinking about J.J. Watt, the franchise icon who closed out his career with two seasons as a Cardinal after 10 years with the Texans. Watt is the defining player in Houston Texans history, a three-time Defensive Player of the Year who provided the NFL’s youngest franchise with an identity that has endured even after his departure.
With J.J. Watt in the picture, the Texans became a franchise that won with defense, finishing in the top ten in both points and yards allowed in three different seasons during Watt’s ten years in Houston. This is a feat that the Texans will, barring a complete disaster, repeat again this season.
Heading into Week 15, Houston’s defense is first in the NFL in both points allowed (16.0 per game) and yards allowed (266.3 per game), threatening to become the first team to accomplish this since the 2008 Pittsburgh Steelers, who coincidentally, won the Super Bowl that very same season. But it’s not just these numbers that are impressive.
Given Houston’s three-week track record in which they’ve earned wins over the Buffalo Bills, Indianapolis Colts and Kansas City Chiefs — holding each opponent to under 20 points, mind you — there now seems to be an intimidation factor, or at the very least, an understanding that when you play the Texans, you’re going to get punched in the mouth by the best defense in the league, and that makes Houston a team that, according to J.J. Watt, nobody in the AFC is going to want to see in the Playoffs.
“I mean the Texans’ defense is unbelievable,” Watt said during an appearance this week on The Pat McAfee Show. “Just in general, but the way that the Texans defense is playing, and the way that Matt Burke has them humming is just, it’s incredible. I don’t think anybody at all wants to see this Texans team.”
Watt’s assertion about the Texans makes for an interesting bar room debate. Poll the fanbase of all 32 teams in the league — or, for the sake of this thought experiment, the fanbases of all teams in the Playoff picture — about what opposing team they wouldn’t want their favorite team to have to play in the postseason. I’d be compelled to believe that among teams in the AFC, Houston is going to come close to receiving the most votes, probably only trailing Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills, and the Kansas City Chiefs, because there are certainly fans out there who believe that the Chiefs are going to pull a Michael Myers and refuse to die.
But the Texans have beaten both the Bills and the Chiefs in the last three weeks, so what does that mean?
Well to me, that says that the fanbases of the Bills and Chiefs probably don’t want to have to see Houston again, and I’d guess that the same could be said for the New England Patriots, Denver Broncos, Los Angeles Chargers and every other AFC fanbase that thinks their team can win the Super Bowl this year.