Plenty of decisions to make for the Texans, maybe even one including J.J. Watt

Texans are AFC South champs despite ugly win. Now what to do for Week 17?

Texans are AFC South champs despite ugly win. Now what to do for Week 17?

3 Headlines, 2 Questions, and 1 Bet ahead of the Texans regular season finale.

Winning ugly is better than losing pretty

The Texans won. Yes, it was ugly. Yes, it was a little disappointing. Yes, they probably should have blown out the Buccaneers.

A win is a win, even when it clinches the AFC South.

The Texans are AFC South champs for four of the past five seasons, and now four of the six and as my above tweet indicates, that's not bad.

Week 17 doesn't really matter for the Texans. They need to be ready for the 4-5 matchup and likely the Buffalo Bills.

The frustration is the same issues from games of the past popped up. Consistency on offense is seemingly dead. The in-game management is often times questionable, but has worked out a few times for Bill O'Brien. The defense is leaky. It doesn't feel championship quality. Well, it is AFC South champion quality. But there has to be more to the 2019 season than another banner.

Will Fuller's injury lingers yet again

Will Fuller is one of the most important players on this Texans team. He is also one of the most injured players. Fuller hasn't come close to playing a full season in his NFL career since his rookie year. This year soft tissue injuries have ruined his season. Yet again, he's hurt.

The team is so much better with him on the field. Everything is better. Specifically the passing game. That's a problem though. This offense shouldn't be built on success based off a speedy outside wide receiver being available. Bill O'Brien has to use the weapons he has better and so does Deshaun Watson. It is unacceptable for this offense to be so heavily reliant on Fuller's availability.

O'Brien's comments after the game were clear and this is as close to negative he comes at the podium about a player.

"He is a great guy and I love coaching him, but it is hard for him to stay healthy – that's the bottom line. Hopefully we can help him stay healthy because this team is a very good team when we have him in the lineup."

Trying to win games

The Texans will take the field Sunday knowing exactly what spot in the playoffs they are locked into. The Chiefs play in the early game and if they win, they will be locked into the third seed pushing the Texans to the fourth seed.

It is incredible to ask the Texans to prepare for a relaxed game, see the Chiefs accidentally lose, and then try to gear back up for the game and try to get the third seed.

So you either try to win the game that likely doesn't matter or you relax for a week. In a game that doesn't matter, Deshaun Watson and Laremy Tunsil shouldn't play. Neither should DeAndre Hopkins. The numbers game gets funny, but the Texans could manage it.

Health ahead of the Bills should be the the most important thing for week 17.

Angelo Blockson...am I right?

​Texans defensive lineman Angelo Blackson has blocked a field goal in back to back weeks. The Texans have won both of those games by three points. You do the math.

The thing that has impressed me about both the blocks is Blackson's ability to find himself in the kicking lane. He's adjusted one of his big paws to be in the trajectory of what the kicker needs to make the field goal. Obviously he has to get that hand free too.

A few colleagues of mine, as well as myself, wondered why Blackson was given the contract he was in the offseason. He has played well and frankly those two blocks have been worth the price of his deal. Bill O'Brien called him a fabric player and it is hard to disagree considering his performance this year.

Can Watt come back? I ask again, can Watt come back

Bill O'Brien didn't feel like talking about J.J. Watt much today. Makes sense. The more mystery, the better. Make the Bills start thinking about Watt. About having to block him with their inexperienced right side of their line. Ultimately the subterfuge might not matter.

Brian Gaine worked here. He hired plenty of people in this building. He now works for the Bills. Gaine will know exactly how well Watt is when the game rolls around.

If Watt can help, he should play. If he can be re-injured seriously it should be up to Watt if he wants to play. You certainly wouldn't want to pass up the chance Watt could come back. There could be something this week with perhaps the activation of his 21-day window to practice.

I bet the Bills are licking their chops to face the Texans

The Bills can absolutely beat the Texans and likely should be favored when the two teams square off in the first weekend of January.

Buffalo brings a terrorizing defense that should smother a Texans passing attack which will be missing Will Fuller. Their offense is suspect, sure, but Josh Allen can exploit the Texans with the deep ball and the rushing attack can do enough. They have run the ball well too.

It is imperative for the Texans fan base's sanity for Houston to win this game. People will again question the whole operation with a loss, but a win would be a step in the right direction. It is the bare minimum for the Texans this year for the season to be considered even remotely a success.

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Can the Texans defense slow down Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs? Photo by Alex Slitz/Getty Images.

When DeMeco Ryans became coach of the Houston Texans before last season, the two-time Pro Bowl linebacker brought his swarm defense with him.

It’s an identity the Texans have embraced as they prepare for their second straight trip to the divisional round of the playoffs Saturday where they’ll face the Kansas City Chiefs.

“You really can’t go out there if you’re not about it,” Ryans said.

And while every member of the defense has bought into Ryans’ aggressive style, there is one player who epitomizes it like no one else.

“Will every time,” cornerback Derek Stingley said of defensive end Will Anderson Jr.

Anderson, last year’s AP Defensive Rookie of the Year, has taken his game to another level this season and had 1½ sacks last week after piling up 11 in the regular season.

He described what playing swarm defense means to him.

“Do whatever it takes to get the ball, attacking the ball,” Anderson said. “We’ve got this saying in our D-line room; ‘who gonna pop it off?’ Whoever pops it off first, that’s swarming. Like who’s gonna make the big play? And I feel like there’s a lot of guys on defense that pop it off, who swarm.”

The Texans intercepted Justin Herbert a career-high four times, including one which was returned for a score, in last week’s win over the Chargers after he had been picked off just three times all season. Houston’s four takeaways in the first week of the playoffs are tied with Philadelphia for most in the NFL.

That performance came after Houston ranked fifth in the league in the regular season by forcing 29 turnovers.

Stingley, who had two of the interceptions last week a day after earning AP All-Pro honors, shared his mindset on the team’s defensive mentality.

“It really just comes down to if I was to tell you this is the last time you’re gonna do something, how you gonna do it,” Stingley said. “It’s simple as that. Just do that every single play.”

Ryans said there’s really no secret to why his team has such a knack for forcing turnovers. He believes it’s because he has good players, and they emphasize it in practice which translates to games.

“That’s our main thing that we go into every week is talking about attacking the football, taking the football,” Ryans said. “Because we know, when you take the football away, it just raises your percentages of winning the football games… it’s the defense helping the team win the game.”

While all of Houston’s takeaways last week came on interceptions, Stingley was quick to point out that those picks wouldn’t have happened if not for the pressure the defensive line put on Herbert. The Texans sacked him four times and hit him another nine in the 32-12 victory.

“The defense starts with them up front,” Stingley said. “They’re doing their job and it just makes it easier for us on the back end.”

Anderson said with each turnover, the defense got more and more amped up and was pushing each other to see who the next player would be to force one.

“That’s just that swarm mentality and we just feeding off each other,” Anderson said. “This person can’t do it by themselves so who is gonna be next and that just generates that contagious energy.”

The Texans were the fifth team since 1963 to have at least four sacks, four interceptions and an interception return for a touchdown in a playoff game last week. The past three teams to do it all went on to win the Super Bowl, with Tampa Bay doing so in the 2002 season, Baltimore in 2000 and San Francisco in 1989.

This Texans team would love to keep that going. But first they’ll need a win Saturday to put them in the AFC championship game for the first time after losing their previous five divisional matchups.

“That’s what you come here for,” Anderson said. “That’s what they’ve been rebuilding for is moments like this… we’ve got all the right pieces, we’ve just got to go out there and make it happen.”

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