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How unlikely scenario is now playing out for Texans with one early victory
Jan 2, 2024, 11:16 am
The Texans need one more win to make the postseason. Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images.
It’s simple: beat the Indianapolis Colts on Saturday and the Houston Texans make the playoffs. Period. Regardless of what happens with other teams the final weekend of the 2023-(24) NFL season.
If they win, and depending how other games shake out this weekend, the Texans could find themselves either AFC South Division winners and host a playoff game, or a wild card team on the road.
But if the Texans lose or tie, they will not be a playoff team. End of story.
No matter what happens Saturday night, though, this has been a remarkable, joyful, improbable Texans season that restored a city’s faith and favor in a team that frankly had abandoned its fans in recent years.
Consider the run of events that has led the Texans to its current 9-7 mark and guaranteed winning season – most notably drafting C.J. Stroud and hiring head coach DeMeco Ryans. Despite those additions, coming off two seasons with seven wins combined, Vegas oddsmakers put the Texans’ preseason win total at 5-1/2.
The Texans exceeded that number by beating the Arizona Cardinals way back on Nov. 19. Rules say that win total bets aren’t paid until the end of the season. So Texans backers need to keep their betting slips in a safe place for another week.
While their 9-7 record has Texans fans giddy and gobbling up tickets again, the season coulda shoulda been even better. The Texans lost three games to losing teams – the Atlanta Falcons (7-9), plus disappointing performances against the awful New York Jets (6-10) and positively pathetic Panthers (2-14).
The Texans do hold wins against winning teams Pittsburgh Steelers (9-7) and AFC South leaders Jacksonville Jaguars (9-7).
Here’s something nobody could have predicted. Secondary markets already are selling advance tickets in case things break the Texans’ way and they host a wild card game at NRG Stadium. Tickets currently start at $169 for Row E in nosebleed Sec. 643, all the way up to $1,969 for Row Q in lower bowl Sec. 137. Prices will skyrocket if the Texans win the AFC South this weekend. Refunds will be made if the Texans lose Saturday or find themselves on the road.
Everything depends on the Texans defeating the Colts on Saturday night. The Texans currently are 1-point underdogs.
Here’s one early victory, though. Because the game has landed on ABC, thousands of DirecTV and Uverse subscribers in Houston will get to watch, unaffected by Tegna’s squabble with AT&T stations including local Channel 11.
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Oswald Peraza hit a two-run single in the ninth inning to help the Los Angeles Angels snap a three-game losing skid by beating the Houston Astros 4-1 on Saturday night.
Peraza entered the game as a defensive replacement in the seventh inning and hit a bases-loaded fly ball to deep right field that eluded the outstretched glove of Cam Smith. It was the fourth straight hit off Astros closer Bryan Abreu (3-4), who had not allowed a run in his previous 12 appearances.
The Angels third run of the ninth inning scored when Mike Trout walked with the bases loaded.
Kyle Hendricks allowed one run while scattering seven hits over six innings. He held the Astros to 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position, the one hit coming on Jesús Sánchez’s third-inning infield single that scored Jeremy Peña.
Reid Detmers worked around a leadoff walk to keep the Astros scoreless in the seventh, and José Fermin (3-2) retired the side in order in the eighth before Kenley Jansen worked a scoreless ninth to earn his 24th save.
Houston’s Spencer Arrighetti struck out a season-high eight batters over 6 1/3 innings. The only hit he allowed was Zach Neto’s third-inning solo home run.
Yordan Alvarez had two hits for the Astros, who remained three games ahead of Seattle for first place in the AL West.
Key moment
Peraza’s two-run single to deep right field that broke a 1-1 tie in the ninth.
Key Stat
Opponents were 5 for 44 against Abreu in August before he allowed four straight hits in the ninth.
Up next
Astros RHP Hunter Brown (10-6, 2.37 ERA) faces RHP José Soriano (9-9, 3.85) when the series continues Sunday.