Where Do The Texans Go From Here?

The Houston Texans have seemingly invented new ways to lose football games. During their last two games the team has played well for nearly 60 minutes, but has two losses to show for it. Sunday’s loss against the Colts brought losing to an entirely new level.

Texans fans know what happened, even if they can’t fully comprehend it. The team was up 27-10 with less than five minutes to go, and managed to turn a healthy lead into a 31-27 loss. Quarterback Sage Rosenfels was having a brilliant day, then disaster struck. Rosenfels fumbled twice down the stretch and threw an interception that sealed the game for the Colts. The first fumble was the one that will be remembered, as Rosenfels dove forward trying to get a first down on a third and eight bootleg, but lost the ball. Indianapolis linebacker Gary Brackett scooped the football and raced 68 yards for a touchdown.

“We were just trying to run the ball,” explained Texans head coach Gary Kubiak. “We had a nice boot there that he knew – we talked about it. If you don’t have anything, just run it and we’ll punt it and they’ll be out of time outs and we’ll make them work. He made a great effort, and the ball came out. But we had a nice play there. I couldn’t tell if we had the first down or not, but I was told later that we had a guy misaligned anyway so the play would’ve came back. You’ve just got to protect the ball right there and if you have to punt, you’ve got to punt. There was three minutes and whatever was left and they would have had no time outs. You’ve just got to protect the ball there and play defense.”

The Texans head coach absolved his quarterback from taking all the blame. “He (Rosenfels) did a great job. He did a great job and had his football team in a tremendous position in the football game and like I said, we just didn’t finish it.”

Rosenfels was a little tougher on himself.

“We played as good as we could have played for three-and-a-half quarters and I feel like I let all 53 guys and all 15 of our coaches down,” Rosenfels said. “And we played a great game. I just made some bad mistakes at the end."

The question on many people’s minds is how the team is going to respond to such a deflating loss.

“Well, they’ve been through a lot,” Kubiak said. “I don’t have any doubt about them battling. Hopefully, this is the ultimate test. They have had a few tests. Just very dejected. They played a great, great football game and had some crazy things happen in the last four minutes. So, about like you could imagine, how they’re feeling. It’s exactly the way they’re feeling in there. they’ll battle. They keep battling..”

To keep battling is easier said than done after such a devastating loss when the Texans literally snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

“Everything just seemed like it was going good for us,” said Pro Bowl receiver Andre Johnson. “All we had to do was just move the ball. We were in a four-minute situation at the time. When you have two turnovers happen, the other team was right back in the ball game. So, like I said before, I guess that’s why they say play for 60 minutes and anything can happen. I can’t describe it. Like I said before, on one can put it into words. We’re just sitting there in disbelief.”

Although the Texans have played well over the last two weeks, the reality is that they have a 0-4 record, and they are much closer to competing for the top pick in the 2009 draft than for a playoff spot. Houston’s next chance for a victory comes at home against the Miami Dolphins, who are a greatly improved unit from the team that finished 1-15 a year ago.