Texans Growing

The Houston Texans are one of the hottest teams in the NFL right now and although they won’t make the playoffs, there is a lot for the team to build on for the future. Following a miserable 0-4 start and a 3-7 record after 10 games, Houston is back to .500 with a victory over the Tennessee Titans.

"It's exciting,” said Texans owner Bob McNair who was proud of his team. “We beat a very fine football team. They had two turnovers, we had one. Of course we did have the opportunity to add a few other points there that we left out there. It was just a hard-fought game and it just shows you what our team is capable of doing."

The Texans have won four games in a row and are capable of beating anyone right now.

“It’s growing in mental, in physical toughness,” said Texans head coach Gary Kubiak. “You’re sitting there at 3-7, things haven’t gone good, you’ve played some good football games that you haven’t won, you could really go into the tank in this league. It’s easy to do. I think it all started when we played well at Indianapolis, we got beat, and in the locker room we didn’t sulk or talk about getting beat, we talked about going to Cleveland and winning a football game. I think since then we’ve just kind of rallied as a team, we’ve gotten a few breaks, but we’ve earned our breaks.”

Houston’s 13-12 victory over Tennessee was just the franchise’s third over the former tenants of the city of Houston in 14 attempts, and ended a seven game winning streak over the Texans by the Titans.

“I’ve played 10 games since the first one and so I have a gotten lot of experience,” said Texans rookie left tackle Duane Brown. “Also, we’re at home, so we have the crowd on our side, the home field advantage. There are a number of factors that go into it. I just felt more comfortable out there. I knew we were going to be in for a dog fight and I was getting my mind prepared for that all week and that’s exactly what it was. We won by one point but that’s all it takes.”

The Texans team seems to have a whole new attitude and it’s possible that they could finish over .500 for the first time in team history.

“Over the past years everybody looked down on them,” said Brown. “To be here and just see the progression throughout this year and to be a part of it, it’s a great feeling for me. We see now that we can play with anybody. It’s all about us taking care of the ball and executing and just finishing games. And we’ve done that the past four weeks and have a few weeks left to try to finish it off strong.”

Texans wide receiver Andre Johnson set a new franchise record Sunday with 11 receptions for 207 yards, including the only touchdown of the game. Johnson, a team leader, gave a speech to his team following the game.

“Over Thanksgiving everyone was talking about what they were thankful for in the chapel service that we have, we were sitting in a circle and everybody was just saying what they were thankful for and it was kind of shocking because other than the guys’ kids or their families, the first thing that came out of their mouth was this team,” Johnson said. “I was telling everybody about that, even the guys who weren’t there, I was just letting them know that the guys here are really thankful for their teammates. I think that’s showing this past month- that the guys are just giving it up for the team and its not about one guy, it’s about everybody.”

Johnson talked about how far the franchise has come since he arrived in 2003—

“It’s been a long road. I didn’t think it would take this long when I first got here. But we’re growing, and we’ve learned a lot about ourselves. I think right now we’re starting to find our niche.”

The Texans arrow is finally appearing to be pointing up.