The Texans and defensive end Jonathan Greenard have given Houston a team to proud of, and that's what DeMeco Ryans has preached from the beginning.
The phrase “ahead of schedule” is almost always associated with something good.
Like construction or an arriving flight or that check from your homeboy for that loan you were hesitant to make.
Yeah, the Texans being ahead of schedule is cause for a celebration. No complaints from Texans fans.
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The main reason the Texans are ahead of schedule from where most pundits thought they would be is they didn’t put themselves on a clock or calendar.
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When he was hired as head coach less than a year ago, DeMeco Ryans’ plan was to win games. Period. Not be competitive, not look good, not come close.
He said then and again on Tuesday that he wanted the team to make Texans fans proud. He wanted fans to be able to wear their Texans’ gear around town with no shame.
Here we are in mid-January with the rookie head coach, a rookie quarterback and a rookie offensive coordinator coming off the most dominant performance of the NFL’s Super Wild Card Weekend.
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Houston’s 31-point victory over the Browns was a strong statement that the Texans were not just happy to be in the playoffs. They came in to do damage.
“We’re not done yet,” linebacker Jonathan Greenard said. “I’m super excited just because every game is a new thing, we can unlock a new potential for us.
“I think that that’s the biggest thing when you have a young team, you keep getting your feet wet in these situations. Thankfully, (getting) our feet wet has been happening with pretty good times and good steps. We just want to keep riding the wave.”
The current wave is a three-game winning streak, in must-win games, that has the Texans in the divisional round of the playoffs.
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For the third straight week, the Texans face a team that they played and lost to earlier in the season. Houston travels to Baltimore this weekend to face the AFC’s No. 1-seeded Ravens, who beat the Texans 25-9 in Week 1.
There has been significant improvement in the Texans throughout the season. The team that played in Game 1 isn’t close to the one that will take the field for Game 19.
“There is no question that we’re a better than we were when we first played Baltimore, and they’re a better team as well,” linebacker Blake Cashman said. “Both teams will have a lot of respect for each other. We understand the stakes of the game and both teams will be ready to go. It’s going to be a great football game.”
Perhaps. Oddsmakers have the Texans as much as 9½-point underdogs on Saturday.
“That’s news to me,” Cashman said. “We don’t care about the noise. We believe that we can go toe-to-toe with anyone. That’s what the National Football League is about.
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“Anyone can win or lose on any given Sunday or in this case Saturday. We’re excited about the opportunity. We understand that we’re playing a really good football team, a rested football team. But we’re playing with a lot of confidence, and we like our odds.”
This one will not be as easy as the Browns’ test.
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Pundits were going around calling the Browns the NFL’s No. 1 defense, because they allowed the fewest yards this season. It was a case of lying numbers.
The more important statistic was the Browns’ defense was just 13th in the league in points surrendered. The Texans shredded that defense, with quarterback C.J. Stroud having a record-setting day in a 45-14 win.
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The Ravens gave up the fewest points in the NFL this year at only 16.5 per game. The Texans managed only three field goals against them in the season opener, their second-lowest output of the season (six points against the Jets).
Offensively Baltimore, which had the best record in the NFL at 13-4, finished fourth in the league in scoring at 28.4 points per game.
Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson is likely to win his second MVP award.
And weather could be a factor, with the forecast calling for below-freezing temperatures and gusting winds. Stroud, the Southern California Kid, isn’t exactly built for wintry weather.
So yeah, the Texans weren’t expected to be here and aren’t expected to get past this point.
But others’ expectations don’t matter as much when you’re ahead of schedule.
“It’s really just up to us to go out there and do our jobs,” Stroud said. “We believe in ourselves. We trust in ourselves to win games, and hopefully, win this game.
“We have complete confidence in ourselves. We’re not really worried about what everybody else has to say.”
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