The Houston Texans’ first three games have been decided by a total of only 13 points, but the fact remains they are one of six winless teams remaining in the NFL.
“It’s not encouraging to be in close. We want to win games,” Texans coach DeMeco Ryans said Monday. “It’s not about being close. That’s just stating the facts or stating the obvious of how the three games have played out, how those games have happened for us.
“But, we’re not here to just be close, we’re here to win the football game.”
The Texans were tied 10-10 with Jacksonville when the Jaguars scored the game-winning touchdown with 1:48 remaining on Sunday. That followed allowing a touchdown with six seconds left in a 20-19 loss to Tampa Bay, and going scoreless in the second half of a 14-9 loss to the Los Angeles Rams in Week 1.
“We were close in our three games. We were there in the fourth quarter. We were close to finishing and closing those games out,” Ryans said. “There are plays in each game that we’ve had, these first three games, that we didn’t finish and win the game.
“So, I’m not talking about close as a team, I’m talking about winning the football game. That’s what we’re here to do. We’re here to win football games. We’ve been in a position to win those games, and we have not won the game. We got to find a way to win the game.
“We got to make the plays in the fourth quarter of the games we’ve been in. We got to make those plays to put us in position and to just ultimately win the football game.
“That’s what we’re here to do. That’s what we work tirelessly and hard for is to win football games. So, the games have been close. We’ve been right there in the games. We just got to find a way to get it done.”
Houston returns home to face Tennessee on Sunday. The loser will fall to 0-4 and last place in the AFC South. It’s a particularly important game for the Texans, who travel to Baltimore in Week 5.
The Texans may be without cornerback Derek Stingley Jr., who Ryans said is day-to-day with an oblique injury suffered early in Sunday’s game against the Jaguars.
After their bye week, the Texans play at Seattle before a three-game homestand against San Francisco, Denver and Jacksonville.
It’s a difficult gauntlet, and Ryans acknowledged the hole Houston has dug itself early in the season.
“We’re 0-3, we don’t want to be 0-3. But, that’s the matter of fact. That’s where we are now. We have to go out, we have to play better,” he said. “You keep guys motivated by understanding storms are going to hit you in life. Whether it’s… We do football, but also in real life, storms will arise, storms will come in your life. When you go through the storm, are you coming out stronger? Or are you getting ripped apart by the storm?
“So, there are different people who can handle that adversity and a storm that comes. It’s how do you handle it? You got to remain resilient. You got to remain strong through it. It really tests your character to see who are you truly as a player, as a man, how are you, who are you?
“We’ll see that, we’ll see how we handle this as individuals. We’ll see how we handle this as a team.”
