The last time the Houston Texans started a season 0-3, there was a proverbial dark cloud that was permanently placed over NRG Stadium on Kirby Drive for the entire season.
Former head coach Bill O’Brien was fired after losing the very next game, and Romeo Crennel finished as the interim head coach.
The Texans only won four games to finish the season, which led to an abysmal two seasons that followed, during which they won just seven games in total.
It wasn’t until 2023 when Houston hired former Texans player DeMeco Ryans and drafted franchise-building blocks in quarterback C.J. Stroud and defensive end Will Anderson Jr. that the team regained its identity.
Even though they have won consecutive AFC South titles, Wild Card playoff games, and made back-to-back appearances in the AFC Divisional Game, the social media environment in which the sports world resides wants consistent results.
The algorithm is constantly asking the question, “What have you done for me lately?”
The answer the Texans fans are receiving throughout the first three games of the 2025 NFL season is, “Nothing.”
Houston dropped their third consecutive game with a 17 – 10 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars on the road, and the outcome has many believing that the Texans could be heading in the direction of the 2020 season, where the team missed the playoffs after their terrible start.
Since 1981, there have been only six NFL teams that have made the playoffs after starting 0-3, and in the last 26 seasons, there has only been one team to accomplish that feat.
The 2018 Houston Texans team started 0-3 before winning nine straight games, before losing to the Indianapolis Colts in Week 14. They finished the 2018 season with an 11-5 record and captured the AFC South title.
Head coach DeMeco Ryans can only hope that instead of first-year offensive coordinator Nick Caley watching old film of the New England Patriots and their offense, he could go to the Texans’ archives and see what made them successful during their nine-game winning streak in 2018.
Ryans remained positive after the loss to Jacksonville and says that he is not wavering on his team.
“I am not discouraged by my team,” said Ryans. “We played with outstanding effort today. We played with the resolve to give ourselves a chance to come back and win the game, and then again, it is another fourth-quarter drive in the first three games.
“So, am I discouraged? No. We have been in all three ball games, and we have had opportunities in the fourth quarter. Our team is right there, despite how it looks and how it feels. Do we want to be 0-3? No, we don’t want to be 0-3, but until we play cleaner ball and we find a way to finish and get on a winning side in the fourth quarter, that is when we will get a win in the win column.”
Houston will attempt to get their first victory over the winless Tennessee Titans at NRG Stadium next Sunday.