In a parallel universe with an alternate reality, Bill O’Brien has the Texans rolling toward another deep playoff run and possible Super Bowl appearance.
They are the gold standard in the NFL, with a sixth-year, MVP-winning quarterback who is already talked about as being among the best to ever play the game.
Three seasons ago, those Texans jumped out to a 24-0 lead over the Kansas City Chiefs on their way to a 51-31 victory in a divisional round playoff game.
The next week, in what was then the biggest game in Houston’s NFL history, the Texans topped the Tennessee Titans in the AFC Championship Game.
The Super Bowl victory over the 49ers led to the largest championship celebration in Texas history, as the City of Houston came to a complete halt as an estimated crowd of 1.5 million fans converged on downtown to honor its football heroes.
The Texans went back to the Super Bowl the next year, but lost to Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They advanced to the conference title game last year and were upset by the Bengals.
This season, their 10-3 record is tied for the best in the AFC.
If only the Astros could keep up with the Texans and Rockets, Houston would snatch the Title Town moniker from Boston.
Granted, having the Rockets and MVP James Harden ride on a duck boat float for their championship parade after beating the Celtics in the NBA Finals last season was a genius move by general manager Daryl Morey.
What a world. Walter Bishop could lead you to the portal.
Here on this earth, in this timeline, the Texans aren’t all that.
They’re not even the fool’s gold standard.
No one has mistaken the first team to be eliminated from playoff contention for the second straight season with a competent operation, let alone a Super Bowl contender.
The Texans have one win in 13 games.
After the two-touchdown favorite Chiefs wallop them Sunday at NRG Stadium, the Texans will be two losses from earning the No. 1 overall draft pick. Again. While the Chiefs will clinch their seventh straight AFC West crown.
If they knew what they were doing, the Texans could be the Chiefs. Sure, they would have needed a little luck too, but the opposite directions the franchises have gone since that playoff meeting is remarkable.
Before that game, the Chiefs had won their division four straight years. The Texans had won theirs four times in five years.
Each team had a young star quarterback. The Chiefs picked Patrick Mahomes at No. 10 in the 2017 draft, and the Texans were right behind them in picking Deshaun Watson 12th.
But since Houston took that huge lead at Arrowhead, the Texans have had four coaches, five quarterbacks and have won just nine games.
The Chiefs have posted three straight double-digit win seasons, including a 10-3 mark this season, tying them with the Bills for the AFC’s best record.
The Chiefs and Texans could not be farther apart in expectations, talent, or respect.
The Texans will have another starting quarterback, or two, next season. And if they continue with a one-win season, a coaching change has to be seriously considered.
It is as if the Texans’ 24-0 lead on the Chiefs in January of 2020 never happened.
Incredibly, offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil and kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn are the only players on the current Texans’ roster who started that day in Kansas City.
There was an understandable feeling that game could be the first of a Tom Brady-Peyton Manning type matchup, with Watson-Mahomes and Texans-Chiefs being a battle for AFC supremacy through the years like the Patriots and Colts.
Instead, it was just another embarrassing loss for the Texans.
The players who made the Texans good enough to build that lead have been replaced by players who are not good enough to build such a lead.
Thus, hardly anything is at stake in Sunday’s game. The Chiefs dominating the worst team in the league will draw a collective yawn around the NFL.
That is how far the not-so-mighty Texans have fallen.
The real world is a sad world for Texas fans.
Read More:Franchise has fallen since playoff loss to Chiefs
2022-12-17 19:12:57
