The Houston Texans are traveling to Jacksonville this weekend to face the Jaguars in what is essentially an early season “must win” for our hometown team. The Texans are 0-2 to start the season, and one really awful way to sustain the misery would be losing a divisional game to the lowly Jags. The playoff probabilities are bad enough for 0-2 teams. 0-3 teams are almost banished from the playoffs.
Beyond watching their playoff probabilities dwindle to next to nothing with a loss Sunday, losing to the Jags would also end one of the most remarkable streaks in team sports — the Texans’ current 11 game road winning streak inside the division. The ledger of games that are part of this streak is as follows:
(Texans record at the time of the game in the first parentheses. Betting line and Texans money line in the second parentheses.)
2021, Week 11 (2-7) – Texans 22, Titans 13 (LINE +10, +350)
2021, Week 15 (3-10) – Texans 30, Jaguars 16 (LINE +6, +210)
2022, Week 5 (0-3-1) – Texans 13, Jaguars 6 (LINE +7, +250)
2022, Week 16 (1-12-1) – Texans 19, Titans 14 (LINE +3, +135)
2022, Week 18 (2-13-1) – Texans 32, Colts 31 (LINE +2.5, +120)
2023, Week 3 (0-2) – Texans 37, Jaguars 17 (LINE +9.5, +325)
2023, Week 15 (7-6) – Texans 19, Titans 16 (LINE +3, +135)
2023, Week 18 (9-7) – Texans 23, Colts 19 (LINE -1.5, -130)
2024, Week 1 (0-0) – Texans 29, Colts 27 (LINE -2.5, -140)
2024, Week 13 (7-5) – Texans 23, Jaguars 20 (LINE -3.5, -190)
2024, Week 18 (9-7) – Texans 23, Titans 14 (LINE: +1.5, +105)
A few thoughts on this wild multi year accomplishment by the Texans:
This streak includes some of the worst versions of the Texans ever
Divisional games in the NFL are truly the only matchups where the records of the teams don’t matter. Division foes hate each other. Throw the records out the window, as they say, So an 11 game winning streak inside the division is a major feat for a team that is actually GOOD over that period of time! This Texans streak, though, includes two games coached by David Culley and three games coached by Lovie Smith. Oddly enough, the three games coached by Lovie Smith are the only three wins of his Texans head coaching career.
The most iconic win of the streak was…..
There are a few good candidates. In 2022, the Week 18 win over the Colts pushed the Texans down to the second pick in the draft, which netted them C.J. Stroud. In 2023, DeMeco Ryans’ first win as Texans head coach was in Jacksonville in Week 3, while the win over the Colts in Week 18 won them the division. However, my vote for most iconic win during this streak was also in 2023, the Week 15 win over the Titans, with Case Keenum at quarterback. Ka’imi Fairbairn’s last second field goal spoiled Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk’s little “Oiler uniform” cosplay party. THAT was the best!
$100 parlay on these games would have paid….
I know the enterprising part of you wants to know just how much money you could have made by betting on all of these improbable outcomes. After all, the Texans were only favored in two of these contests. Well, thankfully you’ve got me here to do the math (or find a website to do it for us). So, here you go — if you had bet on all of these games and just kept rolling over your winnings on each game, an original bet of $100 would have turned into $2,392,421 by now.
For the record, the money line on the Texans this Sunday is +130, so prepare to turn $2,392,421 into $5,502,568. Go Texans!
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