Unfortunately, 0-2 starts for the Houston Texans have become commonplace, to the point where we are almost desensitized to the misery. Three out of four seasons now, under DeMeco Ryans, the Texans have been left shoveling out of the rubble of losing their first two games. Sadly, this means we can actually do intense comparison between the winless beginnings of previous seasons and the first two weeks of the 2026 season.
In 2023, DeMeco Ryans’ first season as a head coach at any level, the Texans started 0-2, but that was with a rookie quarterback and a season opener on the road against the eventual MVP of the league in Lamar Jackson. Also, there were zero expectations for the Texans to even make the playoffs that season, let alone win the division (which they eventually did).
The more apropos and relevant comparison for this season’s 0-2 start is juxtaposing it to last season’s 0-2 start, which eventually became 0-3 after a Week 3 loss in Jacksonville. The simple question is “Which 0-2 start is/was worse, 2025’s or 2026’s?” Unequivocally, in my opinion, the Texans are in bigger trouble this season than they were last season, even than they were at 0-3 last season. Here are three reasons why I’m nervous that this will be the Texans season where their 0-2 start comes back to bite them violently, with no appearance in the postseason:
3. From purely a subjective football standpoint, this team doesn’t appear to be as good as 2025’s squad
The 2025 Texans lost their first two games in close, almost heartbreaking fashion, having their hopes and dreams squelched in the waning moments on the road against the Rams (14-9, final score) and on a Monday night at home versus the Bucs (20-19, final score), combined point differential of -5. The 2026 Texans have lost he first two games by a combined point differential of -19. Also, in 2025, you could see that this was going to be an elite defense and stellar special teams, even amidst an 0-2 start. This season, I have no clue what to make of the various components of this team, except to say that the defense will certainly may be good (but possibly not great), but the offense and special teams could be terrible.
2. The two losses to start last season were fairly innocuous when it comes to the standings
Nobody likes losing. Losing sucks. However, some losses are more damaging than others. In the NFL, if you aspire to be a playoff team, or certainly a Super Bowl team, there will likely be tiebreakers that come into play for winning the division, the conference, or at a minimum, playoff seeding. Losing to teams in the other conference do almost zero damage to playoff standings, and the Rams and Bucs are NFC teams, and thus, those losses, while painful, are unlikely to matter in tiebreakers. Losing to the Bills and Bengals, two presumptive contenders in the AFC, means that, even if you straighten things out and get back in the playoff hunt, you’ll lose the head to head tiebreaker to either of those teams. That hurts.
- The schedule in 2026 is unforgiving for a team starting out 0-2
This one is number one for a reason. 2026 is the first season in which Ryans’ team opened the season at home. In fact, there first TWO games were at home. That looked enticing when the schedule was released, but now that the Texans are 0-2, it smarts. It smarts BIG TIME, because the Texans have now burned up two of their eight home games. Thus, the remaining schedule consists of six home games and nine road games. For sake of comparison, after last year’s 0-3 start, the remaining schedule had eight home games and six road games, much more conducive to rattling off, say, a nine game wining streak. On top of that, this season’s nine road games include at least five that will be played in cold weather — Cleveland in mid-November; Pittsburgh, Washington, and Philadelphia in December; and Green Bay in January. The Steelers, Eagles, and Packers games are all at night, meaning it’ll be even colder.
In short, there is a much better chance this season, rather than in previous seasons, that come December and January, we are talking about coaches and general managers on hot seats than we are discussing playoff seeding and Super Bowl odds. And that stinks.
