The Houston Texans would love to avoid the slow starts underthe DeMeco Ryans regime, but the bigger storyline has been the way they've overcome the adversity.
The Texans once again are sitting at 0-2 following back-to-back losses to the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals. Credit: All-Pro defensive end Will Anderson Jr. called both rosters "AFC Championship-level teams," but that doesn't take away the sting of another slow start with questions on both sides of the ball.
But should there be a panic meter yet for Houston? Last season, the Texans started off 0-3 before rattilng off nine wins to tie the franchise record in victories before advancing to the divisional round for a third season.
ESPN's Bill Barnwell isn't buying into the slow start derailing
the Texans' season. In his latest article, he ranked all eight winless teams by their chances of making the postseason.
To no one's surprise, Houston led the charge with a 41.8%, which ranks 16th among all 32 rosters.
"A win against the Colts on Sunday in what amounts to a de facto playoff game would calm concerns in Houston," Barnwell wrote. "And after what happened in 2025, there isn't the same sort of panic after an 0-2 start that there would typically be for a team with championship aspirations. Given those expectations, though, starting the season by losing to a pair of teams that the Texans would expect to see again in the postseason picture is a disappointing start. And if the Texans do fall to the Colts next week, their margin for error would grow perilously thin."
Barnwell mentioned consistent quarterback play as a reason to not entirely panic just yet for Houston's postseason chances. Josh Allen, through two weeks of the regular season, has played at MVP level, totaling over 350 yards and four touchdowns in a 36-31 victory.
Burrow, who only threw two touchdown passes, has been one of the league's more efficient passers since 2021. Coming up in the next three weeks are matchups against Indianapolis' Daniel Jones and Tennessee's Cam Ward, two passers still looking to find a rhythm entering winless starts.
"Consider, though, that the Texans finished second in scoring defense last year," Barnwell wrote. "If we take the second-best scoring defense for each season since 2002 and see where they ranked the following year, their average rank fell to 12th. I would be surprised if the Texans were outside the top 10 by the time we looked at the end of the season, but it would hardly be a surprise or unreasonable to expect something closer to the bottom half of the top 10 than a return to the top two."
The one concern remains the offense overall, most notably in the running game. David Montgomery finished with three touchdowns in his debut, but also averaged just over 3.0 yards per run. Last week, he and Woody Marks combined for 1.4 yards per carry and less than 30 yards on the afternoon.
"Through two weeks, that running game hasn't been present. The Texans are 28th in success rate, 29th in EPA per snap and 30th in yards per carry on designed runs. Montgomery scored three touchdowns in the opener, but he has found space hard to come by, averaging 2.7 yards per attempt on the ground. Part of the problem has been availability. Ingram missed the loss to the Bengals, and [Braden] Smith is on injured reserve because of a foot injury.
The run issues materially impacted the Texans against the Bengals. Despite Caserio expressing his confidence that coach DeMeco Ryans had confidence in the running game after Week 1, Ryans quickly pivoted in the other direction one week later."
To read the full article and see where teams like the Colts, Titans and Los Angeles Chargers rank, click here.
The Texans take on the Colts this Sunday at Noon.
This article originally appeared on Texans Wire: Are the Texans in panic mode following an 0-2 start? ESPN weighs in
