The Josh Innes Show - Are The Texans The Best Team In the AFC?

Episode Date: December 8, 2025

Last night was a huge statement for the Texans. First off, the Chiefs aren't that great. I get that. Second, Andy Reid became Dan Campbell and it backfired. That said, the Texans got it done. Now, they are almost a lock for the playoffs. Who can they beat once they get there? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All right, everybody. All up, Ennis. What's going on? Welcome in. Texans with another big win. And it's unbelievable to say this, but the team that started 0 and 3 is almost a virtual lock to make the playoffs. If they were to miss the playoffs, it would be a catastrophe at this point. Like, it's amazing how things can turn when a month and a half ago making the playoffs. When they were down 20 points in the fourth quarter to the Jaguars, like making the playoffs. and saying, hey, they're going to make the playoffs would be absurd. Now you fast forward and you say missing the playoffs would be absurd. It has been a wild six, seven games, eight games, whatever it's been.

Since they started 0 and 3, what are they now, 8 and 3 in that stretch, 8 and 2 in that stretch? It's absurd what these guys are doing. And look, I was wrong. I thought they were dead. I think a lot of us thought they were dead. And then they rally against the Jaguars. And it's been nuts ever since then, man. And it's unreal what they're doing.

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visit canadalif.com slash employee benefits to learn more Canada life insurance investments advice all right so first of all the game last night have you look at some of the key moments in the game first of all you force the turnovers you had to force that was huge really the biggest decision of the game and the dumbest decision of the game was Andy reed's decision to go for it when they decided to go for it I've never seen anything like that like you know what the time that I I thought of that. And this was not even really apples to apples. It's more of an apples to oranges thing. But I want to say the day before I started at 610, there was a Sunday night football game. And it was the Patriots versus the Colts, maybe. It was the Patriots

versus the Colts. It was a Sunday night football game. And I want to say that in a similar situation, I say similar, though, this was late in the game, not as early in the game as this one was yesterday. But I want to say Belichick decided to go for it on a fourth down deep in his own territory and they didn't get it. And what eventually happened is they lost the game. And it was similar to that where you go, why was this decision made? Like I'm trying to piece together why this decision was made when it was made. Even Andy Reid said he screwed up. It was a bad decision. But that's a 10-10 football game and you're at your own 22-yard line or at your own, sorry, 31-yard line, there's 10 minutes to go in the game.

It's not like the Texan's offense to that point had been doing juggernaut things. Like, nothing about it made sense. And if you go back and you look at the possessions in the third quarter and into the fourth quarter, right? Here are the Texans possessions. Three-place punt. Three-place punt. Three-place punt. Three-place punt.

Six-plays punt. That is an inexplicable decision. Like, there is nothing. about that that made any sense. And then, of course, eventually you had to go for it because you were down, you know, there's four minutes to go, and you're down 17 to 10 after the Texans get the touchdown. Like for a smart guy, for a great coach, for a Hall of Fame Super Bowl winning coach, a guy that will go down is arguably one of the five greatest coaches in the history of the NFL.

He's already among, I think, the five winningness coaches in NFL history. What we saw was one of the worst decisions, especially what was on the line. Like if the chiefs were 10 and 3 right now, you'd go, okay, that was a dumb decision, but they're fine. Their playoff lives were in the balance. And I would understand it, and maybe you felt like your defense was going to start leaking. There was no sign of life from the Texans offense. That was a 10-10 game, right? And that was because the chiefs had rallied in the third quarter.

But if you look at most of the drives from the Texans, punt, field goal, touchdown, punt, end of half, punt, punt punt punt punt punt touchdown after the turnover on downs punt another punt field goal like and maybe they were going to miss the playoffs anyway and they probably are the chiefs aren't dead but they're pretty much dead they're going to look back on that and go what are you doing now maybe they would have you know lost the game anyway maybe that wasn't in play maybe they still would have lost even if they punted maybe the Texans march down the field and beat them that way. Maybe they do.

But looking at the game flow and the way things were going in that game, like there was no reason to do something that stupid. That's like Dan Campbell level reckless. And it's going to happen to the Lions too. When the Lions look back on why they missed the playoffs, you'll look back at a couple of really boneheaded decisions and some big games by Dan Campbell where you could have punted or taking a field goal and you didn't punt or take a field goal.

And it cost you the game. It cost you three points. You know, Dan Campbell is allergic to taking points. He's allergic to kicking field goals. And in this case, it made no sense. Again, it is baffling. If you look at the previous drives, if you don't want to count five plays end of half, fine. Six plays punt.

That was their last official drive at the end of the half. Six plays punt. Three plays, negative four yards, punt. Three plays, two yards, punt. Three plays, zero yards, punt. Three plays, zero yards, punt. Six plays, 19 yards, punt. You have all the momentum.

You've come back from 10-0 down. You're at home. The Texan's offense is worthless. And it was still worthless in that drive. They just had a short field. Look, I'm glad they did it. But it will go down as one of the dumbest decisions for a team with their playoffs on the line, with their season on the line, with their live.

on the line, with their playoff streak on the line, maybe the last time you're ever going to see Kelsey on the line, all that shit. Taylor's in the building on the line. It is truly a mind-blowing decision. Now, if the Texans were the team that had all the momentum and they had rallied from 10-0 down and they were moving the ball, then it makes sense. But that's just reckless. And Reid acknowledged that it was reckless and it was a bad decision because it was a

terrible decision. And now, incredibly, inexplicably, this was an 0-and-3 football team. And as it stands now, this 0-3 football team could still win the division. It's very much in play. Are they going to win it? I don't know. But they're very much in play to win the division. And if they miss the playoffs, it would be a true upset. If the Texans were to miss the postseason, it would be one of the great upsets, as opposed to when they were 0-1-3, it's one of the great shockers that they make the playoffs. And that's why we talked about this early in the year. when people love to throw out that statistic of teams that start 0 and 3, like only two teams ever have made the playoffs and one was the Oilers and one was the Texans

and oh, that's fine, but not all 0 and 3 is the same 0 and 3. Like people love to throw that out their season. Well, what happens if they start 0 and 3, but they get to 1 and 3? What is the difference? What if they get to 1 and 4? What if it's 2 and 3? Like, that's why I don't care about that kind of shit. You just got to go out and you've got to win a lot of football games.

Yes, you're up against it when it's 0 and 3. but it's not over. I thought it was over, not because they started 0 and 3, but because there were two big factors into why I thought the Texan season was over. One, quarterback play was not good, an offensive line play was not good. Well, what has changed here, whether it be with Davis Mills or C.J. Stroud, who looks to be back to form in some level again. Quarterback play and offensive line play has gotten exponentially better.

That's number one. And number two, a team that looked like an absolute unit for most of the year, the Colts, they've fallen off a cliff. And now you start to look in the division. The Jaguars are getable, although the Jaguar's schedule is pretty favorable. So you're still playing from behind trying to catch them. But you look at the Jaguar's schedule. I mean, the tough part you're going to run into is Jets, Colts, and Titans.

Those are all winnable games, very winnable games. Because now the Colts are a dead team walking. They ain't winning it. They ain't beating anybody of substance. They don't have a quarterback. Quarterbacks done. And they were playing poor. That's the other thing.

They're playing poorly when the quarterback was healthy for the last five. five weeks. And then you got the Broncos, which is a loseable game on the road. I hate the Broncos. I still don't think the Broncos are any good. If they run into anybody who can put up points on the board, they will beat them. I hate the Broncos. So the reason you're up against it, because you look at the Texan schedule, the Texan schedule is super getable as well. Like they've gone through the gauntlet. That's the amazing thing about them. They have run this gauntlet, which seemed insurmount. Like there was no way they were going to come out of this winning five games in a row. Like Jaguars and Titans wins, okay, fine. Bill's Colts Chiefs, two of which

were on the road to win both of those games with minimal offensive output, by the way, that's the other amazing thing. This is how good this defense is. Here are the point totals for the Texans in this five game winning streak. Jaguars 36 and that had to happen because they were down 20. Titans 16, Bill's 23, Colts, 20, chiefs 20. This defense is nasty and gross. now you got a month there is no way you should miss the playoffs the division's still there Cardinals and Raiders

back-to-back home games win those games the Raiders are abysmal the Cardinals can't stop anybody did you see what the Rams did yesterday and granted that's the Rams and their offense is special and they got Puka and they got Devonte Adams

and they got Stafford I get that they are special offensively but they at Arizona hung 47 on those guys 45 so they're getable. And they say getable, you should smoke the Cardinals. The Cardinals shouldn't do anything against you, because your defense is as good, if not better than the Rams' defense. And the Rams, after one drive, stymied those cats. So you should beat the Cardinals. You should

beat the Raiders. So you go into that at that point having won seven games in a row and eight out of nine. At the Chargers is your last test. And the Chargers' offensive line play is abysmal. And you've gotten a beat-up quarterback who's dealing with injuries. It is They probably won't win for a road in the year, but they very well can. I'm curious to know what the line will be. When the Texans go to L.A., and that's in three weeks, so who knows? But when they go to L.A. to play the Chargers, they may be only like a point dog. It might be a pick-em.

Their defense is nasty. We've known this. If they had any offense, holy cow, man. but it's nuts. So it's hard to believe we're going to say this. But them winning the division is very much there and the playoffs are a lock. All you have to do is beat the teams you should beat and you've already beaten the teams you shouldn't have beaten allegedly. You take a look at the at the AFC playoff picture right now. They're currently in in the seven spot. And they have a tiebreaker over Indianapolis right now if it comes down to Indianapolis.

Here's the problem for Indy. They have no quarterback and get. Guess what? At Seattle versus the 49ers, Jaguars and Texans. And they've lost four of their last five. That was the thing about the Raiders or the Colts as well is they were beating the shit out of bad teams because their schedule was very front loaded with crappy teams. Who'd they lose to in that early stretch? They lost to the Rams. The Rams are a good football team. Who they lose to the Steelers? Steelers might win the North. But they beat up on the Titans and the Dolphins and the Cardinals. and the Titans again and the Falcons. Their last month is brutal and they don't have a quarterback. So to me, I don't look at the Colts as even a viable player in this. The Colts are dunzo. And then after that, you got Ravens at 6 wins, Chiefs at 6 wins, Dolphins at 6 wins. With a month to go, if you get to 10 wins, you should be a lock to get into the postseason.

Because the Colts ain't going to get there and Baltimore ain't going to win four games in a row. and neither is Kansas City and neither is Miami. So you're in. It's a matter of where in you're going to be. And oh, by the way, you got tiebreakers over Buffalo. And if you beat the charges, you have tiebreaker over them. You've split with Jacksonville. So it's wild how this thing has gone down.

Like just wild. I'm enjoying it. It's fun. They're fun to watch. All right, more to come.