“If there’s not any adversity, it wouldn’t be any fun.”
Those were the words safety Justin Reid told reporters Monday, and the Houston Texans have their fair share after taking a 38-24 beating from the Denver Broncos Sunday at NRG Stadium.
Now, with the Tennessee Titans with an 8-5 record the same as the Texans, what seemed to have been a straight shot to a fourth consecutive AFC South title in five years has now become a dogfight fraught with adversity.
Though not struggling with new injuries, the Texans are dealing with a disheartening loss followed by a series of three games that will define their 2019 campaign.
Though worrisome based on the lack of definite possibilities, Reid wouldn’t have it any other way. Adversity will strike. As he says, it makes it more fun, as it forces one to get better and show their true colors.
“I feel like adversity really shows what type of team you got,” said Reid. “It shows what type of character you have. It’s not if adversity strikes, it when adversity strikes, how you respond to it, and that’s the type of mentality that we have.”
In recent years, the Texans aren’t the team to avoid adversity. Once it was poor quarterbacking that held them back — via Brian Hoyer, Brock Osweiler or whomever else — but it didn’t stop them reaching the playoffs. At other times, it was the opposite. In 2018, Houston got off to a 0-3 start, only to finish the season 11-5.
2019’s adversity comes within a lack of consistency. Throughout the season, they’ve beaten winning teams, notably the New England Patriots and Kansas City Chiefs, and have lost to reeling ones, such as the Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers.
Houston’s ability to beat playoff teams and lose to lowly ones is their crux in 2019. It’s their sort of adversity. They can’t let it define them. In the next three weeks, they will face the surging 8-5 Tennessee Titans twice and the 6-7 Tampa Bay Buccaneers once.
Will the Texans respond to the challenge and win the crown of the AFC South? Only time will tell how they react to that adversity that Reid thinks they so very need.
