Sundays will seem like Groundhog Day for the Houston Texans between Weeks 3-11 as the club plays every game in the early afternoon time slot.
Coach Bill O’Brien has no issue with the way the 2020 NFL schedule shakes out for the AFC South champions. After opening up on the road at the Kansas City Chiefs on Thursday night, the Texans go home to host the Baltimore Ravens at 3:25 p.m. Central Time.
Then, it is a noon Central Time kickoff for the next eight games.
“I think it is good,” O’Brien told Texans TV’s Drew Dougherty on Thursday. “I think that we’re able to play, right now, two nationally televised games that we already spoke about, Kansas City the first game of the year and then Detroit on Thanksgiving. I think to be able to have most of our games at noon, it does give us an opportunity to get into a real routine, which is really important.”
There is a break in the routine in that the Texans play on the road in Weeks 3, 6, 9, and 10, with a bye week during Week 8. However, the rest of the time, the Texans are getting ready for an early game on Sunday at NRG Stadium.
“I think our players enjoy that,” said O’Brien. “We enjoy the noon games, especially at home in front of our fans.”
The issue with the Texans playing eight early games in a row is it is part of a slate that includes 12 early games on Sunday. Houston is limited to just two nationally televised games: Week 1 and then Week 12’s Thanksgiving tilt in Detroit. It doesn’t seem like an equal distribution of the NFL’s spotlight given the Texans won the AFC South for the second straight time since 2018 and added a wild-card playoff win.
Nevertheless, O’Brien likes the noon games.
“It allows us to get into a little bit of a normal routine during the season which hopefully will help us,” O’Brien said.
