The Houston Texans and Los Angeles Chargers meet for a Week 3 encounter at Dignity Health Sports Park on Sunday that doesn’t necessarily make or break the others’ season. A loss or a win won’t qualify them for the postseason.
However, coach Bill O’Brien is well aware of how an AFC game, regardless of when in the season it occurs, affects tiebreakers and playoff positioning in December.
“It’s an AFC game — I mean, these games are big relative to later in the season,” O’Brien told reporters Wednesday.
In 2018, the Texans’ 0-3 start wasn’t so deleterious in terms of its burying the season. The offensive firepower, destructive defense, and combination of bad quarterbacks on the schedule made a nine-game winning streak very possible and positioned the Texans’ to secure a first-round bye with a 9-3 mark. However, it also gave them no wiggle room and virtually no margin for error. Two losses, as the Texans sustained in the final four weeks of the season, relegated them to hosting a wild-card playoff game instead of making their first appearance in the divisional round as the home team.
What a difference one of those losses in the early part of the year made.
O’Brien also knows the Texans have a challenge on their hands with the Chargers, who went 12-4 a year ago and knocked off the Baltimore Ravens at home in the wild-card round.
“We need to be ready to go,” O’Brien said. “Different environment, playing in the stadium that we’ll be playing in. Our guys need to be ready for that. They’re playing a soccer game there, I think, the night before our game, so we have to be ready for the field and all of those different things. So, yeah, you’re right, every game is big but this is an important game.”
The Texans have not posted a 2-1 start since the 2016 season.
