Texans will need to play near-perfect football to defeat Chiefs

A Houston Texans expert reveals more about the team’s offseason and what it means to face the Chiefs again.

The Houston Texans visit the Kansas City Chiefs on Thursday Night Football this week to open the 2020 NFL season. Finally, after a long offseason of COVID-19 concerns and the typical cycle of endless rumors, draft conjecture and more, very real games are going to be played soon enough—kicking off with this primetime matchup.

The Texans are a very interesting opponent for the Chiefs at this juncture, given that K.C. returned from a 24-point deficit to put up 51 points last January. The comeback not only catapulted the Chiefs forward on their Super Bowl journey but it also knocked out a confident Texans team that was left wondering what exactly happened.

We recently asked Houston expert Stephen Forsha about the state of the Texans—the meaning of this game, the outcome of the DeAndre Hopkins trade, and what we might be overlooking heading into Week 1.

What would you say everyone is overlooking this coming season in terms of the Texans roster/talent?

The running backs of the Houston Texans and offensive line are really being overlooked going into the 2020 NFL. For the first time in a very long time, the Texans will have all five starters back from last season on offensive line, and this was the first season Laremy Tunsil had a full training camp with the Texans, as he was a late addition to the team in training camp last year.

The running backs for the Texans are being underrated because David Johnson is looking to rebuild his career, and Duke Johnson isn’t a household name. David Johnson has a great
opportunity in front of him to prove he “still has it” with the Texans, because they believed enough in him to make him a big piece of trading DeAndre Hopkins.

Johnson can still be a 1,000-yard running back, and not only that, Duke Johnson and David Johnson can make plays out of the backfield with their pass-catching abilities, so that too will help make the Texans a better well-rounded offense in 2020.

How important does this opening game feel for Houston to visit the defending champs?

This game is important because of how the Division Playoffs ended last year, with the Texans blowing a 24-0 lead in the second quarter and never recovering from that collapse. The Texans went home after that game, and the Chiefs went on to win the Super Bowl championship. That loss had to leave a chip on the shoulder of the Texans franchise because of how poorly they played against the Chiefs after such a big lead was built.

This game is also important for the Texans because it will be the first time in actual game competition they can see where they stand with their new wide receivers, how Deshaun Watson has progressed from last season, and they can finally see how the issues on their defense have been fixed, especially in the secondary compared to last season.

Playing a team like Kansas City, where they won a big regular-season meeting last season, then lost the most important game of the year to them as well, the Texans need to compete at a high level against the Chiefs so head coach/general manager Bill O’Brien can see his vision of this franchise come to fruition. Facing the defending champions is a very tough way to do that, especially after no preseason competition.

The DeAndre Hopkins trade drew the ire of the entire league, but how does the fan base feel now that the final roster is coming into view?

It is still a sore subject when the trade of All-Pro wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins is mentioned, because many believe so much more could have been obtained for one for the very best wide receivers in the NFL.

That said, the Texans did get David Johnson at running back in the trade for Hopkins, and there is potential there, but all the potential in the world won’t be worth anything unless he achieves great success with the franchise. So the microscope is on Johnson and his production level this season.

The second-round choice also received in the trade was defensive lineman Ross Blacklock of TCU. There is a lot to be excited over because he’ll most likely play nose tackle in the 3-4 Texans defense, but he can play on the outside if needed, too.

Blacklock is replacing D.J. Reader, who left to the Cincinnati Bengals in free agency, so there is a lot of pressure there to replace the player who became the highest-paid NT in the league, as well as the pressure to have success right off the bat as being a part of the Hopkins trade.

All of that said, the Texans have made some moves on offense with the addition of wide receivers Brandin Cooks and Randall Cobb. Even if the Texans are being overlooked going into
this season, replacing a player like Hopkins is still very tough to do, especially how it all went down due to contract issues.

How confident would you say the Texans are at this point?

It isn’t out of this world to say the Houston Texans have great confidence in their team, and that is because not only do they have Deshaun Watson and J.J. Watt as their leaders, but each player on the roster knows what is expected of them in 2020.

There will be players on the Texans in 2020 that will take the next step in their NFL progression like Jacob Martin at linebacker. The offensive line of Houston will be more improved than they were a season ago with players like Max Scharping and Tytus Howard entering their second season in the league following strong rookie seasons when they were on the field.

I believe the Texans are playing the 2020 season to prove folks wrong as the national media all but has them missing the playoffs and being the third-best team in the AFC South after winning the division the past two seasons.

The Texans have been their own worst enemy at times in recent memory, but when you have a
rejuvenated Watt, and Watson only improving each season he’s on the field, the Texans should
be confident in what they can achieve this season, even with the first month of the season being
one of the very toughest four-game stretches of any team in the league as they’ll be facing the
Chiefs, Ravens, Steelers and the Vikings.

If the Texans beat the Chiefs, it will be because…?

If the Texans beat the Chiefs, it will be because of them making big yardage plays and putting very heavy pressure on Patrick Mahomes. Basically, the Texans need to make the big yardage scoring plays with the speed of Brandin Cooks and Will Fuller, and the defensive front seven must have a very strong pass rush on Mahomes to make him uncomfortable.

The Texans have to play a complete four quarters, and not just one good quarter and three poor quarters like they did in the Divisional Playoffs last season. This will not be an easy task because of just how strong the Kansas City team is from top to bottom. The Texans are going to have to play near-perfect football to knock off the defending Super Bowl champions, because the KC roster just might be better overall than it was last season when they won the Vince Lombardi Trophy for the second time in franchise history.