After making it to the divisional round of the playoffs for the past three seasons and having one of the best defenses in the NFL in 2025, there were high expectations for the Houston Texans this year. However, they have not come close to meeting those expectations after a 2-5 start to the season.

There are a lot of things that are going wrong for Houston through the first seven games. Perhaps the most surprising of those things in their defense. The Texans have one of the worst passing defenses in the NFL, giving up over 300 passing yards in three games this season.

They did not give up 300 passing yards in any game last season and only did so once in 2024.

As Houston looks to reset during the bye week, Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans said they need to focus on the fundamentals since the Texans have been struggling with blocking, tackling and penalties so far this season.

“Yeah, we keep practicing well. We keep going out, putting the work in. At the end of the day, football, man, it comes down to blocking and tackling, running the football,” Ryans said. “The fundamentals of the game doesn't change, so we got to block better, not hold, not hurt ourselves with penalties. We got to protect better. We got to be able to beat man coverage. We got to be able to cover in man coverage. We got to be able to tackle. That's football. No magical elixir is going to drop out of the sky and, ‘Oh, now, you're going to fix it.’ We fix it by putting the work in and getting better at fundamentals of football and that's where we got to just own it. As coaches, as players, we all got to own it and we got to find a way to turn this thing around.”

Despite the rough start to the season, there is still an avenue for Houston to make the playoffs, although it would most likely have to come as the division leaders.

They are only two games behind the Jacksonville Jaguars, who won the AFC South last season. The Texans still have to play the Jaguars again and defeated them in their first matchup. 

Houston also has games against the Los Angeles Chargers, Indianapolis Colts, Washington Commanders, Philadelphia Eagles and Tennessee Titans, who have a combined six wins in the first seven weeks. However, they also have to play the Cleveland Browns, Baltimore Ravens, Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers, who all have winning records after seven games.

While there are games on the schedule they should win, they will also have to pull off a few upsets to get back into the playoff picture.