Do you care at all about any sort of rivalry with the Texans?
When a team is on a losing streak, as the Cowboys currently are, it’s easy to become numb to the losses. That said, losing to a bitter rival like the Eagles stings a bit more than usual. To follow it up, the Cowboys now host the Texans, a team that is technically an in-state rival.
You’d be hard-pressed to find many fans for either team, though, who consider this a true rivalry. The Texans, founded in 2002, are too new to really have any rivalries. They also play in a different conference, leading to very few matchups with the Cowboys: this Monday’s game will be just the seventh time these teams have met. The only other team to play that few games against the Cowboys is the Ravens, who notched game number seven earlier this season.
On top of that, the two franchises have rarely seen success at the same time. The Texans came into existence during the dark ages of Cowboys football, when Chad Hutchinson and Quincy Carter competed against each other for the starting job under center.
The Texans found some success under head coach Gary Kubiak right around the time Dallas went through a soft rebuild in Jason Garrett’s first few years as head coach. Then Bill O’Brien helped elevate the team to the Cowboys’ level, meaning both teams routinely made the playoffs only to get knocked out pretty quickly.
When O’Brien was let go during the 2020 season, the Texans went into a hard rebuild mode. Longtime Patriots executive Nick Caserio became the general manager ahead of the 2021 season and quickly burned through two head coaches, hiring and firing both David Culley and Lovie Smith after just one year on the job. In that span, Houston went 7-26-1.
Then, Caserio hit a home run. He hired 49ers defensive coordinator and former Texans star DeMeco Ryans as his head coach. Ryans brought with him Bobby Slowik, then the 49ers pass game coordinator, as the Texans’ new offensive coordinator. Caserio also made some moves in the draft to select both C.J. Stroud and edge rusher Will Anderson back-to-back.
What followed was a rapid turnaround for the Texans. Stroud won Offensive Rookie of the Year, Anderson won Defensive Rookie of the Year, both were named to the Pro Bowl, and Houston won their division at 10-7. They went on to beat the Browns in the Wild Card round of the playoffs before losing to the Ravens.
Coming into this year, expectations were sky high in Houston. Stroud was being hailed as the future of the NFL, and an offseason trade for Stefon Diggs was meant to supercharge the offense. So far, the Texans haven’t quite lived up to the hype, though they’re still doing well.
Coming into this game, the Texans are 6-4 but have lost two straight. Both games, a loss on the road to the Jets and then at home to the Lions, saw Houston get up big and then let their foot off the gas. Another point of concern is that five of their six wins have been decided by six points or less. While that doesn’t change their record, it does suggest that the Texans are only a few plays away from having a drastically different (read: worse) record.
Making matters worse is all the injuries this team has endured. Nico Collins, their top receiver from last year, hasn’t played since Week 5, although he was just activated from the injured reserve. However, Diggs went on the injured reserve two weeks ago with a torn ACL, ending his year. Top rusher Joe Mixon missed three games earlier in the year but is back in action now. Meanwhile, Anderson missed last week after suffering an injury early in Week 9 and his status for this game is uncertain.
Of course, it all pales in comparison to the Cowboys’ injuries. Their defense has been decimated by injuries all year, and just when Micah Parsons was set to return they lost Dak Prescott for the year. Not that the team was playing all that well with their high-priced quarterback, but the loss effectively ended their season.
Now, the Cowboys are sitting at 3-6 with exceedingly little in the way of hope for the rest of the year. If last week’s game was any indication, Cooper Rush isn’t going to recreate the magic he had in 2022, when he went 4-1 as a starter. Trey Lance didn’t inspire much confidence either.
This game comes at a perfect time for the Texans, who need to get back on track after losing two straight. They have yet to lose three consecutive games under Ryans, and it seems unlikely they’ll do so against a heavily undermanned Cowboys team that seems to know their coaches are toast once the season is over.
Unsurprisingly, the Texans are 7.5 point favorites, the second-largest spread this week. That may be too conservative a number, given what the Texans have proven to be capable of when they’re firing on all cylinders. There’s not much hope to go around this week in Dallas, but the various mock draft machines are just getting warmed up in Cowboys nation.
