As a self professed “sports schedule” nerd, I can say with 100 percent certainty that now sport’s regular season schedule, and its corresponding ebb and flow, is more fun to break down than the NFL schedule. The schedule release itself is practically a federal holiday for me, even if all of my hot takes about, say, the Texans’ schedule are reduced to incorrect noise by like Week 4.
The NFL’s schedule is almost like a living, breathing organism, where not only are we looking at our favorite team’s schedule intently all the time, but we are peeking at the schedule of every team the Texans are chasing, and those chasing the Texans.
No team has a perfect schedule. Every team gets a few potholes thrown their way, but the fact of the matter is that, over the course of 17 games, the gifts from the schedule makers tend to get balanced out by said potholes, and it becomes an equitable 17 game endeavor.
For the Houston Texans, even with two tough road games coming up in the next two weeks, they’ve probably endured the roughest patch of their schedule, in which they started 0-3, and then 3-5. As opponents go, the Rams and Buccaneers out of the chute are no joke, and a four game stretch with the Seahawks, Niners, Broncos, and Jaguars turned out to be harder than it looked at the start of the season.
Still, the Texans now sit here at 6-5. They’ve weathered the storm, and now come some scheduling gifts, courtesy of the football gods. Just in time for the holiday season! Here they are:
**The Texans got to stay home for Thursday Night Football**
One of the hardest things to do on an NFL schedule is turn around and play a game in four days. Each week, at least two teams are asked to do that, going from a Sunday to a Thursday game. Having to travel to the Thursday game, as the road team, essentially replaces one day of preparation and/or relaxation with travel and logistics. The Texans were able to host last Thursday’s win over the Bills, which played at least partially into their defensive dominance.
**The Texans are catching the Colts as the “old Daniel Jones” reemerges**
For the first two months of the season, the Colts’ signing of quarterback Daniel Jones to a one year, $14 million deal looked like one of the best moves of the offseason. The Colts’ offense looked like an unstoppable juggernaut during their 7-1 start to the season. However, over the last three games, we’ve seen Jones turn the ball over five times in a loss to the Steelers, and on Sunday, Jones generated just 18 yards of offense in the fourth quarter and overtime in a loss to the Chiefs. In other words, the old Daniel Jones seems to have reentered the chat. Good timing for BOTH of the Texans’ games versus the Colts to be taking place, Week 13 and Week 18.
**Is there an easier back to back in Weeks 15 and 16 than the Texans’?**
The Texans have the benefit of staying home for most of the holiday, with three of their final four games at NRG Stadium, and in back to back weeks (December 14 and 21) they will host two of the worst teams in the league. In Week 15, they’ll face the Raiders, who’ve won two games all season, and just fired their offensive coordinator, Chip Kelly. In Week 16, they’ll face the Cardinals, who’ve won three games all season, and will likely start Jacoby Brissett, a bona fide statue of a QB, against a pass rush that boasts Will Anderson and Danielle Hunter.
**Justin Herbert might die before Week 17 in Los Angeles**
The only road game in the final four weeks of the season is a trip to Los Angeles to face the Chargers three days after Christmas. This trip comes with two positive green check marks. First, there is practically zero home field advantage for the Chargers, as most of the people who care about them still reside in San Diego. Second, the Chargers are so banged up on their offensive line — both of their starting tackles, Rashawn Slater and Joe Alt, are gone for the year — that QB Justin Herbert might be dead by the time Christmas’s rolls around.
This article appears in [Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025](https://www.houstonpress.com/?post_type=newspack_collection&p=390334).