The Houston Texans have come into the season with higher expectations than ever before. After closing out the 2008 season with an 8-8 record, they should have high expectations. It was a young team and should only improve.

While the Indianapolis Colts still own the AFC South division, the Texans are looking for a wild card birth and make the playoffs for the first time ever. The Texans schedule is a favorable one at that because they play many sub-par NFL teams.

The week 1 loss to the Jets made many wonder what was going on. The offense simply wasn’t there. After a week 2 win for the Texans and a Jets win that shut down the Patriots’ offense, maybe it was simply a matter of the Jets defense being extremely effective during the first two weeks of the regular season. I do believe this was the case against the Jets, not to mention the stellar performance of Matt Sanchez as well.

Many people believe that the Houston Texans could make a run at the playoffs this year. Steve Slaton had a huge rookie year and if he can continue to improve, that offense is extremely dangerous.

Texans defense must not give up over 200 yards rushing every game and hold opponents scoring under 20 points per game. They’re a young unit as well with Mario Williams, DeMeco Ryans, Dunta Robinson and Amobi Okoye.

While the Texans have a young, gifted WR in Johnson, they can’t out score opponents every game. The defense must perform well enough to give the offense the opportunity to make plays and keep games close.

The defense could have done better without a doubt, the team came away with a very difficult win against the Titans in Nashville. The Titans are now 0-2, opening the way for the Texans to attempt to rise to the top of the NFC South.

Every year teams rise that were thought of to be mediocre, teams fall that were thought of being very good. It will be interesting to see how the Texans respond to expectations for the first time in the franchises history. To be the team, they must beat the team – that team now is the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC South Division.

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