The Houston Texans have lost five games, earned just three wins, own a -31 point differential and have been embarrassingly blown out twice. They are also currently tied for the best record in the AFC South.
"It's not necessarily where you want to be record-wise and how things wanted to play out, but you're sitting here at your bye halfway through the year with everything in front of you," J.J. Watt said Monday, per the Houston Chronicle. "So, we have a chance to go out there in the second half of the season, look at it as a new season, a season of one-game seasons, like we've always talked about and go out there and control what we can control and see what happens."
With the Indianapolis Colts drowning on their own incompetence and poor play, the AFC South remains open. In Week 9, Indy faces the undefeated Denver Broncos, who own the best defense in the NFL and have Peyton Manning poised to set records. There is a high probability that, even at 3-5, the Texans will return from their bye week alone atop division.
The Texans are coming off their best defensive performance of the season, recording seven sacks and 14 quarterback hits against a statuesque Zach Mettenberger.
With Brian Hoyer at the helm and Arian Foster on the shelf for the rest of the season, the Texans will need to rely on Watt -- who already has 8.5 sacks -- and a defense that has been gashed too many times this season to coalesce into a stout unit if they are to win the division.
"Yeah, that's what we need to do," Watt said. "We need to be consistent. Obviously, we haven't been that, but we're in a position right now where everything is in front of us and we need to play our best football during the second half of the season."