{"id":103451,"date":"2025-12-29T09:25:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T09:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/103451\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T09:25:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T09:25:14","slug":"demeco-ryans-makes-houston-texans-history-with-another-postseason-berth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/103451\/","title":{"rendered":"DeMeco Ryans makes Houston Texans history with another postseason berth"},"content":{"rendered":"

By beating the Los Angeles Chargers 20-16<\/a> on Saturday, the Houston Texans qualified for the NFL playoffs for the third consecutive season. In the franchise\u2019s 24 seasons, this is the first time the Texans have reached the postseason three years in a row. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s also the first time that Houston has posted three consecutive seasons with double-digit victories. The Texans had four seasons of 10 or more victories before the current streak.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust really proud of every person on this team and organization for putting us in a spot to go play in the playoffs,\u201d Houston coach DeMeco Ryans said<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s what you play for. It\u2019s what you work hard for throughout training camp, what you fight in the season for — an opportunity to be in the playoffs and go win it all. So we\u2019ve earned that. It wasn\u2019t given to us. Our guys went out and earned it. And we\u2019re extremely proud of everybody for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

FOR MORE OF AL.COM\u2019S COVERAGE OF THE NFL, GO TO OUR NFL PAGE<\/a><\/p>\n

Ryans <\/a>has led the Houston revival. When the former Alabama<\/a> All-American linebacker left his post as the San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator to become the Texans head coach in January 2023, Houston had won 11 games across the previous three seasons, without having more than four victories in any of them.<\/p>\n

The Texans posted a 10-7 regular-season record in each of the previous two years, then won an AFC first-round game before being eliminated in the second round on the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, each year is different, man,\u201d Ryans said<\/a>. \u201cI mean, it\u2019s cool to have three years in a row, but I feel like what it\u2019s about is the here and right now and this moment. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m more proud of this team because of all the adversity we\u2019ve had to face and all the things that we\u2019ve overcome. I feel like we\u2019re a really strong team, right? We know we can win in any given way or fashion. And that\u2019s why I\u2019m more excited about this team heading into the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Texans qualified for the playoffs in 2025 even though they lost their first three games of the season. Houston is the seventh team in NFL history <\/a>to open 0-3 and still reach the postseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve believed in this team just because I know what these guys are about,\u201d Ryans said<\/a>. \u201cI know how they work throughout training camp when nobody\u2019s watching. I know how close our team got throughout training camp and throughout the season. And I know how we just have guys who are true believers who are unwavering in their faith, guys who come to work every single day putting in work no matter what\u2019s being said on the outside — you know, things that really don\u2019t matter to us. Our guys continue to work the right way. And that\u2019s why I believe because I saw the work ethic that those guys pour into it. The coaches, players, staff, everybody pours their all into what we\u2019re doing every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Nov. 9, the Texans, with a 3-5 record, faced the Jacksonville Jaguars with backup Davis Mills at quarterback. Starter C.J. Stroud had been knocked out of the previous game by a concussion, and the Denver Broncos had rallied with 11 fourth-quarter points to beat Houston 18-15 after he left.<\/p>\n

But against Jacksonville, Mills threw two touchdown passes and ran for a TD in the fourth quarter as the Texans overcame a 19-point deficit for a 36-29 victory. <\/p>\n

The victory kicked off a winning streak that reached eight games on Saturday, with Davis starting against the Tennessee Titans and Buffalo Bills before Stroud returned to the lineup.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom my viewpoint, the turning point for our entire season, I go back to our Jacksonville game, right?\u201d Ryans said<\/a>. \u201cFor us to be down as far as we were in that game and to have our backup quarterback Davis Mills to have such a clutch performance to get us into a position to win that game, I feel like that\u2019s the game that flipped our season and just showed us, like, no matter what we\u2019re up against, no matter who\u2019s on the field, if we stay together, stay connected, like, we can overcome anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

By reaching 11-5 with a home game against the Indianapolis Colts as the regular-season finale on Jan. 4, Houston put itself in the running for the AFC South title for the third season in a row.<\/p>\n

The Jaguars lead the division at 11-4 entering their game against the Colts on Sunday. Jacksonville and Houston split their season series. So far, neither has lost to division rivals Indianapolis and Tennessee, with each having a game against the Colts remaining and the Jaguars finishing the regular season against the Titans on Jan. 4.<\/p>\n

Division record is the next tiebreaker after head-to-head results. <\/p>\n

The AFC South champ will play at home in the first round of the AFC playoffs. The Texans could win up as low as the No. 7 seed or as high as the No. 2 seed. <\/p>\n

Ryans earned All-State recognition as a linebacker in 2001 at Jess Lanier High School in Bessemer. <\/p>\n

At Alabama, Ryans was a unanimous All-American, the SEC Defensive Player of the Year and the winner of the Lott IMPACT Trophy for the 2005 season as a senior. He capped his college career as the Defensive MVP of the 2006 Cotton Bowl in Alabama\u2019s 13-10 victory over Texas Tech.<\/p>\n

A second-round selection of the Texans in the 2006 NFL Draft, Ryans won the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year Award and was a two-time Pro Bowl selection for Houston during a 10-season NFL career.<\/p>\n

Ryans won the Pro Football Writers of America\u2019s 2023 NFL Coach of the Year<\/a> Award in his first season with Houston.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By beating the Los Angeles Chargers 20-16 on Saturday, the Houston Texans qualified for the NFL playoffs for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[300,20250,56,58,57,80,16379,8362],"class_list":["post-103451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-football","tag-football-game","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-football","tag-nrg-stadium"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}