The National Football League will stage a pair of Monday Night Football games beginning with the Detroit Lions hosting the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a 4:00 p.m. Pacific Time start. This week, the two MNF contests should not overlap, as the second contest from the west coast featuring the Houston Texans and the Seattle Seahawks will begin at 7:00 p.m.
Don’t ask me, I don’t know why the NFL is playing multiple Monday night double-headers this season and like many I think it is a bad idea. But I suspect like most things in business it has something to do with increasing revenues.
What they put on display tonight are four teams with legitimate Super Bowl hopes. Initial high expectations for the Texans were dashed when DeMeco Ryans’ squad opened the season with three straight losses to the Los Angeles Rams, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Jacksonville Jaguars. They have only lit a flicker of hope with two wins in recent games against a pair of teams that have only two wins in 11 games combined, the Baltimore Ravens and Tennessee Titans.
In other words, the Texans haven’t beaten anyone except two of the league’s worst teams.
Not exactly Super Bowl credentials.
But before you write off the Texans chances tonight in Seattle against a Seahawks team that came into the week tied with the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams for the top spot in the NFC West Division, know this, the Texans are better than their record. A road opening week loss to the Rams and a one-point last second defeat to the Buccaneers are not indicators of a bad team. What didn’t seem to align with a team in the hunt for a title was their third week setback in Jacksonville.