HOUSTON (AP) — The Houston Texans are the sixth team

since 1980 and the first in 20 years to make the postseason after a 0-3 start.“When you start off 0-3 and you’re sitting here at 10-5 with a chance to win the division on Sunday you’ve done a lot of good things over the course of those games since we were 0-3 Color Rush Thomas Sweeney Jersey ,” defensive end J.J. Watt said. “But we have to make sure that we do what we need to do to make sure that doesn’t all go to waste.”They’ve lost two of their past three games, capped by Sunday’s 32-30 loss at Philadelphia, but earlier had won nine straight games after their dismal start to turn their season around and reach the playoffs for the fifth time in franchise history and first since 2016.The Texans (10-5) opened with losses to New England, Tennessee and the New York Giants that left them 0-3 and were all close games decided by a total of 15 points.Houston’s rebound began with consecutive three-point wins in overtime against Indianapolis and Dallas before seven-point victories over Buffalo and Jacksonville.The Texans scored their most points of the season the following week in a 42-23 trouncing of the Miami Dolphins. Their next two wins both came by two points after both Denver and Washington missed long field goals in the final seconds of those games.The Texans extended their winning streak to nine games with victories over Tennessee and Cleveland before their first loss since Sept. 23 came in a 24-21 defeat against the Colts on Dec. 9.Houston led early against the New York Jets before falling behind and needing a fourth-quarter rally to get a 29-22 win on Dec. 15.As the Texans prepare to wrap up the regular season with a visit from the Jaguars where they need a win to clinch the AFC South title, here’s a look at the other teams who reached the playoffs after 0-3 starts.1981 NEW YORK JETSNew York’s winless start came thanks to losses to Buffalo, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. The Jets’ first win of the season came in a 33-17 defeat of the Oilers before they played to a 28-28 overtime tie with the Dolphins.They won two in a row after that before a loss to the Seahawks. A season-long five-game winning streak followed before the Seahawks downed them once again. But they bounced back with two wins to wrap up the regular season and finish 10-5-1 and second in the AFC East.They hosted the Bills in the wild-card game and scored 14 points in the fourth quarter to cut the deficit, but came up just short in the 31-27 loss.1982 TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERSThis team is different than the others on this list because Tampa Bay’s turnaround from 0-3 to the playoffs came in a season that was shortened to just nine games because of a 57-day strike by the players. Because of the strike the league adopted different rules for qualifying for the playoffs that weren’t tied to division standings Youth Thomas Sweeney Jersey , leading to two teams Cleveland (4-5) and Detroit (4-5) making the postseason despite losing records.Tampa Bay won its next two after starting 0-3 before a loss to the Jets. The Buccaneers, who were led by quarterback Doug Williams then won their last three regular-season games, capped by a 26-23 overtime victory against the Bears to finish 5-4 and reach the postseason.But just as the Jets had a year before, the Buccaneers fell in the wild-card game when Williams threw three interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown, in a 30-17 loss to the Cowboys.1992 SAN DIEGO CHARGERSIt would be a decade until another team opened the season 0-3 to make the playoffs, and the San Diego Chargers stand out on this list because they are the only team to drop their first four games and reach the postseason.The Chargers fell in the huge hole early after Stan Humphries threw eight interceptions with just one TD in the first four games. San Diego got going after that Womens Thomas Sweeney Jersey , winning four in a row to reach .500 before its second loss of the season to Kansas City. The Chargers rebounded the next week with a win to start a seven-game streak to end the season at 11-5 and give them the AFC West title.They became the first of these teams to win a playoff game when they beat Kansas City 17-0 in the wild card after the Chiefs beat them twice in the regular season.Their season ended when Humphries threw four interceptions and Dan Marino had three touchdown passes in a 31-0 win by the Dolphins in the divisional round.1995 DETROIT LIONSThe Lions won two in a row after their 0-3 start but then lost their next two to fall to 2-5. Another win followed by their sixth loss came after that before they finally got rolling, winning their last seven regular-season games to finish 10-6 and second in the NFC Central.Barry Sanders ran for 1,500 yards and 11 touchdowns that season, with 10 of those scores coming in Detroit’s wins.Detroit met Philadelphia in the wild-card and Sanders managed just 40 yards rushing as Rodney Peete threw three touchdowns to lead the Eagles to a 58-37 win.1998 BUFFALO BILLSFormer Texans defensive coordinator Wade Phillips coached the 1998 Bills when they turned their season around to reach the playoffs after a 0-3 start. The Bills opened the season with Rob Johnson at quarterback, but Doug Flutie took over during the fifth game when Johnson was injured and helped them to a 31-24 comeback win over the Colts. The next week Flutie made his first NFL start since 1989 and led the Bills to a 17-16 win over the Jaguars for their first loss of the season.Those two wins were part of a five-game streak that came after the winless start. The Bills won four of six after that streak and ended the regular season with a loss to the Jets and a win over the Saints to finish 10-6 and in third place in the AFC East.The Bills lost to Miami 24-17 in the wild card when Flutie threw an interception and they lost four fumbles. In what turned out to be a shockingly close game (for three quarters anyway) between the Buffalo Bills and New England Patriots there’s a natural element of “what if.” In the case of penalties we often wonder if one more clean play or two may have changed the outcome. For this week the answer is “no.” Penalties didn’t significantly alter the game. We’re gonna discuss them regardless. Traditional and Advanced MetricsPenalty CountThe Bills and Patriots were nearly even on assessed count. Six for the Bills and five for the Patriots is neck and neck. Both teams were under the league average for assessed count. When it comes to total flags, it’s dead even at eight. This is for all intents and purposes perfectly average at the moment. There were no offsetting penalties in this game so the five extra between the two teams were all declined. As a reminder, penalties are declined when something worse happened so the three penalties that didn’t “count” for the Patriots still represent times where they made a bad play. Penalty YardsThe Bills are slightly below average on assessed yards. The Patriots are quite a bit under. Don’t buy into the gap here though. The Patriots negated 18 yards of offense via flags which brings them right up to where the Bills landed. When it comes to penalty performance it’s still a wash at this point. Penalty HarmNew England PatriotsWe have quite a few boo-boos here. Three declined penalties naturally had zero penalty harm. A false start and an illegal formation both had 0.5 Harm as a result of yardage only. Note that there were two illegal formations (the other was one of the declined penalties). This infraction has been hounding the Bills this season and if there’s a silver lining to this game it’s that perhaps the curse has been passed along. For more serious flags Authentic Thomas Sweeney Jersey , Chris Hogan wiped out a nine-yard gain. Paired with the ten yards assessed it receives a 1.9 Harm rating. LaAdrian Waddle’s holding penalty also wiped out a nine-yard gain. Based on field position this penalty was half the distance to the goal for an assessed nine yards. It also negated a first down from second. So 9 assessed yards + 9 negated yards + 1 down = 2.8 Harm. Last but not least we have Julian Edelman’s unsportsmanlike conduct. This occurred on a punt and field position again mitigated the damage. At half the distance to the goal from the nine-yard line it pushed the Patriots back 4 yards. There’s more to the story in my opinion so let’s look at this one. Edelman has called for the fair catch which establishes him as “untouchable” which is critical for this rant. Lafayette Pitts very clearly starts decelerating to avoid contact and has no reasonable expectation that he should be getting hit by Edelman. As Pitts approaches, Edelman launches helmet-first into Pitts’ facemask. The refs call unsportsmanlike conduct for blocking after a fair catch is called. This should have been unnecessary roughness and an ejection. This passes all of the tests for a roughness call including that the person being hit has no reason to think contact is coming. Roughness calls by rule include “using any part of a player’s helmet or facemask to butt, spear, or ram an opponent.” That happened for sure. If a penalty is egregious it is grounds for automatic disqualification. Remember, Edelman signaled a fair catch which created the situation in which Pitts was actively attempting to avoid contact. If establishing yourself in a position where your opponents are avoiding contact and then headbutting a guy in the facemask isn’t “egregious” I don’t know what is. The NFL claims to be worried about player safety. “Plays” like this can’t be acceptable. Anyway, 6.1 Harm for the Patriots on Monday Night Football. Buffalo BillsWe have a pile of boo-boos over here too. The two declined penalties are zero, of course. False starts continue to have no need to be discussed and there were two of those. LeSean McCoy’s holding penalty was assessed yards only. Logan Thomas was called for unnecessary roughness on the kickoff to open the second half. At least according to the play-by-play. The call on the field was a personal foul for an illegal block. From the one available angle it appeared to be a block to the back. This spot foul occurred at the 22-yard line and was therefore assessed as eleven yards or half the distance to the goal for 1.1 Harm. Tremaine Edmunds was called for defensive holding. The five yards was exacerbated by an automatic first down from second. 5 yards + 1 down = 1.5 Harm. Kelvin Benjamin was flagged for an illegal blindside block. This ended up as assessed yards only. McCoy was credited for his run and the first down it earned. After the penalty the Bills were first and ten Thomas Sweeney Jersey Boys , just 15 yards behind where McCoy had taken the ball. This one seemed ticky-tack live and Benjamin was eager to plead his case. Let’s take a real close look and see what happened. To understand the call we turn to the rule book. Except for specific limitations, blocking is generally allowed (pass interference, holding, etc. are all limits on acceptable blocking). For the flag here, illegal blindside blocks establish the person being blocked as a defenseless player. It’s similar to how normally legal contact becomes illegal when a quarterback is in a throwing posture or a receiver is going up for a catch. For the rule, it’s clunkily worded by identifying a person as defenseless when “A player who receives a ‘blindside’ block when the path of the blocker is toward or parallel to his own end line.” As the blocker, Benjamin’s trajectory is clearly heading toward his own end line (or end zone) and passes that part of the test. The other component is that the contact has to originate from the person’s “blindside.” This isn’t defined by the NFL so a common meaning interpretation is the one that applies. If defined by an actual “side Infant Thomas Sweeney Jersey ,” Benjamin hits him on the front. On the other hand, if defined as “blind to the direction the hit came from,” I don’t think Devin McCourty had any clue what happened until the replay. Personally, I think the refs got this right. Now for the drum roll. Up until now the Bills and Patriots were neck and neck using penalty measurements. The Patriots had 6.1 Harm as noted above. The Bills? Also 6.1 Harm. Neither team had an advantage based on penalty using any metric seen above.