HOUSTON – When the Texans travel to play the Dallas Cowboys for a Monday night football game, statewide bragging rights, rivalry talk and who’s the best team in the state of Texas are not at the forefront of their approach.
It’s a football game they simply need to win to snap a two-game losing streak and get their season back on track after consecutive losses to the Detroit Lions and New York Jets on primetime games.
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In the wake of an epic collapse against the Lions as the 6-4 Texans allowed 19 unanswered points and didn’t score in the second half of a 26-23 loss, the defending AFC South champions have lost three of four games and haven’t scored a second-half touchdown since a road victory over the New England Patriots in October.
The Cowboys are 0-4 this season at AT&T Stadium and are on a four-game losing streak. Texans fans would love to make it five games for Dallas, which lost star quarterback Dak Prescott for the season with a torn hamstring that required surgery.
“No doubt, I’m sure for them it’s probably a crazy thing because it’s Houston and Dallas,” running back Joe Mixon said. “For me, I really haven’t looked at it this way. It’s more, ‘We have a football game in front of us. We have to execute and win the football game. It’s simple and we’re going to keep it that way.
“Dallas is Dallas. Hell of a stadium. It’s really nice. At the end of the day, it’s just football. Coming down to it, we have to keep the main thing the main thing and go out there and win the football game. That’s about it.”
#Texans Joe Mixon on everything from getting the run game rolling, accounting for #Cowboys Micah Parsons to keeping the main thing the main thing @KPRC2 pic.twitter.com/YbXUmMMNV8
— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) November 14, 2024
The Cowboys had won 16 consecutive games at home until being blown out by the Green Bay Packers in a wild-card playoff game. Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy’s job security is an open debate inside and outside of The Star, the team’s training facility.
The Texans are focused on themselves. They haven’t lost two games in a row since the first two starts of Pro Bowl quarterback C.J. Stroud’s rookie season last year, rebounding from an 0-2 start to finish 11-8 and win a division title.
“No advantage for playing there, we’re just looking for a really cool atmosphere,” Texans coach DeMeco Ryans said. “I think it’s one of the coolest stadiums to play in. It’ll be a lot of our guys’ first time going there and playing. But we expect to see some good support from our fans there as well. So, guys will embrace the environment there. It’s all about playing well in that place. If our guys go out and execute well, it’ll be a really cool place to play.”
“Nothing special for us. We’re just hungry and excited about getting a win. I know it’s exciting and it means a lot to our fans, but for us, it means a lot because it’s the next one.”
Ryans urged Texans fans making the trip to be loud and disrupt the Cowboys as much as possible with their crowd noise.
“That would mean everything to us,” Ryans said. “If we can get our fans’ support there and we can cause some havoc for them when they’re on offense. If our fans show up like that, that would be outstanding. I know our guys would be very appreciative of that. We’ve seen that a couple of times in our stadium where the opposing team, their fans, have shown up and shown out and been loud. So, for us to do that on the road, we would really appreciate that from our fans.”
The Texans are in a skid right now. They’re trying to self-correct, especially the offensive line pass protection and run-blocking issues.
“I always speak the truth in our team meetings and let the guys know exactly where we are,” Ryans said. “And, yeah, we’re going through a tough patch right now. But, as I told our team, we need that. We need to toughen up. We need to be mentally tougher. We need to figure out ways to finish games and the only way to learn sometimes is through failure. And that strengthens you, that grows that stamina that you need and it creates that resolve that you need to see like, ‘Man, where I need to pick it up.’
“It’s not all the way there because if it was, we would’ve finished those games. So, it teaches you where you’re lacking and it shows where we have to pick it up and finish. So, I’m thankful for this moment and I’m thankful for our guys to learn from this moment. I always talk about, whether it’s win or loss, it’s always a learning moment. It’s always a teachable moment and I feel like our guys have learned a lot and now it’s time for us to exhibit the growth that we’ve shown and what we’ve learned throughout these tough times.”
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Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 click2houston.com.
