The Houston Texans survived in Week 13 against the Denver Broncos despite a last push to take the lead in the final minutes of the fourth quarter.
With the win, the Texans improve to 7-5 on the season but currently sit in third place in the AFC South following the Indianapolis Colts' win over the Tennessee Titans.
As it stands, the Texans are the 8th seed in the AFC playoff picture going into Monday night with the Jacksonville Jaguars set to host the Cincinnati Bengals. The Texans are knocking on the door toward a playoff push, but more work needs to be done.
The job on offense got a lot harder despite the team's win in Week 13. The Texans lost rookie wide receiver Tank Dell with a brutal leg injury, who will likely miss the remainder of the 2023 season. The promising rookie had 709 receiving yards and 7 touchdowns on the season.
In his absence, the Texans will have to rely even more on their top target in the passing game to fuel a playoff push over the final five games of the season. Nico Collins leads the Texans with 991 receiving yards and is second on the team with 6 touchdowns.
In Week 13's win over the Broncos, Collins totaled a career-high 9 receptions for a career-high 191 receiving yards and one score. The career day proved that the Texans offense should manage to withstand the major loss with Collins at the forefront of the passing attack.
Collins has now surpassed the 100-yard mark receiving in four games in 2023. Entering the season, the team's number one wide receiver never reached that mark throughout his first 24 career games.
The third-year wide receiver has taken his game to another level this season with rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud throwing him the ball and is playing like one of the top wide receivers in the entire league.
Collins' role will increase even more over the final five games, but the same can be said about the entire wide receiver room. No other Texans wide receiver, outside of Collins, totaled more than one reception against the Broncos.
The Texans will need someone to step up at the position alongside Collins with Dell out for a considerable amount of time. Veteran Robert Woods has totaled 326 yards and one touchdown this season. Noah Brown shined for the Texans in Weeks 9-10 after posting back-to-back career games with 150+ receiving yards.
If the young team can find some added help from their other playmakers at the position, the playoffs is certainly still in reach for the Texans. Meanwhile, all eyes are on Collins to be the team's go-to target throughout the rest of the season.
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