Defense lets Texans down again as season starts to slip away

The Houston Texans were supposed to be a Super Bowl contender in 2026, and their defense was supposed to be the biggest reason why.

After Sunday's 27-21 overtime loss to the New York Giants, the Texans now find themselves with a 2-5 record, are near the bottom of the AFC playoff picture and looking like a team whose season is starting to slip away.

Their defense is the biggest reason why.

Texans defense lets them down again

The Texas' issue on defense this season hasn't necessarily been about consistently bad play. 

They've been consistently underwhelming, but they have still mostly been a middle-of-the-pack defense.  Not terrible. Just not great. Not what they expected. The issue has been their inability to close out games late and hold on to leads. They have come up small in the biggest moments.

On Sunday, it was a combination of bad play over the course of the entire game, while also coming up small in another big moment.

They allowed J.J. McCarthy, making his first start as a member of the Giants, to throw for 252 yards on 20-of-28 passing (over nine yards per attempt), while they had zero answer for the Giants running game.

Houston not only allowed the Giants to rush for 188 yards while averaging over 5.5 yards per carry, it also allowed four different Giants players to rush for a touchdown.

That included the walk-off touchdown run from Devin Singletary.