Can a mediocre team like the Texans make the playoffs?

The Texans are a good Team and a bad team all at once. Everyone has been inconsistent this season, but not team has been more inconsistent than this team. There are a lot of things that they can change, but they need to start by staying the course and hoping for the best. They are in an extremely weak division, and they could go to the playoffs if they actually committed to a plan.

The defense, the offense, and the coaching staff need to do something that will make them better steadily over the course of the season.

The Texans defense controls too much

As good as the Texans are, they are not really a team with an identity. The defense has been very spotty, and they can only say that they are playing really hard. They have a ton of talent, and they need to be sure that they actually play like a defense with an identity. JJ Watt might be the best player on the team, but he should not be taking up all the space. The space that Watt takes up needs to be occupied by other players who are giving just as much to the team.

His shadow might be a bit too large.

The Texans offense needs to progress

If the Texans can score a bunch of points against the Patriots, they should be able to do that every week. It is very easy for us to assume that the Patriots had a bad week, but the simple fact is that the Texans are actually pretty good. They should make sure that they are going to have their offense led by Deshaun Watson without fail even if they fail from one week to the next. Deshaun Watson could be a playoff quarterback before the end of the season, and the only way to make that happen is to force him to go out there and score 30 points or more every week.

Bill O'Brien needs to prove himself

The only thing we know right now is that the Texans are not reaching their potential.

They have been ok over the last couple years, but they have not been as good as they claimed they would be. There is a scenario in which Bill O'Brien gets fired at the end of the season because he did not make the playoffs. The Texans could claim that they are ready to move in a new direction because they gave O'Brien wanted and he did not get the job done. Because of that, they can fire him and move on with their lives. They can hire the next hot assistant. Maybe they would hire Steve Sarkisian away from the Falcons, and that would make it a lot of fun for the team to play in that booming offense that they are running in Atlanta right now. The Texans have to progress because Bill O'Brien is counting on that.