Houston Texans 'Very Close' Says Coach DeMeco Ryans

The Houston Texans are one of the more surprising teams this NFL season and coach DeMeco Ryans says they're getting close to becoming as good as they want to be.

At 2-3 through five weeks the Houston Texans have already won as many games as many expected them to all season long. 

With wins over the Jacksonville Jaguars and Pittsburgh Steelers, there are some who believe the Texans could be competing to sit atop the AFC South sooner than expected, even after a narrow loss to the Atlanta Falcons in Week 5.

After his comments Monday, we can count Houston coach DeMeco Ryans among the population of those who see near-term potential in this year's squad.

"We're close, we're very close and our guys know that," Ryans said when discussing some of the little things that cost the Texans their third win of the season in Week 5. "I know we left a lot of plays out there that we could have made to flip that game in our direction...I think the game flipped on third down. They got stops on third down and we didn't get stops defensively. That's where the game flipped for us."

Houston Texans coach DeMeco Ryans encouraging his players on the sideline / USA Today

Houston may have struggled on third down against Atlanta but overall the team has the seventh-best conversion rate.

Defensively, the Texans are holding opponents are converting more than 47 percent of the time, something Ryans wants to get fixed starting with Week 6 back home to host the New Orleans Saints.

Fortunately, the Saints offense is currently ranked 22nd in the NFL when trying to convert third downs, providing Houston a prime opportunity to improve its defensive percentage.

The New Orleans defense is currently third-best in the league in preventing third-down conversions, however, meaning finding success on that critical down is going to be the key to the Texans continuing to surprise and to get back in the win column.