Texans' Injuries Loom Large in Final Stretch of Regular Season

The Houston Texans' pileup of injuries has greatly impacted their playoff chances down the stretch.

It's one thing when players get banged up over the course of a long NFL season. It's another thing entirely when key playmakers are sidelined for an extended period of time during a playoff run.

Unfortunately for the Houston Texans, they have found themselves in the midst of the latter after a 36-22 blowout loss to the Cleveland Browns on Sunday. The loss of rookie sensation quarterback C.J. Stroud looms large as he remains in concussion protocol after sustaining an injury two weeks ago against the New York Jets.

Houston's offense was unable to produce anything of substance until late in Sunday's game, and by then, it was far too late to mount a comeback effort.

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To add insult to injury--or rather, add injury to injury--the Texans had three more players go down early in the game against the Browns in defensive end Jonathan Greenard and defensive backs Jimmie Ward and Steven Nelson. 

Houston also entered the game without defensive end Will Anderson Jr. (ankle), linebacker Blake Cashman (hamstring), offensive lineman Josh Jones and defensive tackle Teair Tart.

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To sum it up, it's never good to have a pileup of injuries, but it's even less ideal for it to happen at this time of year for the Texans. 

As they look to finally reach the postseason again, they needed "all hands on deck" in order to secure a wild card spot, and while that's still in play, those odds were lessened on Sunday.

Failing to reach the playoffs would put a sour ending on an otherwise impressive turnaround season for the Texans, but with so much injury-related adversity, it would be hard to blame them if that comes to pass.