The Texans schedule is FINALLY here. A Christmas Game. Multiple Primetime games. Sunday Night Football for the first time since 2019. Monday Night Football for the first time since the same year. Let's dive into some By the Numbers as it pertains to the 2024 schedule.
2 - This will be the second time that the Texans will play on Christmas Day since 2017. That season, a depleted Texans team took on the Pittsburgh Steelers on Christmas Day at NRG Stadium. This year, the Texans will take on the mighty Baltimore Ravens on Christmas Day on Netflix!
3 - Netflix signed a three year deal with the NFL to broadcast Christmas games on the streaming giant's service. The Texans v. Ravens & Chiefs v. Steelers doubleheader will be the maiden voyage on the service.
0 - Speaking of the Ravens, the Texans have beaten the Ravens in past years (2012 and 2014 come to mind), but they've never beaten the Ravens WITH Lamar Jackson as the starting QB.
6 - There were six rookie QBs selected in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft.
3 - The Texans project to play three of them, starting with Caleb Williams and the Bears in week two on Sunday Night Football. Then, the Texans travel to New England in week six for a matchup with QB Drake Maye. There's also a trip to Minneapolis, hopefully, to end a streak against the Vikings and rookie QB J.J. McCarthy. What streak? Well, glad you asked.
0 - The number of wins the Texans have against the Minnesota Vikings is zero, as they've never beaten the Vikings. Ever. The Texans will travel to Minneapolis hoping to break that streak in week three Sunday September 22.
1 - This will be the first time that the Texans have played a regular season Prime Time game AT Arlington's Jerry World. The Texans and the Cowboys did play in Prime Time in 2002 and 2018, but those games were at NRG…both wins over the Cowboys. Now, it's on Monday Night November 18th, no less! Can't wait for that one.
1750 - The Texans last played a regular season Sunday Night Football game against the New England Patriots in 2019 at NRG Stadium. They'll kickoff against the Chicago Bears in week two over 1700 days since that game against the Patriots. The Texans will follow that up with a Sunday Night game against the Detroit Lions in week ten, eight weeks later.
15 - The Texans project to play just under half of the 1st round drafted rookies, including the QBs mentioned above.
5 - The Texans will play on Christmas as noted above. Christmas is a Wednesday in 2024. That means the Texans will play on five of the six days that the NFL has scheduled for games in 2024.
Sundays - numerous
Monday - at Dallas Cowboys
Tuesday - No NFL games
Wednesday - Baltimore Ravens
Thursday - at New York Jets
Friday - No games on Friday, other than Amazon prime Black Friday game
Saturday - at Kansas City Chiefs
1 - For the first time, the Texans will travel to play Green Bay NOT IN DECEMBER!!! As the team's sideline reporter, I can't tell you what a gift that is. I will admit, though, that it was pretty damn cool to play the Packers in a snowstorm, just wasn't cool to not win it.
14 - The Texans will have the latest bye week allowable in the NFL - Week 14 - December 8th and the latest in the history of the Texans. The Texans have never had a bye week after week 11 in the history of the franchise. Until 2024.
Alright, that's it for the Schedule By the Numbers. It felt like it took forever to get here but it finally arrived and, thankfully, it lived up to ALL the hype.
Let's GO!!
