Houston Texans Defense Could Rewrite NFL Record Books

To start, allow me to state the obvious... with only four games in the books, it may be just slightly premature to begin looking at season-long trends. But hey, when so much of the conversation surrounding the Houston Texans for the first quarter of the 2025 NFL season has been focused on the struggles of the offense, I say it's time we take a break from all the negativity and celebrate Houston's defense.

Coming into the year, it was widely accepted that the Texans defense would be among the best units in the NFL. Nobody really disputed that, and that includes members of the Texans organization who set lofty goals ahead of the season, like All-Pro cornerback Derek Stingley Jr., who claimed that Houston's D should lead the league in interceptions by "10 to 15."

Absurd predictions like that aside, the Texans defense has thus far lived up to that billing, even if they've only forced 3 turnovers through the first four games of the season. By any other metric, Houston's D has been lights out, and that includes the most important metric... points allowed.

Presently, the Texans have surrendered fewer points this season than any other team in the league. In fact, the different between the Houston Texans (51 points) and the 2nd-ranked scoring defense in the league (the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks, who have each given up 67 points) is just as large as the difference is between the 2nd-ranked scoring defense and the 12th-ranked scoring defense (Indianapolis Colts).

Again, it's early, but this four-week start has the Texans on pace to finish as one of the league's top scoring defenses of the last quarter-century. Since the year 2000, only six teams have managed to make it through an entire NFL season giving up fewer than 13 points per game. If the Texans continue stifling opponents the same way they have through Week 4, they could end up becoming the 7th team in the last 25 years to reach that impressive mark.

One thing that each of those six defenses has in common with the Texans is an offense that wasn't capable of carrying the workload. Not a single one of those teams finished with a top ten scoring offense, and again, that makes the Texans similar to all of those groups. Thus far this season, Houston is 29th in scoring, which explains their 1-3 record despite an historically dominant defensive start.

Can the Houston Texans keep this pace for 17 games?

This may end up being the question that determines whether Houston ends up making the Playoffs for the third consecutive season. We shouldn't necessarily bank on the Texans continuing to hold opponents under 13 points per game, especially since scoring is up across the NFL compared to any one of those previously mentioned seasons. There's a reason the last time a defense held their opponents to under 13 points per game happened nearly 20 years ago.

But even if that numbers swells by a couple of points per game, if the Texans remain the league-leader in points allowed by a considerable margin -- and if the offense continues to make strides after their promising 26-0 win over the Titans this past Sunday -- it could propel Houston back into the postseason picture. But just for the sake of amusement, let's consider whether the Texans can actually keep up this pace.

Now while a shutout win over the Tennessee Titans doesn't prove much, the work that the Texans defense did against their first three opponents of the season does inspire some confidence that this could be a history-making season.

Take away those games against Houston, and each of the Texans first three opponents of the season would be top ten scoring offenses in the NFL in this season. So while there are still some high-octane offenses that the Texans will need to contend with later on down the line this season, there's reason to believe that each of those teams could struggle in a similar fashion as the Rams, Bucs and Jaguars did.

Aaron Judge Drops Message For Red Sox Ace Garrett Crochet

The Boston Red Sox took down the New York Yankees on Tuesday night and now are one win away from advancing to the American League Division Series and knocking out their biggest rival in the process.

Boston made it through Tuesday's Game 1 matchup on the back of a historic performance from Garrett Crochet. He got the ball for Boston and delivered with one of the best playoff starts you are ever going to see. Crochet went 7 2/3 innings, struck out 11 batters, and allowed just one earned run and four base hits. He threw 117 pitches and Boston needed every single one of them. There were nerves after Anthony Volpe hit a home run in the in the second innings, but then Crochet proceeded to retire 17 batters in a row afterward to keep Boston in the game and give it enough time to take the lead.

The Red Sox took Game 1

Sep 30, 2025; Bronx, New York, USA; New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge (99) looks on from the dugout before the game against the Boston Red Sox during game one of the Wildcard round for the 2025 MLB playoffs at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images / Brad Penner-Imagn Images

After the game, Yankees superstar Aaron Judge had some massive praise for Crochet and called him the best pitcher in baseball.

"He's the best pitcher in the game," Judge said. "He's going to work all of his pitches. Work a little more offspeed in there early on. We got the Volpe homer but couldn't really get guys on there or do much after that."

That's some big praise coming from the best hitter on the planet. Even in a night in which the Yankees lost and could barely get guys on, Judge went 2-for-4 for New York. Crochet is in just his second season as a full-time starting pitcher and will be right up there with Tarik Skubal of the Detroit Tigers for the American League Cy Young Award this year. It's unclear who will win the award, but it's at least close between these two aces.

Overall this season, Crochet went 18-5 to go along with a 2.59 ERA and 255-to-46 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 205 1/3 innings pitched. He was the ace Boston needed and he showed that in front of the world on Tuesday.

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