The Houston Texans were one of only four NFL teams to win four or fewer games in 2017. Only four teams ranked lower when it came to Defense-adjusted Value Over Average (DVOA), according to Football Outsiders, and only four had a worse points differential than the Texans' minus-98.
But there's a lot of hype surrounding the Texans heading into the 2018 season, largely because that sorry 2017 campaign looked and felt like an aberration. After all, Houston was a playoff team in 2016 and had posted winning records in three consecutive seasons prior to encountering Murphy's Law last year.