With Deshaun Watson gone the way of the dinosaurs, it would be easy to project the Houston Texans to fall off a cliff for the remainder of the season. Houston coach Bill O'Brien, however, claims we should wait a minute before writing them off.

“It’s a very resilient bunch of guys, great veteran leadership in there, and we’ll battle,” O’Brien told reporters on Friday. “We’re not going to give in to what’s out there that the demise of the Houston Texans is upon us. I mean, that’s ridiculous. We’re going to show up and fight and play.”

I mean, what else is he going to say? He isn't going to discuss how big of a drop off in talent there is between Watson and his replacement Tom Savage or anything.

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As for fans who feel like the air is out of the balloon after the injury? Bill O'Brien has a practical solution.

“I’d put the air back into the balloon,” O’Brien said. “Our guys will be there on Sunday. Our guys are ready to go. We had a really good practice today, one of our better Friday practices. Injuries occur in the NFL. It’s just the way it is. It’s not unlike any other sport. It’s a contact sport. Things happen and our guys will be ready to go on Sunday. It’s a big game. The Colts are a big rivalry, this organization knows that. We don’t have a great history with the Colts relative to our record, so it’s a big rivalry and we need our fans. We need our fans there loud and give us a great home-field advantage.”

The good news here is that the Colts stink. Maybe playing them first after the injury, allowing Savage to build some confidence, can actually help the Texans save their season.