When the Houston Texans take on the Cincinnati Bengals this week, they will be without quite a few key players on their roster as their most recent injury report listed 23 different players – an inordinately high number compared to other teams throughout the league.
During a press conference this week, Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans had a pretty blunt response to the lengthy injury report, saying “Things happen, that’s life.”
“It doesn’t stop our process,” Ryans said according to Pro Football Talk. “We go through the same process. Things happen, that’s life. Things don’t go your way all the time, so I continue to smile through it. We’re going to have our best guys out there. Whoever is available, we’re going to have our best guys out there and we’re going to play the Texan brand of football.”
Still, it’s a pretty horrible situation for the Texans ahead of this week’s game, and the NFL world had a lot to say about it on social media as a result.
Bengals fans if they beat the Texans 4th stringers: injuries are no excuse!
Bengals fans if they lose to the Texans while without Jamarr and/or Tee: doesn’t count, we weren’t healthy! https://t.co/4AC6uGvPKo
— Cam (@CamJones997) November 8, 2023
This is how we look going into a statement game typical Texans https://t.co/TVV611xtiL
— William (@Will_ace4) November 8, 2023
Serious question… Did the Texans have practice today, at all? https://t.co/mxV6FDG7i2
— Caleb Noe (@CalebNoeTV) November 8, 2023
The longest injury report I have ever seen. My goodness. #Texans need a lot of players to get a lot better in a short amount of time. https://t.co/plqgMTt9YX
— Cody Stoots (@Cody_Stoots) November 8, 2023
23 of 53 players on an #NFL injury report.
"Next TEAM up"…. https://t.co/EgGapUgH2z
— Lawrence Owen (@Colts_Law) November 8, 2023
I've never seen an injury report like this in my life https://t.co/7YvHkdo9XI
— Micah Parsons Fan (@demcowboysfan) November 8, 2023
The Texans had to battle through adversity last week when kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn left the game with an injury leading to running back Dare Ogunbowale kicking field goals and handling kickoffs. We’ll see how they handle all the injuries this week.
