Titans 23, Texans 22: Let's Hope It Was Indeed Meaningless

The Texans ended their most successful regular season with a third consecutive loss, effectively doing everything possible to dim NFL Playoff Fever in Houston.

The mantra fans kept mumbling to themselves is "meaningless," which is what everyone was calling this 23-22 loss to the Titans.

And obviously the Texans, locked into a third seed in the playoffs, did little to win the game, resting three starters and going for the two-point conversion with seconds left even after a bonehead five-yard penalty.

Third-string starting quarterback T.J. Yates was injured on the first drive of the game, but is expected to be ready for next week's playoff game. Backup Jake Delhomme did about as well as could be expected.

So it's not worthwhile reading a whole lot into the final game. Yeah, it effectively ended on a spectacularly inept conversion attempt that saw Delhomme waving a Titan on to pick up a lost snap.

But even if the final one was meaningless, three straight losses heading into the playoffs with an extremely inexperienced QB makes it hard to work up much optimism.

Maybe the Texans can steal a first-round win over a mediocre Bengals team, but even if that happens, it's difficult to be too optimistic about how the season will eventually end.

But hey -- there's always next year. And for the first time, given the string of injuries that hit the Texans in 2011, that phrase will actually mean something this offseason.