American poet Maya Angelou once wrote, “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.”

That quote held true as the Houston Texans played through some very rough times facing the only undefeated team in the NFL, the Kansas City Chiefs. In front of a home crowd of 71,835, in a nationally televised game, the Texans have a heartbreaking loss of 42-34 to the Chiefs. Houston endured major blows on the defensive side of the ball when outside linebacker Whitney Mercilus suffered a chest injury in the first quarter of the game. Mercilus is one of the smartest linebackers in the game. His awareness on the defensive side of the ball helps the entire Texans unit. With the early diagnosis of a pectoral tear, he is done for the season.

To make matters worse the Texans also lost the “Heartbeat of the City” when defensive end J.J. Watt went down with a season-ending leg injury. Watt has been diagnosed with a tibial plateau fracture. “Just coming off the field and hearing a little bit about it I don’t have a ton of information on it,” head coach Bill O’ Brien said when asked about his star defensive end. “I feel terrible for the guy but with that being said just knowing him and the type of guy he is. He is an amazing human being and he will work extremely hard to be back to play for this football team.”

Kansas City showed why they are the hottest team in football. With quarterback Alex Smith throwing for 324 yards and three touchdowns and rookie Kareem Hunt rushing for 107 yards, the Chiefs left no doubt who was the dominant team on the field. “I think we are executing more consistently. I think we have had flashes in years past, we have a confidence about us that when we do get a spell where things do not go our way. We can get back to being us,” said quarterback Alex Smith when asked what was different about the offense this year.

For the third week in a row, Texans rookie quarterback Deshaun Watson was very good and effective in a loss. He completed 16-of-31passes (51.6%) for 261 yards, five touchdowns, and no interceptions. That makes Watson the first rookie quarterback in NFL history with five or more total touchdowns in back-to-back games and he has already set the team’s single-season record for touchdowns by a rookie quarterback with twelve TDs ( the previous record was held by David Carr with nine). Coach O’Brien had nothing but positive things to say about Watson’s performance. “I think every game is a learning experience for him and I think he is an excellent young quarterback.”

Texans wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins had another strong performance with a team-high three touchdowns, which tied a single game and career high for him.

The Texans will look to rebound as they face a winless Cleveland Browns team who has been showing improvement each week.

Kick-off is Sunday, October 15, 2017, at12pm CST at NRG Stadium.