Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Houston Texans: Live Houston Score and Analysis

To quote the late Joe Cocker—yes, I know the Beatles wrote the song, but I prefer the cover—"I get by with a little help from my friends."

Well I'm not sure if the Kansas City Chiefs or Cleveland Browns are friends of the Houston Texans so to speak, but they will need some help from those two teams if they are to make the playoffs for the third time in franchise history.

Unfortunately, like the Texans, both of those teams will be starting backup quarterbacks this week as well; an undrafted rookie in the case of Cleveland.

Could Chase Daniel, who has had some success in limited action, lead his team to a home win over the San Diego Chargers? It's certainly possible, and I wouldn't even consider that to be a big upset.

On the other hand, the Browns will be on the road with their third quarterback—rookie Connor Shaw—and without their star receiver Josh Gordon, who was suspended for the game, so a Cleveland victory would be a shocking upset.

If the Texans win and still come up short, it will be difficult not to look back at the games against the Dallas Cowboys and Indianapolis Colts as games they could have easily won; if they had won just one of those three games, then a win this week would have put them in the playoffs.

As much as all of us will be scoreboard-watching today, the team will have to stay focused on the Jaguars, because none of the scenarios matter if Houston loses today.

Ignore any "coach-speak" you might hear about Jacksonville being an improved team and doing some things really well. They're still an awful team led by a bad young quarterback coming to play you in your own building; the Texans should win this game, or they don't deserve to make the playoffs.

On offense, the Jaguars rank 32nd and 30th respectively in points scored and yards gained, while they rank 27th in both stat categories on defense. There will be no excuses today regardless of whom Houston is playing at quarterback.