HOUSTON (AP) — The Houston Texans wrapped up the best defensive season in franchise history with a win over the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday.
Now the Texans (12-5) will look to build on that stellar performance when they open the playoffs next Monday night against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Houston’s ferocious defense, led by stars Will Anderson Jr., Danielle Hunter and Derek Stingley held teams to 17.3 points and 277.2 yards per game this season to set franchise marks in both categories.
“Our defense did a really nice job throughout the entire year,” coach DeMeco Ryans said. “Limiting points, specifically, that’s what makes you a good defense.”
Their consistent defensive play helped them overcome losing quarterback C.J. Stroud to a concussion for four games midseason and rally from an 0-3 start to make the postseason for a third straight season.
Hunter finished third in the NFL with 15 sacks, which ranked second in his career behind the 16 ½ sacks he had in 2023 for the Vikings. He had 54 tackles, including 15 tackles for loss, 22 quarterback hits, three passes defensed, three forced fumbles and one fumble recovery.
Anderson tied for fourth in the NFL with a career-high 20 tackles for loss and set career bests with 54 tackles, 12 sacks, 23 quarterback hits, three forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries. The 2023 AP Defensive Rookie of the Year also scored his first career touchdown on a fumble recovery this season.
Stingley, an All-Pro last season, became the fourth player in franchise history to have at least 15 passes defensed in consecutive seasons. The fourth-year player also tied for the team lead with four interceptions, including his first career interception return for a touchdown.
Houston’s 19 interceptions were tied for third in the NFL and third most in franchise history.
While Ryans is proud of the work of his defense, he’s looking for the unit to clean up some things after giving up some big plays in recent weeks, including passing plays of 66- and 53-yards Sunday.
“We didn’t end the year well defensively,” Ryans said. “When it comes to giving up explosive plays, it really wasn’t good enough defensively. So, we’ve got to do a much better job if we want to advance and play longer in the playoffs … (because) it didn’t end how it should have.”
Anderson agreed and said the defense needs to execute better if the Texans hope to advance in the playoffs.
“Coach DeMeco talked about being consistent and being dependable,” Anderson said. “We have to do that for this run that we’re going to have to go on.”
Along with the defense, a strength of the team this season has been the consistent performance of kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn. He made six field goals Sunday to set a career high and tie a franchise record for most field goals in a game. He made 44 field goals this season, which is tied with David Akers (2011) for most field goals made in a season in NFL history.
He made 44 of 48 field-goal attempts and each of his 28 extra point attempts. His 51-yard field goal Sunday gave him 51 field goals 50 yards or longer, which is the third most among active kickers.
The Texans went 2 of 3 on red zone opportunities Sunday in a game where quarterback C.J. Stroud and many other starters only played until halftime. But the team has struggled in that area throughout the season and ranks 30th in the NFL by scoring touchdowns on just 46.30% of its red zone trips.
DT Tommy Togiai returned a fumble 17 yards for a touchdown on the last play of the game Sunday to secure the victory and become the third defensive tackle in franchise history to return a fumble for a touchdown. He also had four tackles, including one for a loss against the Colts.
“He’s a coach’s dream,” Ryans said. “He’s always in the right place, always doing what you ask him to do. Very cool way for him to have that clutch moment and end the game with a touchdown.”
S K’Von Wallace had a holding penalty on a punt and a 30-yard pass interference penalty on Sunday.
CB Kamari Lassiter missed Sunday’s game with ankle and knee injuries and it’s unclear if he’ll be ready to play against the Steelers. … RB Jawhar Jordan left Sunday’s game with an ankle injury.
9 — Sunday’s win was Houston’s ninth straight, which ties the longest winning streak in franchise history.
12 — The Texans’ 12 wins ties the franchise record for most wins in a regular season. The 2012 team went 12-4 in a 16-game season.
The Texans look to eliminate their recent defensive lapses and build on the strong first half they had on offense Sunday when they travel to meet the Steelers.
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL
Indianapolis Colts quarterback Riley Leonard, right, is pressured by Houston Texans defensive end Danielle Hunter (55) as he tries to throw during the first half of an NFL football game in Houston, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Houston Texans defensive end Will Anderson Jr. (51) wears the Pro Bowl logo on his helmet before an NFL football game against the Indianapolis Colts in Houston, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026. AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
Denmark and Greenland are seeking a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the Trump administration doubled down on its intention to take over the strategic Arctic island, a Danish territory.
Tensions escalated after the White House said Tuesday that the “U.S. military is always an option." President Donald Trump has argued that the U.S. needs to control the world’s largest island to ensure its own security in the face of rising threats from China and Russia in the Arctic.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warned earlier this week that a U.S. takeover would amount to the end of NATO.
“The Nordics do not lightly make statements like this,” Maria Martisiute, a defense analyst at the European Policy Centre think tank, told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “But it is Trump, whose very bombastic language bordering on direct threats and intimidation, is threatening the fact to another ally by saying ‘I will control or annex the territory.’”
The leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom joined Frederiksen in a statement Tuesday reaffirming that the mineral-rich island “belongs to its people.”
Their statement defended the sovereignty of Greenland, which is a self-governing territory of Denmark and part of NATO.
The U.S. military action in Venezuela last weekend has heightened fears across Europe, and Trump and his advisers in recent days have reiterated a desire to take over the island, which guards the Arctic and North Atlantic approaches to North America.
“It’s so strategic right now,” Trump told reporters Sunday.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and his Greenland counterpart, Vivian Motzfeldt, have requested a meeting with Rubio in the near future, according to a statement posted Tuesday to Greenland's government website.
Previous requests for a sit-down were not successful, the statement said.
Thomas Crosbie, an associate professor of military operations at the Royal Danish Defense College, said an American takeover would not improve upon Washington's current security strategy.
“The United States will gain no advantage if its flag is flying in Nuuk versus the Greenlandic flag,” he told the AP. “There’s no benefits to them because they already enjoy all of the advantages they want. If there’s any specific security access that they want to improve American security, they’ll be given it as a matter of course, as a trusted ally. So this has nothing to do with improving national security for the United States.”
Denmark’s parliament approved a bill last June to allow U.S. military bases on Danish soil. It widened a previous military agreement, made in 2023 with the Biden administration, where U.S. troops had broad access to Danish airbases in the Scandinavian country.
Rasmussen, in a response to lawmakers’ questions, wrote over the summer that Denmark would be able to terminate the agreement if the U.S. tries to annex all or part of Greenland.
But in the event of a military action, the U.S. Department of Defense currently operates the remote Pituffik Space Base, in northwestern Greenland, and the troops there could be mobilized.
Crosbie said he believes the U.S. would not seek to hurt the local population or engage with Danish troops.
“They don’t need to bring any firepower. They don’t to bring anybody.” Crosbie said Wednesday. “They could just direct the military personnel currently there to drive to the center of Nuuk and just say, ‘This is America now,’ right? And that would lead to the same response as if they flew in 500 or 1,000 people.”
The danger in an American annexation, he said, lies in the “erosion of the rule of law globally and to the perception that there are any norms protecting anybody on the planet.”
He added: “The impact is changing the map. The impact I don’t think would be storming the parliament.”
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said he spoke by phone Tuesday with Rubio, who dismissed the idea of a Venezuela-style operation in Greenland.
“In the United States, there is massive support for the country belonging to NATO – a membership that, from one day to the next, would be compromised by … any form of aggressiveness toward another member of NATO,” Barrot told France Inter radio on Wednesday.
Asked if he has a plan in case Trump does claim Greenland, Barrot said he would not engage in “fiction diplomacy.”
While most Republicans have supported Trump’s statement, Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Thom Tillis, the Democratic and Republican co-chairs of the bipartisan Senate NATO Observer Group, have criticized Trump’s rhetoric.
“When Denmark and Greenland make it clear that Greenland is not for sale, the United States must honor its treaty obligations and respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark,” their statement on Tuesday said. “Any suggestion that our nation would subject a fellow NATO ally to coercion or external pressure undermines the very principles of self-determination that our Alliance exists to defend.”
Geir Moulson in Berlin and Mark Carlson in Brussels contributed to this report.
FILE - Danish military forces participate in an exercise with hundreds of troops from several European NATO members in the Arctic Ocean in Nuuk, Greenland, Sept. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File)
FILE - A plane carrying Donald Trump Jr. lands in Nuuk, Greenland, Jan. 7, 2025. (Emil Stach/Ritzau Scanpix via AP, file)
FILE - United States Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller reacts on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Sunday, Oct. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein), File)
CORRECT THE ORDER OF SPEAKERS, FILE - Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, right, and Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen, left, speak on April 27, 2025, in Marienborg, Denmark. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP, File)
