They entered the season as Super Bowl hopefuls. Now the odds are against them.

On paper, both the Los Angeles Chargers and Houston Texans entered the NFL season in enviable positions: They each have talented quarterbacks (the Chargers’ Justin Herbert, the Texans’ C.J. Stroud), head coaches with a track record of success (Jim Harbaugh and DeMeco Ryans), and started the season with two home games. After two weeks, however, both Los Angeles and Houston will face an uphill climb to simply make the playoffs, let alone make a postseason breakthrough.

The Texans fell to 0-2 on Sunday after a 20-6 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, with the Chargers joining them after a 26-14 defeat at the hands of the Las Vegas Raiders.

For Houston, Week 2 saw the script flip from its Week 1 loss against the Buffalo Bills. Against the Bills, the Texans’ defense crumbled against Josh Allen. Against the Bengals, Houston’s defense played relatively well against the high-powered trio of Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, sacking Burrow five times and holding Cincy to only 20 points.

But this week, the offense was inefficient. Stroud completed only 30 of a whopping 55 passes for 353 yards. He was sacked four times and did not throw a touchdown pass. The ground game…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/business