When the Oakland Raiders lost their Week 17 game to the Denver Broncos and the Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Diego Chargers, the Raiders dropped from the second seed in the AFC and possibly earning a first round bye, to the fifth seed meaning they have to travel to take on the Houston Texans on Saturday afternoon.
That will be a tough challenge for the Raiders, who possibly will be starting Connor Cook, a rookie who has never started an NFL game, at quarterback.
Luckily for Oakland though, the Texans have a quarterback controversy of their own going on as a few weeks back start Brock Osweiler was benched in favor of backup Tom Savage.
Savage suffered a concussion in the Texans Week 17 game though, and Osweiler came in and had a solid performance in Savage’s absence.
With Savage going through the NFL’s concussion protocol, his status for Saturday’s game is currently in question. But on Tuesday Texans head coach Bill O’Brien named Osweiler his starter, even if Savage completes the protocol.
According to Sarah Barshop of ESPN, O’Brien was impressed with what he saw out of Osweiler in Week 17:
“I thought Brock did some really good things on Sunday with his teammates and almost brought us all the way back,” O’Brien said. “So I thought he did a nice job, and we have a lot of confidence in him that he’s going to go out there and play well on Saturday.”
It has been a rough season for Osweiler, who signed a four-year, $72 million contract with the Texans last offseason after starting just seven career games with the Denver Broncos.
In 15 games (14 starts) this season Osweiler completed 59 percent of his passes for 2,957 yards, 15 touchdowns and 16 interceptions. His 5.8 yards per attempt ranked dead last among 30 qualified quarterbacks.
The Raiders defeated the Texans earlier this season 27-20 in Mexico City. IN that game Osweiler completed 26-of-39 passes for 243 yards, a touchdowns and an interception.
