As I went over my morning timeline on Twitter, I stumbled across this from Mark Berman of Fox 26 in Houston:
According to Berman, Phillips will be gone for “a couple of weeks,” but he doesn’t elaborate on the cause for the sudden leave. For my part, and maybe I’m just out of the loop, I haven’t heard anything about Phillips’ health until seeing the tweet.
Regardless of the reason, and we all wish Coach Phillips a speedy recovery, the injury is just one more issue for the ailing, but still winning, Texans to deal with.
The Texans are statistically the best defensive unit in the league (ranked 3rd in pass defense and 4th in rush defense). It’s hard to tell how much of an impact his absence will have, but without Phillips, the Texans defense may slip just enough for the Ravens, Steelers, or Patriots to steal the top spot in the AFC playoff race.
Update: 10:29 AM EST
This was just released by the Texans via their official Twitter account: