After a couple days did the tie seem more understandable?

I don't know about soul crushing but the 2017 losses to NE and Seattle were hard to swallow. Deshaun had the entire city buzzing with late 4th quarter leads against the two best teams in the league. 3rd and short and BoB hands the ball off both times to Lamar Miller just to give the ball back to Tom Brady and Russell Wilson for the win.

 

The decision to punt is exactly why Lovie still isn’t the long term answer at HC for this team I give him 3 years max

 

Depends on how you define it I guess.

The Texans have had many disappointing moments... but soul crushing usually depends on level of expectation, which the Texans have not had much of.

2010 - Week 14 (vs BAL)
Texans have slim playoff chances with a record of 5-7 and the heavily favored Baltimore Ravens coming into town on a Monday night. Texans fight back to tie the game as time runs out after trailing 28-7. They stop Baltimore in OT but promptly lose the game on their first possession on a pick six. Soul crushing perhaps not but very deflating.

2012 - Weeks 16 & 17 (vs MIN, @IND)
The Texans are riding high at a record of 12-2. All they need to do to sew up the #1 seed (or at least a bye) is win one of their last two games. They drop both contests they are favored in by a margin of 22-51 denying them a bye and also sealing their fate to go lose in Foxborough.

2013 - Week 4 (vs SEA)
Total implosion. A team with Superbowl aspirations gets banished to the shadow realm. This was so traumatic it can't even be described as soul crushing. It was a complete decapitation of the franchise (Schaub, Kubiak, etc).

2018 - Weeks 14, 16, and the Wildcard round (vs IND, @PHI, vs IND)
This was a series of games the Texans were favored in that were golden opportunities to either A) secure a bye or B) eliminate a rival from the playoffs (IND). They blew all these opportunities (in close fashion) and then got thwacked by the Colts in the Wildcard. The final 5 weeks of this season were like watching a car crash in slow motion.

2019 - Divisional round (@KC)
24-0 ends up 31-51. Another "banished to the shadow realm" loss from which we still haven't recovered.

That's all I can really think of. Some of these were probably soul crushing to die hard fans. Realistic/casual fans probably just think of these as garden variety Texans style disappointment, lol.

 

Always been confused by the Texans 4th quarter strategy. They never attempt to step on the neck with a lead. They always play un-inspired possession offense and bend/not-break defense.... and then lose anyway.