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"  A lot of things happened in the final week of the NFL regular season: The Broncos made the playoffs (despite losing), the Patriots clinched the top spot in the AFC (and scored 49 straight points), the Cowboys got bloodied, and the Colts won that sad contest for Andrew Luck. But all of that takes a backseat to twins, really. Which is why we decided to check back in with sisters Michelle and Rachel in Houston, where the Texans \u2014 already a lock for the three-seed in the AFC \u2014 rested many of their starters and lost a crazy, 23-22 game to the Titans, who somehow didn&amp;#039;t make the playoffs anyway. Here&amp;#039;s what the aspiring nurse and doctor had to say. ESQUIRE: So, Happy New Year. MICHELLE: Thank you, same to you. RACHEL: Happy New Year. ESQ: So what do twins who are professional cheerleaders in Texas do on New Year&amp;#039;s Eve? MICHELLE: I stayed up till about 12:01. I just wanted to see the ball drop and Kathy Griffin take her clothes off on CNN. RACHEL: Are you kidding? Did she really? MICHELLE: Yeah, it was weird. And then I went to sleep and woke up at like 5 to get ready for game day. Because you can&amp;#039;t be tired on game day, regardless if it&amp;#039;s New Year&amp;#039;s or not. RACHEL: Or hungover. ESQ: Well you got to bed a lot earlier than I did. Do you have any New Year&amp;#039;s resolutions? MICHELLE: This year I&amp;#039;m going to try to be more positive. Not that I&amp;#039;m not already, but I think there&amp;#039;s always room for improvement. RACHEL: And I&amp;#039;m going to give less excuses this year. You know \u2014 no excuses. MICHELLE: Right. Like have you ever seen that Nike commercial with the guy in the wheelchair playing basketball, and he&amp;#039;s like, No excuses? ESQ: I think I might have seen that. RACHEL: YouTube it, man.  ESQ: I will.  MICHELLE: It&amp;#039;s really motivating. I think that&amp;#039;s where that comes from, right Rachel? RACHEL: Yeah. No excuses.  ESQUIRE: Do you have any New Year&amp;#039;s resolutions for the Texans? RACHEL: We need to get more national attention. Like, if I&amp;#039;m watching ESPN, I&amp;#039;d like to see a little bit more Texans coverage. Because we had a good run and we clinched the AFC South, so I think maybe we should be in the spotlight a bit more.  ESQUIRE: You&amp;#039;ve got a point. For such a large market, the Texans don&amp;#039;t get a lot of national attention. Houston is what, the third or fourth biggest city? MICHELLE: Fourth.  RACHEL: And it&amp;#039;s the fattest city. Just wanted to throw that out there. ESQUIRE: Not you two, though.  RACHEL: I hope I&amp;#039;m not part of that statistic. ESQUIRE: What&amp;#039;s the most famous landmark in Houston, anyway? RACHEL: Reliant Stadium. MICHELLE: The Shuttle program. Although they stopped that temporarily.  RACHEL: CityCentre is really nice. It&amp;#039;s about 15 minutes from downtown, with shops and restaurants. It&amp;#039;s one of the most expensive real-estate projects ever in the city.  ESQ: Reality Bites was filmed in Houston. RACHEL: I&amp;#039;ve never seen that.  MICHELLE: I&amp;#039;ve never seen that. ESQ: It&amp;#039;s before your time, I guess. When were you two born? RACHEL: &amp;#039;89.  ESQ: Wow. Okay. So that came out when you were five. RACHEL: I don&amp;#039;t think my parents would let me watch that.  ESQ: Anyway. Another resolution might be a playoff win, right? RACHEL: Definitely, I mean, that&amp;#039;s the obvious one. MICHELLE: Yeah, that&amp;#039;s the obvious one. RACHEL: Going to the Super Bowl, how about that? That would be pretty good. ESQ: Is that doable this year? MICHELLE: I think so. I know we&amp;#039;ve had three straight losses, but it&amp;#039;s 2012, it&amp;#039;s playoff time, and everyone&amp;#039;s at zero. Once you&amp;#039;re in the playoffs, anything can happen. Our team&amp;#039;s played really well at times, and we&amp;#039;ll be fresh headed into the playoffs.  ESQ: Can the Texans win in the playoffs with T.J. Yates at quarterback? RACHEL: Yeah. He got us there. MICHELLE: Right. If T.J. can get us wins in the regular season, then I think he&amp;#039;ll be able to do it in the playoffs as well. We just have to believe in him. I feel like if people lose faith in him, that&amp;#039;s not going to help the situation. They should really adopt my New Year&amp;#039;s resolution and be positive. RACHEL: Yeah, be positive!  ESQ: Yates left the game in the first quarter yesterday with a separated shoulder. Think he&amp;#039;s okay? RACHEL: Yeah, I saw him walking around on the sidelines with his little cap on. He seemed fine. I think we&amp;#039;ll see him in the playoffs. MICHELLE: Stay positive!  ESQ: In other NFL news, Jacksonville beat the Colts, which means the Colts will get the number-one pick in the draft, presumably to pick Andrew Luck. Do you think the Colts were giving a little less than 100 percent yesterday? RACHEL: I would if I were the Colts. Your star quarterback has been out the whole season and had, like, what, three neck surgeries? You have to think about your future. And if you can get a guy for the next 10 or 12 years to be your quarterback, it&amp;#039;s worth it. ESQ: The Packers rested Aaron Rodgers all day against the Lions. Smart move by them? MICHELLE: Yes. I think we know that Green Bay is going to play someone in the Super Bowl. So they should just rest up. ESQ: So you see Green Bay as clearly the best team in the NFC, ahead of the Saints and Niners? RACHEL: I think so. I&amp;#039;m pretty impressed with that record that they have.  ESQ: So now you&amp;#039;re hosting your first playoff game this weekend against the Bengals. You gonna be ready? MICHELLE: Totally. I know that the cheerleaders, we&amp;#039;re going to be working our tails off this week. We&amp;#039;ve got practice Monday through Friday. We&amp;#039;re learning all new routines. There&amp;#039;s even been rumors of new outfits for us. ESQ: Special playoff cheerleader uniforms \u2014 now that is exciting. MICHELLE: Yeah, it&amp;#039;s cool. I feel really fortunate to be a part of the team now when they finally got into the playoffs. It&amp;#039;s like history, you know? ESQ: The whole city&amp;#039;s gotta be up for this. MICHELLE: Yeah. People have their cars wrapped, their cars painted. It&amp;#039;s crazy. The game was entirely sold out yesterday. It&amp;#039;s just really cool. We&amp;#039;ve been trying to make the playoffs for like 10 years, and we finally did it. The energy around the city has changed. People are taking us seriously now. (Click here for more on the Texans cheerleaders and their swimsuit calendar.) "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/sports/a12176/texans-playoffs-6631044/>