Just one month ago, the Houston Texans were at 5-3 one half way through the 2009 NFL season. That record represented a franchise best after eight games. From that point on though, Houston fell apart, losing four consecutive games, dropping to 5-7 on the season, and almost certainly eliminated from playoff contention.

Sunday afternoon the Texans hosted the Seattle Seahawks and suddenly exploded offensively and clamped down defensively. The result was a 34-7 Texans victory in front of 70,380 fans relieved to finally see a win by their struggling team.

Head Coach Gary Kubiak, who is almost certainly going to be fired at the end of the season unless he can get his team into the playoffs, was excited about the team’s first win in the last five tries.

“It felt real fun (ending the skid). Obviously, we were very explosive as a football team today. I would say it’s the most explosive first half of football I’ve ever been around as a coach. Defensively, we were exceptional all day long. It’s been a rough few weeks, so it’s good to win, and I liked the effort of the football team.”

Kubiak went on to detail his thoughts about the defense in the game. “I told them last week I thought they had been playing very well. I think they’ve had this team in position to win every week. I told them I thought they could be dominant. I think they’ve been exceptional, making plays, and playing very, very hard. They’ve gotten better all year long. The job that (defensive coordinator) Frank Bush has done is exceptional. So, was it their best? It might have been.”

While you can never take anything for granted in the NFL, Houston SHOULD be able to get back to .500 this weekend when they travel to St. Louis to take on the hapless Rams. Looking after that, things get much tougher, as the following week they travel to Miami, a team fighting to make the playoffs for a second straight year, and then end the regular season on January 3rd hosting the New England Patriots, another team surprisingly not guaranteed a post-season appearance. In looking over that schedule, one would think at best the Texans would be able to end up no better than the 8-8 record of the last two seasons.

IF that record fails to get the team a playoff experience, Kubiak will in all probability wake up to think he’s coaching baseball, as another .500 season without a playoff game will end up being “strike three, you’re out”!