In all of three hours, the hot topic of the 2009 Texans season might have transitioned from whether they can make the playoffs to whether they can lure Bill Cowher, Mike Shanahan or Jon Gruden as head coach come January.

Remember the Texans’ dynamic offense? The league’s third-best unit a year ago couldn’t score a single point against a New York defense that ranked 16th in the league in 2008.

Remember the Texans’ “new and improved” defense — the one that added first- and second-round draft picks Brian Cushing and Connor Barwin, along with the signing of Antonio Smith at defensive end?

It was shredded for 462 yards and 24 points by a rookie QB (Mark Sanchez) making his first-ever start, on the road.

It’s not as if the Jets’ supporting cast is extremely talented, either — it’s largely the same group that ranked 16th in the NFL in offense.

As a result, it’d be difficult to find a more embarrassing performance in Texans history than the 24-7 loss to the Jets on Sunday at Reliant Stadium — one that brought choruses of boos before even the first half had ended.

Sure, the Texans have been awful before, but never when the talent deck
appeared as stacked in their favor as it did this season.

“We were
pretty much dominated as a football team across the board,” coach Gary
Kubiak said. “We obviously weren’t ready to play, and that starts with
me.”

Kubiak’s Texans are now 2-9 in September, with losses in six
straight games. And these are the ones that reflect particularly on the
coaching staff. The Texans had five months to prepare for the Jets,
beginning when the schedule was released in April. They also knew,
after April’s draft, that they would likely face a rookie QB.

Despite
this, the Texans’ executed a defensive game plan that played away from
a young quarterback’s typical weaknesses. The Texans routinely sent
telegraphed, all-out blitzes, leaving themselves vulnerable to screens
and short crossing routes. Instead of forcing Sanchez to read coverages
and throw into traffic, they simplified the game for him.

“We were
there making [Sanchez] move, and he made a lot of plays off schedule,”
Kubiak said.

Of course, it’s a lot easier to make unscripted plays when
the receivers are uncovered and often within five yards of the line of
scrimmage. And on rare occasions when the Texans did make the right
calls, they beat themselves. Linebacker Zac Diles and defensive end
Mario Williams each dropped first-half interceptions, while the Texans
were also unable to scoop up two Thomas Jones fumbles.

On offense, the
Texans knew the kind of pressure Jets coach Rex Ryan — formerly
defensive coordinator with Baltimore- – would throw at Matt Schaub. They
also knew how much they had struggled to run the ball in the preseason,
when Steve Slaton rushed for an anemic 2.9 yards per carry. So, what
did they do? Naturally, they played to their weakness, running the ball
on six of their first nine first downs.

That left them in second- and
third-and-longs that were obvious passing situations, allowing the Jets
to tee off on Schaub and not giving the Texans’ downfield pass patterns
time to develop. By the time the Texans opened up the playbook, they
were down 17-0 and in too large of a hole. It also rarely worked then
because every down was a likely pass, given the score. The offensive
balance the team emphasized throughout last season was non-existent.

“We’re going to have to go in there and figure out a way we can do it
to keep ourselves in a good situation where we get three- and four-yard
gains on first and second downs,” Schaub said. “Those [mistakes] start
to put you behind the eight ball and in tough third-down situations,
where it is hard to convert.”

Slaton finished with a meager 17 yards on
nine carries and a costly fumble, while Andre Johnson caught four
passes for only 35 yards. The offensive line’s meltdowns had Schaub on
his back at the rate of David Carr in 2002.

Even so, the Texans still —
per usual — found a way to raise fans’ hopes, before dashing them all
over again. When John Busing and Dominique Barber teamed up on the
return of a Sanchez interception for a touchdown early in the fourth
quarter, that brought the Texans within 17-7 and had Reliant rocking
for the first time since the opening kickoff. Fittingly on this day,
the Texans’ defense responded by allowing an 80-yard touchdown drive in
just four plays, capped by Thomas’ Jones untouched 38-yard dash for a
score.

A Texan fan in the end zone responded by flipping Jones the bird
with both hands, but the gesture was much more fitting for the effort
put forth by the home team.

It gets no easier next week, when the
beleaguered Houston offense travels to Tennessee to face one of the
league’s annual defensive powers. The Titans are also angry, coming off
a loss to Pittsburgh in Thursday’s season opener.

Unless the Texans
miraculously get to face Vince Young, a season that began with so much
promise seems likely to begin 0-2, just as they were a year ago.

“Unacceptable,” Johnson muttered after the game.
In his seventh season in Houston, it’s a feeling he knows all too well.

This article appears in Sep 10-16, 2009.