(AP Photo/Dave Einsel; previous weekly reviews for this season are here)

Texans 24 49ers 21

The Texans (4-3) inched above .500 for one of the rare times in their eight season history with the win over the 49ers (3-3), but the way they accomplished it indicates that the team has a ways to go before becoming an above-average NFL team.

The Texans built a commanding 21-0 lead after a half, but let the 49ers come back behind their backup QB Alex Smith to have a chance to tie or win the game in the final two minutes. The Texans defense, which bottled up the 49ers in the first half — became passive in the second half, allowing long TD drives in three of five second half possessions.

Meanwhile, the Texans offense — which really was not hitting on all cylinders this day — had only one sustained drive in the second half. The combination of defensive breakdowns with an offense that could not keep the defense off the field is usually a prescription for failure in the NFL.

But a win is a win in the brutal NFL, so the Texans head to next Sunday’s game against the rugged but offensively-challenged Bills (3-4) with a legitimate shot at going into Indianapolis the following weekend at 5-3. They better beat the Bills because it does not currently look as if the Texans have much of a chance of slowing down the red-hot Colts (6-0). Thus, a 5-4 record going into the Week 10 bye-week is probably the best the Texans can realistically hope for.

Texas Aggies 52 Texas Tech 30

How do you explain the Aggies (4-3/1-2) beating the spread by 43 points in defeating Tech (5-3/2-2), which had just blasted a team (Kansas State) by 52 points two weeks ago that pummeled the Aggies by 48 last week?

You simply can’t. That’s one of the endearing characteristics of college football, folks.

As noted earlier here, the Aggies have a bunch of talented players, but most of the them are playing either their first or second season of major college football. As a result, there are wild swings in their performance level, as reflected by the results of the past two games.

However, if the Aggies can win the turnover battle and their generally over-matched defense can keep the game close enough so that A&M can rely on a balanced offensive attack, then the Ags have a good chance of winning three (Iowa State, Colorado and Baylor) of their final five games (only Texas and Oklahoma look to be out of reach). A 7-5 mark in Coach Mike Sherman’s second season at the helm would be a major success in Aggieland.

Surprising Iowa State (5-3/2-2) is up next for A&M at College Station this coming Saturday.

Texas Longhorns 41 Missouri 7

In a game that was not as close as the score indicates, the 3rd-ranked Longhorns (7-0/4-0) staked out a 21-0 first quarter lead and a 35-7 halftime lead over the Tigers (4-3/0-3) before slipping into cruise control in the second half.

The Texas offense showed signs of life as QB Colt McCoy finally had a decent game (26/31/269 yds/3 TD’s/1 INT), but this simply is not the Horns’ offense of last season. McCoy is not close to operating at the level he was last season or as the top QB’s in the college game are this season (such as Houston’s Case Keenum).

This Texas team wins games with a suffocating and hard-hitting defense, which is equally effective against the pass or run.  With that defense, McCoy and the rest of the offense probably need only to be competent for UT to win out and play for the BCS National Championship.

The Horns game of the season to date is next Saturday night at Oklahoma State (6-1/3-0). If the Horns play in a similar manner as they did against Mizzou, then my sense is that they will win by at least two TD’s.

Houston Cougars 38 SMU 15

As I’ve noted throughout this season, 15th-ranked Houston (6-1/2-1) QB Case Keenum has been among the best QB’s in college football. Like a coach on the field, Keenum saw early that SMU (3-4/2-1) was dropping 8 and sometimes 9 defenders into coverage, so he patiently attacked the Mustangs with the running game and short flank passes.

The result was that the Cougars built a comfortable 24-3 halftime lead in a workmanlike manner. Thus, when WR Tyron Carrier took the 2nd half kickoff 92 yards for an electrifying TD, the Cougars had this one in the bag and essentially held serve for the remainder of the second half.

Although Keenum did not have a gaudy game statistically, his excellence was nevertheless apparent. When the Ponies closed to 31-15 with about 9 minutes to go, Keenum calmly directed the Cougars on a six minute, 11 play, 78 yard TD drive to put the game away without question. Impressive, indeed.

The Cougars face a tough test next Saturday afternoon against Southern Miss (5-3/3-1) at Robertson Stadium.

Central Florida 49 Rice 7

The Owls (0-8/0-4) are experiencing just how good the trio of QB Chase Clement, WR Jarett Dillard and HB James Casey were over the two seasons prior to this one. It now appears that the Owls only realistic chance for a victory this season is in three weeks against Tulane (2-5/0-4) at Rice Stadium. After a bye-week next Saturday, the Owls travel to Dallas to play SMU (3-4/2-1) on November 7th.

(AP Photo/Donna McWilliam; previous weekly reviews for this season are here)

Texas Longhorns 16 Oklahoma 13

In an entertaining but sloppily-played game, 3rd-ranked Texas (6-0/3-0) rode their hard-hitting defense to tense victory over the now-reeling Sooners (3-3/1-1), who have a real chance at losing five games in a season for the first time since Coach Bob Stoops’ first season at OU in 1999.

The Horns are good, but the inconsistent offensive production has to be a big concern for the Longhorn fans who are hoping for a return to the BCS Championship game.

QB Colt McCoy is not having a good season, the offensive line has been mediocre for most of the season and the wide receiving corps — thought to be a strength at the beginning of the season — was led on Saturday by true freshman Marquise Goodwin.

Despite UT’s stellar defense, the Horns are likely going to need more than 16 points to beat Oklahoma State (5-1/2-0) the week after next in Stillwater.

The Longhorns play at Missouri (4-2/0-2) next week in an ABC Saturday night game.

Texans 28 Bengals 17

The Texans (3-3) beat the Bengals (4-2) surprisingly easily, although all four of Cincinnati’s wins this season have been nailbiters than could have gone either way. QB Matt Schaub pitched 4 TD’s on 28-40 passes for 392 yards, although he also threw his seemingly obligatory bonehead interception that set up a Bengals field goal that allowed Cincy to seize the lead at the half.

The Texans had a good game plan against the Bengals. They used quick passes from Schaub to their talented group of receivers to set the pace, and then worked in periodic runs from RB’s Slaton and Brown to keep the defense off-balance. This is essentially the approach that the Patriots have used successfully for years, so the Texans — who have a smallish offensive line — would appear to be well-equipped to emulate it.

But the more encouraging development for the Texans is that, for the second week in a row, the defensive unit shut down an opposing offense with a seasoned QB for the entire 2nd half of the game. NFL defenses tend to improve in spurts, and it would not surprise me that the Texans’ unit — which is sprinkled with high draft picks — is starting to show signs of coming together. Given the potency of the Texans’ offense, if the defense can mature into even a middle-of-the-pack NFL defensive unit, that could well be enough to vault the Texans to their first winning record in franchise history.

The Texans host the 49’ers (3-2), who are coming off their bye week, next Sunday at Reliant Stadium before hitting the road against the Bills (2-4) and the Colts (5-0) leading up to the Texans’ Week 10 bye week.

Houston Cougars 44 Tulane 16

There is something odd about playing in the cavernous Superdome in front of the tiny crowds that Tulane (2-4/0-3) attracts. As a result, Houston (5-1/1-1) seemed to sleep walk through the first half of this one before QB Case Keenum directed the Coogs’ offense to five straight TD second-half TD drives and an easy victory over the Green Wave.

The 17th-ranked Cougars return home next Saturday to play much-improved SMU (3-3/2-0), which lost a heartbreaker in overtime to a good Navy team on Saturday. The Mustangs are still looking for the signature upset in the second-year of Coach June Jones’ rebuilding program, so the Cougars better be ready to play on Saturday night.

Kansas State 62 Texas Aggies 14

Oh my.

In a game that was not as close as the score indicates, the Aggies (3-3/0-2) took a giant step backward from the overall progress that the young team had shown for much of the season in rolling over and playing dead to a mediocre Kansas State (4-3/2-1) team.

A&M has gone from looking like a reasonable candidate for winning 7 games this season just one week ago to wondering whether they can win another game. It is reasonably certain that a win will not come next Saturday when the Ags travel to Lubbock to play Texas Tech (5-2/2-1), which scorched Kansas State  66-14 just one week ago.

My sense is that the A&M administration is going to be patient with head coach Mike Sherman. However, if the Ags roll over and play dead to Tech as they did against Kansas State, will the Aggie tradition of unceremoniously dumping coaches overwhelm Sherman?

East Carolina 49 Rice 13

The Owls (0-7/0-3) looked a bit better this week on offense (faint praise given the offense’s impotence this season), but the Owl defense took a hike against a rather pedestrian East Carolina (4-3/3/1) offense. I still think the Owls can win a couple of games this season, but their winnable games begin next Saturday at home against Central Florida (3-3/1-2). So, it’s time for the Owls to start producing.

During football season, two Clear Thinkers favorite subjects are the annual Texas-OU game and former Texas head coach Darrell Royal (here, here, here, here and here).

So, this Barking Carnival post on the epic 1976 game — Royal’s last as Texas’ coach — is a must read on the eve of this year’s game. The comment referred to in the title of this post was Royal’s reply to former OU coach Barry Switzer’s response to Royal’s allegation that the OU coaching staff was spying on Texas practices.

The raw emotion of the game — arguably the most severe of any rivalry game already — rose to a boiling point in the ’76 game as a result of the animosity between the coaching staffs.

Get ready to rumble!

(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin; previous weekly reviews for this season are here)

Cardinals 28 Texans 21

The Texans 3rd loss in the fifth game of their eighth season (2-3) was actually four games in one:

The first 28 minutes, which the Texans were lucky to lose only 7-0;

The second was the final 2 minutes of the first half in which the Texans were pummeled 14-0;

The third was the first 23 minutes of the 2nd half, which the Texans dominated 21-0; and

The fourth was the final 7 minutes of the game, which the Texans lost 7-0 on a poorly-thrown pass that was returned for a TD and the failure to punch in a TD from the 1-yard line three times in the final minute of the game.

The message here is that, for whatever reason, the Texans do not play most games without breakdowns such as they suffered in the first, second and fourth games above. It’s not clear to me that they are capable of doing so on a consistent basis.

The Texans travel to Cincinnati (4-1) next Sunday to play the red-hot Bengals before returning home the week after to play the 49er’s (3-2).

Oklahoma State 36 Texas Aggies 31

Despite the NCAA’s best efforts to help the Aggies (3-2/0-1) by suspending Oklahoma State’s (4-1) best player (WR/PR Dez Bryant), the Cowboys prevailed as the Aggie defense — exposed last week in the loss to Arkansas — again could not stop a hard-chargin’ marching band, much less the potent Cowboys.

The Aggies travel to Manhattan, Kansas next week to face Kansas State (3-3/1-1) and then to Lubbock to face Texas Tech (4-2/1-1). The Kansas State game is winnable for the Aggies; the Tech game does not appear to be.

Texas Longhorns 38 Colorado 14

If the Longhorns’ (5-0/2-0) offense tries to hang another performance next week in Dallas against Oklahoma (3-2/1-0) like the one they got away with last Saturday against lowly Colorado (1-4/0-1), the 3rd-ranked Horns can kiss their dreams of an undefeated season and a national championship good-bye.

The Texas defense is very good. At this point of the season, the Texas offense is not.

Houston Cougars 31 Mississippi State 24

The 23rd-ranked Cougars (4-1/0-1) rebounded from their disappointing loss to UTEP by beating a BCS Conference opponent for the third time, which is the most of any non-BCS conference team this season. Despite throwing an interception for a TD, Cougar QB Case Keenum continues his amazing season, generating 434 yards passing (39-52) and 4 TD’s. There is simply no QB playing in college football at a higher level of efficiency than Keenum.

The Coogs play Tulane (2-3/0-2) at New Orleans next Saturday before returning home to host SMU (3-2/2-0) and Southern Miss (3-3/1-1) in successive weeks.

Navy 63 Rice 14

Yeah, it’s hard to prepare in a week for Navy’s (4-2) idiosyncratic triple-option attack. But it’s not that hard. The Owls (0-6/0-2) gave the first indication in this game that they are a team capable of losing every game season. I still think they will win a couple, but not if they play as they did against the Middies. The Owls travel to East Carolina (3-3/2-1) next Saturday.

(AP Photo/Dave J. Phillip; previous weekly reviews for this season are here)

Texans 29 Raiders 6

So, what happens when the NFL’s worst defense meets one of the NFL’s worst offenses? Well, this time, Raiders (1-3) QB JaMarcus Russell is so bad that the Texans (2-2) defense dominated the game and propelled the local club to an easy victory.

The Texans potent offense played reasonably well in the first half, but after the Texans defense and special teams generated 9 points in about 10 seconds early in the third quarter (a safety and resulting Jacoby Jones kick-return for a TD), the offense simply held serve as the heretofore porous Texans defense held the Raiders to 165 total yards. The lack of offense from both teams made the final half almost unwatchable.

Prediction — Russell will not be a starting NFL QB after this season. Maybe even before the end of this season.

The Texans now enter a tough stretch in their schedule in which they play four out of the next five games on the road before the Week 10 bye-week. First up is the Cardinals (1-2) coming off their bye week in Phoenix.

Note to the Texans defense — Kurt Warner is no JaMarcus Russell.

Arkansas 47 Texas Aggies 19

This one was essentially two games — the first was the initial ten minutes of the game in which the inspired Aggies (3-1) stunned the Razorbacks (2-2) and led 10-0.

Unfortunately for A&M, the other game was the remaining 50 minutes in which the Hogs blitzed the Aggies 47-9.

Look, the Aggies are not without talent, most of it quite young. But when a team is starting a true freshman at left offensive tackle, and mostly freshmen and sophomores comprise the two-deep roster, the reality is that such a team is going to get manhandled from time-to-time by more seasoned squads.

That’s what happened to the Aggies yesterday. But I saw nothing in the game that indicated to me that the Aggies are a lost cause. On the contrary, give this bunch another year of maturity and sprinkle in another group of solid recruits, my sense is that the Aggies will again be competitive with all but the top flight programs (i.e., Texas and Oklahoma) in the Big 12. Even this season, the Aggies could win four more games (@Kansas State, Iowa State, @Colorado and Baylor). The others — Oklahoma State (next week at home), @Texas Tech, @Oklahoma and Texas — appear to be more problematic.

In the meantime, I’m picking Aggies QB Jerrod Johnson to be the QB on my sandlot team.

UTEP 58 Houston Cougars 41

How does a team such as UTEP (2-3) that didn’t generate 58 yards total offense in its game last week (a 64-7 loss to Texas) turnaround and score that many points in handing formerly 12-ranked Houston (3-1) its first defeat of the season?

The answer is in my first weekly football review of the season:

The trick for the Cougars this season will be to figure out how their young defense — which lacks depth from several seasons of under-recruiting on the defensive side by previous head coach, Art Briles — can maintain the type of gritty effort that the unit displayed against OSU’s potent offense. UH defensive coordinator John Skladany is a master at getting the most out of undermanned defensive units (he was the DC for my friend Dan McCarney during Iowa State’s bowl run earlier this decade), but he will have his work cut out for him in the coming weeks. If the Coogs defensive unit can consistently play at the level it did against OSU, and the team can avoid injuries to key personnel, the Cougars are likely to be a top-20 team.

The Coogs’ defensive unit held up reasonably well against Oklahoma State and Texas Tech, but a hot UTEP squad exposed it for what it is — a young and not particularly physically-imposing group that simply cannot play at the same level as Houston’s high-powered offense.

The difference in this particular game was that Houston’s defense was not able to force any turnovers, which it was able to do in both the OSU and Tech upsets. When the Cougar offense uncharacteristically failed to score on a couple of 2nd quarter trips into the UTEP red zone, that plus the lack of turnovers gave the Miners the edge they needed to pull off the upset.

By the way, even with the upset, Houston QB Case Keenum continues to play at the highest level of any quarterback in the nation through five weeks of the season.

The Cougars will not be able to lick their wounds for long as they take to the road again next week to play tough Mississippi State (2-3), which almost upset 5th-ranked LSU two weeks ago. After that, the Coogs ease into the main part of their Conference USA schedule, which should allow the Cougars to get back on track.

Tulsa 27 Rice 10

In the latest edition of the bitter Todd Graham Bowl, the Owls (0-5) continue to struggle on offense while their defense plays well enough to keep the score respectable. My over/under for Rice wins this season continues at two, and that may be a bit optimistic. The Owls host the potent Navy (3-2) triple-option attack next Saturday.

The Texas Longhorns (4-0) were off this weekend before starting the meat of their schedule next week  at Colorado (1-3). Following that game, the Horns play in successive weeks 19th-ranked Oklahoma at Dallas, at 24th-ranked Missouri, and at 15th-ranked Oklahoma State.

(AP Photo/Dave J. Phillip; previous weekly reviews for this season are here)

Houston Cougars 29 Texas Tech 28

In one of the most entertaining games of the young season, the now 12th-ranked Cougars (3-0) pulled out the victory over Tech (2-2) with a magnificent 95-yard TD drive late in the 4th quarter engineered by QB Case Keenum, who has played better than any QB in the nation through the early part of this season. The Coogs did not play as well in this game as they did in knocking off then fifth-ranked Oklahoma State two weeks ago, but a plucky defense and the cerebral Keenum — combined with a boneheaded decision by Tech Coach Leach to eschew a chip shot field goal in the 4th quarter — were enough to propel Houston to victory. The Cougars travel to El Paso next week to face a UTEP (1-3) team that is licking its wounds after being hammered by Texas.

Jaguars 31 Texans 24

The Texans (1-2) continue to be plagued by a generally horrendous defense, although a horrific penalty call nullified what should have been a game-tying TD with about two minutes left. Although the Texans’ offense looks to be productive enough for the club to have a decent shot at winning half their games, the lack of defensive development through three games raises a legitimate question of whether Head Coach Gary Kubiak has the depth necessary to correct the Texans’ chronically deficient defense (anyone else think that Mike Nolan looks like a really good hire by the Broncos?). When an NFL defensive team that is comprised of multiple high draft picks still cannot stop the run or put pressure on the opposing QB, that’s usually a sure sign that something is seriously wrong in the coordination of that unit. The Texans better even their record next Sunday against the Raiders (1-2) at Reliant because four of the following five games are on the road.

Texas Longhorns 64 UTEP 7

I mean really — what are the second-ranked Longhorns (4-0) doing playing opponents such as UTEP (1-3)? The Horns’ third-team could have beaten the Miners by 30. Incredibly, the Horns’ defense held UTEP without a touchdown and to a total of 53 yards on 51 plays. Texas has an off-week before facing under-performing Colorado (1-2) in Austin on October 10th and then 8th-ranked Oklahoma (3-1) the following weekend in Dallas.

Texas Aggies 56 UAB 19

The Ags (3-0) won their third straight against creampuff competition, so the jury is still out on whether the Ags will be competitive against the better teams of the Big 12. Nevertheless, the Aggies are halfway toward qualifying for a bowl game for the first imte in three seasons and those chances improved markedly over the weekend with Baylor’s loss of star QB Robert Griffen (torn ACL) for the season. The Ags take on an Arkansas (1-2) team next weekend in Dallas that has to date not been able to stop a hard-chargin’ marching band. But at least the Razorbacks are an SEC opponent. That counts for something.

Vanderbilt 36 Rice 17

You know that the renaissance in Rice (0-4) football is over when the local media emphasizes that the Owls defense played really well in holding Vandy (2-2) to a 10-10 halftime tie. The reality is that the Owls are playing with an inexperienced group of QB’s with a new offensive coordinator. This has not gone well and the next three opponents — Tulsa (3-1), Navy (2-2) and East Carolina (2-2) — are unlikely to allow the Owls to turn it around. My current over/under on Rice victories this season is two.

Please indulge me one last Texans-related post for the week.

John McClain, the lead Chronicle sportswriter covering the Texans, condemned this past Sunday’s Texans’ loss as the worst in the team’s history.

Now that normally wouldn’t be all that unusual. I mean, the Texans really did stink up Reliant Stadium.

However, McClain said the same thing about the Texans’ loss to the Ravens just 10.5 months ago.

But even that wouldn’t be so absurd except that, in between those two "worst" games, McClain generally dished up this type of blather about how good the Texans are poised to be this season.

I mean really, with far superior blogosphere sources such as Stepanie Stradley, Lance Zerlein and Alan Burge around to provide coverage of the Texans, does anyone take McClain seriously anymore?