(AP Photo/John Amise)(previous weekly summaries here)
Falcons 26 Texans 16

Don’t christen Gary Kubiak as the next great NFL coach just yet.
After a sprightly start of the season, the Texans (2-2) lost to a mediocre Atlanta (1-3) team that is precisely the type of team that the Texans have to be beat in order to become an average NFL team, much less a good one. Although you won’t hear it much from local media that covers the team, the Texans continue to have huge problems, particularly on offense where their best WR (Andre Johnson) is hurt and the “rushing” attack (more like a walking attack) revolves around two over-the-hill and oft-injured RB’s and a mediocre offensive line. Meanwhile, the defense, while improving, still has gaping holes in the secondary and remains inconsistent in putting heat on the opposing team’s QB. The Texans take on a bad Miami Dolphins (0-4) team next Sunday at Reliant Stadium. Don’t be surprised if the Texans serve up the Dolphins’ first victory of the season.

Kansas State 41 Texas Longhorns 21

The shallowness of the Longhorns’ (4-1/0-1) undefeated record was exposed with a bang in Austin as Kansas State (3-1/1-0) took advantage of two kick returns for touchdowns and four interceptions by Colt McCoy to cruise to an easy 41-21 victory. It was the worst home loss for the Horns in 10 years under coach Mack Brown. Texas as the Wildcats pummelled McCoy with multiple blitz packages that the Horns’ offensive line rarely picked up. The Horns — who have been susceptible to blitz packages during the Brown era except for the 2005 National Championship team led by the elusive QB Vince Young — now must figure out quickly how to overcome an even better blitzing team in Oklahoma (4-1/0-1) next weekend in Dallas or else UT will be facing the daunting prospect of an 0-2 start in Big 12 conference play.

Texas Aggies 34 Baylor 10

The Aggie nation heaved a huge sigh of relief as the Ags (4-1/1-0) methodically pounded the Bears (3-2/0-1) into submission at College Station. After last week’s debacle at South Beach and this week’s revelations of Coach Fran’s stupefyingly stupid secret newsletter, a loss against the Bears could well have prompted the type of meltdown in Aggieland not seen since the infamous firing of Aggie head coach Emory Bellard back in 1978. The Ags used their tried and true ball-control offense to overwhelm the Bears, but it remains to be seen whether the Aggies can consistently beat teams with equal or better personnel while playing offense in a phone booth. The Aggies host resurgent Oklahoma State (3-2/1-0) for first place in the Big 12 South (first place in the Big 12 South is on the line next week at Kyle Field, not the Cotton Bowl?!) before their high-anxiety trip to the plains to meet Tech (4-1/0-1) in two weeks.

East Carolina 37 Houston Cougars 35

The Coogs (3-2/1-1) had their annual shoot-self-in-the-foot game when an awful kicking game and poor run defense combined to allow a mediocre East Carolina (2-3/1-0) to pull out the close win at Robertson Stadium. The Coogs now must travel to face a tough game next Saturday at Alabama (3-2) before returning home in two weeks for their annual crosstown rivalry game with Rice (0-4).

The Rice Owls (0-4) were idle this past weekend, but play Southern Miss (2-2) in a rare Wednesday night game this week before returning home to face Houston on October 13.

I used to think that former Texans QB David Carr is a nice fellow who just doesn’t have the gumption to be a top-flight NFL QB. But now I’m wondering if he is simply a nice fellow who isn’t very bright.
This earlier post chronicled the increasingly testy exchanges between Carr and his former teammates after the Texan’s unceremonious canning of Carr last summer. Carr followed those brickbats up with the following recent observations reported in John McClain’s Sunday NFL Notebook:

David Carr is starting his first game for Carolina today. After coming off the bench to help Carolina defeat Atlanta last week, Carr replaces quarterback Jake Delhomme, who has a strained right elbow and missed practice last week, against visiting Tampa Bay.
“Honestly, I do feel better on this team,” Carr said comparing the Panthers to the Texans. “I’m more relaxed. I’m not being pressed to do things I don’t need to be doing.
“I feel like I can go out with my mechanics and all that and just throwing the football in general, I feel like that just comes naturally, and I don’t have to think about it. That’s freeing as far as playing quarterback. Now, it’s just completing balls and throwing to the right guy.”

Carr’s stat line for yesterday’s game against Tampa Bay: 10-41 for 137 net yards passing, 1 TD and 1 interception.
Just comes naturally, I guess.

As soon as I acknowledge one of Chronicle NFL columnist John McClain’s rare good columns in the previous post, he serves this blog post entitled “Texans should be embarrassed after 26-16 defeat” in response to the Texans’ loss yesterday at Atlanta.
Embarrassing? McClain thinks that the Texans’ performance was embarrassing? How about this performance? Or this one?
And for more Chronicle sunshine reporting, compare this Richard Justice puff piece from today’s paper with this one during the latter stages of the Texans’ disastrous 2-14 seasons in 2005.
Now, that is embarrassing!