For several weeks in October, the Houston Texans were going streaking, ripping off a few wins in a row and causing talking heads to spin out of control screaming about their fraudulent nature. They "weren't beating anyone" or "were getting lucky" with wins. Turns out, we may have prematurely buried the Texans, who won their ninth game in a row on Sunday, deconstructing the upstart Browns in impressive fashion and winning 29-13 in a game that was never remotely close.

What stood out to me was the complete way in which the Texans lit up the Browns: Myles Garrett sacked Deshaun Watson twice on the first drive, but that was the only real hint of competition. After that, the Texans picked off Baker Mayfield three times and bottled up everything Cleveland tried to do on offense. 

Just like Monday night's game against the Titans, this matchup featured Texans defenders flying all over the field, making plays, hitting the Browns receivers and running backs before they could start picking up any yards after the catch and generally just locking down everything Cleveland wanted to do on offense. 

The game was 23-0 before Nick Chubb found the end zone in the third quarter to give Cleveland a modicum of respectability; Houston snuffed out everything the Browns wanted to do on offense. Offensively they weren't perfect; nine of their first-half points came from Ka'imi Fairbairn field goals and another seven came from a defensive touchdown. 

That defense, though ... man. They are starting to come together in a big way. The Texans have now allowed more than 20 points just three times in their nine-game win streak. One of those times was an overtime victory over the Colts in Week 4, another in a TNF slaughter of the Dolphins and then the third a 21-point effort by the Redskins in a close road victory.

J.J Watt is playing out of his mind once again; he won't win Defensive Player of the Year, but he should be on the short list for the award and he's likely to be one of the top contenders for the Comeback Player of the Year award. Tyrann Mathieu's been a game changer in terms of adding a physical presence to the back end of the secondary. Guys like Zach Cunningham -- who returned the interception for a touchdown in the first half -- are making plays.

Offensively, Watson has as much upside as any quarterback in the NFL on a weekly basis. When he gets hot, he gets hot. Lamar Miller is running well. DeAndre Hopkins might be the best receiver in football. 

This is a star-heavy team, but the stars are healthy and producing. Bill O'Brien's taken the Texans to the playoffs before, but he never had a good cast of players or a healthy, quality quarterback. Houston's trending in the right direction and could very well steal the No. 2 seed from the Patriots. Even if they don't, the Texans are all but locked in for a home playoff game. Things could break wrong for them and it could be against the Chargers or Steelers, but right now it does not matter. The Texans are taking on all challengers.

Mike McCarthy fired

The Packers lost in humiliating fashion on Sunday, laying an egg at home against the Cardinals in a bad weather game they lost 20-17. It was so inexplicable Green Bay actually fired Mike McCarthy after the game, making him just the second head coach who won a Super Bowl with his team to be fired in the middle of the season. 

This was coming anyway, likely at the end of the year, but that it came in the middle of the season is sort of shocking. That it came on Aaron Rodgers' 35th birthday is pretty symbolic. Rodgers clearly hasn't been happy in this offense for a while; the goal in identifying possible candidates to replace McCarthy in Green Bay will be to find an innovative offensive mind who can re-engineer what Green Bay does and how they attack defenses. 

Green Bay will be a highly-coveted position, but don't sleep on the fact that this could be a bigger rebuild than people think. Tom Silverstein of PackersNews.com has an interesting read here; instant success is far from guaranteed because of how the Packers roster is situated.

Carolina on my mind

Another situation to watch? The Carolina Panthers. CBS Sports NFL Insider Jason La Canfora reported on Sunday morning that new owner David Tepper was growing weary of the way Carolina was losing games. Sunday was by far the worst: Cam Newton threw four terrible picks against a bad defense on the road in a divisional game the Panthers had to win. Instead, Carolina fell short against the Buccaneers and now probably needs to win out to make the playoffs. That would be realistic if they didn't have to play the Saints twice.

Jourdan Rodrique of the Charlotte Observer reports there are many veterans voicing their support for Rivera in the locker room. It's an interesting dynamic because the Panthers have operated as a mom-and-pop style shop for a while now in some aspects. Tepper is a new guy on the scene who just paid billions for his franchise. He won't be hasty, but he won't be passive either. 

I'm conflicted by this. Rivera is a very good football coach. He's an even better person. He's well-liked in the community. He has created a consistent winner in Carolina. His defenses have, with the exception of 2018, almost always been in the top half of the league. Two of his defensive coordinators (Sean McDermott, Steve Wilks) are current NFL head coaches. 

But he is hyper-conservative and he did employ Mike Shula for more than half a decade. The defense is struggling. 

This franchise won't keep doing what Jerry Richardson did for years, handing out contracts to everyone just because they've been around for a while. Greg Olsen suffered what is likely a season-ending injury. I think he'll be around for one more year, but it's not guaranteed. He could be a post-June 1 release. Thomas Davis and Ryan Kalil both could retire, but they're not under contract. 

If there was ever a spot to justify hiring a bright young offensive mind to work with a quarterback, this would be it. Newton, like Rodgers, deserves someone to maximize his talents. Norv Turner's done good work this year, but Newton's never had that guy. 

Worst challenge ever

Shoutout to Jon Gruden who apparently wanted to execute the worst challenge of the season. After Patrick Mahomes threw a touchdown pass to Travis Kelce -- the second of the day -- refs started looking at whether or not Kelce broke the plane and had possession of the ball. It appeared they agreed he did, because the Chiefs were lining up to kick an extra point. As they got up to kick, Gruden decided to throw the challenge flag. 

Um. Well, Jon, couple of problems. One, you can't challenge a scoring play, because they are all reviewed anyway. Two, you don't need to challenge inside of two minutes of either half (there was seven seconds left in the second quarter), because the booth will call for reviews as necessary. It was literally the least challenge-able play you could possibly imagine. 

Stare at this in all its beauty:

Timeout #1 by OAK at 00:07. Raiders charged with a Timeout for throwing the challenge flag under two (2) minutes.

I tend to think Gruden was just chucking the flag out of frustration -- he unleashed a bunch of cuss words at the officials over how they handled the review. And that's fine. He wasn't holding onto the timeouts going into the half, but it was not a good challenge. He wasn't going to win.