Something's up with the Houston Texans. Since the season-ending injury to Deshaun Watson a year ago, they have become a team that cannot find a way to win close games, one that frankly seems to find ways to lose.

Sunday was yet another example.

Against an under-manned Titans team, who scored two early touchdowns and then basically hung on for three quarters, and who has Blaine Gabbert at the helm, the Texans could not take advantage. Facing the Titans without either of their starting tackles, their quarterback or the tight end who has basically carried that offense in recent years, Houston still found a way to come up small. Their offensive line still suffered. Watson still looked off. The pass rush was still scattered at best.

And all of a sudden the Texans stand at 0-2, with questions abounding in a year in which some thought they were a sleeper to maybe represent the AFC in the Super Bowl. Certainly, more than enough time remains for them to find their footing and look the part of a contender again, but it's going to take some September soul searching to do so. The offense racked up nearly 450 yards, winning the battle of yards and most key metrics, but fell, 17-14, anyway.

"We aren't playing very well," head coach Bill O'Brien said after the loss. "So we have to figure it out."

The final play of the game summed up who they are right now. Down three with about 30 seconds remaining, Watson got ridiculous pass protection, for once, and had more time to operate than he needed. He toggled between trying to throw the ball all the way into the end zone from midfield, or try something quick near the sidelines or throw it underneath. By the time he made up his mind, he tossed the ball between the hashmarks well shy of the end zone as time expired.

His internal clock didn't seem right to me last week, and it was more of the same Sunday. I'm not sure how much he trusts the guys blocking for him, and even with a full compliment of receivers this offense was hit or miss. Despite running for nearly 150 yards on the road, the Texans couldn't milk a late lead. Despite facing a Titans offense bereft of playmakers, they found a way to come up small.

The Texans rival only the Browns in their futility in one-score games dating back to the start of the 2017 season. They are 1-7 in such contests, and their last six games have been decided by that margin. Better figure something out soon. The game against the Giants next week isn't must-win, but it's darn close, especially with their Week 4 opponents, the Colts, looking one of the more improved teams in the league.

Mahomes' Chiefs can outscore anyone

The Chiefs are already playing with house money. Entering the season you could have easily convinced me that the Steelers might host the Chargers in the AFC Championship, or maybe the Chargers might host the Steelers. Regardless, the Chiefs have already gone into both teams' stadiums and pretty much kicked their butts for four straight quarters.

Sure, they cant stop anybody, and the defense at times -- and more than once -- was giving Ben Roethlisberger seven or eight seconds to stand around and direct traffic before making a throw. But who cares? Patrick Mahomes just went into Pittsburgh and threw six freakin' touchdowns without a pick. On any given drive he can make any given Chief the hero -- the offense took yet another leap from Week 1 with tight end Travis Kelce fully integrated this week -- and literally nothing seems to phase him. That's dangerous. Imagine if this kid had any sort of defense behind him.

Alex Smith flops in home debut

Wonder if some Skins fans who never embraced Kirk Cousins have a little buyer's remorse after the home debut of Alex Smith? Talk about taking the air out of stadium.

Washington's attack was inept and tepid, lacking any real downfield thrust and sputtering against the Colts. On a day when Cousins led an amazing comeback at Lambeau Field for the Vikings -- actually, several comebacks -- the Skins' new-look offense was a failure, mustering just nine points and failing to take advantage of short field when Andrew Luck was picked off.

Smith looked like the version of him prior to 2017, the one with rampant check-downs and dump-offs. He averaged just 6.3 yards per attempt of his 33 completions, almost half (16) went to running backs. Chris Thompson caught 13 balls alone -- albeit for just 92 yards -- and there was little imagination in the passing attack. All of that hype about Adrian Peterson from Week 1 subsided -- 20 yards on 11 carries against a rushing defense that has been awful in recent years -- and issues galore (watching Peterson try to operate in RPOs was fairly brutal).

Kirk Cousins pulls an Aaron Rodgers on Packers

Cousins, meantime, rallied the Vikings from down 20-7 and then 29-21 with late touchdowns and two-point conversions. He was throwing into tight windows and picking up chunk yards, managing to shake off a late interception that Laquon Treadwell should have caught but let bounce off his hands in Vikings territory.

That was the lone blemish in Cousins' outing, as he went 35 for 48 for 425 yards with four touchdowns against a tough division rival, out-slinging a wounded Aaron Rodgers. Plenty for him to build on, and only a series of kicking errors kept the Vikings from winning the game.

Colts defense a surprise

The Colts defense might be the most improved unit in the NFL. When they harassed Andy Dalton in Week 1, I figured it was more about the Bengals' offensive line, but they beat up the Skins in the trenches Sunday too, and guys like Al Woods and Jabaal Sheard are kicking butt for them up front. They are getting edge pressure, too, somehow, and with Luck looking like himself they could be a much more interesting team than many of us figured.

Rookie QBs play well in loss

The box score doesn't look that great for Sam Darnold and Josh Allen but I thought they both were largely OK. Allen kept the Bills game from getting as lopsided as a week ago.

Darnold suffered from horrible field position much of the day. He threw a few picks, although it took a heck of a play by the defensive back in the end zone to snag one of them, and I love what I see from him on the move rolling out and looking downfield.

Bucs must stick with Fitzpatrick

How about Fitzmagic? Sorry Jameis, but you cant see the field Week 4, I don't care what happens next week. Ryan Fitzpatrick's teammates are clearly feeling him -- he has DeSean Jackson looking like his old self -- and he just won a lifetime achievement award for best post-game press conference attire.

The Bucs came into the season with most wondering if they might be the first team to fire their coach; you can't mess with the mojo they have going on. The Bucs have already knocked off the Saints -- preseason Super Bowl favorites by some -- and outlasted the Super Bowl champion Eagles on Sunday. Not sure any of us saw that coming, but changing quarterbacks in the next couple of weeks seems crazy to me.

Kickers fail to deliver

Kicking prowess seems about as bad as offensive line play around the league. So far early in the season, the Browns, Seahawks, Vikings, and plenty other teams have been undermined by missed chip shots and extra points. The Browns could easily be 2-0 with even an average kicking game, and when you start to see guys like Chris Boswell fail on multiple attempts in consecutive weeks, it's hard not to wonder what's going on.

More notes from Sunday

  • Not a good sign for the Steelers to be 0-1-1 and without Le'Veon Bell and with Antonio Brown suffering meltdowns on the sidelines and we are barely in mid-September.
  • Barring a setback I expect we see Carson Wentz next week.
  • The Arizona Cardinals have big problems on their hands. I don't care what they paid Sam Bradford, they might as well get with the program and starting playing their rookie first-round pick quarterback, too. They have been outscored 40-0 in the first half of their first two games under rookie coach Steve Wilks. Ouch.