Texans on verge of crown

Associated Press

HOUSTON

The Houston Texans have always been a delicate bunch.

All it ever took was one injury, one mistake, one coaching gaffe and everything would crumble in a game — and, subsequently, a season.

Not anymore.

Even as they seem to lose a key player every week, the Texans (9-3) have stayed on point, winning six straight games and surging to the doorstep of that elusive first postseason berth.

Houston plays at Cincinnati (7-5) on Sunday and can clinch the AFC South with a victory and a Tennessee loss to New Orleans, but no one in the locker room is talking about the potential milestone nor the magnitude of the moment when the young franchise finally makes its breakthrough.

Maybe that says it all about how much this team has grown up, and where it seems to be heading.

“You don’t hear much about it, you don’t hear a lot of talk about it,” said right tackle Eric Winston, a third-round pick in 2006. “It’s just, ‘Hey, we need to take care of our business, and do our deal.’

“If we keep racking up wins, no matter if it happens this week, or in two weeks, it’s going to happen.”

The Texans will at the very least match their best record (9-7 in 2009), and a few more victories could earn them the right to host the city’s first NFL playoff game since 1994.

By now, why should they settle for just that?

“I don’t know if it’s amazing or not, I don’t know what you’d really call it,” Winston said. “[But] like I said, nothing happens unless we win.”