These are heady days in Houston, where the last time the local NFL team reached the lofty heights of 5-3, Jeff Fisher was the head coach, Eddie George was the running back and Chris Chandler was mentoring a second-year quarterback named Steve McNair.

The year was 1996, and it was the last season Houston was home to the Oilers before Bud Adams moved the team to Tennessee. The nation’s fourth most populous city went without NFL football for five years before the Texans arrived in 2002. And, some might argue, it has been without NFL football for much of the seven years that followed.

But now, in Year 8 of this expansion franchise, the Houston Texans are showing signs of life. They are two games over .500 for the first time ever. Quarterback Matt Schaub, healthy for the first half of the season (knock on wood), leads the league with 2,342 yards passing and is tied for the lead with 16 touchdown passes. Wide receiver Andre Johnson leads the NFL with 697 yards in catches. The offense, despite not getting much in the running game, ranks among the league’s best, whether you’re talking yards or points. And the defense has improved from woeful a year ago to mediocre this season, thanks largely to the addition of free agent safety Bernard Pollard, who brings some thump to the secondary, and rookie linebacker Brian Cushing, who already has been named AFC Defensive Player of the Week twice.

With Houston’s powerful offense, an average defense often can get the job done — but not this week. The Texans travel to 7-0 Indianapolis for the biggest AFC South matchup of their existence at 1 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, and the Colts won’t let anybody get away with defensive mediocrity. Peyton Manning is playing virtually flawless football, and wide receiver Reggie Wayne, tight end Dallas Clark and running back Joseph Addai are all clicking. And the Texans, now without stud tight end Owen Daniels, who blew out his knee last week, face a defense allowing fewer points per game (13.0) than any team in the league.

“We’ve had some great football games with them in the past,” Texans coach Gary Kubiak says. “They tend to be the ones making the plays at the end, and they get the victory.”

So true. The Texans have played the Colts 14 times — and won once. That was three years ago, and it wasn’t in Indy.

But hey, there’s a first time for everything. Like going three games over .500.

A quick look at the rest of the Week 9 action (all times Eastern):

SUNDAY

Baltimore (4-3) at Cincinnati (5-2), 1 p.m. The Ravens didn’t just hand the Broncos their first loss of the season last week; they crushed them, serving immediate notice that Baltimore was not about to lay down and die — especially not if that means looking up at the Bengals in the AFC North standings. In addition to regaining their swagger on defense, the Ravens evened things out a bit offensively, giving running back Ray Rice a more substantial workload and having Joe Flacco throw less often. The pass-run ratio was tilted too far toward the pass when the Bengals beat the Ravens in Week 5, and that’s just not the Ravens. As good as Flacco is, Baltimore is a run-the-ball-and-play-tough-defense team, and that’s what humbled Denver a week ago. Carson Palmer, Cedric Benson and the Bengals are coming off a bye week that was preceded by their best game of this surprising season, a thorough whipping of the Bears, and they are playing at home. But the bent-on-vengeance Ravens are well aware that the Bengals’ only two losses this season were at Paul Brown Stadium.

Miami (3-4) at New England (5-2), 1 p.m. The Dolphins are headed back to where it all began. It was at Gillette Stadium last September that a struggling Miami offense unveiled the Wildcat scheme, upsetting the Patriots as running back Ronnie Brown scored four touchdowns and passed for another while using what amounted to an old-fashioned single-wing attack. The Patriots obviously didn’t know what was coming — but they do now. The Dolphins continue to make fine use of the Wildcat in most games, but give Patriots coach Bill Belichick a year to prepare (as well as a bye this past week) and he’ll come up with something. Belichick’s greater concern might be figuring out how to stop Ted Ginn Jr. from returning kickoffs for touchdowns. Miami probably will need to score in a variety of ways because the Patriots, who outscored their last two opponents, 94-7, appear to be hitting their stride on offense. Which was eminently predictable for a team with Tom Brady, Randy Moss and Wes Welker.

Arizona (4-3) at Chicago (4-3), 1 p.m. Kurt Warner and Jay Cutler no doubt rank among the league’s top quarterbacks; one is a future Hall of Famer, and the other has that potential. But each has 11 interceptions this season, only two behind the poster boy for picks, Jake Delhomme. This game could come down to which quarterback is more adept at hitting his targets — and which team can get something out of its running game. Both teams have struggled on the ground, partly because of O-line shortcomings and partly because Chicago’s Matt Forte and Arizona’s Beanie Wells and Tim Hightower just haven’t gotten the job done. This is a matchup of a couple of flawed teams with playoff potential — if they can figure out how to quit tripping over themselves.

Washington (2-5) at Atlanta (4-3), 1 p.m. People have different ways of bouncing back from setbacks — going to a competitor after getting laid off, hitting the bars after getting dumped by a girlfriend, whatever. In the NFL, the best way to get well in a hurry is to play the Redskins. After losing at Dallas and New Orleans the last two weeks — the first back-to-back losses of the Mike Smith era — Atlanta hosts the sad-sack Skins, who are so bad, their free-spending owner felt the need to apologize to fans this week. The Redskins have two wins, but they came against the Rams and Bucs (combined record: 1-14), and they lost to bottom-feeders Kansas City and Detroit (combined record: 2-12). Washington will have to do something remarkable — like score more than 17 points, which hasn’t happened this season — to beat a 4-3 Atlanta team that traded punches with the mighty Saints on Monday night.

Green Bay (4-3) at Tampa Bay (0-7), 1 p.m. If greatness is measured in the face of adversity, Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers should be right near the top of the list of the league’s great quarterbacks this season. Despite playing behind a Swiss cheese offensive line, getting sacked a league-high 31 times and running for his life the rest of the time (on a bad foot and toe, no less), Rodgers has produced stunning numbers — 14 touchdown throws, only two interceptions, 1,989 yards passing and a league-best 110.4 quarterback rating. The Packers are hoping left tackle Chad Clifton and right tackle Mark Tauscher, a pair of veterans from the O-line’s better days, can help stop the bleeding up front. A game against Tampa Bay could help in that respect, too; the Bucs have only 11 sacks this season. Bucs rookie quarterback Josh Freeman, making his first NFL start, has to be glad that Packers pass rushers have only 12.

Kansas City (1-6) at Jacksonville (3-4), 1 p.m. If Matt Cassel could pick any team to play this week, it would have to be Jacksonville. The Chiefs’ alleged franchise quarterback has taken a beating all season (24 sacks, second only to Rodgers, plus numerous other hits), but the Jaguars have the league’s worst pass rush (five sacks). Maybe, just maybe, Cassel can emerge from a game as something other than a human punching bag for a change. Then again, perhaps not. Jags coach Jack Del Rio is piping hot about the team’s lack of physicality in last week’s loss to the Titans; he even made players practice in full pads Wednesday, hoping the unusual move would result in better tackling and greater aggressiveness. That would help, but Del Rio might also want to think about dialing up a few more plays for Maurice Jones-Drew. MJD rushed for 177 yards and two touchdowns last week — on only EIGHT carries. I could be wrong, but it probably wouldn’t hurt to shove the rock in his gut a few more times against the Chiefs. He can handle it.

Carolina (3-4) at New Orleans (7-0), 4:05 p.m. Like kids on Christmas Eve, Saints defenders have to be dreaming about this game. Darren Sharper and Co. lead the league in both interceptions (16) and pick-sixes (five), and the Saints also scored on a fumble recovery. And who waltzes into the Superdome this week? None other than Jake Delhomme, who puts the word “pick” in pick-six. Talk about a perfect storm. But there’s a way to avoid imminent disaster: Take the ball out of Delhomme’s hands. Give it to DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart and hope like hell Drew Brees has an off day. It probably won’t result in an upset win, but it could prevent a blowout loss. Maybe.

Detroit (1-6) at Seattle (2-5), 4:05 p.m. Does a friend of yours play for the Lions or Seahawks? A relative, perhaps? Do you have any Lions or Seahawks on your fantasy team? Do you enjoy seeing glimpses of the Seattle skyline? Do you live in Detroit or Seattle and get only the FOX network on your TV? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, I can understand why you might tune in this game. Short of that, aren’t there leaves in your yard to rake?

San Diego (4-3) at New York Giants (5-3), 4:15 p.m. It’s prove-it time for the Chargers. Wins over Kansas City and Oakland lifted San Diego back above .500, but now come matchups with the Giants, Eagles and Broncos. If the Chargers are playoff material, they need to show it. This week’s game in New York could be the most manageable of the bunch, considering how poorly the Giants have played during a three-game losing streak in which they have been outscored 112-61. And come to think of it, this also is a prove-it game for the Giants, who opened the season 5-0 over mostly riffraff competition. Eli Manning needs to rediscover control of his passes, and the defense must show some backbone. It will help immensely if linebacker Michael Boley (knee) and defensive tackle Chris Canty (calf) can jump back into the fray. But lately mistakes have particularly plagued the secondary, an area Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers and wide receiver Vincent Jackson will try to exploit. If they do, the Giants’ nosedive might not be reversible.

Tennessee (1-6) at San Francisco (3-4), 4:15 p.m. Running back Chris Johnson told Sporting News Radio this week that before they played Jacksonville last week, the winless Titans looked at their schedule and decided they could run the table, finish at 10-6 and perhaps make the playoffs. Well, one win down, nine to go. Johnson was the star of the show, rushing for a team-record 228 yards and two long touchdowns and rising to the top of the league rushing charts. That allowed the Titans to keep it simple for quarterback Vince Young, who won in his first start in over a year. Another former high draft pick making his first start in forever was the 49ers’ Alex Smith, who played a solid game while losing at Indianapolis. It might be Smith’s turn to win this week, considering he’ll be playing at home (and Young won’t), and his stable of weapons (Frank Gore, Vernon Davis and Michael Crabtree) is more impressive than Tennessee’s. But it’s dangerous to discount a team on a mission.

Dallas (5-2) at Philadelphia (5-2), 8:20 p.m. All the marbles aren’t on the line yet, but this week’s Sunday-night game has that feel anyway, starting with supremacy in the NFC East. Dallas and Philly are both on a roll, the Cowboys in the form of a three-game winning streak and the Eagles after a thorough pounding of the former division-leading Giants. Neither team is short on playmakers, but particularly blessed is Philadelphia, which gets nothing but big plays from wide receiver DeSean Jackson and, though fewer in number, rookie receiver Jeremy Maclin. Rookie running back LeSean McCoy has been doing his part, and the Eagles might even get Brian Westbrook back this week after missing the New York game with a concussion. Donovan McNabb has settled into a groove, too, — but not like the one Tony Romo is in. No longer “throwing and hoping,” as he put it, Romo hasn’t tossed an interception the last three weeks and has developed such chemistry with receiver Miles Austin that Roy Williams has gotten jealous. But that’s about the only negative vibe in Dallas these days. And the mood in Big D will only get better if the Cowboys can avenge the season-ending, 44-6 loss in Philly that knocked them out of the playoffs a year ago.

MONDAY

Pittsburgh (5-2) at Denver (6-1), 8:30 p.m. This will be third game in a row the Broncos have played a team coming off a bye. The Chargers were no problem in Week 6, but the Ravens knocked the Broncos from the ranks of the undefeated a week ago, and now Denver faces a fresh Steelers team that gave Minnesota its first and only loss of the year in Week 7. The Broncos have been one of the surprise stories of this season, but everything they did right for six weeks — such as getting sacks, shutting down running games, scoring in the clutch and dominating the second half — went all wrong last week. And along comes Pittsburgh. Where are the Redskins when you need them?

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