Texans play well in win over KC
The Scoop
Mike Konvicka

HOUSTON - Sunday's Texan opening season 20-3 win over Kansas City was no doubt the teams best effort in six years of existence

The Texans dominated the Chiefs from start to finish and left no doubt in the 70,000 plus fans' minds who was the better team.

"We talked about effort, enthusiasm and being physical," said Texans coach Gary Kubiak.

"Today was a step in the right direction and our football team was ready to play.

"They played for each other and we have to do that 16 times.

"Playing for four quarters, we thought that would be key for our football team all year."

The win was Houston's third straight including the Texans' victories over Indianapolis and Cleveland at Reliant Stadium at the end of last season.

Quarterback Matt Schaub ran the offense like a well-oiled machined and engineered three Texan scoring drives.

The most impressive came in the fourth quarter when Houston started a drive with 18 seconds left in the third quarter.

The Texan defense had just held the Chiefs to a field goal which came with only 26 seconds left in the third quarter.

Houston's drive took 10 minutes off the clock and resulted in a Kris Brown 28-yard field goal to put the Texans up by 17.

While Houston was establishing a rushing game, Schaub connected with Andre Johnson on a 72-yard scoring strike with six minutes left in the second quarter to put the Texans up 10-0.

He completed 16 of 22 passes for 206 yards. He had one interception.

"That was a big play before the half," said Kubiak. "We go in 10-0 and that was huge."

"He did some real good things and he did some things that he's got to get better with."

The Texans totaled up 109 yards on the ground. Ahman Green picked up 73 on 16 carries and Ron Dayne added 33 on 13 at- tempts.

I thought if our backfield was able to produce as much as their backfield or even more, we would be in good shape," said Kubiak.

The Chiefs took over with only 3:13 left in game and punted a minute later where the Texans ran out the clock.

Last year's draft choice Mario Willaims finally earned his pay.

He recovered a Kansas City fumble

and returned it 38 yards for a touchdown in the first minute of the second half.

It was the Texans' first defensive touchdown since early last year.

Williams also contributed with two sacks in the third quarter, which of course is a career high.

The Texans will get a tougher test this Sunday when they visit the Carolina Panthers.

And their roster includes former Texan David Carr who is the Panthers' back-up quarterback.