Winless Houston not a contender for worst-in-NFL label

Posted by ESPN.com's Paul Kuharsky Houston is fortunate that things are so bad in St. Louis, Detroit, Cincinnati and Kansas City. The Rams, Lions, Bengals and Chiefs are providing quite a buffer between the Texans and the "worst-team-in-the-league" label.
People look at the Texans' results and see close misses against Jacksonville and Indianapolis in the last two weeks. People look at their talent -- Mario Williams, Andre Johnson, Amobi Okoye, DeMeco Ryans and Steve Slaton - and see a pretty good core to build around.
Clark Judge of CBSSports.com only makes a passing mention of the Texans in his list of the worst teamsÂ*in football.
After Sunday's game against the surprising Miami Dolphins, the Texans get back-to-back chances to further distinguish themselves from the Lions and Bengals with games against them at Houston.


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