For the very first time all season, Houston didn’t have to answer any questions regarding their terrible run defense or inability for stopping big plays.

The defense of the Texans instead was able to celebrate their finest performance since the 2004 season as Houston beat the Raiders on Sunday 29-6. Houston allowed only 165 yards, the second fewest in the team’s history and fewest since they gave up 126 yards in a victory over Jacksonville nearly five years ago.

Antonio Smith, defensive end, said we were all having fun. When you have fun is when you have a lot of confidence. You don’t have second guesses. You don’t ease up when you are able to go at full speed. That is when you end up making big plays.

Steve Slaton had two touchdowns while Jacoby Jones scored on a kickoff return to help the Texans win.

Houston (2-2) was finally able to find their running game, figuring out how to shut down their opponent’s, while the worst defense in the NFL was able to hold Oakland (1-3) to only 45 rushing yards. Entering into the game, Houston had allowed an average of 205 rushing yards per game.

The Texans forced three turnovers as well and got their first safety in nearly seven years.

Houston was able to get the victory despite have some struggles with illness. Earlier in the week, they had the first NFL confirmed case for swine flu from Anthony Hill, tight end. On Saturday night as well as Sunday morning the Texans had some of their others players fall ill. However there were no other swine flu cases confirmed.

Eugene Wilson, safety, sat out the game due to illness, while Chris Brown, running back, was available to play but wasn’t feeling well and did not end up playing. Xavier Adibi, linebacker, was ill as well but did play on special teams.

Gary Kubiak, Texans coach said, last night Eugene got really sick. This morning it continued and there wasn’t any way for him to play. We are monitoring this situation. It hit us during the last four days. We just will need to work our way through it.

Eric Winston, offensive lineman, said that Wilson could barely walk he was so sick.

When Kubiak was asked if any of the other illnesses were swine flu cases he said, we do not want speculate. This morning it was scary, just to be honest.

Oakland continued with their struggles. JaMarcus Russell completed only 12 of his 33 passes for a total of 128 yards, while Darren McFadden had minus 3 rushing yards on six carries.

Tom Cable, Raiders coach said, we were not able to run the football. That disrupted our offense a lot. We are killing ourselves. We are shooting ourselves right in the foot everywhere.

The first score of Slaton’s occurred during the second quarter on a run of 32 yards, giving the Texans a 13-3 lead. It was the first rushing touchdown for the Texans this season. Slaton ended up with 65 rushing yards while Ryan Moats had 56.

Slaton’s second score later second quarter was on a catch and run 18 yard play which made the score 20-3. The touchdown was set up by Owen Daniels’ career high 44 yard catch.

The first turnover of Oakland’s occurred during the third quarter when DeMeco Ryans was able to strip the football away from Michael Bush. Antonio Smith recovered the ball, but Houston wasn’t able to capitalize.

However Andre Davis was able to down the punt on the one yard line and Brian Cushing, rookie, was able to tackle Justin Fargas inside the end zone to score a safety, making the score 22-6. It was the first safety for Houston since their inaugural 2002 season.

On the following kickoff, Jones returned the ball 95 yards, scoring the first kickoff return touchdown of his career. Jones does have two returned punts for touchdowns in his career.

During the fourth quarter Mario Williams was able to get to Russell and forced him to fumble. Houston as able to recover the football on the twenty yard line. Houston failed to score when a field goal attempt from 33 yards by Kris Brown sailed wide to the left.

Oakland had several dropped passes.

Russell said we kept getting ourselves in third down and long situations. We keep saying we need to have manageable downs.

The Texans had another opportunity to score late first half. However Chris Johnson intercepted a pass from Matt Schaub at the end zone. Matt Schaub went 11 out of 22 for a total of 224 yards with one touchdown.

Late second quarter Oakland got a field goal which cut the lead down to 20-6. Russell kept the drive alive when he connected on fourth down and nine on a 19 yard pass to Louis Murphy.

Andre Johnson had a 62 yard catch to move Houston down to the seven yard line during the first quarter. A field goal from 26 yards by Brown made the score 3-0. The Raiders tied the score on a field goal of 46 yards by Sebastian Janikowski following a first quarter fumble by Slaton.

During the second quarter Brown had a field goal of 34 yards.

Notes
Late fourth quarter Johnnie Lee Higgins mishandled a punt. Houston recovered the ball and was able to run the clock out. Cornell Green, tackle, of the Raiders has an injured calf, Tyvon Branch, safety, an injured groin, and Zach Miller, tight end, has a concussion. No additional information was provided by Cable regarding the injuries.