Now THIS is a Texans team we can believe in

This was the Houston Texans offense we’ve been waiting to see. After Deshaun Watson lit the league on fire in 2017, his highly anticipated return to action was bogged down by an offense that couldn’t piece things together.

Now the Texans are back.

Watson carved up the Miami Dolphins’ secondary Thursday night with five touchdowns and only four incomplete passes to lead the Texans to a 42-23 win. It was the fifth victory in a row for Houston after an 0-3 start, and it was their first game with more than 40 points in over a year.

A year ago, Watson had 19 touchdown passes and two more on the ground in less than seven games played. Then an ACL tear ended his year and brought down the Texans’ season with it.

While Watson has been every bit as good in his return, other struggles for the Texans kept them from recreating their hot start of 2017. But now they’re cooking with gas.

“We got our swagger back today,” Watson told Fox’s Erin Andrews after the game. “We just want to have fun and light up the scoreboard in primetime, which is what we did. ... Today we showed just a little bit, but it’s only going to get better and improve each and every week.”

The Texans have dug from their winless September hole to take control of the AFC South, the only team in the division with a winning record. Their 5-3 mark isn’t fluky either, even if their first wins of the season weren’t pretty. But now they’re on a roll, and this version of the Texans is looking like it has the pieces to be a real contender.

Houston’s offense struggled in certain areas early in the year, but even then, it was productive. The Texans opened the year with 325 yards against the Patriots and then had four consecutive games with at least 425 yards. The undefeated Rams are the only other team in the NFL this season that has topped 425 in four straight.

Yet even after dropping 42 on the Dolphins, the Texans are averaging 24.6 points per game — the 17th best mark in the NFL.

The problem, until recently, was that Houston wasn’t turning its lengthy offensive drives into touchdowns. The team couldn’t finish in the red zone.

They were just 1 of 6 in the red zone in a win against the Cowboys and took unnecessary risks with Watson. Still, that was the second straight overtime victory for the Texans, who benefitted from the other team’s late-game play-calling in those wins over the Cowboys and Colts.

In the Texans’ 20-13 win against the Bills, the team scored just one touchdown on four trips to the red zone. That might’ve been enough to cost Houston a win if Nathan Peterman didn’t have a trademark meltdown to tank Buffalo’s chances.

Houston’s inability to punch in touchdowns was confusing considering it has a dual-threat quarterback, a consistently productive running back in Lamar Miller, and a human cheat code at wide receiver with DeAndre Hopkins. But the Texans’ problems inside the 20 may be fading away, if the last two weeks are any indication.

Against Miami, the Texans’ offense had three trips into the red zone and came away with touchdowns all three times. A week ago against the Jaguars, Houston scored two touchdowns and a field goal on their three trips inside the 20.

That’s a huge turnaround for the Texans and the reason why the door was never left open for a Dolphins comeback. Every time Houston had a chance to score, it did.

The Texans were playing with fire when they put him under center against the Jaguars. The team decided that it was best for the quarterback’s rib and lung injuries if he avoided a flight to Florida and instead traveled by bus. Despite not being deemed healthy enough to fly, the Texans rolled him out behind a shoddy offensive line against the Jaguars.

The decision didn’t come back to haunt the Texans. Jacksonville recorded just one sack on the day and Watson returned to Houston no worse for wear.

What helped was a game plan that relied heavily on the running game and didn’t roll Watson into danger much. Lamar Miller rushed 22 times for 100 yards and Alfred Blue had eight carries for 28 yards. The heavy rushing attack meant Watson threw just 22 passes.

It was more of the same Thursday with 18 carries for Miller and 15 for Blue. Watson only threw 20 passes on the night and — for the first time in his career — wasn’t sacked once.

That’s a staggering accomplishment for an offensive line that allowed Watson to be sacked 25 times and hit 70 times in the first six weeks. Somehow, that group, one of the worst in the NFL this season, is starting to gel a bit.

It helped in both games that the Texans led for the most of the game and were able to dictate the pace. But as long as Houston continues to find success with its ground game, it’ll keep Watson healthy and allow him to rip off-balance defenses apart like he did against the Dolphins.

Everyone pointed to Bill O’Brien as the one to blame for Houston’s 0-3 start, because the team just has too many good players to be in the cellar. Winning five straight is a good way to get off the hot seat, but it underlines why it was such an odd start to the year to begin with.

Watson’s put together too many good games at this point to be considered anything other than legit. J.J. Watt has returned to form with a league-leading eight sacks, Jadeveon Clowney is a destructive force well on his way to a third straight Pro Bowl, and Hopkins has the most ridiculously good hands imaginable.

Hopkins finished Thursday with six receptions for 82 yards and two touchdowns, even though his most absurd catch of the day was nullified by an offensive pass interference call:

The bad news is that receiver Will Fuller, who had 124 yards and a touchdown on the night, tore his ACL and will be out for the rest of the season. The return of promising rookie Keke Coutee, who missed Week 8 with a hamstring injury, should help the Texans deal with the absence of Fuller.

But either way, Houston still has stacked roster and, finally, it’s capitalizing on that fact. The Texans have momentum on their side and they should be able to keep it going too. Washington is the only team in the back half of their schedule that currently has a winning record.

The Texans have finished with a winning record five times in the last seven seasons and probably would’ve made it six if injuries didn’t derail their 2017 season. Now, after an 0-3 start to the year, they’re back. Few teams are ever able to climb from that hole and make the playoffs, but with Watson at the helm and the Texans looking better each week, it’s a good time to start believing in them again.