On September 10, 2006, native Houstonian Gary Kubiak made his head coaching debut as he led the Texans against the Philadelphia Eagles at Reliant Stadium. Despite taking the first drive down the field for a touchdown, the game would result in a disappointing 24-10 loss. They would lose the next two in embarrassing fashion before awarding Kubiak his first career victory with a win over the Miami Dolphins in week four. After a loss to Dallas, two of the next four games would be against division rival Jacksonville – and Houston would beat them both times. As unexplainable as the Texans’ continued ability to beat the Jaguars, so too was a game against the Titans where they out-gained Tennessee in total yards 427 to 197 but lost due to five turnovers. David Carr would suffer one of his worst performances of his career before being pulled in favor of backup Sage Rosenfels. Another strange game had the Texans finishing with negative five yards passing, yet winning a game against the Oakland Raiders.
The Texans would suffer two heart-breaking losses in the second half of the season, first allowing the Buffalo Bills to score a go-ahead touchdown with just nine seconds remaining and then three weeks later against the Tennessee Titans and Vince Young. Playing in his hometown of Houston for the first time as a professional, Young ran 39 yards for the winning touchdown in overtime. To make matters worse for the Texans, some fans, who thought Houston made a mistake by not drafting him, showed up wearing Vince Young jerseys and cheered as he scored in overtime.
A week later, the emotionally exhausted Texans showed up in Foxborough to face the New England Patriots and were hammered 40-7 as David Carr turned in another poor performance, throwing four interceptions. The Texans would make the most of their two remaining games, snapping a nine game losing streak to the Colts by stunning the eventual Super Bowl Champions 27-24 and then finishing the season by beating the Browns in Houston, their first back-to-back wins in two years. The Texans finished with 6 wins in 2006, four more than the previous year. Andre Johnson led the league in receptions with 103 and was selected to his second Pro Bowl. The Texans got contributions from all seven of their 2006 draft picks, including DE Mario Williams, TE Owen Daniels and LB DeMeco Ryans - a second round pick who was selected as the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of the Year.
