This isn't what Houston Texans fans expected. Not this season, and especially not last week, when Gary Kubiak's team fell apart in a 41-13 home loss to Baltimore.

Just last year, the Texans won three of their final four games to finish 8-8, the best record in the franchise's seven-year run.

This was supposed to be the breakthrough year. Instead, a 3-6 mark has prompted loud speculation on Houston sports-talk shows that Kubiak should be fired. His seat could get hotter if the Texans aren't at least competitive against the Colts (5-4) on Sunday, which is asking a lot considering the Texans have lost all six of their games in Indianapolis by at least nine points.

"There's a lot of disappointment here. I understand the frustration," said Kubiak, whose three-year record is 17-24. "I've been doing this a long time. I've been on two Super Bowl teams (at Denver), who the next year came back 5-11. So I understand the good end and I understand when you're struggling."

Before coming to Houston, Kubiak was the Broncos' offensive coordinator from 1995 to 2005. He won the two straight Super Bowl rings with Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway.

"The only way you survive in this business, whether you're playing or coaching, is just continue to battle and believe what you're doing," the coach said. "Just keep pushing, and that's what we're going to do. We're going to stay positive. Hell, struggles and all that stuff is part of life and, hell, it's part of football, too."

The players back their coach without hesitation. Kubiak inherited a 2-14 team and boosted it to 6-10 in his first season. Then came 8-8, which, due to the strength of the AFC South, still meant last place. But the other three division teams made the playoffs.

The promise of a new season was practically derailed before it could start as Hurricane Ike forced the postponement of the Week 2 home opener against the Ravens.

Instead, the Texans opened with road games against Pittsburgh, Tennessee and Jacksonville, then returned to Reliant Stadium and blew a 17-point lead to lose to the Colts. Each was a playoff team the year before.

Problems mounted. The Texans lost starting quarterback Matt Schaub to a knee injury two weeks ago. Last week, they lost their leading tackler when linebacker Zac Diles broke a leg.

In other words, some of this has been beyond Kubiak's control. But that's the business.

"Yeah, the head coach usually gets the fingers pointed at him and the quarterback usually gets the fingers pointed at him as well for the blame for the offense," said Sage Rosenfels, who has largely struggled in place of Schaub, including a disastrous, three-turnover performance against the Colts in the first meeting.

"That's the way it is. The president's in charge of everything -- the economy, the welfare system and everything. So, when things aren't working very well, things are struggling, top guys always get the blame."