The sound of the air being knocked out of the guts of over 71,000 people all at once is devastating. It’s the sound that ended the Monday Night Football battle between the Titans and Texans as Kris Brown missed his second field goal of the night.

"It's all on me. It's totally me. The frustrating part for me is we have 44 guys out there busting their tail and one guy out there not doing his job. That's the reason we lose the game. That's hard for me to take. I need to figure out what the heck is going on and I need to figure it out pretty quick," Brown said after the game.

Brown’s miss was especially hard to watch considering that it looked like an instant replay of his bad kick from the Texan’s game nine loss  to the Indianapolis Colts.

As Brown’s kick sailed wide it carried away the hopes of the fans, and left the ever-promising Texans languishing again in the all-too-familiar break-even category at 5-5 with the faithful let loose to wonder aloud if playoffs will ever be a part of this team’s immediate future.

History, hope and hype inflated expectations and emotions for a big Texan victory last night. This game was the stuff that makes great NFL drama. The former Houston Oilers, now the Titans, were “coming home” to play the Texans.

ESPN reminded its national audience of the inescapable history and comparisons between these two franchises by pummeling the airwaves with images of “Luv Ya Blue” and the Monday Night Football hey-days of Earl Campbell and Bum Phillips.

According to, basically everyone, this was a “do or die” game for the Texans. Remain the “break-eveners” or take a real step toward legitimate playoff contention.

Did the Texans have the stuff? Did they possess the mettle to stand toe-to-toe with the Titans? The Texans had already gone into Nashville and taken down the Titans on their home turf in a tough, physical, at times hostile game, in week two. The fans were ready for some real smash-mouth football.

Unfortunately, for the Texans some things have changed for the Titans since that week two match-up. Houston Hometown favorite Vince Young is back in the pocket as the starting QB for the Titans. Young and team were coming off of three back-to-back victories. The Titans had their confidence back and Vince Young was pumped up on home cooking.

Add to all of that the fact that this contest was wrapped up and packaged, and presented under the daunting spotlight of Monday Night Football and suddenly this game took on playoff or championship proportions.  Perhaps proportions too daunting for the Texans to manage.

The bigger the stakes the deeper the disappointment!

Matt Schaub said, "It's frustrating how much we put into it and how hard everyone played. Everyone put a lot of time and preparation into the game, being on Monday night and coming off our bye. So it was an important game, a big game, and we were ready to play. I felt we played a really tough game."

Schaub was generous in taking some of the pressure off of Kris Brown. "I feel tremendously bad for him. He's a tremendous player and he puts a lot of time in and a lot of pride in what he does. He'll rebound. We're going to need him before this year is out to win us a game. I have no doubt that he's going to go out there and do that."

Beyond the glaring issue of Brown’s missed field goals, the Texans continue to battle with some chronic issues that point to deeper problems. The defense never had any real pressure on Young. No sacks were recorded in the game.

The Texans running game was non-existent as the team turned in a pathetic 57 total yards on the ground. Sloppy play and, at times stupid play, resulted in 72 yards lost to penalties. A few of the penalties were blatant personal fouls that hurt the team at difficult times

Titans head coach Jeff Fisher was understandably more upbeat following the game and praised his Houston-raised QB, “Vince's (Young) work was great. He managed the game well. CJ (RB Chris Johnson) was busy; we kept him busy. We knew it was going to be a hard day in the run game because of the way the Houston Texans had improved over the last six weeks. All in all it was very fortunate to be a part of that win. I would assume that was a good solid game for the Monday Night Football audience."

Now it falls to the Texans to re-group; yet again and prepare for the undefeated Indianapolis Colts against whom the Texans have one victory in their history as a franchise.