Gary Kubiak, Matt Schaub, Mario Williams and company should start looking for someone who's holding voodoo dolls of them now. For the Houston Texans are clearly cursed.

Cursed by arguably the worst pass defense in NFL history. Cursed by an inability to close out the surest of victories. But also cursed by some of the worst luck professional football has ever seen.

It's hard to imagine an NFL franchise ever suffering more devastating back-to-back heartbreakers than Houston just has. After pulling off a rally that seemed to save the season, putting up 17 points in 10 minutes against arguably the NFL's best defense to take the lead, the Texans watched the Jets drive 72 yards in 40 seconds to steal a 30-27 victory with a touchdown pass with 00:10 left on the clock. This one week after Jacksonville beat them with a 50-yard hail mary touchdown pass on the final play of the game.

Agony. Times a million.

OK, this isn't quite the misery of Chicago Cubs' fans or the stuff that Red Sox backers whined about for years before October 2004. But for short-term torment, it's hard to imagine much worse. Who has a two weeks like this?

When Arian Foster extended the football into the end zone with 2:18 left, giving the Texans a 24-23 lead, capping one of the greatest 10-minute stretches in the Matt Schaub era, it suddenly looked like everything had changed. Houston stood on the verge of the kind of win that transforms a season. When Neil Rackers hit a field goal to extend the lead to 27-23 with only 55 ticks left, it seemed impossible that the Texans would lose their grip on that win.

Only, they did.

Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez (22-for-38 for 315 yards and three touchdowns) had been hounded by Williams for most of the second half, had looked unsure and more than a little tentative. Then, the Texans defense reverted to form and New York's second-year quarterback suddenly transformed into Peyton Manning in the game's final minute.

Sanchez found a streaking free Braylon Edwards for a 42-yard catch-and-run — the real game-losing play — with only 16 seconds left. Edwards beat new Texans cornerback Jason Allen — the man brought in just this week in a desperate attempt to improve the NFL's worst-rated pass defense — so easily and cleanly that Allen might as well have been a Pee Wee football player against a pro. And the non-existent safety help from Eugene Wilson was even more pitiful.

On the very next play, Jets receiver Santonio Holmes (seven catches for 126 yards and two touchdowns) easily deked out rookie cornerback Kareem Jackson (the usual goat) and caught a pretty over-the-shoulder touchdown pass for the final crushing point.

As the CBS cameras shot to Schaub on the sidelines, the Texans quarterback looked like he needed to be treated for shock. Who didn't?

"Our defense right now ... it's unacceptable what we're doing on the field," Houston coach Gary Kubiak, said in his press conference afterwards.

Kubiak is a good coach whose days seem more and more numbered. At 4-6, he and the Texans seem to be playing out the string, having lost four straight after a playoff-berth-geared start, each in more unbelievable fashion than the last. Defensive coordinator Frank Bush might not even make it through the season (despite Kubiak's words of backing), but general manager Rick Smith needs to start taking some responsibility for failing to recognize that the late defensive improvement last year was largely due to a favorable schedule.

Bush didn't draft Jackson. Or sign Allen. Or pass on Randy Moss.

On a day when Andre Johnson (four catches for 32 yards) was largley shut down on Revis Island, a day when Kevin Walter once again showed why he's not close to being second receiver worthy with a big drop on a long pass that could have changed the tenor of the first half, Schaub still found a way. He transformed second-string tight end Joel Dreessen (four catches for 106 yards) into an important target, turned to the ever-increasing-star Foster (six catches and 143 total yards on 28 combined touches), put up more points against Rex Ryan's defense than any other quarterback this season.

Williams (two sacks, numerous pressures) played his best game since the opening win over the Colts. The Jets (8-2) seemed ready to lose, having played with fire for weeks in a row.

And still, the curse continues.

"You've got to close out that game," Kubiak said.

Next week against the Titans, maybe Vince Young will keep his crazy going, pop off the bench, run onto the field and tackle a Texan streaking for what would-have-been a winning touchdown. Would that really be any more unbelievable than what's already transpired?

Hail mary to the last-minute collapse. Voodo on you.

No pins are really required. The Texans are feeling the pain just fine.