MRI Monday wasn't quite as cruel to the Houston Texans as usual. Gary Kubiak's team only lost one player for the season — and he wasn't an all-pro.

For this Houston team that keeps winning big as it loses players that qualifies as progress.

Brett Hartmann is done for the year with a torn ACL, meaning the Texans will have to sign a new punter and perhaps make field-goal kicker Neil Rackers handle kickoffs again, a role he hasn't excelled in. But the news on the injury everyone was waiting on is more encouraging.

Lifeline wide receiver Andre Johnson is expected to play again this season — though it'd be a stretch to see No, 80 lining up against Cincinnati on Sunday and maybe longer than that. Still for the Texans, any non-devastating injury news is good news.

"Today, we feel very fortunate," Kubiak said at his weekly press conference Monday.

Johnson will attempt to rehab from a milder left hamstring injury after missing almost two months of football while recovering from a more severe right hamstring injury. Kubiak wouldn't even rule out Johnson for the Bengals — of course, the Texans coach also said that the No. 1 receiver could return any week throughout his first hamstring injury (the one that stretched to six games missed).

The Texans (9-3), tied for the best record in the entire AFC, only have four regular season games remaining. And then, almost assuredly, the playoffs that Johnson's long dreamed of. If Houston beats 7-5 Cincinnati on the road and Tennessee loses at home to NFC powerhouse New Orleans, both distinct possibilities, the Texans will clinch the first playoff berth in franchise history on Sunday.

"We do expect him back," Kubiak said Monday of a player few would dispute is the all-time greatest Texan. "Hopefully, sooner rather than later."

Immediately after the game on Sunday, Texans owner Bob McNair said the team hopes to have Johnson back in a few weeks. The results of Johnson's X-rays on Monday validated that optimism.

Before Johnson limped off, he made first-time rookie starter T.J. Yates a better quarterback, providing the deep threat Houston needed to open up the field. With Johnson going up to catch four passes for 97 yards, including a 50-yard bomb, Yates was able to find tight end Owen Daniels underneath and hit tailback Arian Foster out of the backfield.

When Johnson went out, the Texans became more and more run dependent — as illustrated in the 19-play, 85-yard game-winning touchdown drive. Yates completed only one pass on the drive, and the Texans threw the ball only three times in 19 plays, with their quarterback doing more with his feet than his arm.

Not Again

Johnson hurt his left leg without getting touched while running a deep pass route in the third quarter. When he felt the pain, he dropped himself to the grass and lay prone on his stomach for a few moments as a rocking Reliant Stadium went quiet. It's not that Johnson could not get up.

He needed to gather himself from another disappointment. Johnson says he's never had hamstring issues before, not when he starred at the University of Miami, not in his first eight seasons of all-pro work with the Texans. In fact, the 30-year-old Johnson's played in at least 13 games in seven of his eight NFL seasons prior to this season.

The fewest number of games he's ever played in an NFL season? Nine in 2007.

With the Texans finally having that dream season though, No. 80 is stuck on six games played — with only four regular season games left and a few more inactives very much on the table.

Of course, Johnson would gladly concede all of this in order to be healthy enough to make an impact in the playoffs. His long-awaited playoffs.

"(Making the playoffs) is something that I have been trying to help this organization reach for nine seasons and I think the most frustrating thing has not being able to play as much and dealing with injuries," Johnson said after the game. ". . . I want to be a big part of it."