Who knew a hat could go out of style this quick? Those AFC South division champs hats are barely on the heads of the Houston Texans players before they seem dated.

Milli Vanilli had a longer run.

Texans owner Bob McNair — the man who always somehow believed a long run of division titles would come — is the one who keeps the party in check. Showing just how much more he wants, McNair tells the Texans that there is plenty left to win. This isn't some George Steinbrenner-level bluster. That's far from McNair's style.

Which makes it mean even more.

"That's what I love about this team and organization," safety Danieal Manning laughs. "It's never completely pleased. You can always do more. That's how we have to be as a team.

"It's never as good as you think it is after a win. And it's never as bad as you think it is after a loss. That comes from (head coach Gary) Kubiak and McNair. We're always pushing."

When you're as talented as this Texans team, it's the only way to be. Houston does not play its best game against the Indianapolis Colts and still . . . the Texans clearly have the three best players on the field. J.J. Watt, Arian Foster and Andre Johnson — put them in any order you want (OK, maybe you'd better put Watt first) — are stars that Indy cannot match. Few NFL teams can.

Andrew Luck can win all the close games he wants against a soft schedule. His games against the Texans figure to be played at different margins.

This one ends 29-17 Texans on a day when Kubiak's team leaves plenty of points on the field. So Houston wraps up the division that Indianapolis used to own for the second straight season. And they do it against Indy. In a flex of star power.

"The Colts have been bothering the Texans for a long time," safety Glover Quin says. "And to beat that team here to win the division means something."

Only last year, it would have been enough to almost trigger a parade down Kirby Drive. The scene that greeted the Texans at Reliant Stadium when they returned from Cincinnati with the franchise's first AFC South title in hand is one that most of the players will never forget.

But they don't feel the need to try and repeat it. These Texans are 12-2. And 12-2 teams almost take division championships for granted. They chase bigger things. And with the New England Patriots (10-4) turning around and losing to the 49ers just six nights after they rolled over the Texans, Kubiak's team suddenly finds itself one win away from clinching homefield advantage throughout the AFC playoffs.

They only need to go 1-1 in their last two games to finish 13-3 and ensure the road to the Super Bowl in the AFC runs through the retractable roof stadium in Houston that never opens. Tom Brady cannot finish with any more than 12 wins now and those Peyton Manning Broncos (11-3) lose the decisive head-to-head tiebreaker with Houston.

If the Texans beat Adrian Peterson and the Minnesota Vikings this Sunday . . . well, then you'll see a hell of a party at Reliant.

Hats are for fans. Homefield is for champions.

"You can relax the rest of the day I guess — and that's about it." McNair says of the latest Texans win over those once-hated Colts.

That's the message McNair gives the team after he's given one of the game balls. Enjoy it today, but tomorrow we've got work to do.

Sure, Kubiak gets doused with water from one of those giant jugs and plenty of players put on the AFC South champ hats. They'll quickly become forgotten souvenirs though.

"I'll wear it around tonight," left tackle Duane Brown says. "But I've got a 24-hour rule on the hat.

"You won't see it after that."

A Super Edge

What the Texans see is opportunity. If they take care of their business and things break right, rendering the Broncos and the Patriots as the second and third seeds in some combination, Houston would only have to beat one of the AFC's two scariest quarterbacks to make the Super Bowl. And they'd be playing Brady or Manning at Reliant.

Just ask Luck how fun that is. On an intensely rainy day in Houston, 71,702 strong — the second largest regular season crowd in franchise history — show, squashing any media notion that this city's wavered in its belief of this team.

They see the Texans respond to the what-are-you-made-of, manhood challenge Kubiak delivered in the gloom of that locker room in New England (which was first reported by CultureMap) with a furor.

"He challenged us," Quin says. "And this team knows how to answer a challenge."

There's Watt flying all over the field, moving close enough to the official all-time NFL sack record to smell it (and if he gets closer, you can bet that Watt won't need a quarterback to fall down for him to get it). There's Johnson setting the tone from the second play of the game, going up against Colts cornerback Vontae Davis for a deep pass in the middle of the field, a near 50-50 ball, and leaving no doubt who will come down with it. There's Foster rushing for 79 yards in the fourth quarter alone.

One of the things that sets this Texans team apart from the Patriots and the Broncos over the long haul of the season is the depth that general manager Rick Smith has built while making tough roster decisions (see Winston, Eric and Ryans, DeMeco) though. So it's fitting that on division clinch day, it is also about rookie wide receiver DeVier Posey and special teams ace Bryan Braman, two players who few other organizations would have looked at as valuable.

Posey was a question mark and a long-term project after the NCAA made him sit out most of his senior season. Many teams assumed he wasn't worth the risk. Braman didn't just go undrafted, he practically went unschooled, bouncing around the lower rungs of college football before getting kicked off his final team for being arrested and charged with manufacturing hallucinogenic mushrooms (he'd plead guilty to misdemeanor possession, pay a fine and have his probation dismissed).

But there is Posey making one of the big early catches of the game and holding onto the football through a devastating (and penalized) hit. And there is Braman blowing by the edge to block a punt and watching it bounce into his arms for a touchdown.

"Everybody has their own path," Braman says. "Not everybody follows a Yellow Brick Road to the NFL. It's my story and I wouldn't be who I am today without it."

It wasn't that long ago that the Texans thought that Trindon Holliday would be the underdog scoring their special team touchdowns — in a much different way. This Texans team knows how to adjust though. They just keep coming.

How far have they journeyed? Division titles are already almost old hat. There is too much more to grab.

Hats are for fans. Homefield advantage is for champions.