Suddenly, it's awfully hard to make any sort of case for keeping Gary Kubiak.

Only six days after the Houston Texans showed such fight in that furious comeback against the Baltimore Ravens, only several days removed from team owner Bob McNair more than hinting that Kubiak would be back (which made sense at the time), the Texans seemed to all but quit on their coach. To describe the Texans' 31-17 rollover loss to the Tennessee Titans any other way would be more of a reach than Natalie Portman's strain for an Oscar in Black Swan.

Kubiak himself even seemed to sense it, noting how the Texans (5-9 and officially a losing team in 2010) looked "slow" several times in his postgame press conference. That slowness extended to the gameplan as well.

The Titans jumped out to a 21-0 lead with Jeff Fisher all but openly mocking Kubiak and McNair, having Kerry Collins throw deep on 4-and-8 on the game's first drive (a pass that Collins, of course, completed rather easily between not one, but two, out-of-position Texan defenders — Eugene Wilson and Bernard Pollard). Then, the Texans couldn't convert a fourth-and-1 on their first drive with the NFL's leading rusher.

Sure, the Texans won another second half, as Matt Schaub racked up 325 yards on 54 passes — giving the quarterback 116 pass attempts in one six-day span. But they couldn't even show the fight that the Rex Grossman-led Redskins did in Dallas. Once Schaub's arm is put on ice (it might be time to rest his banged-up self for the rest of the season, right along with Mario Williams), McNair needs to reach out to Jimmy Johnson.

That's right, not Bill Cowher. Jimmy.

By all indications Cowher is simply using the idea of going to Houston for more leverage in getting the job he really wants in New York, which would jettison the Michael-Vick-reeling Tom Coughlin. But Jimmy Johnson (who's actually a much better coach than Cowher to begin with) could be drawn by one thing the Texans can give him that no other NFL franchise can: The chance to stick it one final time to Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.

Sure, ever since he walked away after the 1999 season to a cushy life of TV talking and fishing, Johnson's only even flirted with coming back to coaching a few times and never come close to finalizing a deal (including turning down one McNair run). And yes, Jimmy and Jerry have made a public show of putting their feud behind them, even doing that dance at the opening of the new Cowboys Stadium last year.

But there are signs that Johnson is getting bored (see Survivor). You can also bet that he didn't love Jerry Jones getting that national 60 Minutes attention a few weeks and the Super Bowl in Dallas (which will hardly be Jerry free even without the Cowboys anywhere close to it) is sure to grate on a man who doesn't forgive.

All Johnson has to do to grab the Texas-sized spotlight back is to come coach in Houston. It'd be the ultimate blow to Jerry, the first real threat to the Cowboys' statewide superiority. It'd be like Joe Torre coming out of retirement to manage the Mets to a world championship, only better and NFL bigger.

Is it a crazy longshot?

Absolutely. But McNair needs to make the call, to make the effort.

After what little of that the Texans showed on Sunday, it's the least that must be done. McNair must make another try at Johnson. Even if Johnson only wants to be the defacto general manager and bring his own coach, a la Bill Parcells with the Dolphins, it would be a huge victory for a franchise that desperately needs one. And you risk nothing by getting a no.

Kubiak is still a good coach. But he no longer looks like the right coach for this team, not after Sunday. Many Texans fans felt that even before the turmoil of the Titans game. Our latest CulturePoll asking if Kubiak should be fired is running about 60 percent to 40 percent in favor of canning the coach, with those numbers holding steady.

I argued that Kubiak should be kept even after Schaub's fateful 62nd pass against Baltimore. You could say that one game shouldn't change everything, but when the one game is this bad, on top of this lost season ... well, it's time to go fishing for someone else.

Start with Jimmy.

Editor's note: To make your voice heard on Kubiak, vote in the CulturePoll. The poll ends Tuesday afternoon.