The Texans had a chance to clinch the No. 1 seed in the AFC and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

And they didn’t even come close on Sunday, in a 23-6 loss to the Vikings at Reliant Stadium.

The defense actually did a decent job bottling up the NFL’s leading rusher, Adrian Peterson, but let Christian Ponder beat them.

Even worse, the Texans’ offense struggled to find any rhythm. The run game wasn’t able to get going. The passing attack had holes. And they couldn’t seem to extend drives. At one point in the game, the Texans had four straight three-and-outs.

The turning point
With the Texans driving, with a chance to pull within a touchdown of the lead late in the third quarter, they couldn’t punch it in from the goal line.

Kevin Walter caught a pass to give the Texans the ball on the one-yard line. After an incompletion and a Ben Tate run for no gain, Matt Schaub dropped back and was sacked for a 14-yard loss by Fred Evans.

Arian Foster was forced to watch the series from the Texans bench. He left the game because he was ill and didn’t return.

What it means
The Texans are in the playoffs. But that’s still all we know. They haven’t clinched home-field or even a first-round bye. They’ll have a chance to do both of those things next week in Indianapolis.  

Offensive hero
Believe it or not, we’re going to give this to Ponder. No, he wasn’t John Elway but Ponder was able to exploit the Texans’ defense, which was obviously keying in on Adrian Peterson.  

Offensive zero
Even before leaving the game in the third quarter, Arian Foster was ineffective. He ran 10 times for 15 yards. Ben Tate was pretty ineffective too.

Defensive hero
For the Texans, a few guys made key plays but none seemed bigger (at the time) than J.J. Watt’s sack and forced fumble. It gave the Texans the ball back with great field position in a close game. The sack gave Watt 20.5 on the season. He’s the third AFC player to ever record 20 sacks. After going a season and a half without a forced fumble, Watt now has four in last four games.

Defensive zero
We’ll just give this one to the whole defense. That’s not fair? Well, when the Texans continually allowed the Vikings to extend drives on third down, the game was lost. Good defenses are able to get off the field.

Key stat
The Texans defense was pretty good on first and second down, but couldn’t get off the field on third. The Vikings were 9-for-18 on third down (which includes a fourth-quarter kneel down).

Did you know?
Andre Johnson’s first catch of the game, in the first quarter, was the 800th in his career. He became the second fastest to reach 800 in NFL history, in just 137 games. Marvin Harrison did it in 131.

Who's next?
The Texans have one more game remaining in the regular season. They’ll be on the road in Indianapolis, where they have never won, to take on the Colts. The Texans are 0-10 against the Colts in Indy. It will be a huge game for the Texans. If they win, they will clinch the No. 1 seed, which comes with home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.