HOUSTON — Cabdriver said Texans fans don’t have much hope. He picked me up at the airport, was driving me to my hotel. Cabdriver said the quarterback — Brock Osweiler — is the problem. Never mentioned Osweiler by name. That bad. Said most people in Houston expect the Texans to lose. “Funny things happen, though,” he said.

Meaning a fluke.

I read a column in the Houston Chronicle by a very good writer named Jerome Solomon. Get a load of these sentences about the Texans:

“Are you excited about the playoffs? Really.”

“They enter the playoffs with a starting quarterback who has a better chance of losing them a football game than winning them one … again.”

“But no one is even talking about the Texans making a playoff run. It took the broken legs of Marcus Mariota and Derek Carr for the Texans to even be in the playoffs and a first-round favorite.”

OK, you get the gyst. Even the people in Houston sort of have contempt for the Texans. People in Oakland and beyond know the Raiders are wounded but they still respect the Raiders and admire what they have achieved. If you listen to the Houston folks, the Raiders are a lock on Saturday.