Houston, we have a problem: CJ Stroud needs to play better for the Texans

The New York Jets hadn't won in exactly six weeks, so Thursday's 21-13 win over the Houston Texans will feel like a masterpiece.

In fact, it was a first half that showed exactly why they had a weak 2-6 record and a second half that showed they can still recover and get into the playoffs.

What happens next remains to be decided, but New York needs to play like they did in the second half to have a chance of salvaging their season.

Aaron Rodgers looked terrible in the first half with 32 total passing yards. He threw three touchdown passes in the second half, two of them on outstanding one-handed catches from budding star Garrett Wilson.

Rodgers hasn't reached 300 yards this season, and the 40-year-old version of him certainly doesn't have the same skill set as the player who won four MVP awards with the Green Bay Packers.

But the Jets (3-6) are all-in on Rodgers and don't have a quarterback of the future on the 53-man roster; Veteran Tyrod Taylor is the replacement. Barring injury, this will be the show for Rodgers, and New York needs him to at least match his previous form.

New York is in 10th place in the AFC and needs to get going. There is certainly hope, considering the Denver Broncos (5-3) may not be able to maintain their strong start and the Indianapolis Colts (4-4) have quarterback issues and have demoted Anthony Richardson in favor of Joe Flacco.

In fact, the Jets are in second place in the AFC East, with both the Miami Dolphins and New England Patriots doing worse.

The Texans (6-3) expect to be a strong force in the postseason this season, but it was hard to believe they could win more than one postseason game based on Thursday's performance. They also fell back to 2:3 away.

Star quarterback CJ Stroud is allowed to have a poor performance, but his poor 11-of-30 effort really hurt. It was his second subpar performance in three games, as he completed 10 of 21 passes for just 86 yards in a 24-22 road loss to the Green Bay Packers on Oct. 20.

At the same time, Houston failed to protect Stroud and he was sacked eight times. On other occasions he was certainly in a hurry.

Stroud will be back. His performance will be something to keep an eye on in the Texans' next road game, which is Monday night against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 11.

Stroud needs to do a lot better.

It didn't help that wide receiver Stefon Diggs suffered a torn ACL and is out for the season, and big-play man Nico Collins is still out with a hamstring injury. Tank Dell stepped up with six catches for 126 yards on a night when the rest of the team had just 65 receiving yards.

In Houston, Joe Mixon also runs like an Amtrak train on the runway. He had 106 yards rushing against the Jets in his fourth straight 100-yard outing, and recording his fifth career 1,000-yard season seems like a no-brainer.

The Texans are by far the best team in the AFC South. But where they stand in the pecking order in the conference and the NFL as a whole became uncertain. The immediate schedule before Houston is not easy as the Detroit Lions come to Houston on November 10th.

They have games against the Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens within five days of each other in December that will be even more challenging.

But no matter how you slice it, her Halloween appearance was creepy in a bad way. That's a problem, Houston.