HOUSTON (December 31, 2012) -- The Houston Texans should have been spending this week enjoying a bye.

Instead, a late-season collapse where they lost three of their last four games has left them with a short week to fix many mistakes before hosting Cincinnati in a first-round playoff game Saturday.

Houston had two chances to secure a bye and home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs. Consecutive losses to the Vikings and Colts to end the regular season kept the Texans from getting either.

Coach Gary Kubiak believes his team will turn things around this week. He says, "We didn't handle the end of the season the way we wanted to handle it, but that doesn't mean that we can't handle these playoffs the way we want to handle it. We understand how we have to play."