Oddly, the victory came in 2006, the season the Colts took the Super Bowl. Houston won 27-24 at home.

The Colts, at 7-0, are the only unbeaten team remaining in the AFC _ New Orleans, which hosts Carolina on Sunday, is the NFC's lone perfect team. The Colts rank fourth overall in offense (first in passing, thanks to the superb work of Peyton Manning) and ninth in defense.

So why should Houston even show up at Lucas Oil Stadium?

Try this: The Texans have never been this good. They are 5-3, including 3-1 on the road. They have the third-best passing game and Matt Schaub is tied for the league lead with 16 touchdown passes _ one more than Manning.

Their defense is more physical than ever, too.

"It's time for us to go up there and get a win," Texans cornerback Dunta Robinson said. "You can't hesitate to say that.

"We felt like it was progress when we beat them a couple of years ago. But we lost to them last year and it was like, 'Here we go with the same old thing again.' This is a team that we feel right now that we're good enough to win against and we've got to go out and do it."

This is the fourth time in five years the Colts have been 7-0, even though they have a new coach, Jim Caldwell, who replaced the retired Tony Dungy.

"We've been here before," defensive end Dwight Freeney said. "For us, it's business as usual, I guess. We're just trying to keep this thing rolling and we'll see what happens in January (during the playoffs)."

The New Orleans Saints are finding the end zone with such regularity that they should challenge the New England Patriots' record for points, 589, set two years ago.

And New Orleans' performance on defense has been just as impressive, including a league-high 21 takeaways and 16 interceptions.

They welcome the Carolina Panthers, who have won three of their last four, with a strong showing at Arizona last weekend indicating they might be back on course. Still, they have an NFC-leading 21 giveaways.

The winner between the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys will take charge of the NFC East division. The Eagles are coming off a dynamic win over the New York Giants, and young receivers DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin and breakout tight end Brent Celek will be difficult matchups for the Cowboys.

Dallas has won three straight with a revved-up offense and a revitalized pass rush.

The Giants host the San Diego Chargers in their first clash since their major draft-day trade in 2004. when the Chargers swapped Eli Manning for Giants quarterback pick Philip Rivers.

For now, Rivers is outplaying Manning, whose Giants have lost three in a row. Rivers gets to face a porous New York secondary, but he also has a suspect offensive line that must neutralize defensive ends Justin Tuck and Osi Umenyiora.

The defending champion Pittsburgh Steelers and surprising Denver Broncos will meet in an intriguing Monday game in the Mile High City.

The Broncos will want to run the ball against the league's top rushing defense, which would keep the Steelers' key playmakers (James Harrison, LaMarr Woodley, Troy Polamalu) busy and eventually open receiving lanes for Brandon Marshall and Eddie Royal. And the Steelers, who have not been productive on the ground, can't be one-dimensional against the NFL's second-most stingy defense.

Elsewhere on Sunday, it's Baltimore at Cincinnati; Miami at New England; Arizona at Chicago; Washington at Atlanta; Green Bay at Tampa Bay; Tennessee at San Francisco; Kansas City at Jacksonville; and Detroit at Seattle.

Off this week are Buffalo, Oakland, Minnesota, St. Louis, Cleveland and the New York Jets.