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 reality, it was a first half that showed exactly why they had a porous 2-6 record, and a second half that showed they could still rally and make a playoff run.

Which way things go is yet to be determined, but New York needs to play like it did in the second half to have any chance of saving the 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 stunning one-handed catches from rookie star Garrett Wilson.

Rodgers hasn’t reached 300 yards yet 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 backup. This will be Rodgers’ show barring injury, and New York needs him to at least approach his previous form.

New York is ranked 10th in the AFC and needs to get going. There’s 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 faring worse.

The Texans (6-3) believe they will be a postseason force this season, but it was hard to imagine them winning more than one postseason game watching Thursday’s act. They also dropped to 2-3 on the road.

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

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

Stroud will bounce back. His performance will be something to watch in the Texans’ next road game, which takes place on the Monday Night stage against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 11.

Stroud must be much better.

It didn’t help that wide receiver Stefon Diggs tore his ACL and is out for the season, and big man Nico Collins is still sidelined with a hamstring injury. Tank Dell made six catches for 126 yards on a night when the rest of the team had just 65 receiving yards.

Houston also has Joe Mixon running like an Amtrak track train. He had 106 yards against the Jets for his fourth consecutive 100-yard outing, and he looks like a cinch to record his fifth career 1,000-yard season.

The Texans are by far the best team in the AFC South. But where they stand in the pecking order of the conference and the NFL overall became uncertain. The immediate schedule for Houston is not easy with the Detroit Lions coming to Houston on November 10.

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

But no matter how you look at it, their Halloween performance was scary in a bad way. That’s a problem, Houston.