J.J. Watt is on the cover of this week's Sports Illustrated.

Watt was the AFC Defensive Player of the Month for September and leads the NFL in sacks.

Mario Williams signed with the Buffalo Bills in the offseason, but his departure from the Houston Texans wasn't his choice.

"Everybody looks at as you just up and leave," Williams said. "But you don't know the fact of basically being told 'We're not giving you anything as far as an offer or anything like that.' So your hands are tied in that aspect. Everybody else looks at it like you just went in free agency and left. Obviously, there was plenty of time for things done that wasn't done.

"That's fine with me. I just wish everybody else who runs their mouth and says this or that knew the whole story about it before making a decision about me just abandoning fans and the team and everything else like that because that's not my role. I'm not that type of guy.

"I'm here, and I'm ecstatic about it. We made the best of it. But there was never an offer from the general manager [Rick Smith]. It was a one-way door that was opened."

The Houston Texans defeated the Baltimore Ravens 43-13 in dominating fashion.

The Texans had a +20.1 advantage in The Trench Counter, recording 15 more first downs while averaging 2.5 more yards per play and winning the turnover battle 2-0. The Texans also had a +27 in Total Rushes/Completions.

Arian Foster rushed 19 times for 98 yards and two touchdowns, but the Texans first scored on a Connor Barwin safety of Joe Flacco. The Texans' defense put points on the board again in the second quarter with a Johnathan Joseph interception return.

Matt Schaub went 23-for-37 for 256 yards and two touchdowns.

Joe Flacco went 21-for-43 for one touchdown and two interceptions.

The Green Bay Packers picked up an impressive road win to improve to 3-3, giving the Houston Texans their first loss of 2012 with a 42-24 decision.

The Packers had a +15.9 advantage in The Trench Counter, outgaining the Texans 1.4 yards per carry while picking them off three times. Green Bay also had a +5 edge in Total Rushes/Completions.

Aaron Rodgers went 24-for-37 for six touchdowns for 338 yards, connecting three times with Jordy Nelson, twice with James Jones and once with Tom Crabtree.

Alex Green took over the primary ballcarrier role, rushing 22 times for 65 yards.

Matt Schaub went 20-for-33 for 232 yards and two interceptions.

Arian Foster rushed for two touchdowns, but was limited to just 29 yards on 17 carries.

The Texans picked up a cheap touchdown late on a blocked punt.

The NFL fined New York Jets' guard Matt Slauson $10,000 for his hit on Brian Cushing of the Houston Texans.

Slausson will appeal the fine.

Slausson committed a peel-back block, which occurs from behind and below the waist.

Brian Cushing is out for the remainder of the 2012 season with a torn ACL.

An MRI Tuesday morning revealed the damage and Cushing will have surgery in a couple of weeks, after the swelling has gone down.

“You don’t replace players like Cush,” Gary Kubiak said. “The whole team has to step up.”

Kubiak said that Tim Dobbins, the special teams captain, is “option No. 1” to step in for Cushing.

Cushing is the Texans' leading tackler and the 'spiritual leader' of the defense.

An often overlooked aspect of football is to establish an early lead. Rather than worrying about establishing the pass or the run, simply getting an early lead allows the specific elements of the game to fall into place.

The Texans, Falcons, Bengals and Chargers lead in first half point differential.

The bottom-five are the Chiefs, Jaguars, Lions, Titans and Panthers.

The Texans have waived quarterback John Beck to make room for safety Troy Nolan.

With Quintin Demps injured, Nolan was needed for the roster.

J.J. Watt has exploded onto the national stage in such a huge way that his defensive teammates on the Houston Texans wanted to deflect attention away from him.

“It was a big fun joke where everybody was messing with J.J.,” defensive end Antonio Smith said. “Connor, Cush, me, Cody. Just basically Brooks, the whole defense was like man, we all gotta get on the highlight film. The whole highlight film is J.J.

“So they called it operation keep J.J. off the highlight film by making plays too.”

Watt had two sacks and a fumble recovery, but the Texans also scored two defensive touchdowns.

“Yeah, it did,” Smith said. “It worked out perfectly. J.J. still did his thing and everybody else is on the highlight film, too. It didn’t work the way they thought it was going to work, but it worked in a good way to where everybody was making plays. That’s the best way for it to be.”