I would say somewhere in between. While some of the O's we have faced are at the bottom of the barrel, you can't forget we have also faced the Saints, Steelers, and even the Raiders are in the top 10 offenses. With the exception of the 4th quarters against New Orleans and BMore, I would say the D has played bordering on outstanding.
Paul K wrote about it today in his blog:
http://espn.go.com/blog/afcsouth
"On Twitter, some have already pointed out that the Texans have played a lot of bad offenses. My traditional response to “but look at who they played” complaints is that a team can’t control its schedule and can only play who’s in front of it.
The Texans have played the three worst offenses in the league -- Jacksonville, Indianapolis and Cleveland. But they’ve also played three top 10 offenses -- New Orleans, Pittsburgh and Oakland. Yeah, they lost two of those three, but their defensive stats from those games are part of their ranking, just like the good games against the bad teams. "
Do I think we will finish at the top? Probably not, but to be honest, I don't really care either. As long as we continue to play soundly, while piling up W's, we make it to the dance and see what happens. I don't think anyone can discount the improvement of the D from last year to this. Elite is built over the long term. If we string together a couple of years of top "end" performances over the course of the year, then you can have the #1 statement. To have it over the course of 9 games is a little premature.