Are the 49ers looking like a playoff team?

The 49ers may be headed to the playoffs, but’s not clear if they’ve got a realistic shot of doing any damage once they get there.

They took care of business Sunday in a 23-7 win over the Houston Texans at Levi’s Stadium, improving to 9-7 while their opponent looked like the 4-12 team they are.

The 49ers didn’t inspire an overwhelming amount of confidence in the same way they didn’t on Sept. 12 when they started the season on the road against the Detroit Lions. That day, the 49ers jumped to a huge lead and then held on as an inferior team that is now 2-13-1 rallied late and got within the final score of 41-33.

Fifteen games later, the 49ers trailed 7-3 at halftime against another inferior team but this time pulled away late and will earn a wild card berth with either a win over the Rams in Los Angeles or a Saints loss in Atlanta.

Coach Kyle Shanahan and players said they treated Houston as if it were a playoff opponent as if the postseason is underway, which makes the first-half performance a cause for concern. Anything similar in a real playoff game or next week in Los Angeles against the Rams would make for a larger deficit and a more difficult comeback.

A two-minute drill that led to a 38-yard field goal by Robbie Gould with 38 seconds left in the half was the spark that got the offense going and seemed to loosen up rookie quarterback Trey Lance as well as the play-selection Shanahan.

Until that drive, you wondered if Shanahan was comfortable at all with Lance and being overly cautious to prevent turnovers which could lead to a crushing defeat against a bottom-rung team.

Shanahan told the offense he expected more at halftime.

“I asked the offense if they were ready to play yet,” Shanahan said. “It’s not like we we weren’t trying, but we just felt we hadn’t gotten going yet and we were pumped we were going to start with the ball in the second half.”

It’s well and good to go ahead and assume the Rams are no match for the 49ers given the way Shanahan and Co. have taken apart Sean McVay, with their 34-10 on Nov. 10 at Levi’s serving as the jumping-off point for a team that had lost four straight games going in.

But the Rams are 12-4, and there’s not a lot about the 49ers to suggest a sweep of an opponent with that many wins is a sure thing.

If there’s anything we’ve learned about the 49ers this season is they’ve never reached the level of the 2019 team which went 13-3 and won an NFC championship. All those first-half struggles came against a Houston defense that came in ranked 30th against the run, 19th against the pass and 30th overall.

The quarterback, whether it be Lance or Jimmy Garoppolo, isn’t going to be a dominant player that can lift the 49ers in the same way the likes of Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Dak Prescott, Kyler Murray or even interception-prone Matthew Stafford can with their respective teams.

While it’s true Lance (16 of 23 for 249 yards, two touchdowns, one interception) can make throws Garoppolo can only complete in his dreams — the cross-field 45-yard touchdown pass to Deebo Samuel for example — it’s also true the offense doesn’t function with the same rhythm with the rookie as it does with Garoppolo.

There’s a reason he didn’t start until Sunday, and wouldn’t have started at all had Garoppolo not been injured.

Lance also doesn’t have the same connection with tight end George Kittle, who was targeted only twice. The first was interceped, the second was a spectacular 29-yard onehanded catch up the seam)

The 49ers took aim at the Texans porous run defense and ran 37 times for 175 yards. Rookie Elijah Mitchell was welcomed back into action with 21 carries for 119 yards.

The Rams and a potential playoff opponent are going to do everything they can to slow down the running game and put the game in the hands of Lance or Garoppolo should the latter make what appears to be an unlikely recovery from a serious thumb sprain.

The 49ers defensively held Houston to just 222 yards of total offense and had their way throughout, save for one 14-play, 80yard drive during which rookie quarterback Davis Mills converted three third-down throws including an 8-yard touchdown pass to Brandin Cooks.

And while Cooks didn’t torture the 49ers secondary as Tennessee’s A.J. Brown did the previous week, he did have seven catches for 66 yards and had 49ers corners struggling to keep up.

With the 49ers leading 10-7 early in the fourth quarter, they had consecutive pass interference penalties by Josh Norman and Dontae Johnson for 33 and 29 yards that put Houston on the 49ers’ 25-yard line.