The Tigers, under the pump all week following a poor loss to Melbourne, rediscovered their spark in a big way against the Giants, booting a season high 24.10 on the way to a 113-point victory.
The result lifts Richmond to a 3-6 win-loss record and Houli said the players will take a lot of confidence out of the fact they won the contested possession count 133-99.
"We smashed them in contested football, which was great," Houli said.
"When you win contested football everything else falls into place.
"We narrowed it down to the basics and what makes us a good team and we got the result."
The Tigers face Essendon next week in the now-traditional Dreamtime game, followed by matches against North Melbourne, Fremantle and the Sydney Swans - all at the MCG - in what shapes as a huge month ahead for last year's preliminary finalists.
Houli said the team was much closer to playing at last year's level than its ladder position would suggest.
"We've just got to go back to the exciting game-plan that we had last year," Houli said.
"Even though you make one or two mistakes the important thing is to keep believing in your game-plan and we did that today.
"This next few weeks is very very important for us."
It was a case of double celebration for Houli on Saturday, who celebrated his 100th AFL game with 26 members of his family cheering him on in the grandstand as he gathered 12 kicks, 14 handballs, four marks and two goals.
Houli, who made his debut at Essendon in 2007 during Kevin Sheedy's last year at Windy Hill before moving to Richmond at the start of 2011, said he hoped his achievements encouraged more young Muslim players to stay in the game.
"The game is huge in my community, it’s massive and everyone loves AFL. It pretty much like another religion," Houli said.
"There is so much talent out there but the kids just don't believe that they are good enough and they are.
"So hopefully through my programs I can mentor them and we can see more Muslim players in the AFL."
Melbourne's Adem Yze (271 games) and Sedat Sir (24) games are among other notable Muslim players who have played AFL.
