Tennessee Titans vs. Houston Texans Preview & Prediction | PFF
Titans, Texans. Yikes. Uh where are we starting here with this game? These are two teams that are really struggling right now. I mentioned earlier in the show, the Texans, uh 0% right now, red zone conversion percentage when it comes to getting in the red zone and scoring a touchdown. Uh the Titans most penalized team in the NFL. Um near the top of the list when it comes to drops. Just a not very disciplined team. Now you have Brian Callahan giving up play calling duties, which I don’t think that was his choice. I think that we’ve got some drama behind the scenes with what’s going on in Tennessee. But, uh, these are two teams that have not played well to start the season. There’s no other way around it. Where do you want to start previewing this one, though? All right. So, I I’ve been getting asked by several people all week, what’s wrong with the Texans offense? And I my answer is a lot. There is a lot wrong with the Texans offense and and I could go a million different angles with this, but one thing that jumped out at me looking especially at their passing game this week. Um, when they see a standard rush, when things are easy to see and it’s just a four-man rush and their offensive line, everything’s kind of clean, uh, they look like a respectable offense, right? You know, middle of the pack, they look okay in the passing game. When they get blitzed, they are basically completely dysfunctional. They are last in the NFL in PFF grade against the Blitz on pass plays. Um uh second to last in passing grade, second to last in pass blocking grade, which those two things obviously go together. 24th in EPA per pass has maybe been a couple of explosive plays that carry that up a little bit. But the Titans run about a league average pass blitz rate. They if they jack that up, I don’t really know what Houston’s answer is at this point. Obviously, the Titans have been struggling in the secondary, too. But they are pretty much dis they are completely dysfunctional if you send any pressure at them at all, any extra pressure. So, if the Titans, look, I know they’re banged up up front. If Andre Sweat is out, the pass rush hasn’t been great for them so far, but I don’t think they should be afraid at all to send extra pressure because this Texans offensive line and even CJ Stra, they’ve completely crumbled under the under the pressure of a blitz right now, no matter who they’re playing. the overunder for this one 38 and a half. So obviously Vegas does not think there’s going to be a lot of points here in this game given how both offenses are struggling. Titans offensive line’s really struggling. I mean there’s not an offensive tackle on this team that has a pass blocking grade this season above a 58.7 and that’s Dan Moore Jr. who has the highest mark there. The rest of them uh basically in the 40s. Um they’re going up against the best best edge rest duo in the NFL. Will Anderson and Deno Hunter, they have the highest pass rush grade amongst them as a duo at a 90.1 and the highest pass rush win percentage as an edge rush group at a 46.1. So, they’re going to be getting after Cam Ward a lot. He’s going to be under pressure a lot. Now, Cam can handle pressure pretty well, but the problem is that I feel like his receivers don’t. Um, Calvin Ridley has been a major disappointment for them this season. He is one of a handful of veterans that I think are getting paid a good chunk of change or at least a good portion of their salary cap that is not giving them good return. You talk about the drops, you talk just about the lack of targets and catches and return on investment basically on a on a play-by-play basis for him and he’s getting outplayed by a rookie and everybody knows I I love Alio as much as the next guy. But it should have always been Calvin Ridley is their wide receiver one and Aman is their wide receiver two. Now we’re creeping into, okay, I mayor is probably going to lead this team in targets and catches and yards at this rate unless Ridley really bounces back and it’s a tough week to bounce back because you’re going up against a really good defense and a really good secondary. Ultimately, I just don’t think the Titans have enough. This is the worst roster in the NFL. Now you’ve got, you know, coaching turmoil with changing hands of who’s calling plays and everything like that. I mean, I I I don’t know how you look at what’s happening in Tennessee and feel good about buying it at all whatsoever. So, even with as disappointing as the Houston Texans have been all season long through three games, this has got to be their game. They’re still a touchdown favorite in this game. For as much as Houston has struggled, they are still a touchdown favorite. Um, I’m I’m going with the Texans 21. I’m going with the Titans 17. I wonder if we get a little bit Cam Ward magic. Again, like switching things up with the play callers. Maybe that’s just a little bit of extra juice they need. I don’t think it’s going to be enough for them to win the game, but I do wonder if we get some Cam W magic here in this one because we’ve seen signs of it through the first three games. Maybe he could put it all together and they could have their best game yet. Ultimately, I do still think the Texans win this one. Yeah, I have the same margin but even lower scoring. I’ve got a 17-13 Houston. I I think you could see a game, you know, you remember, go back to week one, the Titans losing to Denver, and that game was very ugly and it was 20 to 12. Um, I I just think both of these offensive lines don’t give their offense as much of a chance to succeed, but the te the Texans do have the better defense. The secondary, the edge rush duo of Anderson and um and Hunter obviously is just fantastic. I think Cam Ward’s going to be under a lot of pressure. He’ll get himself in trouble if he if he gets late in the play and he starts turning the ball over as well. I I think the Texans I mean they so badly need a win in this game. If they lose this game, all panic is going to break loose in Houston. But tough defensive game. I’ll take Houston to win it.
PFF’s Dalton Wasserman and Trevor Sikkema preview the matchup between The Tennessee Titans and The Houston Texans.
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1 comment
Which team do you predict will get their first win here?