Houston Texans vs. Tennessee Titans Preview & Prediction | PFF
Titans, Texans, NFC, sorry, AFC South showdown here. This one’s in Tennessee. Dton, you want to talk about the Titans, Texans, and is this game in Tennessee? Does that mean that the Titans have a little bit of an edge here? What are we going with? What do you think? Tennessee coming off a by-week, too, right? And the Texans off that big emotional win. A lot of time to think about big 19-point comeback for the Texans. Maybe expended all their energy. We’ll see. I’ll tell you the one thing I do feel in this uh in this matchup, Trev. I man, I feel bad for Cam Ward because you talk about look Will Anderson Jr. and Denil Hunter off the edge. The first time these two teams played, they combined for 12 pressures and Hunter had two sacks. On a team that’s struggling at win pass protection all year and Cam Ward’s trying to figure out the NFL on the go, he must be thinking, “Wait a minute, I got to play these guys a second time.” You look at what they’re doing off the edge in Houston this season. These two guys combined a 91.7 pass rush grade put together. 96 total pressures between them. Houston doesn’t have to blitz at all if they don’t want to because they’ve got Anderson and Hunter dominating off the edge. Combined for 16 sacks. Denil Hunter had four of them last week, three and a half officially if you want to go that route. And they are first. Anderson is first and Hunter is fourth among qualified edge rushers in pass rush win rate this year. The first thing you have to think about if you’re Tennessee before any sort of scheme, route concept, whatever you want, how in the world do we block these two guys? Because nobody’s been nobody’s figured out how to do it yet and Tennessee has struggled in pass protection all year, but they they took over the first game. They’re taking over pretty much every week so far this season. That’s the first thing you have to answer is what in the world do we do to work around Will Anderson Jr. and Denil Hunter? Yeah. And um not a very easy question to answer for for anybody, let alone a struggling Tennessee Titans offensive line. On the Texans side of things, Davis Mills was a roller coaster and it looks like there’s a chance that he is going to start this upcoming week against Tennessee Titans. Read a report that CJ Stra was still having concussion symptoms including uh sensitivity to light as recent as last Friday. So there is a chance that uh he is missing a second game in concussion protocol which means that Davis Mills would start once again. Now Davis Mills, it was an up and down performance for him really throughout I think the first three quarters of the game. It was a struggle. Overall he was 27 for 45, 292 passing yards. He had three big-time throws and four turnover worthy plays. All three big time throws came in the fourth quarter though in that big comeback against the Jacksonville Jaguars. That’s not what I wanted to point out the most here, Dalton. Quietly, very quietly, the Texans offensive line playing a little bit better, right? Very critical of them to open the season. Very critical of them this off season when it just felt like they were like, “Yeah, I mean, oh line, we’ll figure it out. Yeah, it’s all good. We’ll draft a couple of guys, you know, it’ll be all good.” And we’re like, it doesn’t work like that. And you know, their hands were tied in some situations, although they were the ones who traded away Laramie Tonsel. Certainly, your hands aren’t tied in that regard, but we looked at their depth chart along the offensive line at the beginning of the year and and we were worried. And the the year started off and our worry was warranted and and they really struggled in that regard. But over the last three weeks, they are 17th in the league in overall team pass blocking grade and they are 14th in the league in pressure percentage allowed. So being middle of the pack, that’s kind of all we asked for for the Texans offensive line. Titus Howard, Aronte Ursery playing better as their offensive tackles. It’s still not as consistent on the interior offensive line, but at least the offensive tackles are playing a little bit better lately. And so that I think is a really good sign for the Texans that as the season is going on, they have at least been playing better to league average when it comes to offensive line play. Ultimately, I just don’t have a lot of faith in the Tennessee Titans. Now, with this game being in Tennessee, with Davis Mills having as many turnover worthy plays as he did last week, I still think this is maybe just going to be a rock fight, a slugfest, whatever you want to call it. I’m gonna go with Texans 17. Titans 11. How are they getting 11? Don’t know, but I’m going 17 to 11 is the final score here. Obviously, Trev, they’re getting four safeties in a field goal. That’s how it is. It’s the It’s It’s really the most logical route, too, getting to 11 points. I mean, but I’m with you. I like Houston a little bit more than that. I do I I trust Davis Mills at least for one more week in a spot like this against a team that offensively in Tennessee is just overmatched by this Houston defense. They’re outstanding, especially in pass defense. And last time, look, the Titans stayed in this game for three quarters and then the Texans routed him in the fourth. But I I just like the Texans and just the number of weapons that they do have on the outside. Jaden Higgins and Jaylen Null really emerging. And you mentioned that offensive line. Got to like the play lately of Arante Ursery over the last three weeks as well. So, I’m going to take the Texans. I’ll take them 24 to 10. I think even with Davis Mills in there, they have enough to get this done. the offensive line is playing better and I just think that defense is way too much for Tennessee to handle.
PFF’s Dalton Wasserman and Trevor Sikkema preview the matchup between The Houston Texans and The Tennessee Titans.
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2 comments
Texans D too dominant for the Titans. Texans offense has learned how to stay on the field. Titans will have limited opportunities
Pretty sure the Titans are in the think about the future mode. Don't have to say the word.