How quickly we all forget, right? Heading into last year's week 17 contest with the Tennessee Titans, the Texans hadn't beaten the Titans at NRG Stadium since a MNF game in 2018. However, the Texans righted that ship late in the 2023 campaign with a convincing 26-3 win over the team formerly known as the Oilers. That win, however, gave the Texans three wins in a row over Tennessee and a season sweep for the 2023 season.
But, 2024 is a new year and these are not the Derrick Henry-led Titans, either. For years, Henry tortured the Texans until 2023 when the Texans defense found a way to slow the future Hall of Fame running back down, holding him to just 51 yards…COMBINED in two games. Years of Henry's success finally slowed in the two games last year…and then, thankfully, he left for Baltimore.
As a result, the Titans have not been the same. The offense has struggled to put points on the board, regardless of the quarterback. Early in the season, QB Will Levis threw the ball more to the other team for scores than he did his own team. Backup QB Mason Rudolph led the Titans to their two wins this season, but he's not the answer either. WR DeAndre Hopkins was traded. The OL has been a M*A*S*H unit. They have gotten decent running back play, but they aren't Henry.
However, the defense is a monster. DT Jeffery Simmons, who I didn't miss at all last year - missed both games with injury, has returned and is looking to get his annual revenge on the Texans interior trio. Rookie DT T'Vondre Sweat returns to his home state for the first time as a professional and has been an excellent complement to Simmons. DEs Arden Key and Harold Landry III are as good an edge duo as any in the NFL. The Titans' defense dominates statistically and if Levis hits a few deep shots, this defensive unit will keep Tennessee in the game. That doesn't need to happen…obviously.
For Texans fans, a Cowboys-Titans double dip, back-to-back winning situation is as good as it gets. Not surprisingly, I'm down for that in a quick minute. Let's get to Know the Texans' Week 12 Foe - The Tennessee Titans
2024 Tennessee Titans Schedule (2-8)
Week 1 - L @ Chicago Bears 24-17
Week 2 - L New York Jets 24-17
Week 3 - L Green Bay Packers 30-14
Week 4 - W @ Miami Dolphins 31-12
Week 5 - BYE WEEK
Week 6 - L Indianapolis Colts 20-17
Week 7 - L @ Buffalo Bills 34-10
Week 8 - L @ Detroit Lions 52-14
Week 9 - W New England Patriots 20-17 (OT)
Week 10 - L @ Los Angeles Chargers 27-17
Week 11 - L Minnesota Vikings 23-13
Week 12 - @ Houston Texans
Week 13 - @ Washington Commanders
Week 14 - Jacksonville Jaguars
Week 15 - Cincinnati Bengals
Week 16 - @ Indianapolis Colts
Week 17 - @ Jacksonville Jaguars
Week 18 - Houston Texans
Titans OFFENSE (in 2024 regular season)
Rushing Yards Per game - 117.0 ypg (18th in the NFL)
Passing Yards Per game - 178.4 ypg (29th)
Total offense per game - 295.4 ypg (25th)
Turnovers lost - 18 (12 INT, 6 Fumbles lost)
Expected Titans starting offense for Week 12
QB - Will Levis
RB - TONY POLLARD or Tyjae Spears
WR - CALVIN RIDLEY
WR - Nick Westbrook-Ikhine
WR - TYLER BOYD
TE - Chig Okonkwo
LT - JC LATHAM
LG - Peter Skoronski
C - Daniel Brunskill
RG - Dillon Radunz
RT - Nicholas Petit-Frere
Other Key Offensive pieces
QB - MASON RUDOLPH
WR - BRYCE OLIVER
WR - JHA'QUAN JACKSON
C - Corey Levin
OT - John Ojukwu
TE - Josh Whyle
TE - NICK VANNETT
Italics - Rookie
ALL CAPS - New to team in 2024
Keys to winning v. the Titans Offense
- SHOTS…it's the only way - The Minnesota Vikings led the Tennessee Titans for much of last week's contest. Not only that, it appeared that the Titans had little to no chance of putting points up on the board. Then, BOOM…BIG SHOT. Backed up to his own two yard line, QB Will Levis pulled out the howitzer and launched a BOMB to WR Nick Westbrook-Ikhine and the whole tenor of the game changed. 98 yards later and the Titans were right back in the game and that's the one way that Levis can hurt the Texans. Last year against Atlanta, in his debut, Levis constantly took shots and nearly hit them all and it resulted in a week's worth of love for Levis nationally. Then, reality hit when teams took those shots away from Levis, including the Texans, and the Magic was gone. He held the ball too long and took sack after sack after sack. But, that deep shot ability showed up again last week against the Vikings and it nearly helped the Titans steal a game it had no business winning. The Texans can't allow that to happen with Levis under center.
- Two isn't as good as one, but it's still good- If I told you that you could have two cheeseburgers or one 96 oz. porterhouse steak, you, and many others, would typically pick the gigantic tasty steak. But, if the steak option was gone and you had to settle for the two cheeseburgers, that's still a solid food haul, right? Just not nearly AS good. Okay, okay, my analogy is that the Titans decided to not re-sign Derrick Henry (the porterhouse) and decided to go with a two headed capable backfield of Tony Pollard and Tyjae Spears (the two cheeseburgers). I was stoked when I saw that Henry was done in Tennessee but when I saw the Titans add Pollard to Spears, I wasn't real happy. Neither one is close to Henry, but together they can hurt the Texans in a few different ways. However, the Vikings gave a road map to stopping them as they held the two backs to 15 yards on 12 carries. It's NEVER not a key, but tackling and aggressive pursuit to the ball become that much more important this week given the game breaking abilities these two backs have, cheeseburgers or otherwise.
- DID I JUST SEE WHAT I JUST SAW?- Last week in the win over the Dallas Cowboys, Texans star Danielle Hunter was just sublime. His numbers were gaudy - two sacks, three TFL, three QB hurries, one pass defensed. His pressure was CONSTANT and UNRELENTING. He threw a euro step spin move that pass rushers will try to emulate and just won't be able to…at all. I saw it again on video after the game and watched it 100x if I watched it once. It's MINDBLOWING the stuff that he's executing on the field, not just that one time either. He's a unicorn off the edge and his free agent signing is one of the best in team history. Now, it's his first time to face the Titans OL as a member of the Texans. This Titans OL gave up 13 sacks to the Texans last year and the offensive line is an even bigger work in progress, especially on the right side of the line where, oh looky here, Hunter lines up much of the time. The Titans are also not stupid; they're going to send help, but even when the Cowboys did last week, Hunter deftly, or in some cases, not so deftly destroyed all those plans.
Titans DEFENSE (in 2024 regular season)
Rushing Yards Allowed Per game - 113.4 ypg (12th in the NFL)
Passing Yards Allowed Per game - 164.6 ypg (1st)
Total offense Allowed per game - 278.0 ypg (2nd)
Turnovers generated - 7 (3 INT, 4 Fumble recoveries - Titans are -11 in TO margin)
Expected Titans starting defense for Week 12
OLB - Arden Key
DE - SEBASTIAN JOSEPH-DAY
DT - T'VONDRE SWEAT
DT - Jeffery Simmons
OLB - Harold Landry III
LB - KENNETH MURRAY
LB - JEROME BAKER (Jack Gibbens injured last week, not projected to play)
CB - JARVIS BROWNLEE
S - Armani Hooker
S - Mike Brown
CB - L'JARIUS SNEED (injured since week six - not projected to play)
*Nickel - Roger McCreary
Other Key Defensive pieces
CB - DARRELL BAKER
NT - Keondre Coburn
LB - Otis Reese IV
DE - JAYLEN HARRELL
CB - Tre Avery
DT - JAMES LYNCH
DE - ALI GAYE
Italics - Rookie
ALL CAPS - New to team in 2024
Keys to winning v. the Titans' Defense
- The Major Key- "With the 38th pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, the Titans select defensive tackle, T'Vondre Sweat, Texas." With those words, the Titans put fear into interior offensive linemen all over the AFC South. It's not that Sweat was the singular piece de resistance for the Titans defense, but he was, is and will be the PERFECT complement to Pro Bowl/All Pro star Jeffery Simmons. The six year veteran has spent nearly every single second in games against the Texans just terrorizing anyone and everyone that lined up at guard and center. Now, Simmons has some muscle, figuratively and literally, in the form of the 370 lb. former Texas Longhorn All-American. But, Sweat, like Simmons, has some agility and athleticism that can sneak up on an OL. I saw that up close at the Senior Bowl, but his game is mainly power-based, while Simmons can do anything on a football field to disrupt offenses. The Texans didn't see Simmons last year and it resulted in two Texans wins. He's back this year and he has help. BIG help. So, the Texans must have a plan for them, even if it takes all three IOL…and a TE…and a RB…and another TE. Those two have to be stopped, slowed and/or eliminated.
- TE time? TE TIME!!- The Voice of the Texans Marc Vandermeer and I had the opportunity to interview TE coach Jake Moreland this week and he's ALWAYS a GREAT interview. It got me thinking how valuable the tight ends have been and will continue to be, even if they're not getting a dozen targets per game. However, this might be that game in which they do see an uptick in targets because of the pressure that the Titans can produce up front. Now, not every TE is going to have a chance to be involved in the passing game on every pass play, but there'll be opportunities for at least one TE on every pass play. The Titans LBs are banged up and the S position has been ravaged by injury (Quandre Diggs) and a bad signing (Jamal Adams), not to mention injury. So, as a release outlet or as a way to pick at a liability, this could be an opp for the football to find Dalton Schultz, Cade Stover and/or Teagan Quitoriano. I hear from fans all the time that believe the tight ends need more opps and need to produce more with those opps. As such, I'm calling my shot - this week is a good week for that to happen.
- Attack, Part II - When I looked back at my Know Your Foe from the Week 17 win over Tennessee from last season (the last time the Texans played Tennessee), one of my keys stood out as a Key this week as well - ATTACK. Last year, QB C.J. Stroud was returning from a concussion and I thought it was imperative that the Texans stay aggressive throughout the game against a defense it had just faced two weeks prior. I feel the exact same way this weekend. There's no tip-toeing into this game against one of the best, and most underrated, defenses in the league. The Texans started getting some of their offensive swagger back in the win over the Cowboys in the second half and now it's time to find it ALL the way back against this Titans squad.
