Feel The Rhythm
The Texans went into their regular season finale at Tennessee needing to get some rhythm on offense, stay healthy and get a win (and momentum).
Mission accomplished.
C.J. Stroud and the first team offense played the opening series and scored. Stroud went six for six, including a TD pass to Nico Collins. That was after the Texans won the coin toss and took the ball, wanting to get lathered up, find the endzone and get ready for next week.
Milestones
- Nico Collins hit 1,000 receiving yards on the season
- Joe Mixon notched 1,000 rushing hards for the 5th time in his career
- Dameon Pierce ran for a personal record 176 yards against the Titans
Collins and Joe Mixon earned thousand-yard seasons early. New Texan Diontae Johnson got his feet wet in the system, the defense ate and scored, and Davis Mills came in and ran things well enough to earn a 23-14 victory.
Derek Barnett scored his second touchdown of the year, a fumble recovery that reminded us of the one he had on Monday Night Football against Dallas.
But Dameon Pierce stole the show. His 92-yard touchdown run served notice that Houston was not going to lose this finale. And the Titans would slip to 0-2 vs Houston, while wearing the Oiler uniforms.
Intangibles
The intangibles of this one were palpable - The offense looking spry. Stroud hitting all his targets on the opening march. The defense scoring. The team getting that winning feeling back right before embarking on the most important time of year.
That last sentence leaves a lot to unpack. DeMeco Ryans wants the squad to play with a relentless mindset and joy. They did.
In a playoff game, you wouldn't want to see a 15-yard celebration penalty for emptying the bench after Barnett's TD. But in this game, it was almost warranted.
Seeing Stroud and Mixon, in their long sideline stay-warm capes, invade the huddle prior to a Mills-Pierce series was, dare we say, endearing. It showed a 'fun' side to the team that we haven't seen enough of recently.
Now comes the hard part. And the prospects about performing well in the playoffs already feel different than they did prior to this outing. There's a spring in their step. There are smiles on their faces. There's an optimism and energy that's back after getting stolen by the Grinch on Christmas.
Bring on the postseason and all the drama. They're ready. Certainly more ready than a lot of 'experts' thought a few days ago.
