For Whitney Mercilus, the sacks came in bunches on Sunday afternoon.
"I thought he did a good job today of getting on the edge of guys and not rushing down the middle of guys," head coach Bill O'Brien said. "I thought he did a really good job of getting on the edge and he got off on the ball. Sometimes he can be a little bit late getting off on the snap. I thought he got off on the ball today. That was good. I thought he had a whale of a game from what I saw from the sideline."
Mercilus posted a career-high 3.5 sacks on Titans quarterback Zach Mettenberger. It was the most sacks in a game since Nov. 27, 2011 at Jacksonville when Connor Barwin had four sacks.
"Pretty much just working my moves on Taylor Lewan," Mercilus said of his sack success. "Try to get him thinking; pretty much it's just a chess match. Try to get in his mind as much as I could. Try to use my speed, my power and use it in succession.That is exactly what I did on each sack."
It was the fourth-year linebacker's seventh multiple-sack game of his career and second of the 2015 season. Mercilus also notched a multi-sack game in Week 6 against Jacksonville, when he had two on Blake Bortles.
He's worked hard this season, and it shows.
"I just have to contribute it to hard work," Mercilus said. "Day in day out. Just working on my pass rush. Just trying to be a complete player. Trying to be what the coaches what me to be. That's it."
Mercilus came off the bench for an injured Jadeveon Clowney. In addition to the sacks, he also tied for second on the team with seven tackles (six solo), while adding four tackles for loss and four quarterback hits.
The Texans improve to 3-5 on the season with the Texans 20-6 win over Tennessee.
