TEXANS-TITANS
Breaking down Sunday’s week 13 matchup in Nashville.
The records: Texans 4-7, Titans 7-4. The rivalry: The Titans lead 16-15 and have won six of the nine games played in Nashville, including a 24-17 victory on the final weekend last season.
The coaches: The Texans’ Bill O’Brien is 31-28 in four seasons and 1-2 in playoff games. O’Brien is 6-1 against th Titans, winning his first five games against Tennessee before losing last year’s meaningless regular-season finale. The Titans’ Mike Mularkey, who took over headcoaching duties just before midseason in 2015, is 18-18 with Tennessee after going 14-18 with Buffalo (2004-05) and 2-14 with Jacksonville (2012). Mularkey’s teams are 2-5 against the Texans.
How they compare: Offensively, the Texans are 13th in yards gained (seventh rushing, 16th passing) and sixth in points scored. The Titans are 20th in yards gained (13th rushing, 21st passing) and 17th in points scored. Defensively, the Texans are 18th in yards allowed (seventh rushing, 24th passing) and 29th in points allowed. The Titans are 11th in yards allowed (fifth rushing, 20th passing) and 23rd in points allowed. Plot lines: The Titans, currently tied with the Jaguars, are trying to win the AFC South for the first time since 2008 and are seeking revenge for the Texans’ 57-14 rout at NRG Stadium on Oct. 1. Six degrees of separation: Tennessee center Ben Jones, the former Texan, has started all 27 games for the former Houston Oilers since becoming a Titan in 2016.
Trending: The Titans are 5-2 since the Texans clobbered them, while the turnover-prone Texans are 2-5. The have given it away nine times in their past three games with only two takeaways of their own. Only once this season have they been turnover-free. The Titans have won two of their past three games despite eight turnovers of their own. The teams have combined for 41 turnovers and are -11 collectively.
Go figure: Tom Savage’s seven fumbles leads the NFL. Only two teams have lost more than the Texans’ nine. Among quarterbacks who have thrown at least 160 passes, just Browns rookie Deshone Kizer (57.2) has a worse passer rating than Savage’s 68.0. The Texans have scored 16 or fewer points in four of Savage’s five starts. Texans wideout DeAndre Hopkins is fourth in receiving yards with 1,004 — his third in five seasons of least 1,000 — and still has the most touchdown catches in the NFL with nine. Hopkins has gained more than 100 yards in a game four times in 2017. Texans linebacker Jadeveon Clowney is second in the league in tackles for losses with 17. The Texans held the Titans to only nine first downs in the first meeting, seven fewer than they have had in any other game.
Worth pondering: How will the Texans respond to being realistically out of playoff contention at the earliest juncture since O’Brien took over in 2014?