Titans vs. Texans: 5 things to know
The Titans found a way to win Sunday at Nissan Stadium using trickery, some timely pressure on the quarterback and a late surge from an otherwise-stale offense to oust the Houston Texans 20-17. In doing so, they improved to 1-1 and gave Mike Vrabel his first win as an NFL head coach.
Here are five things to know:
Marcus Mariota sidelined
A week after injuring his elbow in the Titans' season-opening loss to the Miami Dolphins, Marcus Mariota watched Sunday's game while wearing a baseball cap on the sideline.
The fourth-year quarterback complained of numbness in his fingers during the Dolphins game, something that lingered into the practice week. Blaine Gabbert got the start for the Titans, whose offense looked mostly stale except for a late surge and a few instances of trickery early.
Mariota was available but Vrabel said he thought Gabbert "had a good grasp of where we were" and opted to stick with his backup.
Titans get creative
With no Mariota, Vrabel rolled up his sleeves and got creative in trying to manufacture some offense.
It worked early. The Titans faked a punt in the first quarter, and what followed – a 66-yard pass from safety Kevin Byard to rookie safety Dane Cruikshank for a touchdown – was historic. It was the longest touchdown pass by a defensive player in the Super Bowl era, per the NFL.
On the Titans' next possession, running back Derrick Henry operated out of the Wildcat. He kept it himself on the first two plays of the drive, picking up a total of 11 yards and a first down. He then flipped to receiver Taywan Taylor on an endaround, a pass in the stat book, for an 8yard gain. Taylor later capped the drive with an 18-yard touchdown catch on a screen pass.
Byard and Henry threw the first two completions of the day for the Titans.
Harold Landry, Kamalei Correa shine in pass rush
At times, Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson had all day to throw, with the Titans' defense looking tired from a lot of time spent on the field.
But often the Titans looked much better in the pass rush than they did in Week 1. The Titans had nine quarterback hurries and four sacks, two of which came from Jurrell Casey. Outside linebackers Harold Landry (who was making his NFL debut) and recently acquired Kamalei Correa looked especially effective coming off the edge.
Flat offense gets going late
After taking a 14-7 lead into halftime, the Titans had trouble generating any momentum offensively to begin the second half.
With Gabbert under center, all three of the Titans' possessions in the third quarter were three-and-outs. They picked up a total of 3 yards on those nine plays.
Tennessee rebounded on its first drive of the fourth quarter, with Gabbert leading an eight-play, 51-yard drive that resulted in a 42-yard field goal by Ryan Succop that tied the score at 17.
Then, on the Titans' final drive, Gabbert led the offense into the red zone before it stalled. Succop hit a 31-yard field goal to give the Titans the lead for good. The Titans' final drive lasted 12 plays and 62 yards.
Gabbert completed 13 of 20 passes for 117 yards and a touchdown.
Offensive line holds up
That said, the offensive line did its part, for the most part.
Despite being without their top three tackles in Taylor Lewan (concussion), Jack Conklin (knee) and Dennis Kelly (illness), the Titans' O-line held sturdy for most of Sunday's game. The Texans had only two quarterback hurries and one sack. Tyler Marz (who matched up against J.J. Watt) and Kevin Pamphile had solid days filling in at the tackle positions.
Reach Erik Bacharach at ebacharach@tennessean.com and on Twitter @ErikBacharach.