Week 8 Recap: Texans vs. Titans
The Texans started the game poorly, as they have all season.
The defense did respond after giving up an early field goal.
The offense responded to the field goal by Tennessee by driving down their throats and capping the drive with a touchdown throw to DeAndre Hopkins. The Texans took the lead 7-3 with 14 minutes to play in the 2nd quarter.
It was a back and forth stalemate, with penalties playing a key role throughout the second quarter. It remained 10-3 until halftime.
The snooze fest continued until Tennessee hit a 44 yard field goal with 5:54 to go in the 3rd quarter.
Hoyer looked pretty good in the first half, but had a really terrible intentional grounding penalty to aid in a 3 and out effort. He simply got scared and threw the ball away illegally.
The Texans came back and instantly responded with a great, quick drive. Hoyer completed pass after pass to Hopkins, then off of play action threw a deep 42 yard touchdown to Nate Washington. Washington has stepped up significantly since coming back from his hamstring injury. The Texans took a 17-6 lead with 3:34 to go in the 3rd quarter.
The defense looked levels ahead of how they performed last week against Miami. Kevin Johnson came up huge with an interception, but the offense was unable to capitalize due to Hoyer just simply being a horrid quarterback. Hopkins ran open and would have had an easy touchdown, but Hoyer failed to deliver the pass and it came out as a lame duck, wobbly and behind, allowing the defender to catch up to the ball.
J.J. Watt had yet another monster game, forcing a turnover on his second sack of the day by stripping Zach Mettenberger. The offense got the ball at the 10 yard line with 1st and goal to go.
They were unable to fully capitalize, and settled for a field goal. The Texans went up 20-6 with 12:33 to play in the game.
Yet again, Watt was called for a horrible and questionable “roughing the passer.” He gets these way too frequently, and almost every single one is not his fault or shouldn’t be a penalty.
Even with the penalties, the defense put on a show. They looked like a revived unit against a weak Tennessee opponent. Whitney Mercilus stepped up big time, registering 3.5 sacks on the day.
The defense held strong for the rest of the day, and held the lead.
Texans won 20-6, and if Indianapolis loses at Carolina…they’ll be tied for first in the AFC South Division. No, seriously.