In this series, we will rank the Houston Texans games in order from the least difficult to the most difficult. We start at the bottom with the week four home game against the Tennessee Titans.
There aren’t too many bad teams on the Texans schedule this coming season. While the Titans figure to be better this coming year, they still have a long ways to go. This will be Marcus Mariota‘s first game against the Texans.
The Titans defense played well last year under Dick LeBeau, and they will keep them in a lot of games. Combine that with DeMarco Murray and the Titans will be a lot tougher of an out than people may think. But with so many young players, the more experienced Texans should be able to come out on top.
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The Texans have owned the series history with the Titans recently, winning seven of the last eight meetings overall. The last time the Texans lost to the Titans at home was in 2011, and Houston had already won the division by that week 17 tilt. Overall in Houston the series is tied at 7-7.
However, the Titans won five of the first six meetings in Houston while led by Steve McNair and later by Vince Young. Since then the tables have turned and the Texans have won six of eight over their Houston predecessors.
Perhaps the most notable of the Texans wins in Houston over the Titans was in 2008. It was week 15 and the Titans rolled into Houston with just one loss. Kerry Collins took over for Young and their only loss to that point was to the Brett Favre led Jets.
Rob Bironas hit four field goals in the game, while Kris Brown split the uprights twice. But on this day Matt Schaub hit Andre Johnson for the lone touchdown which made the difference in the 13-12 win. Johnson finished with 207 receiving yards and Steve Slaton ran for 100 yards in the game.
Titans first round pick Jack Conklin will see a mix of J.J. Watt, Whitney Mercilus and Jadeveon Clowney for the first of what figures to be many times in this one. He’ll need to pick it up fast if he wants to keep the Texans pass rushers off of his quarterback.
Come back tomorrow when the second least difficult (because no NFL game is easy) is revealed.