How the Texans Don’t Win the South

Tennessee Titans

With three turnovers leading to 17 points for the Chargers, the Titans dropped to 4-5 on Sunday. While they need just one more win to match their win total from the previous two seasons and have undoubtedly gotten better this year, it should be noted they have beaten the Lions, Dolphins, Browns and Jaguars. While winning at Detroit is certainly respectable, the other three were all playing poorly when they played the Titans.

Tennessee gets their bye in week 13, and they will need it with the grueling schedule they have down the stretch. They still have to play Denver and at Kansas City, with other home games against Green Bay and Houston and other road games at Indianapolis, Jacksonville and Chicago. This group may only manage a couple more wins out of that group.

Marcus Mariota is very and up and down. He can make some plays, but only when he has the running game going for him. Otherwise, he will force passes and that usually leads to turnovers. Fortunately, with DeMarco Murray and Derrick Henry the ground game worked this season. Their front seven is okay but their secondary has been spotty at best this season.

To win the division, they must upset at least one of Denver or Kansas City. I think they will be hard pressed to win at both Indianapolis and Jacksonville, so they must make up for it in one of those two tough AFC West games. Division games are always tough, even if the teams are not that good. Green Bay and Houston both look beatable at home for them, and they need to win both of them and take care of Chicago on the road.

This team was not supposed to contend this season, I say they have a 9.5% chance of winning the division (yes the Jags get .5%, it’s there but not worthy of a whole section).