The Houston Texans once again showed up strong in a big game, leading to them gaining their ninth win of the regular season and taking sole possession of first place in the AFC South.
Once thing was for certain on Sunday in Week 15, and that was a whole new Houston Texans team showed up on the road in Nashville compared to the team that showed up last weekend when they lost to the Denver Broncos.
The Texans played well enough to not only gain a big Week 15 win over the Tennessee Titans, but they did so by not being just a team that relied on either the offense or defense. The offense of the Texans took advantage of what the defense gave them, because both sides of the ball for the Texans made big-time plays that were crucial to gain the much-needed win.
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Even though the Titans gained 432 yards of total offense against the defense of the Texans, and 163 of those yards were via the rushing game, the Texans did what they had to do with their own solid outing on the stat sheet with the Texans totaling 374 yards on offense, including 234 yards passing and 140 yards rushing.
The Texans averaged 5.9 yards per play, while the Titans were at 6.4, but some of the bigger plays of the game were by the defense, one being the 86-yard interception return by Whitney Mercilus, which helped set up points for the Texans.
All in all, even though the Titans outgained the Texans on the stat sheet and they had some better stats, the Texans played a game they needed to play, especially compared to the previous time they were on the field, and left with a very tough AFC South road win.
The Texans put themselves in the driver’s seat for the rest of the season with their 24-21 road victory and control their path to a second straight AFC South championship, meaning a second consecutive trip to the playoffs.
Next are three takeaways from the victory and what stood out for the team in Week 15.