Which Houston Texans and Tennessee Titans players should we be watching in Week 6?
The Houston Texans and the Tennessee Titans a just a couple days away from their first meeting against each other this season, and the matchup does have some interesting aspects to it.
Tennessee is undefeated at 4-0 overall this season and has missed a game (that will be made up) due to the current COVID-19 pandemic. The Titans also just played a game on Tuesday night, so the quick turnaround will be interesting to watch.
As for the Houston Texans, they are coming off their first win of the 2020 season by defeating the Jacksonville Jaguars last Sunday, which was their first game without Bill O’Brien as their head coach after his firing over a week ago. Things seemed to be in order though with Romeo Crennel calling the shots as the interim head coach, but this franchise also needs to keep moving forward and not rest on the fact their only win this season has been against the one-win Jaguars.
What has been interesting going into this game is the excitement the players and personnel seem to have since that win — and since they got a new boss.
The Texans going into this Week 6 game against the Titans do have some players that will be key to this win, especially on defense for the Houston Texans, as they are having to replace all the snaps by inside linebacker Benardrick McKinney, who is out for the season after shoulder surgery.
Replacements at inside linebacker are going to be very important for the Houston Texans and players all over the defense for the rest of the season because no matter how much the offense improves, the defense of the Texans, when facing tougher competition than the Jaguars, will have to be at their best.
Next are three players who will be key for both the Houston Texans and Titans in Week 6 for their respective teams to gain victory.
3. David Johnson, Houston Texans
It has been a unique year for David Johnson and his first season with the Houston Texans. In the first five games of the regular season, Johnson has yet to rush for 100 yards in a game, but he’s also yet to have over 17 carries in a game, too.
His most productive game was this past Sunday when the Texans offense saw him rush for 96 yards on 17 carries, averaging 5.6 yards per carry. Though he didn’t score a touchdown, it was a start to being more productive in the offense.
Since Week 1, Johnson has also had rushing totals of 77 on 11 carries, 34 on 11 carries, 23 on 13 carries and 16 carries for 63 yards in Week 4. The running back also has just two touchdowns this season, and when Bill O’Brien was in charge, the way David Johnson was used didn’t seem to work.
Now with a fresh start of sorts with Tim Kelly not having O’Brien look over his shoulder, it would be nice to see if the offense of the Texans can call some plays to get Johnson going on the outside of the rush, and see how that works, inside of doing too many run in-between the tackles as that hasn’t seemed to be overly productive this season.
What would be really nice to see are more receptions from David Johnson out of the backfield to add another wrinkle to the Houston Texans offense, as if that happens, it could free up others on the team to improve their production as well.
2. A.J. Brown, Tennessee Titans
The question for this weekend when the Houston Texans face the Tennessee Titans is how do the Texans stop the force that is wide receiver A.J. Brown of the Titans?
Brown has played in just two games this season (half of the games played by the Titans this season), and in his most recent game this past Tuesday he was a dominant force against the previously-undefeated Buffalo Bills. In that 42-16 win, Brown totaled seven receptions for 82 yards and a touchdown on nine targets. For the season, he has 12 receptions in two games for 121 yards and the one score.
After missing a couple games due to injury, the return of Brown this past Tuesday is probably a sign of things to come, and if the Buffalo defense had issues slowing Brown down, what expectations should everyone have for the secondary of the Texans against him?
Sunday will be a nice way to evaluate just how good the secondary — especially the cornerbacks — is when they face tough competition like the Titans. Brown will most likely draw coverage from Bradley Roby, and this season he’s allowed 16 receptions on 23 targets and has a 66.8 grade from Pro Football Focus.
For the Texans to win this game, they can’t let Ryan Tannehill and Brown beat the secondary, because if they get on a roll, it could be a long day for the secondary of Houston.
1. Tyrell Adams, Houston Texans
When Benardrick McKinney was ruled out for the season, that left a void in the middle of the defense of the Houston Texans. That injury allowed Tyrell Adams to join the starting lineup, and from here on out, he’s going to be much-needed for the Texans to have success.
In his first start this past Sunday against the Jaguars, Adams finished with six solo and 12 combined tackles with one TFL and one fumble recovery. Adams played in 67 snaps on defense, which was just over 50 more snaps than he’s been used to this season.
Also for Adams, he’s going to be much-needed in stopping or at least slowing down the rushing game of the Titans on Sunday, because the front of the Texans defense needs to keep improving at stopping the rush, especially against the Titans.
With the Texans having Derrick Henry be their main rusher, that means Tennessee will want to build up their rushing attack in a big way, meaning they will be running toward Adams as one of the inside linebackers.
Just keep a close eye on Adams this game, because the more accustomed he gets to his spot in the starting lineup, the better he’s going to become. This Sunday, it is just the fact he’s going to have to do so against a very tough Titans rushing game.