Houston Texans: Can a season sweep actually happen in Week 18?

The Houston Texans have one win over the Titans this season. Can they do it again?

What has been a Houston Texans season that’s been full of football we’d all like to mostly forget, the season can end on a positive note this Sunday, and that’s a chance to sweep the AFC South champion and rival Tennessee Titans.

The Texans defeated the Titans in Nashville by a 22-13 score back in Week 11, which was the second win of the season for the Texans, moving them to 2-8 overall at the time. It was also the first road win of the season for Houston in ’21.

Houston’s stat sheet consisted of Tyrod Taylor as the starting quarterback, finishing with 107 passing yards (14-of-24) with no passing touchdowns or interceptions, but he did have two rushing scores. Rex Burkhead was the leading rusher for the Texans with 40 yards on the ground on 18 carries.

When looking at all of those numbers, exactly how did the Texans win that game? It was a lot of defense with the unit collecting four interceptions of Ryan Tannehill, even though he passed for 323 yards in the loss.

Texans: A lot has changed since the Week 11 win over Tennessee

Since the win over the Titans, the Texans have benched Taylor as the starting quarterback and have since gone to Davis Mills, giving the rookie quarterback a second chance, and he’s had his moments of progression, but it still uncertain if he’s done enough to be the starter next season.

Sunday’s Week 18 game is Mills’ final chance to show general manager Nick Caserio his improvement from the start of the season, but remember this game for the Titans has a lot on the line, too.

If the Titans win, they will clinch the No. 1 overall seed and have a first-round bye in the playoffs, so this game has much more on the line for them than the Texans, though a win by Houston would end their season with five wins, an improvement from last season.

For the Texans to even have an opportunity for a second win over the Titans this season, they will have to have another great defensive performance against Tannehill, and they will need to play better on offense with Mills at the quarterback.

More so the player to watch on offense for the Houston Texans is Burkhead, as his ground-and-pound rushing style will need to keep the Houston offense on the field, meaning keeping Tennessee’s offense off the field.

It is doubtful the Texans gain the rare season sweep over the Titans, but it is just time to enjoy this final game of the ’21 Texans, and hopefully we all see players have success that can be used to rebuild around for ’22.