Houston Texans +11.5 and didn’t need even 1 vs Tennessee Titans

Sunday, November 23, 2021

I really did not want to write this today. The upset special for this week is the 1-8 Houston Texans going on the road and beating our 8-2 Tennessee Titans (-11.5). Anyone who has watched the Titans over the years could have seen this coming from a mile away, but that does not make it any less painful. The wound is still fresh so please excuse me if I seem a bit irritated. Alright, let’s get this over with. 

This game was miserable from the start. Houston took a 3-0 lead early on a long, 14 play drive. How does Ryan Tannehill and the Titans respond? By throwing an interception on the final play of the quarter and letting it get returned to the Titans six yard line. The defense, to their credit, was able to hold the Texans to another field goal to make it 6-0. That was a stand that can build momentum, Time for the offense to capitalize and go take the lead.

They immediately went three and out and were forced to punt for the second time in three drives. Houston marched right through the defense and scored on a Tyrod Taylor run. It was Houston’s first road touchdown since week two. If you watched the game you definitely know that because the commentators said it a million times before they scored and about a million more after the fact, as well. This was starting to get embarrassing.

The Titans got the ball back and actually started to move it pretty well. Former Texan D’Onta Foreman was stringing together some impressive runs. So what do they do when faced with a fourth and one? They gave it to 36 year old Adrian Peterson who was stuffed and they turned it over on downs. No offense to Peterson, but he had no business getting the ball. Foreman was running right through everyone so why not keep feeding him? 

Houston was forced to punt on their drive, so Tennessee still had a chance to put points on the board before the half. They marched right down to the Houston 24. With nine seconds left, Tannehill dropped back, and with linemen in his face threw it away. He was called for intentional grounding, which came with a ten-second run-off. End of half. Titans do nothing on offense again. 

The Texans punted on the first drive of the second half, but the punt was fumbled by return man Chester Rodgers and was recovered by Houston. They proceeded to score again on a Taylor run to make it 19-0. Fortunately, I missed this sequence because I was out getting some much needed alcohol. If I had seen that, I probably would have sent my remote through the TV.

Tennessee’s offense responded by actually looking competent and driving down to score on a Tannehill pass to rookie Dez Fitzpatrick, the first of his career. The defense came up big again and forced another punt. Now is probably when you would think the Titans would stop playing around and go take control of this game. Well they started out that way and drove down to the Houston 25. Tannehill dropped back and threw his second interception to former Titan Desmond King at the goal line. Another drive ended by a stupid mistake.

The defense bailed out Tannehill by forcing another punt and Tennessee got the ball back in great field position at the Houston 36. Time to step up, offense. And what do you know, they scored on a Dontrell Hilliard fumble recovered in the endzone by Anthony Firkser. We’ve got ourselves a game.

Houston punted, yet again, about six minutes left. Tennessee can go take the lead. Well they ran six plays and Tannehill threw another bad interception to King and he returned it to the Titans 15. They kicked another field goal to make it a two-score game with 3:30 left. In a last ditch effort, Tennessee started moving down field before Tannehill threw his fourth interception of the day to effectively end the game. Houston killed the clock and that was the game. The mighty Titans, who just rattled off six straight wins, fall at home to the lowly Texans.

Games like this are exactly why nobody takes the Titans seriously. This is not just some freak game that came out of nowhere. This happens to the Titans all the time. Hell, it already happened once this year when they lost to the Jets. Last year they lost to the 2-5-1 Bengals after getting out to a 5-2 start, themselves. They went on to win the division in the last game of the year on a last-second field goal against this same Texans team who finished the year 4-12. Yes, it was great they won, but they should have beat the brakes off the Texans in that scenario. This team always plays to the level of their competition. That’s great when you’re playing the Bills and Rams, but not when you’re playing the Jets and Texans. Until that changes, they will never be taken seriously.

One last thing. Tannehill was garbage. I haven’t seen a QB performance that bad since Blaine Gabbert. 

Thank you for reading and have a lovely day. Titan Up.

* All odds provided by Action247 Sportsbook and all odds subject to change.
**All views expressed are my own. My picks are my own and are not a guarantee, bet at your own risk.