HOUSTON (7-6) at TENNESSEE (5-8)
Sunday, 1 p.m. EST, CBS.
OPENING LINE: Titans by 2 1/2, according to FanDuel Sportsbook.
AGAINST THE SPREAD: Houston 6-7; Tennessee 6-7.
SERIES RECORD: Titans lead 23-19.
LAST MEETING: Texans won 19-14 on Dec. 24, 2022, in Nashville, Tennessee.
LAST WEEK: Texans lost 30-6 at the New York Jets; Titans beat Dolphins 28-27.
TEXANS OFFENSE: OVERALL (9), RUSH (25), PASS (4), SCORING (13)
TEXANS DEFENSE: OVERALL (20), RUSH (8), PASS (26), SCORING (16)
TITANS OFFENSE: OVERALL (25), RUSH (18), PASS (24), SCORING (25)
TITANS DEFENSE: OVERALL (17), RUSH (14), PASS (22), SCORING (17T)
TURNOVER DIFFERENTIAL: Texans plus-8; Titans minus-6.
TEXANS PLAYER TO WATCH: If rookie QB C.J. Stroud can’t play, Davis Mills will start. He struggled as the starter for most of the past two seasons, going 5-22-1 in 28 games, with 26 starts as the Texans were among the NFL’s worst teams. He is 1-2 with five touchdowns and two interceptions in three career starts against the Titans. Stroud ranks second in the NFL with 3,531 yards passing and fifth with a 98.7 passer rating.
TITANS PLAYER TO WATCH: Rookie QB Will Levis. He drove the Titans on two TD drives in the span of 51 seconds in their big win Monday night in Miami. He threw for a career-high 327 yards and a TD, becoming the fifth rookie in franchise history with at least 300 yards passing in a game. Levis ranks third among all rookies with 1,593 yards passing and is 3-4 as a starter.
KEY INJURIES: Texans WR Nico Collins has a calf injury. … LB Blake Cashman and CB Tavierre Thomas have hamstring injuries. … Rookie DE Will Anderson, the third overall pick in the draft, has an ankle injury. … OT George Fant has a hip injury. … The Titans will be without two-time Pro Bowl DL Jeffery Simmons for a second straight game and just put starting CB Kristian Fulton and DL Kyle Peko on injured reserve. … TE Josh Whyle (knee) also could miss a second consecutive game. … RG Daniel Brunskill has an injured ankle, and C Aaron Brewer has a neck issue. … Starting CB Sean Murphy-Bunting has an injured left knee.
SERIES NOTES: The Titans dominated this AFC South rivalry early against the team that replaced them in Houston. Now Tennessee has won two of the past three. This will be DeMeco Ryans’ debut as the Texans’ head coach in this rivalry. The Titans will be wearing their Houston Oilers’ throwback uniforms for the second time this season. They also will be inducting Billy “White Shoes” Johnson into the team’s Ring of Honor. A win Sunday would give the Titans 117 victories at Nissan Stadium, one more than the old Oilers managed at the Astrodome in Houston.
STATS & STUFF: The Titans are coming off the franchise’s first win in regulation when trailing by 14 or more points with less than three minutes left. The Titans became the first team to do that since the then-Oakland Raiders rallied to beat Pittsburgh on Sept. 12, 1976. … The Texans are coming off their biggest loss by margin this season. They are a game back of Jacksonville and tied with Indianapolis for second in the AFC South. … RB Devin Singletary had 65 yards rushing and his third touchdown of the season last week. He had a rushing TD in his past two road games. … RB Dameon Pierce had a TD catch in his only game against Tennessee last season. … Collins has 100 yards receiving and a TD in two of his past three games. He has a career-high 1,004 yards receiving this season. … WR Robert Woods had seven receptions for 98 yards in his previous game against Tennessee in 2021 while with the Rams. He led the Titans with 527 yards receiving last season. … DE Jonathan Greenard has a career-high 10 sacks this season, the first to reach double figures since J.J. Watt had 16 in 2018. … The Titans are 10-5 under coach Mike Vrabel on a short week. … Two-time NFL rushing leader Derrick Henry is the third player with at least 10 rushing TDs in six straight seasons. … Rookie RB Tyjae Spears had a career-high 118 yards from scrimmage last week. … Titans WR DeAndre Hopkins had a team-high seven catches for 124 yards and a TD last week. He ranks second in Texans history with 632 catches, 8,602 yards receiving and 54 TD catches. … OLB Harold Landry had a career-high three sacks last week, all in the fourth quarter. … The Titans played a season-high 10 rookies against Miami.
FANTASY TIP: Henry has run for two TDs in three straight games. That’s the longest active streak in the NFL and tied for the longest streak of his career. He also tied Jim Brown with 23 games with two or more rushing TDs for fifth most by a player in his first eight seasons.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed - Associated Press)