Houston Texans vs Titans: 2017 Week 4: Three things to expect

Although they came back to home with an loss, the Houston Texans are riding high after a solid performance against the New England Patriots. The team will now take on the Tennessee Titans in a Week 4 showdown.

Houston Texans Game Day: Oct. 1, 2017

Time: 12 p.m. CDT

TV: CBS

Radio: AM KILT Sports Radio 610, FM 100.3 The Bull, ESPN Deportes 1180 AM (KGOL)

Home sweet home is where the Houston Texans will be for three games straight starting Sunday as DeMarco Murray and Co. travel from Nashville to Houston to take on the Houston Texans. The Tennessee Titans are coming off a solid win against a playoff caliber team who the Texans will face last in October which will be the Seattle Seahawks.

No doubt the Titans are feeling good about themselves at this moment, it’s the Houston Texans job Sunday to punch them in the mouth and bring them back down to earth.

This game will feature two of the most mobile quarterbacks it has to offer, Deshaun Watson and Marcus Mariota. Which one of these two future stars will win the QB duel but most importantly, the football game?

This game right here is a must win for the Houston Texans, what do they have to do to pull it off?

Offense

Literally, might as well just copy an paste I what said about D’Onta Foreman last week and put it here. Bill O’Brien needs to quit being stubborn and put the better running back in, to which I believe is D’Onta Foreman. He brings so much more to the table than what Lamar Miller has to offer and don’t get me wrong , Miller has a lot of talent. But his body isn’t made for what Foreman can do. Foreman is your classic ground-and-pound type RB, giving me a ton of flashbacks of watching Arian Foster. Plus he can help out with pass blocking and be the final roadblock to get to Watson.

Let’s not forgot about the return of Will Fuller V, the speedy last year’s first-rounder out of Notre Dame. I think he’ll have a large role in this match up as well. Tennessee’s corners are suspect so it should be a field day for DeAndre Hopkins, Fuller, Bruce Ellington and Braxton Miller. I hope Fuller really worked on his hands his off season because I know most of Houston will never forget his drop against the Pats in the playoffs last year.

Last but not least, Deshaun Watson, Deshaun Watson, Deshaun Watson. I’m completely SOLD on this kid, like my fellow contributor Kenneth Cline said in his post, Watson is the franchise guy. A lot of his throws last week were of high quality for an NFL QB. I also loved the play-action passes O’Brien ran with him because he sells it so well.

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When one thinks of young QB battles you think Carson Wentz vs. Dak Prescott or Jameis Winston vs. Cam Newton. Mariota vs. Watson will be one of the most exciting QB duels for hopefully the next 15 years because I like both of these guys and hope their careers stay injury-free.

However, I think Deshaun will play a great game Sunday and torches that Tennessee secondary as he will pass for over 300 yards yet again. Hopkins is one of the most-targeted wideouts in the NFL so I think Watson will connect with Nuk for at least nine receptions.

Defense

It’s only a matter of time before J.J. Watt gets to the QB and brings him down for his first sack of the season. Lately he’s been applying a lot of pressure on the QB and being an absolute monster helping with the run defense, so I think Sunday in front of the home crowd he finally gets one to two sacks. According to Pro Football Focus, Watt is the highest-graded interior-defender and run-stopper in the NFL with a grade of a 91.8 overall. He also has a grade of 93.0 in terms of run-stopping. So yeah, he’s almost back to doing J.J. Watt things but he just needs a sack to officially say that he’s back.

We praised this Front 7 over the off season but so far the unit only has eight sacks. This is decent but you’d expect more from a team with this amount of talent. It’s gonna be super tough to even get to Mariota as Tennessee has arguably the best offensive line in football.

I said last week that Jadeveon Clowney was having a quiet year so far and boy was I wrong. The last two games he has been in the right place at the right time. He has had two fumble recoveries — one for a great return and one of them on Tom Brady the G.O.A.T. for a TD. Clowney has had 10 tackles and two sacks on the season thus far. I think he’s the best player overall on the Texans defense as of right now and it’s obviously between he and Watt.

The Titans have a two-headed monster in Murray and Derrick Henry and the Texans have to stop them. Obviously as I said earlier, Watt is the best run stopping interior lineman in football so that’s a huge plus for us. But Tennessee is averaging 156.3 rushing yards per game, which is flat-out insane. Against Seattle who has a nasty Front 7 like us, they rushed for a total of 195 yards and the crazy thing is that 165 of them came in the second half. Let’s not see a repeat of Week 1 when we went up against Leonard Fournette — our guys HAVE TO make the tackles and not let those two bounce off of them and gain more yards.

Next: Why Deshaun Watson is a franchise quarterback

Prediction: Texans 21, Titans 17

The Texans NEED to get a win Sunday or else the team will be in a deep hole going into the toughest part of our schedule. If we lose, I guarantee the question of “should Bill O’Brien be fired?” will start to circulate if not already. However, I don’t see the Texans losing at home Sunday. I think they’ll play smash-mouth football and defeat the Titans 21-17 to earn our first win at NRG this year!

Since it’s Hispanic Heritage Month….Vamos Texans!

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