The 2-8 Titans will travel to take on their division rival the 7-4 Houston Texans. The Titans are on a two game losing streak and looking to put together a competent 4 quarters of football that has been sorely missing since the New England game in week 8. If the Titans are to defeat the Texans they’ll have to do it without several key players.

This week the Titans finally placed L’Jarius Sneed on IR after last playing in Week 6 against the Colts. In addition, Jack Gibbens was placed on IR and will likely be out for the season. The hits don’t stop there, Tyjae Spears was ruled out earlier in the week. The Titans are still having issues keeping players on the field. This has been a problem that seems to have spanned decades now. It’s unfortunate because no matter what Strength and Conditioning team gets brought in or what new coach gets installed Titans players just can’t stay on the field for long.

Coach Callahan will undoubtedly have his hands full figuring out the Texans this week. The good news is the Texans passing offense has been putrid over the last 3 weeks. Stroud is having a clear drop off — Sophomore slump — compared to last year where he was a legit contender for MVP and took the league by storm. Stroud currently has 12 TDs to 7 INT in comparisson Levis who has only played throughout in 6 games has 8 TDs and 8 INTs. However, what’s not in the Titans favor is how poor their defense has played over the last several weeks. Although the Titans are missing several starters throughout their defense it shouldn’t be this bad. Over the past two games the Titans defense has zero turnovers and only 2 sacks while allowing an average of 25 points. For this Titans team to win it has to force teams to score 17 or less points. The Titans have won their only games this season allowing 17 points or less. That’s a huge problem that needs to get rectified throughout the rest of this season and of course going into next year. The Texans will need to get Nico Collins the ball early and often. He’s one of the best WR’s in the game today. He’s currently PFF’s #1 WR with a 92.6 grade. Collins has been injured and missed several games. However, when he’s playing he’s one of the leagues best at the position. Jarvis Brownlee Jr. or Darrell Baker Jr. will have a tough task trying to slow him down for four quarters.

If the Titans are to have any defensive success this game they will need to shut down Joe Mixon. The former Bengals RB is having a career year in Houston. He’s on pace for 1200+ yards despite missing 3 games and he already has 10 touchdowns on the season. This could spell trouble for the Titans as the defense has been reeling over the past few weeks. The Texans can also attack the Titans defense with short passes to Mixon as well. Mixon has 44 yards receiving in each of the last two games. Which signals as the Texans pass catchers have been struggling they’ve found ways to get the ball to one of their best players on offense.

Coach Callahan will have to find ways to be creative getting the football to Calvin Ridley or WR1 Nick Westbrook-Ikhine. Derek Stingley Jr. has been playing very well at cornerback the past few weeks — posting 80+ PFF scores against both Detroit and Dallas. Will Levis will face a tough secondary as he tries to put points on the board against. The Texans team ranks 11th in pass coverage and 15th in pass rush according to PFF. If Levis can continue to take care of the football, as he has the past few weeks, and play fairly smart football he could give the Titans a chance to win if the Titans defense can keep the Texans to below 17 points — which is a tough task. The Texans have only failed to score 17 points once — and that was in a loss to the NYJ.

Prediction

The game will show how vastly different these two teams are. C.J. Stroud should have no problem moving the ball against this Titans defense. On the offensive side of the ball the Titans will struggle. I expect Levis to be sacked 3+ times which should lead to a turnover or two. The Titans will fall to the Texans 27-17.