Week 13 GameDay Thread: Texans (4-6) vs Titans (7-4)

[ttitansfan4life]

Oh boy!!!

[TitanRedd]

5 minutes ago, VY-FTW said:

Kinda hard for Ryan to not give up key 3rd downs when Hop is pushing off EVERY play LOL

Adoree would've gotten pushed around even more than Ryan did. Hes not ready for hop right now imo. 

 Just wish we played sims more than McCain ??‍♂️

[Dionysus]

Adoree is still learning the finer points of playing CB, so he's still a work in progress.  But he's holding his own quite well. 

[KingTitan]

1 minute ago, TitanRedd said:

 Just wish we played sims more than McCain ??‍♂️

Sims can't really play the slot. I think that is why.  

 

[titans0021]

5 minutes ago, ttitansfan4life said:

Oh boy!!!

He's kind of like CJ. Obviously not in playing style or true speed, but in the sense that neither of them look like they're really running that hard or that fast until you see them pull away from defenders. 

[titans0021]

Ryan was pretty clearly told to keep Hopkins in front of him today. He couldn't really play the underneath stuff because he rarely had real safety help over the top. It was a pretty surprising strategy from LeBeau, fully expected him to just keep Byard up top and let Ryan play physical with him at the line.

[KingTitan]

Hopkins is an All-Pro WR. No matter his QB,  he is always going to produce. One reason is they target him with an insane amount of times, as they should.  We don't have an elite CB and Ryan did a serviceable job against him. Sims ended up doing a nice job too. Stopped him enough for us to win. 

My feelings about the game:
Running game was more alive today. Outside of the 75 yard run, we still would have had something like 120-ish yards rushing today. The offense was very pedestrian. They had their atrocious span during the game where they only had like 4 yards the whole quarter. But the offense wasn't on the field.  It felt like the offense only had like 5 possessions.  I know they had more, but it felt like they didn't have the ball at all.  

Defense obviously wasn't going to get beat deep.  They let them work the middle and underneath stuff all game.  Our run defense is so stout! I feel so confident in our ability to stop any running game.  
Our pass blocking also gives me more confidence lately.  We aren't perfect there, but I don't fear a pass rush until I see them get us. 
I still want to see something from Corey Davis. I loved him when we drafted him, but they way we run our offense, it's hard for him to get targeted. 

Overall it was a hard division game. I would have thought we would have done more to hold down their offense with their players dropping here  and there.  But we did only give up one TD and two FGs, I guess you can't ask much more from a defense. It's our offense, I'd hope would put up at least 10 more points.  

8-4, 4-1 in the division. There are plenty of other teams in the AFC that would love to have 8 ugly wins. I'll take it.  People say we played an easy schedule. If we would have "lost" with this easy schedule then what would they say? "Can't even beat these teams?"  Oh well. 
I mean outside of the Jets, we have the same schedule as the Jags.  Nobody is downplaying their team for beating their opponents.  Yes they have a more impressive defense, however....same opponents.  
We are beating who we are supposed to beat. 

TitanUp

[KingTitan]

One more NFL cliche used, especially for a team like the Chargers:
"They've lost 5 of their 6 games by 3 points or less. They are right there. They are close to being a really good team!"

But hey a team wins games by a slim margin....."They are so inconsistent. Don't like them or trust them."

 

[Ockham]

Anyone have a gif of the horrendous no-call of PI against Decker?

[TitanSS]

It'd be one thing if we were consistently beating good teams by small margins, but when it's the Browns, Colts X2, Bengals, Tom Savage's Texans... that's when it doesn't look good.

I'd take a 3 point win over the Steelers all day. It's these bottom-barrel teams who keep up with us so easily that are worrisome.

[Ockham]

That 3 & out on the 2nd to last possession irked me.  First, Taylor needs to stay in bounds. Second, we need to get a 1st down there.  Could have cost game.

[TitanRedd]

Mo

33 minutes ago, Ockham said:

That 3 & out on the 2nd to last possession irked me.  First, Taylor needs to stay in bounds. Second, we need to get a 1st down there.  Could have cost game.

No the 1 when jonnu didn’t get both feet down, that made me slam my remote, how do you not have the awareness to drag your foot ?

[Dionysus]

I was trying to figure out why did we design plays to throw deep balls to Decker?  Taylor is clearly the better option.

And why the Hell do we keep scratching Jalston Fowler from the roster?  He's a big help in our power running. 

[TitanLegend]

 

[KingTitan]

46 minutes ago, TitanSS said:

It'd be one thing if we were consistently beating good teams by small margins, but when it's the Browns, Colts X2, Bengals, Tom Savage's Texans... that's when it doesn't look good.

I'd take a 3 point win over the Steelers all day. It's these bottom-barrel teams who keep up with us so easily that are worrisome.

I feel ya, but it's not like the Steelers haven't had their close games too.
Decisive Victories (More than TD) against above .500 teams: Titans, Ravens and Vikings.

3 point victory against the Colts.
5 point victory against the Lions
3 point win against Rodger-less Packers.
6 point win against slumping Chiefs.
3 point win against the Browns
6 point loss to the Bears.
Embarrassing loss to the Jags. 5 INTs.

All teams they are supposed to be head and shoulders better than. Yet....
I know you weren't talking about the Steelers, but I'm just using them as an example of an "elite" team with 5 sub-par wins against. If you want to call the Lions and Chiefs decent, then that's 3 sub-par wins against losing teams and 3 "ugly wins' against then below .500 teams and a loss to one to a below .500 team.

Compared to us:
Decisive wins(More than TD) vs. above .500 teams Jags.
14 point victory against Colts (1st game)
4 point win against Bengals.
3 point win against Ravens (Wild Card team right now)
3 point win against Browns
4 point win vs. Colts (2nd game)
9 point win vs. Texans (2nd Game)
Embarrassing loss to Texans (1st game) 57 points.
Loss to Steelers- 4 INTs from Mariota.
10 point loss to Raiders
6 point loss to Dolphins- Cassel at QB. 
21 point win vs. Jags

I bold the truly bad losses for both. I take out our Dolphins game because it was no Mariota. I don't count the Ravens as a disappointing win, seeing that they are one of the top defensive teams and now a playoff contender. 
Steelers have only one 4 games by more than a TD and two of those came against the Bengals and Ravens (Both teams we get dinged for beating.)
Titans have won 3 games by more than a TD. (Colts, Jags and Texans).

I say all that say....I understand the underwhelming feeling after the wins.  However, looking at one of the "elite" teams of the AFC, we aren't off by much. They have had maybe an one game better showing than us and then of course the head to head victory. But when I look at those results, I don't see a team that has performed that much better than us.