Troy Taormina-US PRESSWIRE
Last week I mentioned that in the NFL, there is no such thing as a sure thing. Well I was wrong. Take for example this week four matchup between the Tennessee Titans and Houston Texans.
The Texans are by far the scariest team in the AFC South and they are looking like one of the best teams in the NFL right now. There was never any doubt that the Texans were going to take this game from the Titans.
However I was a bit surprised that the first half wasn’t a blow-out. At the half the Texans only led 14-7 and with the way that Tennessee has given up points I would have thought the score would have been worse. A key to the first half though for the Titans was a huge injury to starting quarterback Jake Locker.
He re-injured his left shoulder, the same shoulder he hurt on a tackle against the New England Patriots in the season opener. Glover Quinn and J. J. Watt got a good piece of him and veteran Matt Hasselbeck had no choice but to come in. Locker would later return to the sideline, however not dressed in uniform and wearing a shoulder brace.
When he will return is unknown.
Three minutes into the game Houston’s Andre Johnson already had two catches for 53 yards. He did more in this game then Chris Johnson has all year.
The Titans’ only had two touchdowns one in the first half where Johnson was able to grab a season long 19 yard gain which led to a touchdown pass from Hasselbeck to Craig Stevens. Chris Johnson had a 100+ yard game too. The best game yet this season for him.
The second touchdown came in the fourth quarter when Kendall Wright finally caught an 11-yard pass from Hasselbeck. Wright had a brutal game today with three dropped passes.
Stevens to me has had an impressive season so far despite the Titans outcomes. With all of these injuries people like Stevens and Jared Cook need to step it up in order for anything to go right.
I understand that you are playing the best time in the league right now, but there were a lot of sloppy plays today by the Titans. It didn’t have to be that ugly though. Look at the way the Titans defense was able to hold Houston in the first half. It’s unacceptable the way that they came out of the locker room for the second half.
A missed pass got into the hands of the Texans for a pick six in the second half, and the Texans decided they were just going to keep scoring. It doesn’t help though when a team like Houston has a defensive end like J. J. Watt. He has now had multi-sack games all season.
The Titans allowed two touchdowns in the last five minutes for the Texans, absolutely brutal playing by Tennessee this week. And that sets up a very ugly season. The team is now 1-3, granted the first four weeks were against very tough teams.
The only thing they can do now is focus and move forward. But they need to start producing, it’s just sloppy playing.
