The Tennessee Titans (5-2) picked up their fifth-straight victory in Week 8 against the Houston Texans (1-5-1) in an ugly 17-10 game that wasn’t nearly as close as the score indicates.
The Titans simply dominated Sunday’s game, and even that somehow feels like we’re underselling it.
Tennessee finished with a total of 314 rushing yards, while its defense held the Texans to just 161 total yards on the day. Derrick Henry and Jeffery Simmons had bonkers performances in particular on Sunday.
On top of filling up the stat sheets, Pro Football Focus (PFF) graded Henry and Simmons as the best players on their respective sides of the ball.
King Henry received a 92.1 for his 219-yard output, while the Mississippi State product finished the afternoon with a 92.8 after wreaking havoc all game long on a day that Simmons was supposedly injured.
The Titans’ two superstars may have been the clear top performers on the day, but Tennessee had plenty of key contributors throughout this divisional matchup.
With that said, let’s take a closer look at how PFF graded the Titans on a day when they were the obviously superior team.
Overall grades: Offense (min. 10 snaps)
Top 5
RB Derrick Henry: 92.1
RB Dontrell Hilliard: 92.0
TE Chigoziem Okonkwo: 78.1
C Ben Jones: 77.4
RG Nate Davis: 73.9
Bottom 5
QB Malik Willis: 40.8
TE Kevin Rader: 45.5
WR Nick Westbrook-Ikhine: 52.6
LG Aaron Brewer: 53.0
LT Dennis Daley: 55.8
Overall grades: Defense (min. 10 snaps)
Top 5
DL Jeffery Simmons: 92.8
DL DeMarcus Walker: 90.0
LB David Long: 78.6
LB Dylan Cole: 78.4
CB Kristian Fulton: 75.9
Bottom 5
CB Terrance Mitchell: 44.3
S Kevin Byard: 51.0
OLB Bud Dupree: 55.6
LB Zach Cunningham: 57.4
DL Mario Edwards: 58.2
Note: Larrell Murchison posted an 82.7, which would have been third-best on this list, but he didn’t reach our 10-snap minimum. Still, this is the most positive thing we’ve seen from Murchison in a long time.
Pass protection grades (OL only)
RG Nate Davis: 82.2
LG Aaron Brewer: 82.2
RT Nicholas Petit-Frere: 71.4
LT Dennis Daley: 68.7
C Ben Jones: 55.1
Run-blocking grades (OL only)
C Ben Jones: 80.8
RG Nate Davis: 74.4
RT Nicholas Petit-Frere: 71.3
LG Aaron Brewer: 55.8
LT Dennis Daley: 51.4
Pressures/Sacks allowed
LT Dennis Daley: 1/1
C Ben Jones: 1/0
RB Dontrell Hilliard: 1/0
RB Derrick Henry: 1/0
TE Geoff Swaim: 1/0
TE Austin Hooper: 1/0
RT Nicholas Petit-Frere: 1/0
Pass-rush grades (front-seven only, min. 5 pass-rush snaps)
DL Jeffery Simmons: 91.7
DL DeMarcus Walker: 85.5
DL Denico Autry: 71.2
DL Teair Tart: 65.3
DL Mario Edwards: 57.0
Pressures/Sacks
DL Jeffery Simmons: 7/1
DL Denico Autry: 5/0
DL Teair Tart: 4/0
OLB Bud Dupree: 3/1
DL Sam Okuayinonu: 2/0
DL DeMarcus Walker: 2/1
DL Mario Edwards: 2/0
DL Larrell Murchison: 1/0
DL Kevin Strong: 1/0
S Andrew Adams: 1/0
Total pressures/sacks: 28/3
Coverage grades (min. 10 coverage snaps)
LB David Long: 80.6
CB Kristian Fulton: 76.2
CB Roger McCreary: 67.5
S Amani Hooker: 66.1
S Andrew Adams: 64.4
Targets/Receptions/Yards/Touchdowns against
CB Kristian Fulton: 7/1/-3/0
LB David Long: 4/4/18/0
CB Roger McCreary: 3/3/36/0
LB Zach Cunningham: 3/3/19/1
LB Dylan Cole: 2/2/7/0
CB Terrance Mitchell: 5/2/31/0
S Andrew Adams: 1/1/0
S Kevin Byard: 1/1/44/0
