The Tennessee Titans have two games left before their disappointing 2023 season comes to a merciful end, with the first of those two games coming against the Houston Texans at NRG Stadium.
The Titans have the opportunity to play spoiler in this one, as the Texans are vying for a playoff spot. Houston sits in the No. 8 spot in the conference and only a tie-breaker separates them from first place in the AFC South.
Houston will be getting a major shot in the arm for this contest, as the Texans will welcome back rookie sensation and quarterback, C.J. Stroud, who missed the last two games with a concussion.
Tennessee may also be getting its impressive rookie signal-caller back after Will Levis has practiced in full the first two days of the week. However, unlike Stroud, Levis has yet to confirm he’s playing.
But Levis playing might actually be a bad thing, depending on how you look at it. We’ll go over that and more as we take a look at Tennessee’s reasons for optimism and concern in Week 17.
Optimism: A win-win situation
The Titans really can’t lose on Sunday, depending on how you look at things.
If they win, they help spoil the Texans’ bid for the playoffs. If they lose, the Titans will help their draft positioning.
To be quite frank, I don’t give a damn about playing spoiler, as that will not help this team rebuild for the future. A better draft pick will.
Still, if you want a bright side to winning a meaningless game, you have it.
Concern: C.J. Stroud returns
The Titans couldn’t beat the Texans in Week 15 when Case Keenum was under center, so it’s going to be infinitely harder to beat Houston with a budding star quarterback running the show.
Stroud announced on Thursday that he has cleared the concussion protocol and will play. Tennessee’s secondary caught a break last time around with Keenum at the helm, but the struggling and banged-up group won’t be so lucky this Sunday.
If the Titans want any hope of winning this game, they have to limit the Texans’ offense. The pass-rush will be the only hope.
Optimism: Texans' injuries in the pass-rush
Houston could be without two of their best pass-rushers for this contest, as edge rushers Jonathan Greenard and Will Anderson have yet to practice this week.
Anderson missed the last meeting between these two teams and the Texans still managed to sack Will Levis seven times and injure him. Greenard accounted for 2.5 of those sacks.
Even if neither play, there’s no guarantee Tennessee’s putrid offensive line will be able to hold up. Still, neither playing should make things easier.
Concern: Will Levis' well-being
The Titans dodged a bullet against Houston in Week 15 after Levis suffered an ankle injury that initially looked serious. A recurrence — or something worse — will be a concern as long as Levis plays behind this terrible line.
After practicing in full for the second straight day on Thursday, Levis looks set to return after not playing last week, which is either good or bad news, depending on how you view things.
There’s a very valid argument out there that the Titans should sit Levis the final two games no matter what, with the idea that the offensive line can’t protect him, thus putting him at risk of further and serious injury.
The other side of the coin is that Levis could use all the live-game reps he can get as a rookie, which will only help in his development.
The good news is, the Texans’ pass-rush might be short-handed, as we already discussed. But, as we’ve seen time and time again, even the most tame pass-rush can look elite against Tennessee’s group upfront.
Pray for Will Levis’ well-being in Week 17.
Optimism and concern: Texans' defense
The Texans enter this game sporting the seventh-worst pass defense in the league, which means the Titans should be able to move the ball through the air.
But as we saw in the last matchup, the Titans’ offensive line can erase that weakness for Houston with poor pass protection. Thankfully, the Texans might be without both of their best pass-rushers, so there’s hope.
The Texans have seen the opposite in run defense, with their unit ranking as the sixth-best in the NFL. We saw that first hand a few weeks ago when the Texans held the Titans to a measly 2.2 yards per carry, including 0.6 yards per from Derrick Henry, which was historically bad.
Houston shutting down the run will make Tennessee one-dimensional, which will force Levis to drop back more and put himself at risk behind a suspect-at-best offensive line.
Hopefully the run-blocking upfront will be much better this time around and the rushing attack can take pressure off Levis.
Concern: Titans' defense
As if Stroud returning for this game wasn’t bad enough, the Titans will once again be without both of their starting cornerbacks and safeties, and arguably their best player and one of their best pass-rushers in defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons.
Simmons’ absence will also be felt in the run defense, where the Titans struggled mightily in the previous contest versus Houston after Devin Singletary went off to the tune of 121 yards on 26 carries.
The only prayer the Titans have to stop Stroud and Co. will be to generate a consistent pass-rush, which is still possible considering Denico Autry, Arden Key and Harold Landry are all healthy.
However, if those three don’t step up big time, the Texans will have a multitude of ways to burn the Titans’ defense.
