Main keys to the Texans’ Week 18 victory over the Titans

THE Houston Texans are locked into the AFC’s No. 4 seed, but will face their starters for an unknown length of time in Sunday’s regular-season finale at Nissan Stadium against the Tennessee Titans.

They will try to reach back-to-back double-digit winning seasons for the first time since 2018-19.

The last time Houston took the field on Christmas Day, it was a resounding defeat against the Baltimore Ravenswhen the offense failed to score points. The defense wasn’t much better, as it ended its nine-game streak with one out.

Houston is probably the wild-card teams’ favorite opponent. A rematch with Baltimore could be on the cards if the Ravens lose to Cleveland and Pittsburgh beats Cincinnati. If Baltimore won against the Browns, that would clinch the AFC North and the No. 3 seed, while Pittsburgh would be the No. 5 or No. 6 seed.

Tennessee won the first meeting with its offense creating several explosive plays, and the defense doing just enough against a struggling opponent. Texans offense.

Below are five keys to the Texans’ victory on Sunday.

Limit explosive plays

Whether it’s Will Levis or Mason Rudolph at center, both will play, according to Titans head coach Brian Callahan-Houston needs to do a better job of limiting explosive plays. Levis had arguably the best game of his career in the Titans’ Week 12 victory, completing 18 of 24 passes for 275 yards and two touchdowns.

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Houston recorded eight sacks, including seven in the first half, in the loss. However, Levis had three completions of 35 yards or more, including both touchdowns, to mitigate the sack damage.

Since the Week 12 loss, Houston has lost two key members of its secondary. The Texans lost Jalen Pitre for the season in the loss to the Titans and a few weeks later lost Jimmie Ward, who replaced Nickelback after Pitre’s injury, for the season.

Houston ultimately let Derek Stingley Jr. follow Titans top receiver Calvin Ridley, but the revamped secondary will have a good test Sunday.

Learn from the previous meeting

With the duo of T’Vondre Sweat and Jeffery Simmons in the middle of the defense, Tennessee is solid against the run. Houston, which already ranks near the bottom of the list in most rushing metrics, looked terrible in the Week 12 loss.

Texans running back Joe Mixon recorded 14 carries for 22 yards, and his longest run was eight yards. Tennessee placed Mixon at or behind the line of scrimmage on 29.4 percent of his attempts.

The Titans knew the Texans wouldn’t be able to block one-on-one against Sweat or Simmons, so they had their interior defensive linemen shoot up front. Houston’s offensive linemen couldn’t climb to the second level, so Tennessee’s linebackers made several tackles near the line of scrimmage.

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Houston chose to avoid the interior, as 76.5% of its rushing attempts came outside of the tackles. The Texans have been tinkering with their running game throughout the season, and there’s still plenty of work to do to spark the ground game in the regular season finale.

Make the guys pay

Week 18 is the last chance for players to reach the incentive levels written into their contracts, and Houston has a few players within reach of monetary rewards. Some players, like Mario Edwards, Tim Settle and Eric Murray, have already reached their 2024 incentives.

All three had playing time criteria included in their contracts and have already exceeded those criteria. Edwards and Settle proved their worth with signings on the interior of the defensive line after Houston failed to add big names to the position group. Murray earned an additional $350,000 for playing more than 70 percent of the defensive snaps.

Mixon is 107 rushing yards away from his season benchmark of 1,100 rushing yards, which will net him an additional $250,000. He’s just seven yards away from becoming the Texans’ first 1,000-yard rusher since Carlos Hyde in 2019. Derek Barnett is also close to his playing time percentage, which will earn him $250,000. Barnett has currently played 34.5% of the Texans’ defensive snaps and needs 35% to reach $250,000.

If Houston doesn’t plan to rest their key players, it could help them earn some extra money.

Find a secondary receiver behind Nico Collins

The regular season finale will be a great opportunity for Houston to explore a secondary receiver behind Nico Collins before heading into the playoffs. Everyone knows Collins is an elite player, but he can’t be the only Texan shouldering the receiving load.

Against the Ravens, which was the first complete game since Tank Dell’s injury, John Metchie III had a team-high eight targets, which he turned into five receptions for 48 yards. Houston also saw four other pass catchers record two receptions, including tight end Dalton Schultz and running back Mixon.

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Robert Woods is an interesting and reliable option, but is no longer designed to be a #2 option. Xavier Hutchinson has a lot more upside, but we haven’t seen him consistently. Metchie makes the most sense off the bench as the top option behind Collins. Tennessee is a good opportunity for the former Alabama product to build his confidence heading into the playoffs.

Get the pass rush back on track

Over the past two weeks, Houston’s pass rush, which employs two of the best individual sack receivers in Danielle Hunter and Will Anderson Jr., has recorded just two sacks, albeit against two of the best quarterbacks for avoid bags.

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Although the sacks didn’t come with the same frequency, Houston lived up to its pressure all season long. In 60 losses against the Chiefs and Ravens, Houston has accumulated 24 pressures, for a pressure rate of 40%, which would be first in the NFL.

Still, sacks have been difficult to come by and the Texans defense thrives on negative play creation. Without them, the unit sits much more middle of the pack. Fortunately, Tennessee is a great matchup for any pass rush looking to rack up sacks.

Levis, as he showed in Week 12, invites sacks because he often creates pressure himself with poor pocket management. Rudolph was pressured more, with a pressure rate of 41.4%, compared to Levis at 40.1%. However, Rudolph was able to avoid layoffs at a higher rate.

This article was originally published on Texans Wire: Main keys to the Texans’ Week 18 victory over the Titans