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Week 15 Game Recap: Tennessee Titans 12, Houston Texans 13
What you need to know
| Tennessee Titans |
Kerry Collins was unable to connect with any of his receivers on a consistent basis due to a number of factors. He was sometimes forced to throw the ball away early due to pressure, sometimes his receivers dropped the ball, or he was way off target. Correcting any one of these deficiencies during the course of the game would have gone a long way toward changing the outcome, but it was all for naught as he would only show flashes of coming out of his funk and then would go back to making the same mistakes. Even with all of Collin's mistakes the Titans had an opportunity to win the game with a 49 yard field goal with two minutes left. They did not get to attempt the field goal as Jeff Fisher gambled and went for it on a fourth and three play, failing to make the first down.
The Titans leaned on Chris Johnson early as Fisher was trying to take some of the pressure off of Collins and the passing attack by establishing the run. Johnson had some success early, but during the middle parts of the game the Texans were able to string out the plays horizontally and keep him from breaking off big gains.
| Houston Texans |
Steve Slaton came into the game with confidence as he has been the only back to run for 100 yards against the Titans this season, gaining 116 yards during their week three defeat. Slaton also gained 100 yards against the Titans in this game, but they were hard earned yards. He earned yards the hard way as he refused to go down when met by a group of defenders, at least twice gaining extra yards when it appeared that his momentum had been stopped.
The running of Slaton helped feed into the confidence of the entire offense as Matt Schaub benefited the most from the respect given to the Texans rushing attack. The Texans were able to successfully run draws and used the running game to set up play action passes. Schaub would use the delay caused by the play action to hit his receivers deep downfield.
Andre Johnson had a career, and team record, game receiving. One week after Schaub set the record for most passing yards in a game, Johnson set the team record for most receiving yards. Johnson was able to get open deep often against a secondary that chose to play in man to man coverage against the Texan receivers. Johnson's 65 yard reception early in the second quarter seemed to change the entire momentum of the game, and led to the game's only touchdown four plays later.
What you ought to know
| QB Kerry Collins, Pass: 15 - 33 - 181 - 0 TD / 1 INT, Rush: 2 - 5 - 0 |
Kerry Collins had a trouble getting into any type of comfort zone against a strong defensive front. The Texans were unable to record a sack, but pressure up the middle disrupted Collins' timing on passes to his receivers. The threat of the rush was bad enough that he was often rushing his throws or throwing off of his back foot. Two consecutive plays on the opening drive illustrated the type of day that Collins had. On a second and eight play he rolled out to his right and failed to connect with a wide open Justin McCareins along the sideline. On the next play he was forced to throw the ball early due to a good pass rush and threw an inaccurate pass into the end zone that was intercepted. Later, he missed a wide open Alge Crumpler that would have been a touchdown had it been thrown with a little more touch.
| RB Chris Johnson, Rush: 13 - 65 - 0, Rec: 2 - 2 - 0 (2 targets) |
Chris Johnson started like gangbusters, gaining 27 yards on his first two carries. The going got tough after that as the Texans began to combat the running game by sending linebackers on blitzes into the gaps and cutting off Johnson's cutback lanes. This caused Johnson to be met by tacklers close to the line of scrimmage, and he was often met by more than one tackler. The Texans were able to take away the running game with Kerry Collins being ineffective, which also served to limit his effectiveness. Johnson was able to break off a couple of longer runs during the second and third quarter as the defense was clearly in pass coverage, but the defense was able to keep him pinned along the sidelines and prevent him from cutting back into the middle of the field for extra yards.
| RB LenDale White, Rush: 8 - 26 - 0 |
White saw action in small doses as the Titans chose not to rotate their backs. He filled in on occasion to give Chris Johnson a breather, but did not stay in the game for either an entire series or see action on consecutive series.
| RB Ahmard Hall, Rec: 1 - 5 - 0 (1 targets) |
Ahmard Hall was the target on the first pass attempted by Collins that he was able to turn into a five yard gain.
| WR Justin McCareins, Rush: 1 - 4 - 0, Rec: 3 - 36 - 0 (12 targets) |
McCareins was looked to early and often, but was unable to come up with the ball due to being just slightly out of position on most throws. He was the intended receiver on most of the throws by Collins that were just slightly off target. McCareins could not catch a break on some of the passes he did catch. On his first reception he promptly fumbled the ball away when he was hit as soon as he turned around.
| WR Justin Gage, Rec: 3 - 76 - 0 (5 targets) |
Justin Gage started, but was not the receiver that Collins was most often looking for when he was taking shots downfield. He appeared to be the second option in the passing game, as Collins appeared to prefer to take what the defense gave him and tried to connect with the other receivers. He was the most reliable receiver and made the tough catches when asked. Of his two missed targets, one was a pass interference penalty on the Houston defender who prevented a potential touchdown by tripping up Gage on the five yard line just before half time.
| WR Brandon Jones, Rec: 3 - 51 - 0 (5 targets) |
Brandon Jones did his damage as the third receiver, playing primarily from the slot position. Despite seeing limited action, he was able to contribute to the scoring by catching a 40 yard bomb from Collins during the two minute drill at the end of the first half. The reception helped set up a short field goal by Rob Bironas.
| TE Bo Scaife, Rec: 3 - 11 - 0 (7 targets) |
Scaife was able to come up with some of Collins' passes, despite being well covered. He was also the target on some of Collins' worst passes as most balls thrown in his direction were badly overthrown.
| TE Alge Crumpler (4 targets) |
Alge Crumpler was unable to make any receptions due to being overthrown on all of the passes thrown in his direction. On his first target he was wide open deep downfield, but Collins overthrew him by a couple of yards and he was not even able to get a finger on the ball.
| PK Rob Bironas 4 - 4 FG, 0 - 0 XP, 12 points |
Rob Bironas scored all of the Titans points by connecting on four field goals, the longest from 51 yards out. It will be the one opportunity that he did not have that will have fans second guessing the coach as Jeff Fisher decided to forgo a game winning attempt from 49 yards out and go for a first down instead.
| TEN Rush Defense |
The Titans run defense performed well, giving up only their second 100 yard game by a running back this season. They were able to keep Slaton in check for most of the game, but were unable to keep him from gaining first downs at the end of the game when it counted.
| TEN Pass Defense |
The pass defense was able to get some pressure on Schaub, but they were done in by penalties and a failure to cover the best receiver on the field. Despite having trouble covering Johnson, the pass defense kept two scoring drives alive with either roughing the passer or pass interference penalties.
| QB Matt Schaub, Pass: 23 - 39 - 284 - 1 TD / 0 INT, Rush: 4 - 7 - 0 |
Coming off of a career game last week, Schaub played another excellent game. He was able to stand in the pocket and throw the ball away at the last minute despite being under pressure. He did not get rattled until late in the game despite absorbing three roughing the passer penalties. Schaub did make some questionable decisions that could have hurt the team as he chose to throw the ball away to the feet of a potential receiver on three occasions in order to avoid getting sacked. On the first attempt he was his with an intentional grounding penalty, but he was able to get away with it on the other instances as the official ruled that either the receiver was close enough to the ball or was behind the line of scrimmage. He only turned the ball over once, on a sack where he did not see the pass rusher coming and had the ball knocked away. The turnover was in Texans territory and led to the first points of the game.
| RB Steve Slaton, Rush: 24 - 100 - 0, Rec: 3 - 15 - 0 (6 targets) |
Steve Slaton is the only player this season to have rushed for 100 yards against the strong Titans defense, and he has accomplished this feat twice. He ran with determination, refusing to stop even when met with two or three defenders. One more than one play he appeared to have had his forward progress halted after a short gain, but he refused to go down and was able to get extra yardage just on his shear will. He was at his best in the fourth quarter as he was called upon to run the clock out with two minutes left. Slaton showed the skill of a veteran when he gained the game's final first down and he decided to take a knee close to the sideline to keep the clock going instead of taking a chance of getting knocked out of bounds.
| RB Cecil Sapp, Rush: 1 - 0 - 0 |
Sapp's only action came when he failed to convert a third and one play during the second quarter.
| RB Vonta Leach (1 targets) |
Vonta Leach's only target was on a second and goal play from the seven yard line in the third quarter. He bobbled the ball and dropped it despite being wide open.
| WR Andre Johnson, Rec: 11 - 207 - 1 (15 targets) |
Andre Johnson set a team record for receiving yards with 207. He provided the spark that the offense needed with a 65 yard reception in the second quarter where he just ran by the defender into the open field. That one play seemed to fire up a dormant offense and would lead to the game's only touchdown four plays later. He caught passes despite being well covered, on two plays he just simply out jumped the defender for the ball and on another play Schaub was somehow able to thread the pass between three defenders to get it to him.
| WR Kevin Walter, Rec: 2 - 8 - 0 (4 targets) |
The Texans did not have to look to Walter often with Andre Johnson being so effective. He was only able to catch two passes, but was able to draw a pass interference penalty to give them first and goal late in the third quarter.
| WR David Anderson, Rec: 1 - 4 - 0 (2 targets) |
Anderson's only reception was a short four yard catch off of play action on the first scoring drive.
| WR Andre Davis (1 targets) |
Davis was the intended target on only one play, but that play was wiped out due to a roughing the passer penalty.
| TE Owen Daniels, Rec: 4 - 41 - 0 (8 targets) |
Daniels was the secondary option on most pass plays, and the player that Schaub looked to when an important play involving tough yards was needed. He did most of his damage on crossing routes over the middle and was able to get the offense into manageable third down situations.
| TE Joel Dreessen, Rec: 2 - 9 - 0 (3 targets) |
Joel Dreessen saw limited action when Owen Daniels needed a rest. He has good hands and was able to catch passes despite being well covered.
| PK Kris Brown 2 - 3 FG, 1 - 1 XP, 7 points |
Kris Brown was almost the goat of the game when he missed a 26 yard field goal attempt wide left during the third quarter that would have given the Texans a four point lead. He was able to come back shortly after and connect on a 24 yard attempt that would prove to be the game winning score.
| HOU Rush Defense |
The Texans rush defense was outstanding, limiting Titans backs to a total of 100 yards on the ground. They were effective by blitzing their linebackers and taking away Chris Johnson's cutback lanes.
| HOU Pass Defense |
Even though the Texans did not record a single sack they were able to disrupt Kerry Collins by getting some pressure on him with their front four. The pressure applied helped rattle Collins and was a key factor in limiting the Titans to 181 yards passing.
