Titans out-inept Texans, fall 20-6

In a game that lived down to its advance billing as a contest of two of the NFL’s least accomplished squads, the Tennessee Titans were the less able today in Houston and fell to the Texans, 20-6.

The game actually started off looking as good as could be expected for the Titans, holding the Texans to a pair of three and outs and driving for a field goal on the opening possession. That changed quickly, though, as the offense would go three-and-out the next three times they touched the ball and the fourth possession in that stretch was after Bishop Sankey fumbled a kickoff return. The Texans’ first score came after they started just short of midfield and Brian Hoyer found a couple receivers, with DeAndre Hopkins going up and over Jason McCourty for the score. Houston didn’t do much after the turnover as Tennessee’s defense was stout enough, but took the 10-3 lead and ran with it into halftime.

The Titans cut it to 10-6 midway through the third quarter on a drive set up by a 28-yard Antonio Andrews run. Hoyer went to work again and drove 80 yards for a score, with Nate Washington beating old teammate Coty Sensabaugh for a 42-yard touchdown.

At that point, it was lights out for the Titans offensive line and Zach Mettenberger. A couple decent plays, then a J.J. Watt sack and interception of a throw behind Dorial Green-Beckham. Next play, Mettenberger as strip-sacked by J.J. Watt and a field goal after another conservative drive made it 20-6. Next possession, two more Mettenberger sacks. Next possession, another sack and a fourth down throw in the direction of Rico Richardson was broken up. Final possession, Mettenberger gets banged up and Whisenhunt mercifully lets the clock run out.

Dwelling on this game is uninteresting, and it didn’t end up much more meaningful than expected, so I’ll jump straight into various observations:

• Final tally: seven sacks for the Texans on 38 Mettenberger dropbacks.
• Jeremiah Poutasi was benched again for being too terrible. Jamon Meredith was not discernibly better, at least on a live viewing. Taylor Lewan after the game described it was the worst of his life; yeah, I could see that. The play where neither Meredith nor Chance Warmack bothered to block Watt was cool, too, as was the loop rush that came free. Mettenberger makes things worse by not playing quickly.
• The Titans actually ran the ball okay at times. Not consistently, as they got stuffed multiple times in short yardage, but Andrews finished with 16 carries for 64 yards.
• Bishop Sankey muffed the kickoff after his fumble and was benched. Whisenhunt apparently indicated postgame he’d permanently lost the job.
• Delanie Walker led the Titans with six catches. Half of those occurred on the final two garbage drives.
• Team MVP today: Brett Kern, who was a yard short of 50 average and put three inside the 20.
• Green-Beckham’s one catch went off two Texans, Brian Cushing and then DE Jared Crick, before going his way.
• Kendall Wright left the game with a knee injury on a screen before the field goal that made it 10-6 where Green-Beckham did not block his man.
• Avery Williamson also left the game late and did not return. Whiz indicated postgame Mettenberger just had the wind knocked out of him on the final play and could have returned shortly.
• Ken Whisenhunt called a timeout at 2:03 of the first half, so the Titans got the ball back with 1:50 to play and 1 timeout instead of with 1:47 to play and no timeouts. I know, they weren’t likely to do anything anyway, but still. He also called his final timeout of the first half to force the Texans to take a knee.
• Mettenberger was 6-11 for 33 yards in the first half.
• If Ken Whisenhunt is fired during the season, my best guess for when it happens would be after the Thursday night game in Jacksonville, with extra time to prepare for home games against the Jaguars and Raiders. I do not expect him to be fired during the season, and think it is extremely unlikely. But, as I mentioned in this week’s Q&A, sooner or later he has to find a way to win a game. Heck, maybe even just field an offense that doesn’t look completely inept. That doesn’t seem like an unreasonable expectation for an NFL head coach.

Snap report Monday.