The Tennessee Titans continued their trend of winning ugly games during a Week 8 contest against the Houston Texans at NRG Stadium.
As has been the case all season long, the Titans couldn’t buy themselves passing yards, partly because rookie quarterback Malik Willis struggled during his first NFL start.
Fortunately for Tennessee, Derrick Henry torched Houston’s defense to the tune of 219 yards and two scores, and the Titans ran for an astounding 314 yards overall, the most any team has rushed for in a game this season.
But Henry wasn’t the only one who dominated; the Titans saw arguably their best defensive performance of the season on Sunday, as the front-seven did its thing and the secondary was excellent in coverage.
As we do every week, let’s dig through the game and see what some of the biggest takeaways were from the Titans’ latest win that keeps them in first place and has them in the No. 2 seed in the conference.
No QB controversy in Nashville
While I’m not down on Malik Willis after he struggled in his first NFL start, something I expected him to do, his showing in Week 8 against the Texans reinforced two things:
1. Willis needs more time to develop.
2. Ryan Tannehill gives the Titans the best chance to win.
As bad as the Titans’ passing attack has been with Tannehill, it was even worse with Willis, who had to overcome the same issues the veteran signal-caller does on a weekly basis.
Granted, it would’ve been exciting if Willis had lit it up on Sunday and started such a controversy, but that did not happen. Tannehill’s job is very much safe for the rest of the season, just like we expected it to be.
Derrick Henry adds to his legendary resume
Derrick Henry broke all sorts of records during his 219-yard, two-touchdown performance against the Texans in Week 8.
- Henry’s four-straight 200-yard, two-touchdown performances versus Houston are the most against any single team in NFL history, breaking his previous record of three.
- Henry’s 75th career touchdown passes Eddie George for most in Titans history.
- Henry’s 1,254 career yards against the Texans is the most by any running back against the franchise in league history, surpassing Chris Johnson’s 1,116. Henry did it in one less game.
- Henry now has six career games with at least 200 yards and two scores, three more than any other back in NFL history. In fact, his four against the Texans are more than any back tallied in total during their respective careers.
The next major milestone for Henry to reach is the franchise’s all-time leader in rushing yards, a mark currently held by Eddie George (10,009).
After yesterday’s game, Henry has 7,552, which is 413 less than No. 3 on the list, CJ2K. Earl Campbell sits in front of Johnson with 8,574.
At his current pace (and not accounting for DHenber), Henry will rush for 1,079 more yards in the final 10 games, which would leave him with 1,834 for the season. If he hits that mark, he’ll finish the year 8,631 career yards, leaving him in second place on Tennessee’s all-time list.
At that point, Henry passing George would be a foregone conclusion, and such an accomplishment would already cement something many — myself included — already believe: Henry is the best running back in team history.
After that, all that would be left is to get him into Canton, a place he already deserves to be.
Big Jeff dominates despite ankle injury
Jeffery Simmons was battling an ankle injury going into the game and didn’t practice the entire week, leaving him questionable. But not only did Simmons suit up, he dominated.
Simmons was a beast in the trenches, impacting both Houston’s passing attack and ground game. He tallied a sack, two tackles for loss, and one of those tackles saw him use Dameon Pierce’s own teammate to do it.
Jeffery Simmons using Kenyon Green to tackle Dameon Pierce pic.twitter.com/mZP20JP7yB
— Jake (@JakeAndHoops) October 30, 2022
If Simmons didn’t fully recover from his injury by Sunday and was indeed playing hurt, he sure didn’t look like it. If he was playing hurt, the Texans are fortunate he wasn’t fully healthy or it might’ve been worse.
The 2019 first-round pick now has 5.5 sacks on the season, the most on the team.
Titans' secondary is improving
I don’t want to proclaim Tennessee’s secondary fixed quite yet, but this group has had two impressive performances in a row that gives us hope the unit is rounding into form at the midway point of the season.
Much like it was in Week 7 against Indianapolis, the Titans’ coverage was very good in Week 8 and provided some much-needed support for a pass-rush that was still good but missing Rashad Weaver.
Kristian Fulton made a beautiful play on a pass from Davis Mills for an interception in Titans territory, and Kevin Byard should’ve had another during what was the secondary’s best showing of 2022.
In all, Mills threw for just 152 yards and posted a quarterback rating of 69.9, two marks that were less than ideal on a day when the Texans couldn’t run, either.
We’ll have to keep an eye on Amani Hooker, who suffered a shoulder injury during the game, but if the Titans can get Elijah Molden back and keep this unit healthy moving forward, the best might be ahead of us.
