RECAP: Tennessee Titans pull out gritty win over Houston Texans

Down several starting players, the Tennessee Titans pulled out a 20-17 victory for Mike Vrabel’s first-ever win as head coach.

Going into Sunday’s game, the Tennessee Titans were incredibly shorthanded, as the injury report for the week was riddled with important players at several positions. Starting tackles Taylor Lewan and Jack Conklin were unable to play. Backup RT Dennis Kelly was in the hospital with an illness. QB Marcus Mariota was rested with an injury to his throwing elbow. TE Delanie Walker was lost for the year. Nearly no one gave the Titans a chance to eek out a victory, but they did just that.

This game started out with a bit of trickery. On the Titans’ first offensive drive of the game, which stalled at their own 34-yard line, HC Mike Vrabel pulled something out of his sleeve. Lined up for a punt block, the Houston Texans left gunner Dane Cruikshank all alone on the right side of the line of scrimmage. The Titans realized this and snapped the ball directly to the protector Kevin Byard, who threw a left-handed lob into Cruikshank’s path. Cruikshank corralled the pass, made a shifty move on the punt returner and strolled into the end zone to put the Titans ahead early.

After an eight-play Texans drive that resulted in a missed field goal, the Titans capitalized on the good field position. Five-consecutive plays out of the wildcat formation with RB Derrick Henry taking the direct snap resulted in 25 yards and two first downs. Then, from the Houston 18, QB Blaine Gabbert tossed a screen pass to WR Taywan Taylor, who got a good block and made a couple of nifty maneuvers to jolt himself towards the end zone and give Tennessee a 14-0 lead after the PAT.

On the ensuing drive for the Texans’ offense, QB Deshaun Watson moved the ball to the Titans’ 37-yard line. He took a deep shot on 2nd and 7 to WR DeAndre Hopkins, but Titans CB Adoree’ Jackson played the ball perfectly, trailing Hopkins and jumping up over him to snag the ball out of the air in the end zone and come away with his first-career interception.

The Titans offense began to fizzle out, though, and the Texans were able to score before halftime on a Watson-Hopkins hookup with just a minute left in the half.

The second half was much of the same for the Titans’ offense, as Gabbert couldn’t get into a rhythm and the running game was sporadically successful. The Texans took advantage, getting a field goal in the third quarter and a touchdown early in the fourth that gave them a 17-14 lead. Right after the touchdown, Gabbert made a couple of key throws to move into Texans territory and Ryan Succop drilled a 42-yard, game-tying field goal with 9:43 left in the game.

Following the field goal, the Titans forced a Texans punt and got the ball back with 6:41 left. The Titans embarked on a masterful 12-play, 62-yard drive that featured an absurd illegal forward pass on Gabbert that actually benefitted the Titans and a screen pass to WR Corey Davis that went for 18 yards and ended with a Davis fumble that trickled out of bounds. On 4th and 1 from the Texans’ 13-yard line and with just a minute left in the game, Succop nailed his field goal attempt once again and put the Titans ahead by three points.

Watson quickly moved the ball to his own 48-yard line and spiked it with 17 seconds remaining. Needing to get in field goal range and without timeouts, Watson curiously scrambled behind the line of scrimmage (and seemed to pass the line several times) and completed a pass to Hopkins in the middle of the field as time expired. As weird as the final play was, the Titans will take it.

Not many thought the Titans would be able to compete in this game, but Vrabel’s squad persevered and got their season back on track. Now at 1-1 with another crucial division game against the Jacksonville Jaguars coming up, the Titans will be hoping to get Mariota, Lewan and Conklin back for the long run.