Texans vs. Titans | 5 Things To Watch

Jan 07, 2022 at 05:24 PM

Drew Dougherty

Texans TV Host

The regular season ends this Sunday at NRG Stadium, as the Texans (4-12) host the Titans (11-5). It's the 17thgame of the year for each club and the second time these two have faced each other in 2021. The Texans came up with five takeaways in a 22-13 victory in Nashville in Week 11. Here are five things to watch when they kick off at noon CT.

1) Money Mills – The rookie year of QB Davis Mills comes to a close with his 11th start of the campaign. He and the Texans have been victorious in two of the last three, and Mills has completed 66.5 percent of his passes this year for 2,363 yards. He's thrown 13 touchdowns and been picked off 10 times.

Houston would like to see more of the Mills they saw in Jacksonville and at home against the Chargers. In those two wins, Mills threw a combined four touchdowns and one interception and completed 70.2 percent of his passes. He also made key adjustments at the line of scrimmage and capitalized on mismatches.

Head Coach David Culley also wants Mills to continue with good ball security.

"The first thing is he's got to take care of the ball," Culley said. "If he continues to do that and keep progressing the way he's progressing, just the experience that he's getting by playing, he's just got to play well and do the things that we need to do to give us a chance to win the ballgame. First and foremost, it's just protect the football."

A few mistakes last Sunday cropped up in the loss at San Francisco, but overall, Offensive Coordinator Tim Kelly has been encouraged by Mills' performance.

"Just really looking forward to him going out there and performing well and playing within the offense and making all the plays that come his way," Kelly said. "I think there were probably one or two plays he would like to have back from Sunday, some uncharacteristic things that we haven't really seen him do. Hopefully, we're looking for him to kind of eliminate those plays and continue to make big plays for us."

Mills, who is always unflappable, has improved throughout the season and is thankful for one final start.

"I didn't know I was going to get this opportunity this early in my career, but I'm extremely grateful for it, and I'm grateful for my teammates and my coaching staff and really the whole team here to put their confidence in me and support me," Mills said. "I'm ready to go out there and give them my all each week."

2) Take, take, take – The Texans defense picked off four Ryan Tannehill passes and the special teams came up with a fumble recovery in Nashville back in November. Houston didn't turn the ball over and came away with the victory. On the season, the Texans are plus-three in turnover differential, which means they have three more takeaways than they do turnovers.

Tennessee, meanwhile, is minus-3 on the year in that statistic.

In three of the Texans victories this season, they've been plus-three in turnover differential: at home against the Jaguars, at Tennessee and at home against the Chargers. They lost the turnover battle but won the game in their contest at Jacksonville.

When they've been even or negative in turnover differential, they've lost nine times and won just once. The Texans have had a positive turnover differential in five games this season but lost twice. They've only won those games when they've been plus-three.

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3) Familiar faces abound – A slew of Titans once played for the Texans. C Ben Jones has been a key member of the Tennessee offensive line and has helped pave the way for a potent ground attack. RB D'Onta Foreman has peeled off a trio of 100-yard games over the last six weeks and seems to be hitting his stride. LB Zach Cunningham, who joined the Titans a few weeks ago, has suited up and played roughly two-thirds of the defensive snaps in each of the last three games.

All told, about 10 players, plus Head Coach Mike Vrabel and four assistant coaches, were once Houston Texans.