To process the magnitude of what the Houston Texans and head coach DeMeco Ryans are accomplishing in the 2023 season, just go back and look at the tail end of the 2022 season. Last year, the Texans rang in the new year by getting their asses handed to them at home by the Jacksonville Jaguars by a score of 31-3.
All that remained was one final game in Indianapolis in Week 18, where most Texans fans were actually rooting AGAINST the Texans so they’d secure the first overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, a pick many hoped the team would use to draft Bryce Young. The Texans won that Week 18 game, and many Texans fans were livid.
Now, fast forward to Sunday. The 8-7 Texans took the Tennessee Titans to the woodshed at home on New Year’s Ever, thumping them by a score of 26-3, keeping alive the team’s very real playoff hopes. Next week, they head to Indy again for Week 18, only now it’s for a postseason berth. The winner of that game will secure a playoff spot.
If you had to read that again just to absorb how absolutely surreal that last paragraph is, I don’t blame you. I typed it, and I’ve reread it no fewer than ten times. This is some incredible work DeMeco Ryans has done, and finishing the home campaign on Sunday with that rout of Tennessee makes it even sweeter. Let’s get to the winners and losers from Sunday’s win.
WINNERS
4. Sheldon Rankins
In the last matchup between these two teams a couple weeks ago, the defensive line was an absolute monster, generating 7 sacks and 12 tackles for loss. This time, with no Maliek Collins and Jon Greenard, both out with injuries, Rankins stepped up in a huge way, with a sack, 2 TFL’s, and the most crucial play of the game, a scoop and score off of a Will Levis fumble, a fumble forced by Jerry Hughes. That play made the score 17-0, and really hammered home how authoritative a win this was going to be for the Texans.
3. Nico Collins
With the injury to Tank Dell, it’s impossible to overstate just how critical and valuable Collins is to this offense. He’s the one guy still left in this receiving corps that can go win one on one matchups all over the field. On Sunday, he was once again C.J. Stroud’s primary target with seven catches for 80 yards, and several chain movers among those. Collins has dealt with some injuries this season, so keeping him healthy will be a huge key, if the Texans are fortunate enough to make the postseason.
2. Devin Singletary
It’s crazy to think back earlier this season and remember a time where Dameon Pierce got all the carries in a game, with Singletary getting no touches. It was Week 5, a loss to the Falcons. When Pierce missed a few games due to injury in the middle part of the season, Singletary took over, with back to back 100 yard games against the Bengals and Cardinals, and hasn’t looked back. On Sunday against the Titans, Singletary ran hard, averaging five yards per carry, and gave Stroud enough of a run game to keep the defense honest.
1. C.J. Stroud’s brain
In my mind, the Texans entered this game with two primary goals — win the game and keep C.J. Stroud healthy. They accomplished both of those things with flying colors, getting on the Titans early in this game and never looking back, while getting back the old C.J. Stroud that we’d grown to love before the debacle against the Jets in Week 14. The red zone work wasn’t perfect, as Ka’imi Fairbairn kicked four field goals, but Stroud was accurate and had good pace on his throws. Most importantly, there was nothing about his performance where I was like “Well yeah, that’s a play a guy who’s been confused the last two weeks would make.”
LOSERS
4. Derrick Henry
For Henry, Sunday’s performance was better than Week 15, where Henry became the first player in NFL history to gain fewer than 15 yards on 20 touches. That’s not saying much, though. The Texans’ defense still made life a living hell for Henry, holding him to 42 yards on 12 carries. Keep in mind, this is a back who’d averaged over 200 yards a game over the five game stretch against the Texans before this season. I would imagine that this is the last we see Henry in a Titans uniform, which kind of stinks, since it appears the Texans are just now figuring him out.
3. Dave Tepper
We interrupt this coverage of Titans-Texans to check in on Carolina Panthers owner, hedge fund billionaire David Tepper, whose team lost again on Sunday, falling to 2-14 on the season, and securing the first overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. There’s just one problem — they traded that pick for 2023 first overall pick Bryce Young, who sucks at football. Perhaps it’s the stress over that situation that explains why Tepper felt the need to douse a fan with a drink on Sunday.
2. Tim Kelly
Do you guys remember back in the day, when the only thing watchable about the Texans offense was Deshaun Watson running around and making plays? Remember how underwhelming the play calling was, at times? Well, Tim Kelly was the guy calling a lot of those plays. He is now the offensive coordinator for the Tennessee Titans, which is awesome for Texans fans. Better them than us. The coup de gras from Kelly in Sunday’s game was a clock churning, 17 play, nine minute drive in the third quarter with the Titans TRAILING BY TWENTY POINTS! It was phenomenal, because the Texans didn’t even need to burn clock in the second half, since Kelly did it for them. Oh, by the way, the Titans came away with ZERO points on that drive!
1. Will Levis
Much was made coming into the season about the rebirth fo the AFC South as an intriguing quarterback division. Trevor Lawrence was already entering his third season in Jacksonville, but it was the influx of rookies from the draft — Stroud here, Anthony Richardson in Indy, and Levis in Nashville — that had everybody talking. Early on, this parade of new blood is a one man show, as Stroud is about to win Rookie of the Year, while Richardson is on injured reserve and, it would appear, Levis may not be very good, at all. On Sunday, a strip sack from Jerry Hughes knocked Levis out of the game with a foot injury. I would imagine Levis will be the Week 1 starter in Tennessee next season, but he is light years behind Stroud right now.
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This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
