The Titans had a fumble and a muffed punt that led to Texans’ field goals, and Will Levis threw a pick-six. The Texans, though, got in their own way even more.
Ka’imi Fairbairn missed a 28-yard field goal with 1:53 left that would have tied the game, allowing the Titans to upset Houston 32-27. The Texans fell to 7-5 with a horrendous loss, and the Titans improved to 3-8.
The Titans outplayed the Texans, outgaining them 369 to 260, despite three turnovers and eight sacks of Levis.
Levis was 18-of-24 for 278 yards with two touchdowns and an interception, and Tony Pollard rushed for 119 yards and a touchdown on 24 carries.
Titans wide receiver Calvin Ridley caught five passes for 93 yards, and tight end Chig Okonkwo had a 70-yard touchdown.
The Texans had two turnovers, including an inexcusable interception thrown by C.J. Stroud in his own end just before the half, and committed 11 penalties for 81 yards.
Stroud was 20-of-33 for 247 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. He also took a sack for a safety with 1:13 left.
Houston had only 40 rushing yards, with 18 from Stroud.
Nico Collins caught five passes for 92 yards and a touchdown in his second game back from injured reserve.
The Titans have outplayed the Texans, but the Titans are Titan-ing.
Will Levis threw his third pick-six of the season, giving Houston a 24-23 lead.
Levis tried to hit Nick Westbrook-Ikhine and Jimmie Ward picked it and returned it 65 yards to the end zone.
The Titans have 301 yards and Levis is 17-of-20 for 208 yards and a touchdown. But the Titans have allowed eight sacks and have turned it over twice.
They also have settled for three field goals, with Nick Folk hitting from 51, 56 and 51 yards.
Houston has only 186 yards and also has two giveaways.
The Texans have ruled out safety Jalen Pitre with what appears a serious shoulder injury.
Only three times this season has Will Levis thrown for more than 177 yards. His 177 passing yards in the first half Sunday are the most he has ever had in a first half.
Levis is 11-for-12 with a touchdown as the Titans lead the Texans 20-17 at halftime.
Levis has taken seven sacks, including three by Danielle Hunter and two by Will Anderson, and Tony Pollard lost a fumble, though he has 10 carries for 89 yards and a touchdown. Those are the only reasons the Titans aren’t up by even more.
The Texans, who scored on the first play from scrimmage on a 19-yard pass from C.J. Stroud to Cade Stover, came back from down 17-7 to tie the game 17-17. They got greedy with 45 seconds left, though, and instead of bleeding the block, Stroud threw a pick to Titans defensive back Jarvis Brownlee at the Houston 20.
The Titans got a 56-yard field goal from Nick Folk on the final play of the first half.
Tennessee outgained Houston 248 to 177 in the first half.
Stroud is 11-of-17 for 149 yards with two touchdowns and the pick. He leads the team in rushing with 18 yards on three carries as Joe Mixon has only 10 yards on seven carries. Nico Collins, in his second game back from a hamstring injury, has three catches for 65 yards and a touchdown, and Tank Dell two catches for 55 yards.
Texans safety Jalen Pitre (shoulder) is questionable to return. He left for the X-ray room before the half.
The Titans have two wins. They are not playing like it.
Tennessee has 217 yards and a 17-7 lead with 11:03 left in the first half.
Tony Pollard has the team’s latest touchdown on a 10-yard run, ending a six-play, 95-yard drive. The Titans’ first touchdown came on a 38-yard pass from Will Levis to Nick Westbrook-Ikhine.
The Titans have scored on all three possessions with drives of 28, 89 and 95.
Levis is 9-of-9 for 159 yards, with Calvin Ridley catching three for 78. Pollard has 55 yards on seven carries.
The Texans have only 58 yards.
The Texans scored on their first play from scrimmage. The Titans now lead.
Tennessee took a 10-7 lead on Will Levis’ 38-yard touchdown pass to Nick Westbrook-Ikhine. It was the ninth touchdown of the season for Levis.
The play before the touchdown, on fourth-and-1, Levis ran for 6 yards and a first down.
Levis is 7-of-7 for 86 yards and a touchdown and has run for 8 yards on two carries.
Tyler Boyd has two catches for 22 yards, and Tony Pollard has four carries for 22 yards.
The Titans outgained the Texans 117 to 49 in the first quarter.
Well, that was easy.
Texans running back Dameon Pierce took the opening kickoff, and when no one brought him down in a pile of bodies, he cut it rigth and found nothing but room. He went 80 yards before Titans cornerback Justin Hardee saved the touchdown, if only briefly.
Tight end Cade Stover caught a 19-yard touchdown pass from C.J. Stroud on the first play from scrimmage.
Only 18 seconds into the game, the Texans lead 7-0.
Houston is trying to move to 8-4, while Tennessee is trying to win for only the third time this season.
Every week we bring you all the inactives from the 1 p.m. ET games in one post, constantly updated with the latest information.
The Cowboys will be without both of their starting guards in Washington on Sunday.
Left guard Tyler Smith was ruled out when the team handed in its list of inactive players 90 minutes before Sunday’s game against the Commanders kicked off. Smith missed two practices this week with ankle and knee injuries before returning for a limited practice on Friday
Right guard Zack Martin was downgraded to out on Saturday. He has ankle and shoulder injuries. T.J. Bass and Brock Hoffman will likely get the start at guards for Dallas.
Cowboys at Commanders
Cowboys: G Zack Martin, G Tyler Smith, CB Trevon Diggs, CB Caelen Carson, RB Deuce Vaughn, TE Jake Ferguson, DE Tyrus Wheat
Commanders: CB Emmanuel Forbes, QB Jeff Driskel, CB Marshon Lattimore, LB Dominique Hampton, G Chris Paul
Buccaneers at Giants
Buccaneers: T Tristan Wirfs, DB Tykee Smith, CB Tyrek Funderburk, LB Jose Ramirez, TE Devin Culp, DL Earnest Brown
Giants: S Anthony Johnson, CB Tre Hawkins III, G Jake Kubas, DL Jordon Riley, QB Tim Boyle
Chiefs at Panthers
Chiefs: OL C.J. Hanson, DT Marlon Tuipulotu, T Ethan Driskell, RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire, DE Cameron Thomas
Panthers: WR Jalen Coker, S Jammie Robinson, CB Shemar Bartholomew, LB Thomas Incoom, LB DJ Johnson, OL Jarrett Kingston, DT Jaden Crumedy
Patriots at Dolphins
Patriots: QB Joe Milton, WR K.J. Osborn, DT Jaquelin Roy, G Tyrese Robinson, DE Deatrich Wise, LB Titus Leo
Dolphins: RB Jeff Wilson, CB Ethan Bonner, CB Kendall Fuller, LB Mohamed Kamara, OL Andrew Meyer, TE Jack Stoll, WR Dee Eskridge
Titans at Texans
Titans: RB Tyjae Spears, CB Gabe Jeudy-Lally, OL Leroy Watson, TE David Martin-Robinson
Texans: DT Foley Fatukasi, T Blake Fisher, LB Jamal Hill, DE Jerry Hughes, CB Jeff Okudah, WR Steven Sims
Lions at Colts
Lions: CB Terrion Arnold, G Kayode Awosika, DT Brodric Martin, T Giovanni Manu, OL Colby Sorsdal, LB Al-Quadin Muhammed
Colts: QB Sam Ehlinger, WR Anthony Gould, S Darren Hall, DE Isaiah Land, TE Will Mallory, T Bernhard Raimann
Vikings at Bears
Vikings: TE Josh Oliver, CB Dwight McGlothern, DL Levi Drake Rodriguez, OL Dan Feeney, OL Walter Rouse, QB Brett Rypien
Bears: WR Tyler Scott, S Elijah Hicks, DB Ameer Speed, OL Ryan Bates, T Kiran Amegadjie, DE Dominique Robinson
The Titans made three moves Saturday on the heels of their Sunday game against the Texans.
They placed cornerback L’Jarius Sneed and linebacker Jack Gibbens on injured reserve.
Sneed has missed the past five games with a quad injury. He now is required to miss at least four more games.
Coach Brian Callahan said Friday the team isn’t ruling out Sneed returning at some point this season.
Gibbens was carted off the field Sunday against the Vikings with a season-ending ankle injury. He had surgery on the injury earlier in the week.
The Titans also declared defensive back Daryl Worley a gameday elevation for Sunday’s game. Worley will revert to the practice squad after the game.
Those of us in the news business are only as good as our sources. And every source can, if the source wants, build up trust over a period of time and then turn it on its head.
Former Titans coach Mike Mularkey did just that, nearly six years ago. He recently said on a podcast that he thought he was about to be fired, so he told Ian Rapoport of NFL Media that Mularkey was about to get a contract extension. Rapoport went with it, and Rapoport got burned.
Mularkey didn’t do it to hurt Rapoport. Mularkey did it as basically a practical joke on the powers-that-be in Tennessee. Just as they’re getting ready to fire him, the media outlet the Titans partially own say he’s about to get a new contract.
Rapoport addressed the situation last night on NFL Network. After playing the clip, Rapoport said this: “That is not cool. That’s not funny. I was a younger reporter then, and the amount of online hate and ridicule I got because Mike Mularkey thought it would be funny to get back at his old boss. It was not fun. . . . I don’t blame Mike Mularkey, but I want to. And that was not cool and that was not funny and we should treat truth better than that.”
He’s right. It was a dick move by Mularkey. Rapoport’s reputation became a pawn in the chess game that Mularkey was playing with the Titans. Mularkey should not have done it, and he should be called out for doing it.
But there’s more here to ponder. First, Rapoport fell victim to Mularkey’s ruse because, in the age where first trumps accuracy, sports reporters routinely get a false start on the Twitter thumb race by not confirming a piece of information with a second source. I see it all the time. I’ve done it. If you trust the source, that’s good enough because if you take the time to confirm that a source who is always right is right again, you lose the ability to impress your editors and producers.
It’s why we see, for example, five different people tweet the same thing within minutes of each other. The source (usually an agent) texts them simultaneously. They all run with it. Seeking confirmation isn’t an afterthought; it’s a never-thought.
Some actually copy and paste the text into Twitter, as a way to hit publish it faster.
This must-be-first attitude — and Mularkey quite possibly targeted Rapoport because Mularkey sensed Rapoport wouldn’t seek confirmation from the team — makes misplaced trust an occupational hazard.
Mularkey is hardly the first source to lie to a reporter. We know of multiple people who deliberately manipulate reporters with a steady stream of truth, followed by a well-timed strategic lie.
Of course, this issue is separate and independent from the contract-reporting BS in which most national insiders engage. It’s one thing for the reporter to know he’s being lied to by the source. It’s different when the reporter knows it’s a lie and pushes it anyway, because if he doesn’t others will. Others are, if the reporter even bothers to press pause and ponder the ethical dilemma.
So, yes, Mularkey was wrong. But the industry has created an environment where this can and does happen, because nobody confirms the scoops that are routinely fed to them with a spoon. Confirmation takes time and time is the ultimate currency in the 280-Character Dash.
Texans defensive end Will Anderson said Friday that he will play in Sunday’s game against the Titans. The team’s injury report confirms that.
Anderson, who has missed the past two games with an ankle injury, has no injury designation.
He had a full practice Friday for the first time since injuring his ankle in the first quarter of Houston’s Week 9 loss to the Jets. Anderson was a limited participant in practice on Wednesday and Thursday this week.
The No. 3 overall pick of the 2023 draft, Anderson has recorded 7.5 sacks with 11 tackles for loss and 10 quarterback hits in nine games this season. He’s also recorded a pass defensed and a fumble recovery.
The Texans might play without defensive end Denico Autry (knee/oblique). Autry is questionable after not practicing again Friday.
Defensive tackle Folorunso Fatukasi (foot) and offensive tackle Blake Fisher (concussion) are ruled out.
Linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair (knee) and cornerback Derek Stingley (hip) returned to full participation Friday and are good to go for Sunday. Cornerback Kamari Lassiter (concussion) has been cleared for a return.
