The team snapped a two game losing streak, tickets for this game sold out fast as they came away with their largest margin of victory in franchise history, and took sole possession of first place in the division, as they stomped the Tennessee Titans 41-7 here at LP field on Sunday. In a nutshell, it was an excellent day for Houston (4-3) and a dismal day for the Titans (3-3).
This game was essentially over early, and the hometown crowd who booed the Titans through much of the game, finally began trickling out of the stadium at the beginning of the fourth quarter.
Although Houston started the game by punting on it’s first two possessions, they picked up the pace and scored on six of their next seven possessions. The Texans began their scoring bonanza with 7:18 left in the first quarter as field goal kicker Neil Rackers punched a 32 yard field goal through the uprights, capping a 13 play – 78 yard drive.
In the second quarter defensive back Danieal Manning intercepted a pass from Titans quarterback Matt Hasselbeck and Houston was pinned on their 13 yard line. But quarterback Matt Schaub quickly drove the offense down the field and finished the scoring drive with a 10 yard touchdown pass to tight end Joel Dreessen.
On their next scoring drive they needed only four plays, as Schaub rolled out to his right and threw back across the field to find running back Arian Foster wide open. Foster snaked his way through the Titans defense and ran virtually untouched into the end zone for a 78 yard touchdown pass. Foster, last year’s NFL rushing leader, had an outstanding day finishing the game with three touchdowns and 234 all-purpose yards (115 rushing – 119 receiving).
The Titans offense could not get untracked at all during the first half of the game and was only able to gain 148 total yards all day, compared to the Texan 518 total yards.
Houston tacked on a 29 yard field goal by Rackers at the end of a 7 play – 37 yard drive to lead the game 20-0 at halftime. Time of possession in this game was a bit one-sided as you might expect in a blow out, favoring the Texans 37:58 to the Titans 22:02.
In the third quarter Houston scored again on a 92 yard drive and Foster got his second touchdown of the day on a 1 yard carry. The Titans defensive line was just no match for their opponents offensive front four. Time and time again, the Titans defense was blown off the line of scrimmage and wide holes were opened up for Houston’s running backs to gain good yardage.
Finally, near the end of the third period the Titans decided to go with the hurry-up offense and managed to mount a scoring drive. Hasselbeck found Jared Cook in the end zone on a fourth-and-goal play from the 5 yard line to take the goose-egg off the scoreboard and give Tennessee their only score of the day.
In the fourth quarter Arian Foster got his third and final TD as they drove 52 yards in 8 plays, Foster carrying the final 5 yards.
They finished the day by sticking their collective thumb in the eye of the Titans as Brice McCain intercepted a Hasselbeck pass and ran it back for a touchdown. It was the Texans who was victorious when the final score was set. But most of the Titan fans did not see it because they had already left the stadium.
