The AFC South champion Houston Texans were looking to maintain their late-season momentum with a road victory over the Tennessee Titans.
Next Saturday or Sunday, the Houston Texans will host an AFC Wild Card Playoff game for the second straight season. The team wrapped up the AFC South last week with a 12-10 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals.
The 2016 campaign will come to a disappointing end for the Tennessee Titans. A 38-17 loss at Jacksonville last weekend combined with Houston’s win later that night knocked the club out of the postseason for the eighth consecutive year.
Bill O’Brien’s club takes a three-game winning streak into this finale. Meanwhile, the Titans are looking for their first winning season since finishing 9-7 in 2011. Unfortunately, they won’t have quarterback Marcus Mariota. He was knocked out of action with a broken fibula in the loss to the Jaguars.
Highlights Posted Live as They Happen
Three Stars
1. Tom Savage
It took the third-year pro a little while to get warmed up last week against the Cincinnati Bengals. What we do know in limited action this season is that Savage has completed 41-of-65 passes (63.1 percent) for 436 yards and zero turnovers. It’s a very short sample size but he is averaging more than 10 yards per completion. That was something his predecessor Brock Osweiler failed to do. And he’s obviously done a much better job of taking care of the football than the signal-caller and his 17 turnovers in 14 games.
2. DeAndre Hopkins
The NFL’s third-leading pass-catcher from a year ago has seen his numbers drop dramatically this season. Still, he leads the Texans with 71 catches, good for 831 yards and four touchdowns. Hopkins and quarterback Tom Savage have already enjoyed a much better rapport than did the 2015 Pro Bowler and Brock Osweiler. Bill O’Brien’s club will need to have this duo on the same page heading into the postseason.
3. DeMarco Murray
He was kept under wraps last week by the Jacksonville Jaguars’ defense. But he’s still very much in the running for NFL Comeback Player of the Year honors. And only Arizona’s David Johnson (2,074), Dallas’ Ezekiel Elliott (1,994) and Pittsburgh’s Le’Veon Bell (1,884) have accumulated more total yards from scrimmage from Murray (1,645). One season after being a somewhat non-factor with the Philadelphia Eagles, the seven-year running back leads the Titans with 1,266 yards on the ground, is the club’s third-leading pass-catcher with 52 receptions and has scored a club-high 12 touchdowns.
More fansided.com: NFL power rankings, Week 17: Chiefs rise, Seahawks fall
Odds
While the Houston Texans are headed to the playoffs, it’s the Tennessee Titans that are 4-point favorites this Sunday afternoon in Nashville. Meanwhile, the OVER/UNDER for this tilt is a conservative 40.5.
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