Rob Davies - The Tennessee Titans aren’t quite ready to let the Houston Texans walk off with the AFC South crown and of course, with this being professional football, that should never be allowed to happen. However, as obvious as that sounds, my point is this: the Texans are vastly superior to the Titans, but that’s when Matt Schaub is under center in Houston. They now have to choose between T. J. Yates or Jake Delhomme at quarterback while last week the Titans gained momentum after pulling out a victory against a Buccaneers team that’s played hard on the road the last two weeks.
If ever motivation was needed, Tennessee now has it as the Texans had the division all but wrapped up before Schaub was lost for the season. Last week, it could be argued that the Titans had their playoff hopes, and therefore their season, on the line with three minutes to play against Tampa. Facing fourth and goal at the 2 yard line and trailing 17-13 (making a field goal futile), Matt Hasselbeck found Damian Williams in the end zone for the score. They could’ve kicked the field goal and risked an onside kick, but I love the call made by coach Mike Munchak and it’s that one play that may yet have a say in Tennessee’s push for either a wildcard berth or even the division, should Houston really implode at quarterback.
Running back Chris Johnson, one week removed from 13 yards on 12 carries against Atlanta, ran for 190 yards on 23 carries and with stats like that it’s astonishing to think that the Titans had to leave it so late to win. Anyhow, with Johnson proving so erratic, there’s no telling which of his games he’ll bring with him so he’s impossible to trust, even when up against Buffalo’s 21st ranked run defense.
The Bills are on a horrible four game skid and any thoughts they had of the playoffs after their storming 5-2 start, that included wins against the Raiders, Patriots and Eagles, are fast disappearing and they haven’t been helped by poor quarterback play from Ryan Fitzpatrick (since signing a $59 million contract extension) and the loss of running back Fred Jackson for the season with a broken right leg. That said, they regained some pride last week in a humdinger against the Jets in New York, going down 28-24 on a Santonio Holmes touchdown with one minute to play and even then they had a chance to win it with eight seconds to play.
Second year man C. J. Spiller will once again pick up the slack in Jackson’s absence, but he gained only 55 yards on 19 carries last week so won’t inspire confidence, which means that Fitzpatrick may come close to replicating his 39 pass attempts from last Sunday. Having thrown 2 TDs and 7 INTs in his previous three outings, Fitzpatrick threw 3 TDs and zero picks last week and that was up against Darrelle Revis and Antonio Cromartie so, despite the loss, he’ll be raring to go come Sunday.
Perhaps I’m overestimating Buffalo, but I stand wholeheartedly behind my spread and take the Bills to cover.
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