Live Titans vs. Texans Odds – Expert MNF Picks – 110% Thanksgiving Betting Bonus!
The Monday Night game for week 11 features the Tennessee Titans traveling to Reliant Stadium to play the Houston Texans for their final meeting of the season. The line currently has the Texans -4. In the first game, Houston outlasted Tennessee 34-30. Matt Schaub had a huge day for Houston with 357 yards, 4 touchdowns, and no interceptions. Titans RB Chris Johnson had a historic day with 3 touchdowns of over 50 yards. Since then, the Titans have piled on the loses, changed quarterbacks and slid out of playoff contention at 3-6. Houston has played uninspired football leading to a 5-4 mark with a chance to potentially emerge as a playoff football team after this week.
The Titans were 0-6 with Kerry Collins as the starter and in the last 3 weeks with Vince Young being handed the starting job, they are now 3-0. The Kerry Collins era of 0-6 means nothing to me as a bettor, so we focus on what the 3-0 Titans are with Vince Young under center. This team is…well…unsurprisingly predictable in about every way. Sure, the Titans have won with Vince Young as the quarterback and he appears to be managing the game with only 2 interceptions to go along with his 2 touchdowns but the passing offense is still bad. Young is averaging 169 yards per game with 48 of his total 67 attempts in 3 games coming either behind the line of scrimmage or within 10 yards. Only 9 times has Vince been asked to throw the ball over 20 yards. The Titans best weapon in moving the ball continues to be Chris Johnson.
Chris Johnson is all too familiar with the Houston defense as he ran for 2 touchdowns of 57 and 91 yards along with a 69 yard TD reception in their last meeting. It was certainly a career day that ended in defeat. If there is a reason to bet the Titans, Johnson is that reason. I am no longer certain that Houston can be content with letting Johnson just “get his” as long as they shut down Vince Young. Shutting down Young will be easy, with 2 weeks to prepare for the stale Titans passing offense. However, a game from Johnson that resembles anything like he had in week 2, leaves a very small margin of error for the Houston offense to cover the 4 points in this matchup.
The Texans have proven to have an explosive offense this year. Houston is 6th in the league in total yards with 374.9 yards per game with most of them coming through the air. Ranking 3rd in the league in passing offense, averaging 283.7 yards per game, Matt Schaub has a favorite target in Andre Johnson. Johnson is 3rd in the league in receiving yards and has already put up huge numbers against the Titan’s secondary. Johnson caught 10 passes for 147 yards and a touchdown in their last meeting exposing the Titans passing defense along with Matt Schaub who threw for his 357 total yards. Following the week 2 game, the Titans have done little to improve their passing defense, giving up 270.4 yards per game, good for 31st in the league.
The Texans enter this game coming off a bye week in which they had to sit on a tough loss to the Colts. Andre Johnson summed it up pretty well after the defeat, “there are no moral victories.” Teams coming off a bye and playing at home this year are 11-3. The Texans have improved their rushing defense in recent weeks. The Houston’s rush defense is 14th in the league at 108.6 yards per game, but in their last 3 games opponents have averaged 76 yards per game which would be good for 2nd against the league. Combine this with the extra week of prep and the Texans should be able to have a competent game plan in place for containing Johnson and stopping Vince Young.
On the road it will be a tall task for Vince Young and the Titans to pull off a victory so the only question is will they be able to cover the spread? The answer is no. I do not care that Young is 3-0 as a starter. He is still a very poor quarterback and the wins are in spite of what he is doing under the center. Chris Johnson will literally have to duplicate his historic week 2 performance to keep the game close. Meanwhile, the Texans just have to continue to do what they have much of the year, throw the ball for a lot of yards and continue to stop the run. The formula could not be simpler for a fairly lop-sided Monday night game.
Monday Night Football Pick: Houston Texans -4
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