Houston had been waiting for a dominant performance from the Texans over the past month.

The Texans had been in a slide, losing two out of three and struggling on the offensive side of the football. But the answer to their slide came Sunday.

Home field advantage and the return of both CJ Stroud and Will Anderson propelled Houston to a huge win over the Titans, 26-3 over the titans as Houston kept its playoff hopes very alive heading into the last week of the season behind a dominating game on both sides of the football.

Stroud led the way on the offensive side, completing 24 of 32 passes for 213 yards and a touchdown, while Anderson did some strong work on the defensive side with two sacks in his first game back from injury.

“We have a lot of young guys who have stepped up this year and provided energy to our team,” said Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans. “That’s what I told these young guys when I met with them in the offseason and they’ve done that since day one. They bring the energy and set the tone and you saw that today. CJ, Will, all of those guys have stepped up and made plays. I’m happy we have this core of really good young players.”

The Texans defense and Stroud took no time to settle in, with Houston’s defense opening the game with a 3-and-out before Stroud marched the offense down the field where the Texans took the lead on a short field goal. Houston’s defense continued to hold Tennessee and Stroud extended the lead early in the second quarter, capping off a 13-play, 94-yard drive with a 12-yard touchdown pass to Brevin Jordan. The Texans defense added to the lead the very next play, as they stripped Will Levis in the backfield and Sheldon Rankins returned the fumble recovery 13-yards for another touchdown. The Texans added another field goal late in the half before the Titans finally got on the board as time expired with a long field goal, with Houston going into the half leading 20-3.

It was one of the best halves of the year for the Texans, as they allowed just 79 yards of total offense and 12 yards on the ground.

“The defense played so well today and I was so happy with the strip sack,” Ryans said. “That’s all we talk about, taking the ball away in those situations and not being happy with just a sack. Our D-Line has produced no matter who’s been in there and they play well together. It all starts up front with the line, when they play well it helps everyone else. They’ve been a driving force when we play well and when they make that kind of impact we have a really good chance to win games.”

The Texans came out of the half and added to the lead with their third field goal of the game and then made a huge stop on their own goal line, as Christian Harris broke up a pass in the endzone on a fourth down play to get the ball back. Houston forced another turnover on downs in the fourth quarter and Fairbairn nailed his fourth field goal of the day, a 51-yarder. Houston strolled the rest of the way, not allowing another point the rest of the way and finishing the game having given up just 187 yards of offense to the Titans offense, as the Texans improved to 9-7 on the year.

For Houston, it will all come down to the final week of the season. There is still a chance of winning the AFC South with a win and a Jaguars loss, while just a win would put the Texans into the playoffs regardless of results happening in the rest of the league. A loss and things get a lot trickier.

“Robert Woods came to us on Saturday and we had a big conversation about everything and the big theme was ‘how bad do you want this,’ because we have that opportunity in front of us to get to the playoffs,” Stroud said. “We are taking this very seriously , we have this chance and we came out today and played like it. We have the opportunity to control our own destiny, so we’re excited about it.”