Houston came into Sunday as overwhelming favorites against the Titans. 

The Texans had every right to be confident. They came into the game leading the division and up against one of the teams that has struggled most in the NFL. 

But in a game that should have been perfectly in Houston's hands, the team did everything in its power to lose.

The Texans turned the ball over three times, missed easy field goals, set themselves back with penalties, allowed big plays to a team that has struggled to gain any all season and flat-out did not come to play against a divisional foe.

All of that led to one of the most embarrassing losses in recent memory for the Texans, losing to the Titans 32-27 in a game where Houston did not play prepared, did not play disciplined, and looked like a team in freefall 12 weeks into the season.

“We didn’t do anything well enough to win this game,” said Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans. “There were positives, but that doesn’t matter today because there were way too many negatives for us to take advantage of those positives. Negative plays, touchdowns called back, penalties on special teams, explosive touchdowns we gave up on defense. Across the board, we just didn’t play well and that starts with me.”

The Texans had a perfect start to the game, getting an 80-yard kick return from Dameon Pierce to open things before CJ Stroud found Cade Stover for a 19-yard touchdown on the first play from scrimmage. The Titans responded with a field goal and then after a three and out from Houston, Tennessee drove down the field and scored on a wide-open 38-yard touchdown pass from Will Levis to Nick Westbrook Ikhine to take the lead. Houston’s offense had to punt again and the Titans offense scored on its third straight drive when Tony Pollard punched in a 10-yard score early in the second quarter.

Houston finally answered back on its next drive, going 78 yards in 10 plays and getting a touchdown when Stroud threw a 5-yard pass to Nico Collins. The Texans defense finally made a stop by forcing and recovering a fumble and Houston drove the field before tying it on a 28-yard field goal with just over a minute remaining in the half. Houston got the ball back with a chance to take the lead but Stroud threw an interception and the Titans added a field goal from 56 yards to take a 20-17 lead into halftime.

“I can’t throw those kind of interceptions,” Stroud said. “That’s giving them points and it turned out to be the difference in the game. It’s little mistakes and I can’t have that as a quarterback. I have to be better and that can’t happen. I will learn from it.”

Tennessee added a field goal from 51 yards to start the second half and looked to be on the verge of adding more points after another Stroud interception, but Jimmie Ward came away with a 65-yard interception that he returned for a touchdown that gave Houston its first lead of the game with seconds left in the third quarter. Houston’s offense struggled but managed to get into field goal range early in the fourth, where a 54-yard field goal made it a four-point game. The Titans retook the lead on their first play of the next drive, as Levis completed a simple pass to Chig Okonkwo that turned into a 70-yard touchdown and gave the Titans a 30-27 lead. Houston drove the length of the field late in the game, but Kai’mi Fairbairn missed a chip shot 33-yard field goal that would have tied it. Houston’s defense made one last stop and gave the offense a chance to win it, but penalties backed Houston up to its own goal line and CJ Stroud was sacked in the endzone with just over a minute remaining for a safety to end any chances of a comeback and seal the loss.

“The most frustrating thing is even with all the bad today, we still had a chance to win the game,” Ryans said. “Everything that could go wrong, went wrong today, but we still had a chance to tie it up or finish the game and we didn’t do that. It just wasn’t good enough.”

The Texans second-half struggles continued in the game as they again failed to score an offensive touchdown. Over the past five games, the Texans defense has managed to score more second-half touchdowns, with two, than the offense, which has one in those five games. The Texans also managed to lose despite having eight sacks on the day, while allowing the Titans to score their season-high in points. It was a failure, from coaching, to execution, to fundamentals for the Texans as they fell to 7-5 on the season and sit two games above the Colts for first place in the AFC South. 

Houston will travel to take on the Jaguars next week before returning home to play the Dolphins. It’s an important stretch of the season, and things need to get figured out fast if this team is to reach the expectations many had for them this year.

“We have to be able to finish games, we’ve emphasized that repeatedly, but there’s been a struggle to execute and finish the right way,” Ryans said. “That’s on me as a coach. I have to be better, I have to get these guys ready and we have to come out and be better in every area than we were this week.”