The Tennessee Titans (11-5) are set to travel to the franchise’s old stomping grounds to take on the Houston Texans (4-12) in an AFC South showdown.
This game is rather meaningless for the Texans as they try to get their mind off Bora Bora for one more weekend. The Titans, on the other hand, are one win away from securing home-field advantage throughout the playoffs for the first time since the 2008 season.
Securing the No. 1 seed is extra important these days because there’s only one team that gets the first-round bye in each conference due to the recent playoff expansion to seven teams in each conference.
It cannot be overstated how helpful the bye week is when trying to chase a championship. Teams that play on Wild Card weekend must win three games just to get to the Super Bowl, while the teams with the bye week only need two wins to get there.
There is also a bit of the revenge aspect heading into this game. The Titans embarrassingly fell to the Texans back in Week 11 during a disastrous day that saw Tennessee turn the ball over five times in borderline monsoon weather.
Unlike that day, Tennessee is going to have most of their top weapons on both sides of the ball for this Week 18 finale, therefore there’s no acceptable reason for an upset this time around.
With all that said, let’s take a closer look at what Tennessee needs to accomplish in order to ensure they leave Houston as the AFC’s No. 1 Seed.
