C.J. Stroud threw a touchdown pass and Dameon Pierce rushed for 176 yards and another score as the Houston Texans tuned up for the playoffs with a 23-14 defeat of the Tennessee Titans on Sunday in Nashville.
Houston (10-7), which clinched the AFC South title back in Week 15, earned the fourth seed and will host the fifth-seeded Los Angeles Chargers in the wild-card round.
With their loss and the New England Patriots’ victory over the Buffalo Bills on Sunday, the Titans (3-14) received the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.
Stroud completed all six of his passes for 50 yards on the game’s first possession, finding Nico Collins for a 2-yard strike at the 7:43 mark. Houston coach DeMeco Ryans hooked Stroud at that point and used backup Davis Mills, who was 12 of 22 for 128 yards.
A large portion of Pierce’s yardage came via a 92-yard touchdown run with 13:55 left in the second quarter that gave the Texans a 13-0 lead.
Tennessee started Will Levis at quarterback and also used Mason Rudolph. Levis hit 9 of 17 passes for 175 yards, including a 49-yard scoring strike to Tay Martin with 2:41 left in the game, while Rudolph was 7 of 9 for 70 yards.
Tony Pollard rushed 22 times for 62 yards, falling 21 yards shy of 1,100 yards for the year. That would have triggered an automatic $250,000 bonus. Calvin Ridley collected 76 receiving yards, giving him his third 1,000-yard receiving season with three teams (2023 Jacksonville Jaguars, 2020 Atlanta Falcons).
The Texans took a 16-3 lead to halftime after the teams swapped field goals in the last two minutes of the first half. Matthew Wright hit from 35 for Tennessee before Ka’imi Fairbairn connected from 27 as time expired.
Wright pulled the Titans within 16-6 with a 38-yard field goal at the 6:47 mark of the third quarter, capping a drive of more than eight minutes. But Houston made it 23-6 with 13:50 remaining in the game when Derek Barnett recovered a fumbled handoff by Levis and rumbled 36 yards for a touchdown.
–Field Level Media
