The Houston Texans found their first win of 2026 by turning Sunday into a grind Tennessee could never win.
Houston went into Nissan Stadium still searching for its first victory and walked out with a 26-3 rout of the Titans, a result built less on flash than on control. The Texans didn’t come out blazing.
They opened with four Ka’imi Fairbairn field goals in the first half and took a 12-3 lead into the break. But once the defense settled in, Tennessee had no answer.
After giving up a field goal on the Titans’ first drive, Houston blanked them the rest of the way. That was the difference. The Texans kept Tennessee from stacking anything together and forced the Titans into an afternoon of chasing empty possessions.
The takeaways swung the game even more. Jalen Pitre jumped on a fumble after Dominique Robinson forced it loose, and Jake Hansen picked off Cam Ward after Danielle Hunter’s pressure helped create the play. Those turnovers gave Houston extra chances and helped keep the Titans stuck on their lone early score.
At halftime, DeMeco Ryans pointed to the players’ execution and said the defense was “playing really well” while praising Hansen for attacking the football. The unit backed that up over the final two quarters, and then some, as Tennessee never got back on the board.
C.J. Stroud managed the offense and finished 26 of 34 for 261 yards and a touchdown.
Houston’s best drive of the day came in the third quarter, a 17-play march that lasted 8 minutes, 23 seconds and covered 74 yards. Stroud capped it himself with a 2-yard touchdown run to stretch the lead to 19-3.
From there, the Texans kept piling on. Stroud hit Jaylin Noel for a 9-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter to push the margin to 26-3. Woody Marks added 62 rushing yards, and Fairbairn’s four field goals kept the scoreboard moving before Houston started finishing drives in the end zone.
For a team that had dropped four straight to begin the season, this was the kind of win that actually means something. Not pretty.
Not explosive. Just firm, clean, and carried by a defense that finally took over.
In Other News...
Texans Get One Big Boost Before Crucial Titans Showdown
The Texans head into a crucial AFC South matchup against Tennessee with a mixed injury picture that still offers some encouragement. Tank Dell has already been ruled out, leaving Houston to adjust its passing game again, but the defense got a much-needed lift as Will Anderson Jr. and Azeez Al-Shaair returned to full participation in practice and are expected to be available.
Even with those two back on track, the week is hardly clean on either side of the ball. Several other Texans are still working through questionable or limited designations, so the final game-day roster could still shift before kickoff. Against a Titans team that always seems to make these divisional meetings feel heavier than the record suggests, Houston will be watching the injury report closely right up to the end. [Read more 🡒]
Texans Backfield Just Took Another Hit Fans Were Dreading
Houstons backfield took another jolt in Week 5 when David Montgomery was ruled out for the rest of the game against the Tennessee Titans after suffering a groin injury in the second quarter. Before leaving, he had logged five carries for 11 yards, a modest start that still mattered for a Texans offense trying to keep its ground game steady.
Montgomerys status now hangs on how serious the injury turns out to be, and it lands at an awkward moment for a team that has already been dealing with multiple groin issues among its players lately. For Houston, the concern is not just losing one back for an afternoon, but whether this becomes another short-term setback in a stretch where the injury luck in the backfield has been running thin. [Read more 🡒]
Titans-Texans Just Took A Sudden Turn With Houston's Backfield
Houstons backfield took a hit in the middle of its Week 5 matchup with Tennessee when David Montgomery was downgraded to out after leaving in the second quarter with a groin injury. The Texans made the call official and ruled him out for the rest of the game, forcing the offense to adjust on the fly at a spot where game-to-game stability matters plenty.
With Montgomery unavailable, Houston will have to lean more heavily on its other running backs and the passing game to carry the load the rest of the way. The bigger question now is what this injury means beyond Sunday, because the team has not offered any detail yet on how serious it is or whether it could affect his availability in the coming weeks. [Read more 🡒]