One of the few bright spots in an otherwise disheartening season for the Tennessee Titans has been the evolution of rookie quarterback Cam Ward. The Titans, after Week 17, are 3-13 with one last game against the Jacksonville Jaguars looming. The Titans have been unable to win back-to-back games this season, leaving them with one of the worst records in the league and lots of questions about the future.
The question of what their quarterback play will look like, though, is coming into focus.
Ward has thrown for two touchdowns in each of the Titans' last four games -- two of which were wins over the Cleveland Browns and injury-riddled Kansas City Chiefs, respectively -- and has continued to look more comfortable as the season has progressed. He leads all rookie quarterbacks with 3,117 passing yards and 15 total touchdowns, and now has the first rookie 3,000-yard passing season in Titans history.
"There were definitely some wow plays in there," interim head coach Mike McCoy said after the Titans' 34-26 loss to the New Orleans Saints on Sunday. "Just continues to get better. Week in and week out, he's starting to show everybody those type of plays that he's going to make, and not just the easy ones, but the ones that are really difficult to make. So, it's great to see him do that."
"I just got to be consistent," Ward said last week, after posting his highest passer rating (122.3) of the season against the Chiefs. "Got to do what I need to do to win football games. Put my teammates in a good situation to help them and really just keep playing clean football on offense like we've been doing."
It's worth noting that the Titans will have a new head coach next year, and the expectation is that coach will continue to develop and work well with Ward and the rest of the team. Ward said the team intends to get back to having a winning culture, and it starts individually.
"We have a great building to have that culture, and everyone in the building is trending towards that culture," he said on Sunday."...The best thing about this team is we know change is coming. We know change is coming in seven days."
Texans carry eight-game win streak in Week 18 vs. Colts
The Texans on Saturday took down the Los Angeles Chargers by a score of 20-16 at SoFi Stadium, extending their win streak to eight games and officially knocking the Colts out of the playoffs. The two AFC South foes will face off for the second time this season in Week 18 at NRG Stadium. The game will be at 1 pm on Sunday.
"Just really proud of every person on this team and organization for putting us in a spot to go play in the playoffs," head coach DeMeco Ryans said after the Texans' win. "It's what you play for. It's what you work hard for throughout training camp. It's what you fight in the season for, for an opportunity to be in the playoffs and go win it all. So we've earned that and it wasn't given to us. Our guys went out and earned it. We're extremely proud of everybody for that."
Against the Chargers, C.J. Stroud was 16-of-28 for 244 yards and two touchdowns. He also threw two interceptions. The Texans defense also continued their winning ways against the Chargers, sacking Justin Herbert five times, recording one interception and tallying eight quarterback hits, eight tackles for a loss, five passes defensed and a forced fumble.
"The way the D-line showed up today, sack after sack, really putting pressure on the quarterback, getting him down," Ryans said. "We needed them to play big today and they did."
In their previous matchup this season, the Colts lost 20-16, unable to mount a fourth-quarter comeback at Lucas Oil Stadium.
