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Published Sunday, October 23, 2011 12:18 AM

By TERESA M. WALKER
Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Texans and Tennessee Titans now have a new reason not to like each other.

The Titans, who left Houston in 1997, and the franchise that replaced the former Oilers have had an intense rivalry from the time the Texans started playing in the new AFC South back in 2002 with bragging rights on the line. With Peyton Manning still recovering from surgery, the Titans and Texans meet Sunday for the first time with the AFC South lead at stake.

“It always has a little something special, especially when it’s Houston,” Titans coach Mike Munchak said. “The fact that we are both sitting here with a chance to stay in first place makes it a lot more fun.”

The Titans (3-2) grabbed a half-game edge in the division resting through their bye week when Houston (3-3) lost its second straight game last week 29-14 to Baltimore. Texans linebacker Connor Barwin said there’s no hiding any secrets of what this game means.

“This is for the division right now. It’s a huge game, and we need to win a game, too,” Barwin said. “We can’t lose any more games, so no, I don’t think it’s a secret to anybody. I don’t think anybody around here thinks it’s not that important. I think we all understand what’s at stake.”

Tennessee at least has some experience as the only AFC South team other than Indianapolis to win this division with titles in 2002 and 2008.

The Texans still must prove they can reach the playoffs for the first time in their short history, and they’re busy regrouping from two consecutive losses combined while dealing with injuries. Andre Johnson likely will miss his third straight game with a hamstring injury, while Matt Schaub’s chest and right hip are sore. Fullback James Casey also could be out with his chest injury.

Schaub said the Texans remain confident they’ll get over the hump.

“If you aren’t confident in what you are doing, then you are not going to do it anyway,” Schaub said. “If you believe in yourself and your team that you are going to get it done, then you will. You just have to keep working at it, and good things will happen to you.”

Even without Johnson, the Texans still have Arian Foster, the NFL’s top rusher last season. Texans coach Gary Kubiak thinks Foster is coming around after a hamstring injury limited him early. Foster is a big reason Houston is averaging 126.2 yards rushing per game.

The Titans spent their bye week after a 38-17 loss at Pittsburgh studying their own run game. Chris Johnson has 250 yards rushing this season, and Tennessee is averaging 66.6 yards rushing, which is last in the NFL. Left tackle Michael Roos said they looked at every run play, which helped the Titans realize everyone has a share of the blame.

“It was on us as an offensive line at times different guys not doing their job and as a whole it is a whole offensive team thing,” Roos said. “Whether a tight end missed a block or Chris a bad read, but there were a lot of bad blocks by us. We weren’t playing up to par. We worked hard … to fix that.”

The Texans have seen enough of Johnson not to overlook him. Johnson ran for 130 yards in Nashville last December as the teams split the season series for a third straight year. Barwin said the Titans paid Johnson his $53 million extension for a reason.

“I’ve played him when he’s had nobody blocking for him, and he’s gone 80 yards,” Barwin said. “I remember my rookie year, he went 99 yards on a draw play, so the guy can make anybody look stupid and can take it all the way in a second, so I’m not really looking at three yards a carry right now.”

Houston will be playing its second game without linebacker Mario Williams, but the Texans are third in the NFL with 17 sacks. Tennessee has protected Matt Hasselbeck pretty well this season, and the veteran is ranked second in the AFC to Tom Brady with a 95.9 passer rating. Hasselbeck has been sacked seven times, and Munchak doesn’t want him taking a beating.

“When your quarterback is getting wacked and eventually it takes a toll on his throws and his confidence. They are doing a nice job up front …,” Munchak said.

The Titans also believe they learned a big lesson a year ago when they came off their bye and lost five straight games in finishing 6-10. Cornerback Cortland Finnegan said this is a different team with different circumstances starting a three-game homestand.

“We know we’re sort of in the driver’s seat if we can win at home against a really good football team,” Finnegan said.

——

Follow Teresa M. Walker on Twitter at www.twitter.com/teresamwalker

The AFC South looks like a two-team race, although both the Tennessee Titans
and Houston Texans have plenty to improve upon as they chase the division title.

They’ll battle for the South lead Sunday in Nashville, with each team
looking to bounce back from a tough loss.

Houston (3-3) fell 29-14 in Baltimore last week to give idle Tennessee (3-2)
the division lead, though the Titans are coming off a 38-17 defeat at Pittsburgh
on Oct. 9.

Tennessee will host Indianapolis on Oct. 30, and first-year coach Mike
Munchak said his squad has an opportunity to build a solid lead with
back-to-back divisional games.

“It’s early. We all know that, but you would rather what’s happening happen
and we still know what we have to do this weekend starting with the Texans
playing two division games in a row,” Munchak said. “We lost our first one (to
Jacksonville on Sept. 11) so this game is huge for us to come out and play well
against a division opponent at home.”

The Titans’ inability to run the ball effectively has been the most
surprising aspect of their season. They rank last in the league averaging 66.6
yards on the ground as Chris Johnson has started slowly after signing a $53
million extension.

Johnson’s 3.0 yards per carry rank 47th among 48 qualifying rushers, and he
scored his first touchdown of the season in the loss to Pittsburgh. He came into
the season with the most rushing yards of any player over the last three years,
though Munchak said Johnson is not the only one to blame.

“Some guys may sit there and say, ‘Well, I thought it was the running back.
No, it’s the O-line. No, it’s the tight end,’ so I think you all realize that
it’s a team effort to be ranked where we are,” Munchak said. “It’s all of us,
from coaching to the play calling to the execution, all of that is part of it
when you are dead last. We know that, we are not happy about it, and it’s up to
us to do something about it.”

Last season, Johnson rushed for five yards on seven carries in a 20-0 loss
in Houston on Nov. 28, but bounced back with 130 yards and a touchdown in a
31-17 home victory Dec. 19.

Tennessee’s defense also has room to improve, ranking 30th in the league in
allowing opponents to convert 46.7 percent of third-down attempts.

The Texans, though, are struggling to find an offensive rhythm without the
injured Andre Johnson(notes).

Coach Gary Kubiak said he’s not sure when his All-Pro receiver will be able
to return, but Johnson is likely to miss a third consecutive game this week due
to his hamstring injury.

Despite two straight losses, Houston is in position to reclaim the division
lead with a victory over Tennessee, and the Texans have won three of the last
five meetings.

“We’re going to Tennessee to play in a huge game, for the division lead,”
Kubiak said. “We’re getting over the disappointment of (last Sunday) really
fast, and we’re getting excited about playing this weekend.

“We’ve been in two very tough games, and haven’t gotten it done. But we come
in here, we make our corrections, we’ve got to juggle some guys around because
of some of the nicks we’ve got going on.”

None may be more devastating than the season-ending injury to Mario
Williams(notes), who had surgery to repair a torn pectoral muscle suffered in an Oct. 9
loss to Oakland.

The Texans allowed 402 total yards against Baltimore in their first game
without Williams, the franchise’s all-time sacks leader by a wide margin.

Houston may have to rely on its eighth-ranked offense led by Matt Schaub(notes),
who has thrown 10 touchdowns and only one interception in his last four starts
against the Titans.

The Texans rank seventh averaging 126.2 yards rushing, though they’ve
combined for just 163 yards on the ground in their back-to-back losses.

Arian Foster(notes) ran for 143 yards in last season’s win over Tennessee, but was
held to 15 yards on 11 carries in the December defeat. That was the Texans’
seventh loss in nine all-time visits to Nashville, and they’ve lost eight of
their last nine road games overall.

Read More: Terrell Owens (WR – CIN), Tennessee Titans, Cincinnati Bengals

Terrell Owens has had quite an interesting off-season as the All-Pro wide receiver went to Korea for knee surgery, pretended he retired during an interview with ESPN and was recently rushed to the hospital for reasons unbeknownst to the general public. After all of that, however, the Tennessee Titans are still considering adding Owens once he is healthy according to head coach Mike Munchak.

Muchak did his local radio show earlier in the week and the topic of wide receivers was brought up in the wake of the season-ending injury to Kenny Britt just a few weeks ago. The Titans head coach revealed that he was interested in trading for Brandon Lloyd, which makes sense, and that the team’s next option might be to take a look at Owens.

“That’s something that at some point when (Owens’) health is better and he can pass a physical – people thought the midpoint of the season, maybe – he might be a guy that may be able to to work out to prove where he’s at,” Munchak said. “So of course us, or whoever else, is going to take a look, just like we have with other free agents, to see what kind of shape he’s in.”

As Pro Football Talk’s Michael David Smith notes, this apparently means that the 3-2 Titans are in win-now mode — a spot not many onlookers thought they might be through six weeks of an NFL season that didn’t look promising this summer.

Read More: Terrell Owens (WR – CIN), Tennessee Titans, Cincinnati Bengals

Terrell Owens has had quite an interesting off-season as the All-Pro wide receiver went to Korea for knee surgery, pretended he retired during an interview with ESPN and was recently rushed to the hospital for reasons unbeknownst to the general public. After all of that, however, the Tennessee Titans are still considering adding Owens once he is healthy according to head coach Mike Munchak.

Muchak did his local radio show earlier in the week and the topic of wide receivers was brought up in the wake of the season-ending injury to Kenny Britt just a few weeks ago. The Titans head coach revealed that he was interested in trading for Brandon Lloyd, which makes sense, and that the team’s next option might be to take a look at Owens.

“That’s something that at some point when (Owens’) health is better and he can pass a physical – people thought the midpoint of the season, maybe – he might be a guy that may be able to to work out to prove where he’s at,” Munchak said. “So of course us, or whoever else, is going to take a look, just like we have with other free agents, to see what kind of shape he’s in.”

As Pro Football Talk’s Michael David Smith notes, this apparently means that the 3-2 Titans are in win-now mode — a spot not many onlookers thought they might be through six weeks of an NFL season that didn’t look promising this summer.

By Michael Bean

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Oct 11, 2011 – After winning their season opener over the Tennessee Titans, the Jacksonville Jaguars have dropped four straight to fall to 1-4 on the 2011 NFL season. On Tuesday, the Jags made a minor roster transaction by signing former Detroit Lions punter Nick Harris and releasing veteran Matt Turk. The 43-year old Turk had struggled with his 27 punting opportunities this season, averaging a mere 39.7 yards per punt. The final straw might have been his 22-yard fourth quarter punt during Jacksonville’s 30-20 loss to Cincinnati on Sunday. We’ll see if Turk finally decides to call it a career, or if he’d be willing to join another team on short notice were his services needed at some point this season.

Turk’s replacement, Harris, last punted for the Lions in 2010. The 33-year old averaged a healthy 44.6 yards per punt last season.He has yet to kick in 2011, but has been preparing for when an opportunity presented itself.

With the slow development of the Jaguars offense under rookie quarterback Blaine Gabbert, there’s an even higher premium placed on the Jaguars winning the field position battle with sound special teams play. That has not been the case so far this year.  The Jaguars face a tough test in Week 6 when they travel to Pittsburgh to take on the Steelers. After a sluggish 2-2 start, the Steelers looked like the defending AFC champions this past Sunday when they hammered one of Jacksonville’s divisional rivals, the Tennessee Titans.

For more Jaguars coverage leading up to Week 6, stop by Big Cat Country.

Read More: Nick Harris (P – JAC), Matt Turk (P – JAC), Blaine Gabbert (QB – JAC), Pittsburgh Steelers, Tennessee Titans, Jacksonville Jaguars, Detroit Lions

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LOS ANGELES – Tennessee Titans [team stats] quarterback Matt Hasselbeck has spent much more of his NFL career under the radar than under the microscope.

In many ways he has enjoyed that, going from Seattle to Nashville and joking that sometimes feels like being enrolled in the witness protection program. But with the way Hasselbeck is playing, he can’t hide much longer.

Through the first four games, he’s looked like the smartest free-agent acquisition of the season. His Titans are 3-1 heading into Sunday’s game at Pittsburgh, and he’s second in the AFC to New England’s Tom Brady [stats] with a 104.7 passer rating. Hasselbeck has eight touchdowns, three interceptions, and has been sacked just four times.

“I’m not trying to do anything crazy, I’m just being myself,” he said in a phone interview this week. “When Coach (Mike) Munchak brought me here, he was like, ’Listen, we don’t need you to try to do anything that you’ve never done. We need you to be what you’ve been in Seattle the last 10 years. We’ve got all the other pieces.’

“There are signs around the building that just say, ’Be a pro.’ That’s all they’re looking for. I’m down with that.”

And the Titans are decidedly up. They’re coming off consecutive victories over Baltimore, Denver and Cleveland and now look to be getting star running back Chris Johnson going – he had his first 100-yard game of the season last Sunday – although they have lost top receiver Kenny Britt to a knee injury.

From the perspective of the 36-year-old Hasselbeck, everything starts with the Tennessee offensive line, which for 16 years was coached by Munchak, a Hall of Fame lineman. The line is now coached by Bruce Matthews, also among the elite linemen in Canton, and assistant Al Valero, who was with Hasselbeck in Seattle last season.

Over the past four seasons in Seattle, Hasselbeck was sacked 113 times and missed 13 games because of various injuries. The Seahawks made a lot of changes along their offensive line during that span, including using No. 1 picks on tackles the past two years. This is one quarterback who understands the value of a cohesive unit up front, and he knows his head coach feels the same way.

“This guy gets it,” Hasselbeck said of Munchak. “He gets that you can have whoever you want at wide receiver, but if you don’t have a good offensive line that’s been together, if you don’t start there, then so what?”

It doesn’t hurt Hasselbeck’s cause that Tennessee’s defense has allowed a league-low 14.0 points per game.

“Coming to Tennessee was a fantastic move for him,” NBC’s Cris Collinsworth said of Hasselbeck. “In the middle of that Ravens game, I started seeing some of the flair and the fun and the sidearm throws that have always been his trademark as a quarterback, and I was like, ’Uh oh.’ If you have this guy and he’s healthy and he’s getting protected, and Chris Johnson when he gets back up to speed … they’re going to be something.”

Hasselbeck concedes it wasn’t easy to leave Seattle – he liked playing for Coach Pete Carroll – but said the Seahawks made it clear they planned to move on without him.

“They were super honest with me when the lockout ended,” Hasselbeck said. “They called me and said, ’Hey, listen, there’s no easy way to say this: We’re going to go in a different direction.’ It was basically, we’re breaking up with you. … It’s never easy to hear that, but I appreciated the honesty. I didn’t have to read it on the ticker.”

His assumption was he’d stay in the NFC West, maybe landing in either Arizona or San Francisco. Instead, it was Tennessee that pursued him most aggressively, saying he would be more than a short-term bridge to rookie quarterback Jake Locker; someone who could start multiple seasons.

“We thought he had a lot left in the tank from watching him in the playoffs last year,” Munchak said. “We didn’t bring him in here to retire quietly. We brought him here to do exactly what he’s been doing.”

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – The Tennessee Titans have won three straight and are tied for the AFC’s best start.

With the exception of a stumbling loss to open the season, it’s the kind of start new coach Mike Munchak expected.

Munchak said Monday the Titans have positioned themselves back into the mix with their goal of winning the AFC South.

He said the Titans are back on track and excited by the prospect.

Few outside of Tennessee’s headquarters expected much from this team with the franchise starting over this season with a new coach, new coordinators and two new quarterbacks along with the NFL lockout for good measure.

Now the Titans are 3-1, and even Chris Johnson finally is getting going with his first 100-yard rushing game after his contract holdout.

Munchak said safety Chris Hope will need surgery on his broken left forearm and likely will be out four to six weeks.

Hope was hurt early in the Titans’ win at Cleveland on Sunday, and that was his first start after missing two games with a shoulder he dislocated in the season opener.

Jordan Babineaux replaced Hope and picked off a pass he returned 97 yards for a touchdown.

Munchak said Monday that Hope will have surgery this week. A 10-year veteran, Hope is in the final year of his contract and earning $6.5 million.

Tight end Craig Stevens likely will be limited with a rib injury, and starting left guard Leroy Harris will be limited after getting a knee and ankle caught up in a pile.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)