By
Brian Cox on Thursday, September 18
th 2014
The AFC South has had some surprising games in only two weeks of the 2014 season. The Houston Texans are sitting on top at 2-0 (already matching their win total from the 2013 season) while the Indianapolis Colts and Jacksonville Jaguars are tied for last at 0-2. Without a doubt there will be more surprises, especially now that in-division games have started. Here’s a look at the Week 3 games in the AFC South:
Houston Texans at New York Giants, Sunday 1PM ET
The Houston Texans are looking much more like they did in 2012 than they did in 2013. According to PFF (subscription), the Texans have the third best passing offense in the NFL so far and the fourth best pass defense. In a pass-first league, those are certainly good places to start in having a successful season. This Sunday they’re going to go up against New York Giants team that hasn’t been able to have any kind of consistency on offense and is struggling a great deal.
The Giants’ defense is certainly underrated but there’s only so much a defense can do when their offense is as bad as it is. In this game I expect the Texans’ defense to create multiple turnovers and their offense to capitalize on them. With the Giants’ starting slot cornerback, Walter Thurmond, out for the season, look for the Texans’ receivers to take advantage.
Indianapolis Colts at Jacksonville Jaguars, Sunday 1PM ET
This game is a matchup of 0-2 teams, so one team will be getting their first win on Sunday. The Colts are looking to bounce back from a tough loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday night while the Jaguars are looking to bounce back from a blowout loss to the Washington Redskins. The Colts will look to exploit the Jaguars’ weak secondary with their offensive weapons and after their run game looked much improved last week they’ll look to continue that against the Jaguars.
The Jaguars, on the other hand, will also be looking for success in the passing game but they have a lot of their offensive threats out with injury at the moment. With the Colts being desperate not to start the season 0-3, I don’t see anyway the Colts lose this game.
Tennessee Titans at Cincinnati Bengals, Sunday 1PM ET
The Titans are a team that surprised everyone in Week 1 when they beat the Kansas City Chiefs in Arrowhead Stadium 26-10. Then they fell back to Earth last week when they lost to the Dallas Cowboys 26-10 as well. This is a team a lot of people had as one of the worst teams in the league before the season but if Jake Locker has as good of a year as I think he can have they’re going to do a lot better than people think.
The Titans will be facing a Bengals team this week that is very tough to beat at home. It’s also a Bengals team that has been very good in defending the pass, so Locker is going to have his work cut out for him. For the Titans to pull out a win in this game they’re going to need their pass rush to really pressure Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton and force him to make some bad throws.
Wide receiver A.J. Green was injured last week but as of right now it looks like he’s going to be active for Sunday’s game but who knows how healthy he’ll really be. If the Titans defense can hold up and Locker puts together a good game, the Titans have a definite shot to pull off the upset.