Inside AFC South: The Pivotal Game

Every Saturday, reporters covering the AFC South team in the NFL community at SI.com review one aspect of the franchise, Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Tennessee Titans each Saturday.

This week we’ll look at the most important games on each team’s schedule.

Tennessee Titans

For teams that have the Super Bowl aspirations after becoming one of the Finals 4 of last season, there are many competitions of paramount importance. The Titans are keen to host one or more playoff games, and prioritize their success in the division. The schedule also includes playing against bad looking teams in 2019, Buffalo and Denver.

Without a doubt, the biggest one is the November 22 trip to Baltimore.

Beyond the fact that it was a return to the site of the division’s mess in the division’s division playoffs of the best regular season club last season, the game with the Ravens started stretching with five of the last seven games loaded. I will. These five include all three visits to AFC’s South Rivals in Tennessee, as well as primetime clashes with Green Bay.

If the first nine games go well and the Titans are at or near the top of the division, the Titans will have a hard time defending their position late in the game. If they are struggling early on, it will be difficult to set foot in the steady stream of road games with high quality opponents.

In any case, Tennessee must win in Baltimore to set up an upcoming stage, especially since the previous contest is Thursday night’s home game with Indianapolis (November 12th). This means players need to spend some time recovering before facing the Raven and taking a long winding road to the finish.

The last time the Titans won a regular season match in Baltimore in 2008 was a 13-10 win, with a 10-0 start. That was the last time they won the AFC South. If they are to top the year, they will probably need to do it again.

-David Bocrea, AllTitans

Indianapolis Colts

If Colt becomes a legitimate candidate for the AFC playoffs, they must get off to a fast start. Six of the first seven opponents did not reach the playoffs in 2019. The only exception is the Minnesota Viking hosted by Colts in the second week.

None of Jaguar, Jets, Bears, Browns, Bengals and Lions won last year. The combined record was 32-63-1 (.338).

So Week 9 should tell when Baltimore Ravens and NFL MVP Quarterback Lamar Jackson will visit Lucas Oil Stadium. Ravens were the league’s best 14-2 last season and are tasked with compensating for the appearance of a depressed one-off playoff. AFC’s No. 1 seed was knocked out at home by a wildcard on 28-12. Titans.

The Colts are probably backed by the off-season additions of Season 17’s quarterback Philip Rivers and the all-professional defender De Forest Buckner. If a team of Franck Reich coaches push Ravens to the limit, win or lose in a competitive game, Colts are justified as a serious playoff candidate. The reassurance of knowing that you can compete with your best opponents will help Colts tackle Green Bay at home, home and away to Titan and Texas at two AFC Souths, and a tough match in the road game. It should benefit Colt. Pittsburgh.

If the Ravens game goes wrong, it can’t completely remove the player’s heart doubt that the Colts are good enough to run any postseason, even without any positive spin and encouragement.

Seriously, the Colts schedule doesn’t seem to be that hard. The fact that Vikings, Ravens and Packers are at home is a plus. And their toughest road games will take place in Tennessee and Pittsburgh.

-Phillip B. Wilson, AllColts

Jacksonville jaguar

For Jaguar, 2020 represents a long way. The public, and perhaps other members of the league, see the team as a team that does not even intend to form a winning team, but Jaguar continues to claim that it is their mission.

So with that in mind, it may be difficult to accurately peg a team’s most important game. For example, the first week with Indianapolis Colts will determine if the Jaguar will make a fast start, for example the second road week and the Tennessee Titans will do the first road tests.

But for the most important games, we’ll compare Weekly, the divisional game set for Jacksonville, with Houston Texans. The Jaguars’ eighth game is an important game in the middle of the year, as you can see where the season really is heading. By that time of the year, Jaguar should have settled on a new offensive plan and begin hitting their stride, if one exists.

If Jaguar is close to the .500 record when he plays Texans at the midpoint of the season, whether Jaguar can get a position in AFC South, or at the bottom of the department again.

Jacksonville was a similar winning game in the ninth week of 2019. 26-3. Of course, the rest of the season was a complete disaster. This is largely due to the snowball consequences of the loss of the Texas. Jacksonville needs to work hard to avoid this year’s repeats.

-John Shipley, Jaguar report

Houston Texans

Our attitude reflects the NFL’s overt attitude.

Want to know if the Houston Texans recovered emotionally from the last time they saw it and eventually lost the 21-0 playoff game lead to Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs? Want to know if that 51-31 loss was somehow unstable? Want to know if it was a building block to Houston to register Houston’s own true title conflict?

Do not look beyond the first week. Thursday. Chiefs Texas man.

The NFL loves to open the season with this kind of rematch and the Texas people talk as if they like it. Victory does not erase what happened in the playoffs… but it signals the beginning of another march there.

And loss? No, there should be no issues with the standings. But that could undermine the confidence the Texas people have about the belief that they are really, and really, at the same level as the best in AFC.

-Mike Fisher, Texans Daily