J.J. Watt Terrorized the Titans for a Decade

NASHVILLE – J.J. Watt has been one of the best NFL players of his generation – and he never let the Tennessee Titans forget it.

Watt announced Tuesday that this season would be his last, which means he has two games remaining in a career that has included three Defensive Player of the Year awards, five All-Pro honors and five Pro Bowl selections. Currently in his second season with the Arizona Cardinals, he will face the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday and the San Francisco 49ers on the final week of the season.

There are many plays that illustrate his greatness, but current Titans coach Mike Vrabel pointed to one from 2014, his first season as an assistant coach with the Houston Texans and the second in which Watt was named Defensive Player of the Year.

“I remember this one story,” Vrabel said. “We went round and round, the defensive staff, and wer like ‘How are we going to cover this with this pressure? It was a Buffalo game. We went all the way until Saturday. … I don’t remember what we ended up going with with the coverage the blitz, but we ran it in the game.

“… The (receiver) was open and J.J. – as he was blitzing – intercepted the ball and ran it back (80) yards [for a touchdown]. We were just laughing like, ‘Yep. I guess we spent too much time worrying.’ … That pretty much sums up who J.J. was.”

That was one of four games Watt played against the Bills in his career.

It was during his 10 years with the Texans that the 6-foot-5, 288-pound defensive end terrorized the Titans as many as two times a year. During that time, Tennessee had four head coaches – Mike Munchak, Ken Whisenhunt, Mike Mularkey and Vrabel – and none of them had much success finding ways to stop him.

In 16 games against the Titans, all as a member of the Texans, Watt:

• Was a part of 11 victories

• Registered 18 sacks, his most against any single opponent

• Had five games with two or more sacks

• Had at least one sack in eight straight games (14.5 total over that span) from 2012-15

• Had 39 quarterback hits, his most against any single opponent

• Had a career-high 10 quarterback hits in one game, a 20-6 Houston victory on Nov. 1, 2015

• Had 26 tackles for loss, his most against any single opponent

• Forced nine fumbles, his most against any single opponent and one-third of his career total of 27

• Recovered two fumbles

• Made 66 tackles

• Caught a touchdown pass, one of three in his career

Seemingly the only thing that kept those numbers from being even worse was that injuries kept him out of action for five of the final 10 times the Texans played the Titans during his time in Houston.

“I think he played extremely hard,” Vrabel said. “I think he was extremely talented. I think he was athletic. I think he had great size. I think is instincts … you kind of had a certain defense that you coached and then you kind of had whatever J.J. ended up doing. That’s kind of how it went.

“… He’s just going to jump around and do whatever and find the ball.”