Week 7: Tennessee at Houston

Threatening to spoil the heartwarming homecoming story of Vince Young is the fact that coach Jeff Fisher says he’s day-to-day (and aren’t we all day-to-day, really, in life?)

Young is day-to-day with an injured right quadriceps muscle and couldn’t finish Tennessee’s 13-10 loss to Tampa Bay Sunday. He won’t need surgery, but he might need some rest.

Kerry Collins played the last part of the game last week for Young. And even though lots of folks had forgotten Collins was still in the league, he did lead an 86-yard touchdown drive to tie the game late in the fourth quarter before Tampa Bay went on a late drive of its own to win. Collins is still a serviceable quarterback. Although nowhere near as mobile as Young, he did lead six straight scoring drives in preseason.

You may remember this game made a lot of people in Houston feel like jumping off skyscrapers in 2006. Young, the Houston product who the Texans passed on in the 2006 NFL draft in favor of DE Mario Williams, sprinted for a 39-yard walk-off touchdown right through the heart of the Texan defense in overtime. That play won the game and basically clinched the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award for Young.

Neither teams’ fans are happy entering this one. Houston, after a fine start to the season, has lost three of its last four games and got clobbered 37-17 by Jacksonville Sunday. Disappointed coach Gary Kubiak is thinking about some personnel changes and plans to play more young players this week. He wants to find more players like WR Kevin Walter, who had a career-high 160 yards receiving in the loss.

The problem with Houston right now is the Texans are getting pushed around at the line of scrimmage. No matter who quarterbacks Tennessee, he’ll be handing the ball off a lot. Jacksonville absolutely bullied Houston last week, outrushing the Texans, 244-61. Houston RBs Ahman Green, Ron Dayne and Samkon Gado have all been ineffective lately.

Kubiak pulled Matt Schaub from last week’s game once it got out of hand, trying to keep Schaub a little fresher for the rest of the season. Schaub will start again vs. a physical Tennessee defense that has seen the film from last week and will be anxious to try and push the Texans around. We think they will succeed.

Tennessee by 3