Fitzpatrick leads Texans to rout of Titans
HOUSTON -- Ryan Fitzpatrick had a successful return to the starting lineup thanks in large part to DeAndre Hopkins.
And with some help from J.J. Watt.
Fitzpatrick threw for a franchise-record six touchdowns and Hopkins had a career-best 238 yards receiving and two scores as the Houston Texans rolled to a 45-21 win over the Tennessee Titans on Sunday.
Fitzpatrick started after being benched for two games for Ryan Mallett, who suffered a season-ending chest injury last week.
Watt had his third touchdown reception, two sacks, forced and recovered a fumble for Houston (6-6).
Tennessee's Zach Mettenberger injured his right shoulder playing behind a makeshift offensive line missing three starters. Jake Locker took over in the third quarter and threw for 91 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions for the Titans (2-10), who have lost six straight.
Fitzpatrick passed for 358 yards and came up one short of tying the NFL record by throwing touchdown passes of 8, 7, 58, 34, 4 yards to his receivers before ending his day with a 1-yard TD toss to Watt. It came on the drive after Watt's forced fumble and elicited chants of "MVP" from the crowd.
Fitzpatrick was replaced by rookie Tom Savage after the touchdown to Watt made it 45-14 with about nine minutes left in the fourth quarter.
Watt has 11 sacks and five touchdowns to make him the first player to have at least 10 sacks and three or more touchdowns in a season since 1982, when sacks became an official statistic.
The Titans were missing rookie left tackle Taylor Lewan (ankle), center Brian Schwenke (knee), who was placed on the injured reserve Tuesday, and right tackle Michael Oher (toe), who was active but did not play.
Mettenberger found Kendall Wright on a 36-yard pass early in the third quarter to cut the lead to 24-7. Mettenberger said he wouldn't dare take a fake selfie as a celebration after Watt mocked him with one after a sack in his last game against Houston; Watt was irked that the rookie had been posting them all week.
But Wright apparently didn't feel the same way and pantomimed one after his score.
Mettenberger was injured on the next series when driven to the ground by Watt. He finished with 184 yards passing with a touchdown and an interception. He was replaced by Locker, who was intercepted by Jumal Rolle on his first play.
That didn't matter much as Jason McCourty stripped the ball from Andre Johnson, picked it up and raced 62 yards for a touchdown to get Tennessee within 24-14.
Hopkins caught a 58-yard touchdown pass to extend Houston's lead to 24-0 just before halftime. The second score by Hopkins made it 31-14 later in the third quarter. Johnson had a nifty catch in the end zone to extend Houston's lead to 38-14.
Johnathan Joseph grabbed an interception on Tennessee's first offensive play and returned it 25 yards to the Tennessee 20. A 7-yard catch by Arian Foster, who returned after missing two games with a groin injury, pushed Houston's lead to 14-0.
Joseph injured his Achilles tendon in the third quarter and didn't return.
Fitzpatrick found Ryan Griffin on an 8-yard touchdown reception to give Houston a 7-0 lead in the first quarter.
