After Titans running back Derrick Henry scored a touchdown in overtime to give his team a 42-36 win over the Texans, Texans defensive end J.J. Watt said he put the loss “squarely on my shoulders.”
Watt said that because he considers himself the leader of a defense that also gave up the game-tying touchdown at the end of regulation, but interim head coach Romeo Crennel disagreed with Watt’s assessment. He referenced the way he got the job while saying that every loss is squarely on the shoulders of the head coach.
“J.J.'s one of the leaders of the defense,” Crennel said, via Mark Berman of KRIV. “It’s nice that he says that, but I’m the head coach and the buck stops at my desk. I’m the reason we ended up losing that game. So I think that’s the way everybody is gonna look at it eventually down the road. If that were not the case you’d be talking to Bill O’Brien right now. When you lose, nothing really good comes of it. It’s great that J.J. said that, but it’s not his fault. It’s my fault.”
Crennel’s decision to go for two after the Texans went up seven late in the fourth quarter was heavily scrutinized and there’s plenty of blame to go around on a day when Tennessee piled up 601 yards of offense.