The Tennessee Titans have been here before: Win their regular-season finale, and they go to the playoffs.

In Tennessee inside linebacker Rashaan Evans’ rookie season, the Titans and Indianapolis Colts squared off in the final game of the NFL’s 2018 regular season. The winner would earn the final spot in the AFC playoffs. Tennessee lost 33-18.

If the Titans beat the Houston Texans on Sunday afternoon, then Tennessee will earn the remaining spot available in the AFC postseason field.

“We know how it feels to lose in a game like this,” Evans told reporters in the Titans’ locker room on Thursday. “Knowing that something is in your hands like this and you have every opportunity in order to seize it, but sometimes … we’ve come up short. Just remembering that feeling, what it felt like after that lose and being able to transition and kind of use it to your advantage in this game.”

Tennessee already has lost a showdown game with Houston this month. The Titans and Texans entered their Dec. 15 game tied for the top spot in the AFC South with 8-5 records. Houston defeated Tennessee 24-21 to take control of the division, and the Texans secured the AFC South playoff position by beating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 23-20 last week.

“The No. 1 thing now is, the fact that we both know each other, is going to be simply off of who has the best game, who plays the most physical, who executes their schemes the best,” Evans said during an appearance on WGFX-FM in Nashville about playing Houston twice in 14 days, “and that team that does that is going to be the ones who walk away with the win.”

Evans made seven tackles against Houston two weeks ago and enters the final game of the regular season with 106 for 2019 -- exactly twice as many tackles as he had during his rookie season. In 2018, Evans played 47 percent of Tennessee's defensive snaps and started seven games after joining the Titans as a first-round draft choice. This season, he's played 86 percent of Tennessee's defensive snaps and started every game.

Houston will play at home in the first round of the playoffs next weekend against the Buffalo Bills if the Texans are the AFC's No. 4 seed or the Titans, Pittsburgh Steelers or Oakland Raiders if they're the No. 3 seed.

Houston can take the No. 3 seed if the Kansas City Chiefs lose to the Los Angeles Chargers and the Texans beat the Titans on Sunday. The Chargers-Chiefs game will kick off at noon CST and the Titans-Texans game will kick off at 3:25 p.m., so Houston will know if it's playing for the No. 3 seed or finishing the regular season with a game that won't affect its postseason position.

If the Texans are stuck at No. 4, then there’s always the chance Houston will rest some of its key players, such as quarterback Deshaun Watson. Texans coach Bill O’Brien hasn’t said Houston will do that, but he hasn’t said it won’t either.

“Regardless of who comes out there, you’ve got to be able to play the best game that you’ve played all year regardless of who that is,” Evans said. “This is the NFL. Second-string quarterback is an NFL quarterback at the end of the day, so we’ve just got to respect whoever it is that comes back there behind that line and be able to play our game.”

The Texans’ backup QB is AJ McCarron, who said goodbye to Alabama after the 2013 season, during which he was an All-American, the winner of the Maxwell Award and the runner-up in the Heisman Trophy balloting.

Evans arrived at Alabama the next year from Auburn High School.

“Some of the guys I feel like I grew up watching, I’m playing against,” Evans said, “and some of the guys that were on my team, I’m playing against, and that’s just the fun part about the league. You get to see and play against guys you’ve always wanted to play against, and now I’ve got another chance to do that.”

The Titans-Texans game at NRG Stadium in Houston is scheduled to be broadcast by Alabama's CBS television affiliates.

“It’s a great opportunity for us to take advantage of this and get in the playoffs,” Evans said.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.

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