Something Will Anderson Jr. learned playing for Nick Saban at Alabama helped him return to action for Houston on Sunday, the Texans defensive end said.

An ankle injury had sidelined Anderson for the previous two games, and he wasn’t 100 percent for Sunday’s contest against the Tennessee Titans. Anderson practiced only once on a limited basis last week, and he did not return to the starting lineup.

But with Houston’s postseason hopes on the line, Anderson played 12 defensive snaps and contributed two sacks and three quarterback hits to the Texans’ 26-3 victory.

“I remember I had a similar situation happen to me in college my sophomore year,” Anderson said. “I got cut-blocked, and I didn’t know if I was going to be able to play that week. They was talking about surgery, all this other stuff. And I remember coach Saban sat me in his office. He was just like, ‘Nobody’s 100 percent right now at this time.’ Like, ‘Everybody’s banged up. I know you got your injury going on,’ and he was like, ‘It just shows that you’re a warrior. It shows what type of competitor you are.’

“And those are the type of moments that you never forget, and you go out there and you ball out for your brothers and everything like that. And God’s taking care of you, so for me that’s all I was thinking about this week was: How can I be a warrior? How can I be a competitor? Trust in God, knowing he makes no mistakes. Everything happens for a reason. And my brothers got my back, and I got their back, so that’s just kind of what was going into this week.”

Anderson talked with his current coach, former Alabama linebacker DeMeco Ryans, about his injury, too.

“I had a conversation with Will about his injury, just him pushing through,” Ryans said on Monday. “Will’s a tough player. He’s a competitor. He’s a guy who you got to try to hold back from not going on the field – that mindset you want from all your players. He has that relentless mindset that he’s going to be out there no matter what and he’s going to find a way to help us win games. So love Will for his mindset, love him for his toughness and his will to win.”

Anderson’s sacks on Sunday came on consecutive plays. With Tennessee at first-and-10 on the Houston 36-yard line, Anderson sacked Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill for a 9-yard loss. On the next snap, Anderson sacked Tannehill for an 8-yard loss with six seconds left in the first half.

The second sack gave Anderson sole possession of the franchise rookie record with seven. Brooks Reed in 2011 and Whitney Mercilus in 2012 had six sacks apiece as rookies for Houston.

But getting there from his previous action against the New York Jets on Dec. 10 was excruciating watching his teammates play without him and beneficial for learning and growing off the field, Anderson said.

“People talk about welcome-to-the-NFL moments, and you always got your moments on the field,” Anderson said, “but I think off the field was one of the biggest challenges that I faced this week as an NFL player and just being a pro and learning how to be a pro. But like I said, I just got to give all glory to God. I think it’s just the type of person I am, the type of person I’ve been made into, the person God made me to be, the person my parents raised me to be. …

“These last two weeks have been really good mentally. Of course, physically, getting my ankle back right, the rest of my body. But I think more than anything it was really good mentally. Just locking in on my faith really, trusting God and believing in God that he makes no mistakes. But also learning what could I have done better in the past to help me in the future, so it’s been really great.”

Anderson joined the Texans as the third selection in the NFL Draft on April 27, right after Houston picked Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud at No. 2. Like Anderson, Stroud had missed the Texans’ previous two games, but he returned from a concussion to trigger the Houston offense against Tennessee.

Anderson and Stroud are among the six rookies on the Texans’ active roster.

“People always talk about this rookie block,” Anderson said. “Like, ‘You’re going to get this rookie block.’ It’s like ‘How can you get a rookie block when you’re so intrigued on learning and you’re so intrigued on almost reaching your goal?’ And I think that’s what it is for all the rooks here. I don’t feel like none of us reached a rookie block because we’re so eager to learn. We see success and we just want to keep going and going to get it. And it’s been a beautiful thing to see from all the young guys, man.”

Sunday’s victory lifted Houston to 9-7 for the 2023 season – the same record as the Indianapolis Colts and Jacksonville Jaguars at the top of the AFC South.

On the final weekend of the regular season, the Texans and Colts will square off at 7:15 p.m. CST Saturday in Indianapolis and the Jaguars will visit Tennessee at noon Sunday.

The winner of the Texans-Colts game will secure a spot in the AFC playoff field and the loser’s season will be over. The spot will be as a wild-card on the road unless the Jaguars lose. Jacksonville holds the tiebreaker advantage, but if the Jaguars lose, then the winner of the Texans-Colts game will get upgraded to AFC South champion and the accompanying first-round home game.

Before Houston played Tennessee, Anderson said, defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins explained what the Texans needed to do in the final two weeks of the regular season.

“Rank hit on: We got eight quarters left to play ball. We’re not guaranteed anything,” Anderson said after Sunday’s game. “And we finished four quarters today, and we got four more next week.

“And when he broke it down in that perspective, I think everybody seen a different perspective, a different view. They really hit on a lot of good stuff, and to be a part of a team so special like this with a lot of great vets that’s been through a lot, seen a lot of great things, and the promise of this team, the talent that we have, the coaching that we have and how everything is going — it’s right in front of us. We just got to keep reaching and going to get it. For us, it’s really on us. We just got to lock in on the details.

“How bad do you really want it? I know (wide receiver) Robert Woods asked us: How bad do you really want it? Does it mean enough to you to sacrifice whatever you have to sacrifice for us to make this playoff run? And I think they hit it right on the head with what they were talking about.”

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