Round three of the Johnson-Finnegan fight has been postponed, but the Houston Texans are more focused on winning a key divisional battle against the Tennessee Titans than a sideshow.
"We have to approach this game like a playoff game," Texans wideout Kevin Walter said Friday. "This is ... a big-time game and we all realize it. In the past, we've had games like this and hadn't won them -- but this is different. This is a different year."
Fury between Houston wideout Andre Johnson and Tennessee cornerback Cortland Finnegan has burned at the center of this bitter rivalry, but Johnson will sit out Sunday's game with a right hamstring injury.
The two players tangled in 2009 and then again last November, when both were fined $25,000 for throwing punches.
Will Walter step in for Johnson if another rumble breaks out?
"I might, I might, to tell you the truth," Walter joked.
Houston hasn't won at Tennessee since 2009, in a game Texans tight end Joel Dreessen called "a bloodbath."
"They're the same Titans," Dreessen told the Houston Chronicle this week. "They're playing nasty like they always do."