Texans Have Familiar Foe to Get Season's First Win
The success against the division must continue
The Houston Texans take their 0-2 record to Jacksonville to take on the Jaguars in the first of their six AFC South division games. The Texans have lost just once in their four matchups with the Jaguars under DeMeco Ryans.
This is new Jacksonville head coach Liam Coen’s first game against the Texans. Coen was the offensive coordinator for the Los Angeles Rams in 2022, while Ryans was the defensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers.
One Player to Watch
Christian Kirk is the one player to watch. The Texans will get their veteran slot receiver on the field for the first time this season. He was excellent in the preseason. His return should allow the Texans to reinstate some of the quick passing game that was present in the preseason. Kirk said this week he felt a little extra in this matchup after Jacksonville traded him away in the offseason.
One Matchup to Watch
The quick throwing of Trevor Lawrence against the defensive alignments of the Texans is the matchup to watch. Lawrence has been one of the quickest decision makers at the quarterback spot. He has no problem hitting his first read and living to fight another down.
How the Texans play him will be interesting. If they choose to use their cornerbacks close to the line of scrimmage, it will be harder for Lawrence to get rid of the ball quickly. It also opens up opportunities for big plays for the Jaguars. If the Texans play off the pass catchers, they can rally to the football. If they tackle well, not guaranteed after last week, Lawrence will take the easy completions. He isn’t usually an aggressive thrower.
Lawrence’s quick decisions also help mitigate the might pass rush of the Texans.
One Stat to Watch
Trevor Lawrence has struggled to complete passes to his two best wideouts. Scott Barrett is one of the best fantasy football minds in the business. He noticed the discrepancy.
Lawrence can’t be allowed to get Travis Hunter and Brian Thomas Jr. going in this game. The Texans also can’t let the other pass catchers defeat them either. After two weeks of struggles to get on the same page with the top wideouts, there has to be some pressure to force the ball. The Texans should have a chance at their first interception of the season if Lawrence isn’t careful.
Score Prediction
The Houston Texans win 30-14. That’s right. The Texans will score more in this game than they have all season combined. I like some of the Jacksonville defense, but I hope to see the offense from the preseason make C.J. Stroud comfortable at quarterback. Stroud finds Kirk for a score, hits each rookie wideout for a nice gain, and also finds Woody Marks out of the backfield. The defense pummels the Jaguars on the way to the first win of the season.
That is some serious wishful thinking
I had a LOT of confidence and faith in th steps the Texans made in the offseason with the draft and TOTALLY fell for the changes and narative they fed us in the new offensive scheme and the offensive coaching staff.
I fell for it HOOK, LINE AND SINKER.........
I WON"T do it again...
.I DON'T expect Caley to use his players to their best skillsets....I DO expect a total lack of use of the skill players we drafted.The only rookie to see significant use will be at LT.
I DO NOT BELIEVE Kirk will make a significant enough difference in this offense to get us even "CLOSE" to being efficient enough to score the 30+ points you and Carlos believe we will.
Unless Caley and Stroud get.....not only Kirk....but Nico, Hutch, Higgins and Noel.....PLUS Marks involved in the passing game to open up the field for Chubbs et al (Whoever et al is) to move us down the field and INTO the endzone we will have to SETTLE for KF field goals again.
Defensively I expect Coen and Fabio to bend Pitre over and have their way with him....He DOES NOT have the coverage skills or reactive quickness to limit Fabio's quick 5 yard, first read passes..
I've been calling for DeMeco to AT LEAST TRY Jamal Hill at nickel since last year when we first realized Pitre had limitations in his coverage of TEs and Slot Recievers.....Jamal Hill has underutilized talent and it's being wasted on JUST special teams. Pitre's only best assett was his ability to get home on blitzes......and stuff the run. He can't even do THAT now....Jamal Hill has a seriously violent side and would get home and cause Fabio to be distracted looking for his wild , crazy eyes closiing in on him instead of down the field and TEs and Slots would be hearing footsteps instead of looking for the ball. For some reason people overlook Jamal Hill and covet EJ Speed in 3 LB sets??? I prefer Hill because of his aforementioned violent side.
UNFORTUNATELY DeMeco has a crush on Pitre and we all know.....when DeMeco has a crush on someone they seem to find a way onto the field. Pitre would have to be THE OBVIOUS reason we lose a game for DeMeco to even consider a change. Even then I believe he would find an excuse for the shortcoming or just chalk it up to him having his turn at having a bad day
Will, Hunter and the D-Line will rush Fabio's passes and sack him a few times so I expect his completion percentage to be low but they won't completely shut him down......Pitre and the secondary will crack and leak.......Coen and Fabio will take advantage of those cracks and leaks in our secondary just enough to win.
I'm thinking it's gonna be 24-13 Jags.......Might even be 24-9?
WANNA BE WRONG
GO COWS......MOOOO!!!