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NFL Week 8 of the regular season was filled with excitement and close matchups. We had multiple one-score victories, including a Hail Mary win by the Washington Commanders over the Chicago Bears. Now it is time to turn the page over to Week 9, and we have a great Thursday Night Football matchup. The banged-up Houston Texans travel to New Jersey to take on the New York Jets, who are desperate for a win.
We will dive deeper into this matchup throughout this article and make our Texans @ Jets NFL picks for Thursday night.
The Houston Texans had a battle against their division rival Indianapolis Colts in Week 8. They secured the victory and held off the Colts 23-20 on the back of 100 yards rushing by Joe Mixon. That was Mixon’s fourth game that he started and finished this season while rushing for 100+ yards.
Quarterback C.J. Stroud also had a solid day, throwing for 285 yards and a touchdown without turning the ball over. His leading receiver on the day was Stefon Diggs, who caught five of his nine targets for 81 yards. Unfortunately for him and the Texans team, Diggs went down in the second half with a non-contact knee injury, which is always scary.
If Diggs misses any extended period, the Texans offense is in trouble. They were already without Nico Collins, who is on IR with a hamstring injury. That leaves Tank Dell, who has had an up-and-down season and veteran Robert Woods, John Metchie and Xavier Hutchinson. I think it is safe to say the Texans are banged up heading into this one.
Boy, it has been a disappointing season for the New York Jets. In Week 8, New York lost to the New England Patriots 25-22 to fall to 2-6 on the season. The Jets struggled to get in a rhythm all day long on both sides of the ball against a bad Pats team.
On paper, Aaron Rodgers had a fine day, going 17-28 for 233 yards and two touchdowns. That is all fine and dandy, but I do not see him being the game-changing player he once was. Rodgers has great weapons in Garrett Wilson, who caught five balls for 113 yards and Davante Adams, who caught four for 54 yards but could still only muster 22 points.
Another indictment on the offense is Breece Hall receiving 16 carries in this game. The Patriots have allowed the fourth most rushing yards in the NFL and could only take advantage of that to the extent of 80 yards.
The Jets defense even struggled last week, and that is supposed to be the strength of their team. The Patriots lost starting quarterback Drake Maye in the first half of this game and were beaten by Jacoby Brissett. This Jets team is in shambles at the moment and are desperate for a win in any way possible.
This is a quick turnaround for both of these teams, who just played Sunday. The Jets are reeling and can not lose this game if they want to stay in the playoff hunt. If they fell to 2-7, that would almost surely end their season.
Unfortunately for them, I am not sure they can beat a banged-up Texans team. The Texans will be without their top two pass-catchers, Stefon Diggs and Nico Collins, but that is OK. The Texans want to be a physical run-heavy team, which matches up well against this Jets defense.
The Jets defense has allowed the ninth most yards to opposing running backs this season. We already mentioned above that Joe Mixon has rushed for over 100 yards in every game he has finished this season. With that said, our Texans @ Jets NFL pick is on Joe Mixon to rush for more than 76 yards in this one.
Dylan has had a love for sports since he was a kid. Four years ago, he decided to dive into the sports content-creating industry specializing in Fantasy Football, NFL and NBA. He has since had his work published on sites that include Fantasy Alarm, Fansided, and Fantasy Six Pack.