Get ready for Thursday Night Football! Explore the latest odds and expert picks for the Houston Texans vs. New York Jets matchup. Don't miss out!
It’s now or never for the New York Jets. There were high hopes for the Jets coming into the season, but they are sitting at 2-6 and earlier this month, they became the first team this season to fire their head coach. The Jets are coming off a devastating loss to the New England Patriots, and they can’t avoid any more slip-ups if they want to keep their playoff hopes alive. That goes some of the way to explaining why the Jets are favored per the NFL betting odds against the 6-2 Houston Texans.
Week 9 Houston Texans at New York Jets
Houston Texans +2
New York Jets -2
Total 42
The spread in this game has vacillated since it opened on Sunday evening. We have seen the Jets listed as short favorites and the Texans listed as short favorites per the football betting line. At this point, the pendulum has swung back to the hosts with the Jets listed at -2. This line could move to 2.5, but it won’t reach the key number of three given the action to this point. There have been no suck changes to the total, as the over/under has remained constant at 42.
Houston Texans Overview
There were very high hopes for the Houston Texans coming into the season. Houston is sitting at 6-2 and has a commanding lead in the AFC South after its second win over Indianapolis last week, but the Texans have been a bit of fools’ gold. They are only +9 in point differential, and only one of their wins was by more than six points.
Houston currently ranks 14th in scoring offense (23.5 PPG) and 9th in total offense (351.4 YPG). C.J. Stroud has been solid so far, completing 66.5% of passes for 1,948 yards (7.3 YPA) with 11 touchdowns and four interceptions, but he has hit a bit of a rough patch without standout receiver Nico Collins. Collins is slated to return next week, but he will miss this game. To make matters worse, Stefon Diggs is questionable and may miss this game as well.
Reigning NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year Will Anderson Jr. has been the star of the defense. Anderson already has 7.5 sacks and 11 tackles for loss to helm a defense that is allowing just 280.3 YPG. The Texans have been very good both stopping and sacking opposing quarterbacks, but the run defense has had some issues over the last few weeks.
New York Jets Overview
Homefield advantage might not work in the Jets’ favor on Halloween. This team has been incredibly disappointing, losing five straight games after a 2-1 start. The home crowd might be ready to turn on Aaron Rodgers particularly as Rodgers has been extremely disappointing.
Rodgers has completed just 61.6% of his passes for 1,896 yards (6.7 YPA) with 12 touchdowns and seven interceptions. He has received everything he asked for with the signing of Allen Lazard and the trade for Davante Adams, yet the team is still in a worse place than they were last season under Zach Wilson. The Jets rank in the bottom ten teams in the league in almost every offensive category.
To be fair, the ground game has been atrocious with both Breece Hall and Braylon Allen averaging under 4.0 YPC. Dropped passes have plagued the Jets this year, and there have been injuries along the offensive line.
The offensive performance has been a shame considering the Jets have been good on defense. They rank fourth in total defense, and second in yards per play allowed. The Jets don’t force a lot of turnovers, but they can get after the quarterback and have a solid secondary.
Thursday Night Football Prediction
This is an absolute must-win game for the Jets. I didn’t believe in them as a playoff contender at the start of the season, but I do believe in them in this situation. The Jets need to win out ahead of their bye week, so I believe they will do just enough to beat a Houston team that isn’t as good as its record indicates.
Final Score: New York 23, Houston 16
