(SportsRadio 610) - A Thursday night showdown against the 7-0 Philadelphia Eagles, the NFL’s only remaining undefeated team, is not the most ideal situation for a team looking to wash the bad taste out of their mouths that Derrick Henry and the Titans left the Texans with Sunday evening.
Following Sunday’s 17-10 loss to the Titans, head coach Lovie Smith looked to about the only positive he could in his postgame press conference.
“When you play that bad, you can't wait to get back and get that bad taste out of your mouth. That's the good thing about having a Thursday game,” Smith said.
For the Texans, it’s also the most challenging as they are in the midst of the toughest stretch they’ll see all season long.
That is, of course, relative to what their opponents do on an elite level, which is running the football. It's something the Texans are the worst at in the league through week 8.
At the close of business Sunday night, the Texans boasted a league-worst run defense, allowing 186 yards per game on the ground.
Lovie Smith talked about the dynamic between Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts and lead running back Miles Sanders on Monday afternoon.
“I would say he’s an outstanding passer, outstanding thrower on what we’re seeing from him, running game to back that up,” Smith said. “I’m talking about the athlete at the quarterback position brings another dimension of them taking off and running the football. A part of why they’re one of the best rushing teams is based on what they do running the ball at the quarterback position too.”
Jalen Hurts has played near perfect football. He’s taken care of the football while making plays in the air and on the ground.
Through their first seven games, the Eagles are the only team besides the 2017 Chiefs to have two or fewer turnovers this deep into a season.
Hurts has accounted for 16 of the Eagles' 25 touchdowns on the season, while throwing for 2,102 yards and boasting a 105.1 QB rating, the fifth-best mark in the league. Running back Miles Sanders has complimented Hurts well.
Sanders ranks eighth in the NFL in total rushing yards with 563 on 114 carries. That’s an average of 4.9 yards per carry.
Smith said the versatility of Sanders along with the dynamic play of Hurts, presents a problem for any team game planning against them.
“Miles Sanders, just an excellent player," Smith said. "Can make you miss in the open field, can catch the ball out of the backfield. Whenever you have an athlete like that, they can do multiple things and you put the quarterback into the mix, that’s really hard.”
Head coach Nick Sirianni has his team firing on all cylinders right now. Entering their week 8 matchup with the Texans, they rank as a top-five scoring offense and a top-five scoring defense.
As far as the offense is concerned, aside from Hurts and Sanders who have garnered much of the attention this season, receiver AJ Brown is coming off his best game of the season in their 35-13 blowout win against the Steelers Sunday.
Brown caught three touchdown passes from Hurts, all of which came in the first half. Each of those touchdowns went for at least 27 yards and he finished with six catches on the day for 156 yards.
The Texans will have that trio along with one of the top tight-ends in the game this season in Dallas Goedart, not to mention receiver Devonta Smith.
Those weapons, along with the how the Eagles utilize the run/pass-option will give the Texans all they can handle to combat that dynamic
on a short week.
“We’ll mix up coverages to try to, if we think that they’re doing special things like we do always, but you have to have sound defenses that take care of those situations, and you know that they’re coming as much as anything,” Smith said. “That’s the change from a traditional week of more, they’re going to run more RPO’s than any other team we play. That’s what we’re getting ready for.”
Meanwhile, the Texans would like to get a few healthy bodies back for the game. Although it doesn’t appear likely that they’ll get one of their top targets, Nico Collins, back in time along with defensive lineman Maliek Collins.
“It will be harder. If you had a few more days, they’d be in a little bit better position to play maybe. If we look at injuries, we knew when they got hurt, and we knew that this game was coming up,” Smith said. “For some of the guys, maybe we kept them out a little bit longer before. Yeah, we’d be happy if there was more time, but we won’t put any of the guys out there until they are ready to go. We’ll see how it goes. I know the rehab is coming along well.”
As the season rolls along and the odds continue to stack up against the Texans, the odds-makers aren’t giving the Texans much of a shot on Thursday night.
The Texans began the week as 13.5 point underdogs against the Eagles. Only one other game this season has reached a higher spread, which was Buffalo in week 5, who was favored by 14 over Pittsburgh. The Bills wound up covering without issue, winning 38-3.