Thursday Night Football Preview - Week 14 - Houston vs Jacksonville

Fernando Medina-US PRESSWIRE

I bet you are all biting at the nails to watch this one. This will be an AFC South match-up between a team that started the season at the bottom of the barrel and have slowly been working their way back into relevance in the Jacksonville Jaguars, while on the other side we have a team that had the best record in the AFC a year ago and is currently on a 10-game losing streak after starting out 2-0 in the Houston Texans.

These two teams met just 2 weeks ago in Houston, where the Jaguars were able to come out victorious 13-6 with a late INT to seal the win.

The Jaguars are currently on a losing streak of their own, losing 6 straight at home dating back to last season and will be looking to end that as well as trying to get their first 3 game winning streak since 2010. The Jags had only scored 86 total points in their first 8 games but have since scored 88 points while winning 3 of their last 4 games. In this game if the Jaguars want to extend their winning streak they will need to be able to convert their drives into points against a defense that is giving up an average of 26.9 points per game, ranked 27th in the league, although one of the lone bright spots for the Texans this year have been their defense who rank 3rd in yards allowed per game giving up an average of only about 303 yards per game. In order for the Jags to convert their drives into TD's they will need to rely heavily on RB Maurice Jones-Drew who has not played like the Pro-Bowl RB he once was, with only 616 yards and 5 TD's on the season. If they do come out victorious this Thursday then it will be the first time the Jags have been able to pull a season sweep over Houston since 2009.

The key for the Houston Texans Thursday night will be to convert their 3rd downs a little more than last time these two teams met (Houston was 4-15 on 3rd downs). QB Case Keenum, who only mustered up 169 yards and an INT in their last meeting, will need to make better decisions when throwing the ball (18 completed passes on 34 attempts). His receivers will have to step up and make the big plays as well, and that's including WR Andre Johnson, who was held to 2 catches for 36 yards in their loss to the Jags 2 weeks ago. The pressure got to Keenum early in this match-up, giving up a huge sack on their first possession and seemed to affect him for the rest of the game, so the offensive line will need to do a better job of protecting the pocket.

This game will probably be a higher score than the last time these two met and may even have a chance at being entertaining, but only time will tell. So while your watching this game  be sure to keep an eye on how Keenum reacts to pressure and how the Jags run the ball and the reaction to both should be a clear indicator as to who will win the game.

Thomas B. Shea/Getty Images North America

Prediction:

HOU over JAX 23-17

I'm going to ride with Houston in this game because the streaks got to end sometime right? The Jaguars will most definitely have the ball in their court in this game and it should be a battle the whole way thru. I think it will come down to who wants it more and the Texans HAVE to be at that point by now but if the mistakes and missed plays start stacking up then forget about it.

Thank you for reading and come back for more Sports News & Analysis as well as Fantasy Football advice throughout the week. Also check out more of my other posts for some more great insight into the mind of a Sports Fanatic.
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