Jets-Texans on TNF Match the Young (C.J. Stroud) and the Ageless ...
It's Halloween, and for the Jets to lasso Houston at MetLife Stadium in the NFL's first game of Week 9, they've got to put on the costume — and more important, adopt the belief of — a 6-2 team that the Texans are and not the 2-6 team that the Jets are.
"Just smile, show up, trust, believe, and root us on as hard as you can. We need that noise," QB Aaron Rodgers told Green & White fans this week after declaring that he felt "really good" heading into this short week. "We're trying to rectify this as quickly as possible. I know it's been frustrating for everybody, but still a lot of season left."
One of the important costume dramas in this game between somewhat banged-up combatants will be the quarterbacks, Rodgers vs. second-year signal-caller C.J. Stroud. Rodgers, 40 and soon to turn 41, will be facing the second-youngest QB in terms of age gap in Stroud (17 years, 305 days) after starting against the youngest last Sunday in the Patriots' Drake Maye (18 years, 271 days), although he finished against the more senior Jacoby Brissett, who got the 25-22 win in relief and sent A-Rod and the Jets to their fifth straight loss.
For the Jets to turn their airship around Thursday night, they'll have to be the better-dressed team in terms of hospital patient get-ups. They will be playing without WR Allen Lazard, DL Leki Fotu and K Greg Zuerlein, all of whom were placed on Injured Reserve. LB and defensive captain C.J. Mosley, G Alijah Vera-Tucker and safeties Tony Adams and Ashtyn Davis are all out with injuries.
But the Jets have some interesting additions to the roster that everyone knows about. WR Davante Adams will be playing his third game wearing his new shade of green after starting his career with Rodgers and the green and gold Packers. And edge Haason Reddick, who began his season with 26 defensive snaps at New England, will seek to kick it up another notch and get after Stroud in the Texans' pocket.
Speaking of kicking it up, young but well-traveled Riley Patterson will replace Zuerlein as the Jets' kicker. In two stints with Detroit plus a season with Jacksonville and two games with Cleveland last year, Patterson has converted 88.1% of his field goal attempts, including 19 of 25 from 40-plus yards.
Houston is also feeling the bite of the injury goblin. WR Stefon Diggs, a Jets tormentor for the Bills in seasons past, is out for the season with a knee injury, and WR Nico Collins is still a week away from coming off IR. The visitors will also be without injured starters Jimmie Ward at S and Azeez Al-Shaair at LB.
Returning to the QB soap opera featuring the Young (Stroud) and the Ageless (Rodgers), they are the only two players in NFL history with a pass-TD percentage above 4.0% and an interception rate below 1.5% (minimum 750 attempts). So both are capable of lighting up the Meadowlands night.
But as crisp as the start of Stroud's career has been, he's had a few ghoulish moments. Two games ago, in Houston's loss at Green Bay, he was held to 86 passing yards and 55 net passing yards (adding in sack yardage). That was only the second time in his 23 career starts that he failed to reach 100 yards in each category.
The first time was in last year's unlucky Gm 13, also a road test against the Jets, in which he passed for 91 yards, second lowest game total of his career, and had 53 net passing yards, his least in a game as a pro.
The Jets' second-ranked pass defense will try again to offer more trick than treat to Stroud and the Texans just ahead in primetime on TNF.
These are the Jets' seven inactives for the game:
The Texans have just a five-player inactive list tonight:
