Houston Texans are favorites over Jaguars in Week 5

The Houston Texans are favorites on Sunday after firing their head coach and being winless.

So has anything been happening with the Houston Texans this week? After falling to 0-4 on Sunday, the Houston Texans fired Bill O’Brien as head coach and general manager on Monday, has a lot of their dirty laundry was aired out “via reports,” and now they must move forward and face the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 5 at NRG Stadium.

All of that could be a positive or negative for the Houston Texans depending on how you look at it, and they are still the favorites over the Jaguars this Sunday, as the Texans are -5 by the oddsmakers listed on The Action Network.

The Texans have lost all four games this season, and the Jaguars are on a three-game losing streak since upsetting the Indianapolis Colts in Week 1. The Houston Texans in this game have the advantage at quarterback for sure, but it will still be an interesting battle between Deshaun Watson and Gardner Minshew.

In four games this season Minshew has completed 72.1 percent of his passes for 1,138 yards with eight touchdowns and four interceptions for Jacksonville. In Week 1, Minshew passed for three touchdowns with no interceptions. The following game against the Tennessee Titans the Jaguars quarterback threw for three touchdowns, but also had two interceptions.

In Week 3 against the Miami Dolphins, Minshew didn’t have a touchdown pass, but had one interception. This past Sunday in a loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, Minshew totaled two touchdown passes and one interception.

Also for the first month of the season Minshew has been sacked 13 times, while rushing for a total of 69 yards on 14 attempts.

John Reid of the Florida Times-Union wrote this week about Minshew and the Jaguars moving forward:

"“Some of the problems Minshew experienced last season as a rookie starter remain. He occasionally runs too soon out of the pocket before giving himself time to look for second and third options.”"

The play of Minshew in Week 5 will be interesting because the Texans defense is allowing 114 passing yards per game, but that is only because the rush defense of the Houston Texans has been terrible, with that number being 149 yards per game allowed.

Houston Texans News: Deshaun Watson has a chance to shine in Week 5

The Houston Texans have a chance to be the third team in a row who enter a game winless against Jacksonville only to leave the field with their first win of the season. Recently those two teams were the Miami Dolphins and the Cincinnati Bengals.

Now with the Houston Texans being 0-4 overall, with Romeo Crennel as the interim head coach, and Deshaun Watson as the quarterback, this is the best chance the franchise has had to win a game all season.

Entering the Week 5 game for the Houston Texans, Deshaun Watson has six touchdown passes and three interceptions playing in an offense that has been a mess up to this point. Some of that was on former head coach Bill O’Brien, and some of the blame has to be put on Tim Kelly as he is the offensive coordinator. Also some of the lackluster offensive play must be put on Watson as well.

Watson has also passed for 1,092 yards, and has passed for no less than 253 yards in a game this season. Watson also has a two-game streak of two touchdown passes, and Week 4 against the Minnesota Vikings was his first 300 yard passing performance of the season, and the first game of the season with zero interceptions. One issue though is Watson has been sacked 16 times in four games.

The good thing is things now have to potential to change, and don’t be surprised to see a different version of Deshaun Watson this Sunday. The offense of the Houston Texans has a great opportunity to play well this weekend against the Jaguars, so if there even was a game where Watson and his offense could have a “breakout performance” this is the week to do so.