3 reasons the Houston Texans will beat the Jacksonville Jaguars Week 1

The Houston Texans defense is lightyears better than the 2020 squad

When the Houston Texans went out on defense last season, they were awful. Awful to the point that they allowed 30 or more points in eight of their 16 games last season.  In this preseason, they only allowed 44 points across the entire preseason. That’s 14.6 points per game, which isn’t bad when your backups are doing most of the work.

Look for Houston’s defense to clamp down on rookie quarterback Trevor Lawrence and make his first regular-season NFL game as much of a nightmare as was his National Championship matchup against the Joe Burrow-led LSU Tigers.

The Houston Texans defense forced 10 turnovers in the 3 preseason games, surpassing their regular-season total from the year before. Expect more of this against an inexperienced Jaguars team that’s trying to figure out how to walk before they can run.

Defensive Coordinator Lovie Smith has a way of transforming defenses. When he took over in Chicago, his defense forced 17 interceptions and 5 touchdowns in his first season in 2004. If history repeats itself, then the Texans will be giving the ball back to their offense with way more chances to score.

That leads us into our next point, as the offense looks to get out a hot start this season.