NFL Houston TexansPhiladelphia Eagles

Predicting the Final Score of Eagles vs. Texans

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By @rickstavig

Philadelphia Eagles, Houston Texans

Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports

One of the better match ups in week 9 of the 2014 NFL season this weekend is the Philadelphia Eagles (5-2) at the Houston Texans (4-4). The Texans are coming off a big road win against the Tennessee Titans while the Eagles are looking to bounce back off a brutally tough road loss to the Arizona Cardinals.

While the Texans 4-4 record looks rather pedestrian, they’re really not that bad of a team. Their last three losses all came by a combined 15 points, and they were all to teams with legitimate playoff aspirations. The Eagles strong record isn’t a fluke, and both of their losses came on the road by a combined 9 points and were to two NFC West teams who also appear destined for the playoffs. Yeah, this could turn out to be a pretty good game.

What’s going to be key in this game is who is more efficient throwing the ball. The Eagles are 6th in passing yards per game with 283.6 while the Texans are 28th passing yards allowed per game with 271.4. Still, QB Nick Foles has really struggled with his accuracy lately and has made some crucially poor decisions. In fact, he’s thrown 7 INT’s the past four games, incomprehensible considering he only threw 2 all of last season. The Texans have an opportunistic defense that has done a good job creating turnovers and are second in the league with 17 takeaways.

The Texans passing attack, meanwhile, has been very inconsistent with Ryan Fitzpatrick under center, and the team as a whole is 26th in the NFL with 213 passing yards per game. Luckily for them the Eagles are 26th in the NFL in passing yards allowed per game with just under 270, and have only produced 3 INT’s all year, tied for 26th in the league.

The Eagles need Foles to play smart, efficient ball, get the ball to his playmakers on the outside and not turn the ball over. Open things up on the outside and they might have some room to rush inside, despite the Texans being stout against the run. For some reason RB LeSean McCoy struggled early on in the season but has turned it on the past few weeks. If they can get him going and produce a balanced attack, it’ll be hard for the Texans to slow things down.

The Texans, meanwhile, need to take advantage of a shaky Eagles secondary. Andre Johnson and DeAndre Hopkins have been playing very well of late and could torch Bradley Fletcher and Cary Williams if Fitzpatrick is on point. We know RB Arian Foster will be able to run the ball and will produce (519 rushing yards and 6 TD’s the last four weeks), but can they take advantage of the attention he creates?

The Texans are historically strong at home, and I think both Chip Kelly and Bill O’Brien are terrific game planners, but the Eagles have just too many offensive weapons at their disposal. I think it’ll be close, but the Eagles narrowly win.

Prediction: Eagles 24, Texans 21.

Rick Stavig is an NFL Draft Columnist for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @rickstavig or add him to your network on Google+.

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