Los Angeles Chargers vs Houston Texans Preview

Houston Texans Kicker, Ka’imi Fairbairn comes into week 3 as the teams leading scorer with 25 points. Photo Credit Angel Rick Leal

By Angel Rick Leal

Game Info
Los Angeles Chargers vs Houston Texans
Sunday – October 2 – 12:00 p.m.
TV: CBS
NRG Stadium – Houston, TX

Records Before Game
Los Angeles Chargers (1-2, 0-1 Away)
Houston Texans (0-2-1, 0-0-1 Home)

The Houston Texans are coming into this game looking for their first win of the season. After finishing their Week 1 game in a tie with the Indianapolis Colts and losing their next two games to the Denver Broncos and Chicago Bears, they’re hoping to change their luck with an injured Chargers team who have lost their last two games to the Chiefs and Jaguars.

 

Los Angeles Chargers
The Chargers come into this game missing a few important starters with injuries to key players such as CB J.C. Jackson and LB Joey Bosa will hinder this defense significantly. But this defense still has stars all around it. With LB Khalil Mack, CB Asante Samuel Jr., S Derwin James and LB Kyle Van Noy, this defense should be more than enough to hold back a Texans offense. QB Justin Herbert suffered a rib injury in Week 2 but played in Week 3 but not looking like his usual self. He missed some practice time but expects to play today against the Texans. 

Houston Texans
As mentioned at the start of this article, the Houston Texans are looking to rebound from back-to-back road losses after a 23-20 loss to the Chicago Bears last time out. Davis Mills has thrown for 662 yards, 3 touchdowns and 2 interceptions on 57.9% passing while RB Dameon Pierce has a team-high 182 rushing yards so far this season. WR Brandin Cooks leads the Texans with 13 receptions for 158 yards and another pair of Houston receivers have 100+ receiving yards as well this season. On defense, Jonathan Owens has a team-high 36 total tackles including 23 solo tackles while Jerry Hughes also has 4 sacks, and an interception and Jalen Pitre has a pair of interceptions up to this point.  Houston’s offense has been decent at getting into field goal range and bad at finishing drives, which has helped give Fairbairn opportunities making him a consistent player so far this season and successful with all seven of his field goal attempts and all three of his extra point attempts. 

Prediction
If LA Chargers QB Justin Herbert doesn’t allow his rib injurie to affect his playing ability in today’s game then this could make a difference and they could easily pull away with the win. Then again, the Texans are at home so let’s see what team shows up ready. 

Final Score
Houston Texans – 28
Los Angeles Chargers – 21