5 reasons to watch Dolphins vs. Texans on ‘Thursday Night Football’

Two teams are seeking their fifth wins of the season on Thursday Night Football. Will it be the Texans or Dolphins who come away with the victory?

The Dolphins have never won in Houston, and are playing there for the fifth time in team-history tonight as they take on the Texans.

After a rough start to the year, the Texans have won four straight games to catapult to first place in the AFC South. Both the Dolphins and Texans are seeking their fifth win of the season, but will it be the Brock Osweiler-led Dolphins or the Texans and the NFL’s most-sacked quarterback, who win on Thursday Night Football?

Here are the top five reasons why you should watch the Texans host the Dolphins on Thursday Night Football in Week 8 (Fox, 8:20 p.m. ET). You can also watch the game on the NFL Network and streaming via Amazon Prime.

1. When was the last time you got to laugh at Brock Osweiler?

While Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill recovers from a shoulder injury, backup Brock Osweiler has been enjoying Brocktober as the starter in Miami. The Texans know about Osweiler all too well as they signed him to a $72 million deal back in March 2016. That season, he played in 15 regular season games and had a 59.0 completion percentage along with 2,957 passing yards, 15 touchdowns, 16 interceptions, and a 72.2 passer rating. He was benched in favor of Tom Savage toward the end of the year, but after Savage suffered a concussion, Osweiler had to take back his job. That included starting in two playoff games. He led the Texans to a win over the Raiders during wild card weekend before falling to the Patriots in the AFC Divisional Round. The following offseason, the Texans traded Osweiler to the Browns, who ended up cutting him before the 2017 season began.

While Osweiler boasts a 59.8 completion percentage and a 78.7 passer rating in his NFL career, in the last two weeks he’s far exceeding those numbers. He’s completed 54 of his 80 passing attempts (67.4 percent) for 654 yards, six touchdowns, and two interceptions, good for a 107.0 passer rating. The Dolphins are 1-1 with Osweiler under center. But we’ve seen (and laughed at) Osweiler in many past games and it’s always possible bad Brock makes a primetime appearance, especially against his former team.

2. DeAndre Hopkins. Enough said.

In the low-scoring Cowboys vs. Texans Sunday Night Football matchup in Week 5, Hopkins made one of the best plays of the year. It wasn’t a touchdown, but he gained 49 yards and put two unreal spin moves on Dallas defenders to set up Houston for the game-winning field goal. It took overtime for the Texans to win that battle, but Hopkins rewarded everyone (other than Cowboys fans) for watching the game with his incredible playmaking ability.

Look for Hopkins to add to his season stats tonight, which include 47 catches for 707 yards and four touchdowns.

3. The Dolphins are looking to change their Thursday Night Football history.

Miami is looking for its first win on Thursday Night Football since November 13, 2014 vs. Buffalo and its first road victory on Thursday Night Football since November 19, 2009 at Carolina. To keep pace with the AFC East-leading Patriots, the Dolphins need to win just about every game possible on their schedule. That includes tonight’s matchup with the Texans, who boast the seventh best defense in terms of yards allowed per game and eighth-best in points per game. That’s not good news for a Dolphins offense that ranks 27th in yards per game and 23rd in points per game.

One thing to watch for when it comes to the Dolphins offense is running back Frank Gore. He has 18,087 career scrimmage yards in his 14 NFL seasons entering tonight’s game. With 104 scrimmage yards, Gore would surpass Pro Football Hall of Famer Barry Sanders (18,190) for the sixth-most scrimmage yards in league history. The players with the most scrimmage yards in NFL history:

4. The Texans’ defense ranks top 10 in most categories.

Guys like J.J. Watt (7.0 sacks this year), Zach Cunningham (61 tackles), Benardrick McCkinney, Tyrann Mathieu, and Jadeveon Clowney are making the Texans defense impressive this season. Here’s how Houston ranks in major statistical categories:

Sacks: 8th (19.0)
Yards/game: 9th (329.9)
Points/game: 8th (20.2)
Tackles: 11th (458)
Passing defense: 16th (1,664 yards)
Rushing defense: 10th (645 yards)
Passes defensed: 10th (32)
Forced fumbles: 3rd (11)
Interceptions: 14th (6)

And here’s how the Texans defense compares to the Dolphins offense in some of Bill Connelly’s advanced statistics for SB Nation.

5. Texans fans expect a win. Will their confidence be rewarded?

SB Nation’s FanPulse survey, which polls all 32 NFL fanbases on a weekly basis, found that Texans fans are much more confident in their team getting a win tonight than Dolphins fans. With that said, Dolphins fans are more confident in the state of their franchise than Texans fans.

38 percent of Dolphins fans are confident in the direction in which the team is headed, while only 30 percent of Texans fans can say the same.

Battle Red Blog FanPulse: Texans win by 5
The Phinsider FanPulse: Dolphins lose by 2
Odds: Texans -7.5 (per Bovada)