It’s a Thursday edition of “No Huddle” and like always I’ll be previewing Thursday Night Football, and I’m going to throw a quick note about the college football action tonight as well.

First thing’s first though, and that is tonight’s matchup between the Texans and Patriots. I’m very intrigued by this matchup right off the bat. New England is now down to its third quarterback, Jacoby Brissett, after news broke today that Jimmy Garoppolo would not dress tonight after suffering a sprain AC joint in his throwing shoulder against Miami.

That’s great news for Houston because Garoppolo looked great on Sunday and if he was healthy, I didn’t see how the Texans would win. Now, we are back to square one with the Patriots having to go with a relative unknown at quarterback. Houston sports one of the top defenses in the NFL and could control the game if they can hold the New England running game in check. Rob Gronkowski may finally make his season debut tonight, which would be great news for New England here. That could mean the first look at Gronkowski and Martellus Bennett together in the two-tight sets that the Patriots dominated opposing defenses with a few years ago. A short passing attack from New England is to be expected in combination with the power running game with Legarrette Blount leading the backfield.

My key matchup for this game though will be the Houston offense against the New England defense. Don’t be fooled by the comeback that the Patriots allowed last week against Miami, this defense is not to be taken lightly. Houston may be extremely talented on offense but has yet to really get rolling, averaging just 21 points per game through the first two weeks. I’m very interested to see what New England will try to take away in this game. My guess is that you might see a lot of deep zone defenses in an attempt to take away the over-the-top passing plays to DeAndre Hopkins and Will Fuller. The Texans will be without left tackle Duane Brown, which is a huge loss for this offensive line as he is one of their top pass blockers.

Overall, I think this will be a tightly contested game and both kickers should factor into the conclusion of the game. It will be an interesting chess match between Bill Belichick and his former assistant Bill O’Brien. I like Houston to squeak one out on the road tonight.

Shifting over to college football for quickly, tonight’s game on ESPN features #5 Clemson on the road against Georgia Tech. The Tigers have been far from impressive this season but still managed to stay undefeated through the opening three weeks. This has the makings to be a trap game for Clemson though as a monumental matchup with Louisville is only a week away. Defensively, they’ll have to replicate its performance against the Yellow Jackets last season when they held this triple-option offense to 71 yards on the ground. That being said, I think there is just too much firepower for Clemson and I expect them to take care of business tonight.

Check back to Shooting the Moon later today for an update on the World Cup of Hockey following the Russia-Finland game going on right now. Follow me on Twitter @thereal_jmooney and go like the Shooting the Moon page on Facebook.