New York Jets vs. Houston Texans game inactive

It's Halloween, and for the Jets to lariat Houston at MetLife Stadium in the first NFL game of Week 9, they'll have to don the costume – and more importantly, embrace the belief – a 6-2 team like the Texans and not the 2-6 team that the Jets are.

“Just smile, show up, trust, believe and root for us as hard as you can. We need that noise,” QB Aaron Rodgers told Green & White fans this week after explaining that he felt “really good” before this short week. “We are trying to fix this as quickly as possible. I know it’s been frustrating for everyone, but there’s still a lot of time left in the season.”

One of the main costume dramas in this game between somewhat banged-up contenders will be quarterbacks Rodgers versus second-year signal-caller CJ Stroud. Rodgers, 40 and soon to be 41, faces the second youngest QB in Stroud in terms of age difference (17 years, 305 days), having faced the youngest last Sunday in Patriots' Drake Maye (18 years, 271 days). ), although he came up short against senior Jacoby Brissett, who came in relief to pick up the 25-22 win, handing A-Rod and the Jets their fifth straight loss.

For the Jets to turn their blimp on Thursday night, they'll need to be the better-dressed team when it comes to outfitting hospital patients. They will play without WR Allen Lazard, DL Leki Fotu and K Greg Zuerlein, all of whom were placed on injured reserve. LB and defensive captain CJ Mosley, G Alijah Vera-Tucker and safeties Tony Adams and Ashtyn Davis are all out with injuries.

But the Jets have some interesting additions to the roster that everyone knows about. WR Davante Adams will play his third game in his new shade of green after beginning his career with Rodgers and the green and gold Packers. And the powerful Haason Reddick, who began his season with 26 defensive snaps with New England, will try to go one step further and catch Stroud in the Texans' pocket.

Speaking of kicking, young but well-traveled Riley Patterson will replace Zuerlein as the Jets' kicker. In two stints with Detroit, a season with Jacksonville and two games with Cleveland last year, Patterson converted 88.1% of his field goal attempts, including 19 of 25 from beyond 40 yards.