3 takeaways from Head Coach Lovie Smith’s Monday presser

Less than 24 hours after facing the Titans and just over 72 hours away from playing their next opponent, the Philadelphia Eagles, on Thursday Night Football, Head Coach Lovie Smith addressed the media. Here are three takeaways from Monday’s press conference:

The Texans will quickly turn the page from their 17-10 loss to the Tennessee Titans and begin preparing for the undefeated Eagles on a short week.

“When you have disappointment like that, the good part is that you get to play a game sooner than normal so this Thursday game can be a blessing in disguise a little bit,” Smith said.

That being said, the Eagles offense poses a big challenge for the Texans. According to this nugget from the NFL’s press release:

Entering Week 9, Hurts leads all NFC quarterbacks in combined passing and rushing yards per game (300.3) and is one of three NFC quarterbacks (JIMMY GAROPPOLO and GENO SMITH) with a passer rating of 100-or-higher (105.1). The Eagles lead the NFL with 14 rushing touchdowns this season, including six from Hurts and five from running back Miles Sanders.

“Jalen Hurts, I would say he’s an outstanding passer, outstanding thrower on what we’re seeing from him, running game to back that up,” Smith said. “I’m talking about the athlete at the quarterback position brings another dimension of them taking off and running the football. A part of why they’re one of the best rushing teams is based on what they do running the ball at the quarterback position too. Miles Sanders, just an excellent player. What’s his weight? Smaller guy, almost 210, 220-pound guy, good size, can make you miss in the open field, can catch the ball out of the backfield. Whenever you have an athlete like that, they can do multiple things and you put the quarterback into the mix, that’s really hard.”

With injuries on defense, rookie defensive linemen Kurt Hinish and Thomas Booker made their first career NFL starts on Sunday. While it wasn’t always…