This match-up between the Houston Texans and the Baltimore Ravens is probably the game that is flying under the radar more than any this coming weekend.  Many people felt that this injury-plagued Houston Texans team wouldn’t even be able to beat the Cincinnati Bengals last weekend in the Wild Card round, but they did just that, and they did it in impressive fashion.  The Texans looked solid last weekend, but they’ll definitely have their hands full against the number two team in the AFC, the Baltimore Ravens.  This game is set to kick off at 1:00pm EST on Sunday afternoon, and is the first of two playoff games that day.

Let’s start with that Texans team.  They have lost both their starting quarterback, and their backup quarterback this season.  On top of that though, they also missed running back Arian Foster for some time, as well as star wide out Andre Johnson for most of the season, and defensive end Mario Williams as well.  This team can’t seem to catch a break, until they dominated last weekend.  Houston won the AFC South, and finished with a 10-6 record that impressed many people throughout the NFL.  They will need to rely heavily on their running back duo of Foster and Ben Tate if they want to knock off a Baltimore Ravens team who will certainly be fired up at home.

Now for the Baltimore Ravens, a team who either leaves you scratching your head, or impressed by their all around solid play.  This team has been excellent, and been incredibly bad at times this year.  They won a tough NFC North with a 12-4 record that included two other playoff teams, but all four of their losses this season came against non-playoff teams, with one of them being against a 5-11 Jacksonville Jaguars team.  They have an excellent running game with Ray Rice, but their passing game is either very strong, or very, very off with Joe Flacco.  They Ravens will need a big game from Rice, and they will also need Flacco to control the game nicely as well to get this win on Sunday.

Odds and Sports Betting Line

Houston Texans: +9

Baltimore Ravens: -9

Free Prediction

It’s tough not to like an emotional team like the Ravens, with an excellent defense, in their first playoff game of the year in their home stadium.  And I do like them actually.  The Ravens are too strong of a team to bow out of this year’s playoffs early, and I think that they will get the job done at home against a tough Texans team.  It won’t be as easy as people think, because Houston’s defense is very good, but I’ll take the Ravens by a touchdown.

Prediction:  Baltimore Ravens- 24 Houston Texans- 17

Free Pick

This big playoff lines are tough to cover for teams, and it will be especially tough to cover when there are two teams playing with strong defenses like the Texans and the Ravens.  I think that nine is simply too many to give the Texans, regardless of who’s playing quarterback.  I’m going to take the Ravens to win, but I’m picking the Houston Texans to cover +9.

Pick:  Houston Texans +9