NFL Playoffs Betting - Houston Texans and New England Patriots Preview
These two teams met in Week 14 of the regular season. At the time, the Texans were looking to lock down the number one seed in the AFC while the Patriots were still looking at having to play on the first weekend of the playoffs. My how things can change quickly in the NFL.
The Pats walloped the Texans, who were 11-1 at the time and had won six games in a row, 42-14. It was the first game of the last four game stretch of the regular season that saw Houston go 1-3 and wind up third in the AFC. New England ended the regular season winning nine of their last ten games and getting a first round bye. As a result, they will host this weekend's rematch with the Texans.
The Texans are coming off a win against the Cincinnati Bengals in the Wild Card round 19-13. The defence played really well in that game but the offense kept bogging down in the red zone, They had to kick five field goals in the game and kept Cincinnati in it. This will not work against the Patriots. The Pats will score some points.
New England has scored at least 23 points in every game this year since Week Two when they lost 20-18 to the Arizona Cardinals. They broke the 40-point mark five times this season, twice breaking 50. The Pats defence is not exactly porous either. They shut out the Miami Dolphins 28-0 in their last game. Seven times they held their opponents under 20.
Tom Brady is having an MVP type season (big surprise) as he has thrown for 4827 yards with 34 touchdowns and eight interceptions. Then to go with him the Patriots have a running back in Stevan Ridley who ran for 1263 yards, A thousand yard rusher to go along with Brady is a recipe for disaster for the opposing defence.
Houston counters with Matt Schaub. He threw for 4008 yards himself, which is not exactly chopped liver. But he threw 22 touchdowns compared to 12 picks. Which goes back to what we saw a week ago, they have trouble in the red zone. Arian Foster ran for 1424 yards with 15 touchdowns.
Texans at Patriots Odds
Sports Interaction has the odds on this one:
Houston is +10 -110 or +375. New England is -10 -110 or -485. Over/under is 48.
Ten points will likely not be enough to entice many to take the Texans. However, this is the playoffs. It's win or go home. So Houston is going to show up and give it all they have. And it isn't like this team stinks. They went 12-4.
Houston will keep it close ?for a while. But in the end, we like the Patriots -10 and the over.
This will set up a Broncos-Patriots AFC Championship Game if both our picks happen. Brady vs Manning for the Super Bowl. Now that's football! Seems like we've seen this before.
