Defense Will Determine Outcome of Texans vs Ravens Monday Night
Monday Night Football concludes Week 12 of the NFL regular season when the Houston Texans visit the Baltimore Ravens. The current line has Houston favored by 7.5 points with the over/under point total on 38.5.
Entering this game, Houston on the season is 4-6 straight up and 6-4 against the spread. On the road, the Texans are 1-3 SU and 3-1 ATS. Baltimore on the season is 5-5 SU and 5-4-1 ATS. At home, the Ravens are 2-2 SU and ATS.
Baltimore is coming off a strong win of 23-0 over a shorthanded Green Bay and is the first NFL team in 14 years to post three shutouts during the same season. Defensively the Ravens were superb against the Packers forcing five turnovers, while sacking the quarterback six times.
The Ravens have won nine consecutive games on primetime and are 11-1 playing under the lights with head coach John Harbaugh.
Houston quarterback Tom Savage, benched following Week 1, replaced injured rookie signal caller Deshaun Watson before Week 9 and won for the first time last week over Arizona 31-21.
Savage had his best game of the season last week with 230 yards passing and two touchdowns through the air. However, he has six turnovers over the last two games. D’Onta Foreman rushed for a pair of touchdowns last week for the Texans, but was lost for the season with a torn Achilles later that same game.
Defensive Battle
However, Lamar Miller leads Houston in rushing with 604 yards and is also a good receiver out of the backfield. DeAndre Hopkins leads the Texans in receptions with 62 and his nine touchdown receptions led the NFL entering this week.
Defensively, Houston is No. 26 in the league against the pass allowing almost 253 yards per game.
Baltimore only had 219 yards on offense against Green Bay, and owns the worst passing attack in the NFL averaging just 165 yards per game. Veteran signal caller Joe Flacco has 9 touchdown passes but 11 interceptions.
On defense, the Ravens give up 17.1 points a game and lead the NFL in interceptions with 16.
Houston is 6-2 ATS in its last 8 games played on field turf.
Baltimore is 9-4-1 ATS in its last 14 games versus opponents from the AFC.
Prediction: Both defenses are very strong, the difference will be turnovers and running games for both. Lean here toward the Ravens to keep it close and cover.
