(Photo: Houston Chronicle)
Intriguing Game- NFL, Week 17
Baltimore Ravens at Houston Texans
Ravens: Saturday was a huge win for them. First, it’s a divisional rival, it’s Steelers week as it’s so commonly referred to and ever since the first meeting in Pittsburgh, you’ve been looking up to them in the standings secondly, when they beat you, they did it with six field goals, not a single touchdown. If the Steelers win that game on Saturday afternoon, the AFC North will be wrapped up and they will clinch the division for the first time since 2020. This past week was the best I’ve seen the Baltimore Ravens look since their week four win against the Buffalo Bills. Lamar Jackson was in control as he threw three touchdown passes and they got back to feeding Derrick Henry the football. Again, look at the difference when he’s carrying the football compared to when he’s not and it’s night and day if you ask me. This was also the best defense I’ve seen them play in quite some time. The other day when I was on the radio, I was asked about the future of John Harbaugh and whether the team should move on from him, my response to that was who do you find better to replace him? He’s been fairly successful in Baltimore and his players love him. With the win against the Steelers, they have clinched a playoff spot and will be playing January football once again which was never a doubt in my mind. They could still win the division if all falls in their favor. On Wednesday afternoon, they’ll make their way to H-Town.
Texans: Their future is bright, but I was never ready to label them a Super Bowl contender just yet and if you learned anything about them this year, you can see they still have some growing to do as a football team. I can sit here and play the what-if game all day long if I wanted, but being healthy makes all the difference and too often, they were without Nico Collins who’s become C.J. Stroud’s top target, Stefon Diggs tore his ACL, and is done for the year and Joe Mixon has been in and out of the line up dealing with injuries. Just imagine if these three were all healthy consistently, I think they’d be taken a bit more seriously. I’ll give the Houston Texans credit because they did play the Kansas City Chiefs tough on Saturday, but we all know when you play a team of the Chiefs’ caliber, you need all 60 minutes and unfortunately, they took their foot off the gas. They suffered a big loss in that game with the injury of Tank Dell who suffered a serious knee injury on Saturday. When I heard about the news, I said to myself this group can’t catch a break. Today, the Texans claimed Diontae Johnson off waivers which is a move they needed to make, and hopefully, he can add some depth to a receiving room that needs it. The Texans will return home this Wednesday for a showdown with the team that ended their season in the playoffs last year.
Ravens X-Factor: Kyle Van Noy– As the years go on, he continues to perform at a high level. Kyle has never been asked to be the best player on the defense, just does several things well and he’s done just that. First, he’s a veteran presence and provides leadership to this entire Baltimore defense. You ask him to do something, he does it, no questions asked. You need him to rush the passer, stop the run, and gets his hands up to bat the pass down, Kyle checks all the boxes. He leads the team in sacks this year with 10.5. This Baltimore defense will face a Texans offensive line that has struggled this year.
Texans X-Factor: Dalton Schultz– With so many injuries in the passing game, this is the guy they need to build the passing attack around. A Tight End is such a difficult matchup and the Texans need to capitalize on this as soon as possible. Dalton is such a reliable target over the middle and plays with a wide catch radius. This is the guy you target on third down to move the chains or in the red zone. Dalton is that chain mover and knows his role within an offense. I look for C.J. to find Dalton as early as possible on Wednesday afternoon.
Final Thoughts: These two opened up the regular season against one another and the Ravens dominated that matchup. Months later, they met in the divisional round of the AFC Playoffs and Baltimore won that game and moved on to the AFC Championship. Christmas Day will mark the third matchup between Lamar Jackson and C.J. Stroud. The Ravens are trending upwards as we speak, while the Houston Texans are just doing enough to get by. Baltimore has been playing stingy defense as of late and that’s the last thing the Texans want to see, especially with that offensive line they’ve had all year long, so I expect the Ravens to throw pressure at C.J. throughout this game. Once again, when Derrick gets his carries, good things will happen, I need Baltimore to continue that trend. I also want to see how they will look to neutralize Will Anderson. When these two met in the playoffs, Demeco Ryans made the bold decision to blitz Lamar and he paid for it. If they can get home with at least four and contain, they should do well. I just don’t see the Texans being able to keep up with the Ravens in this game and that’s exactly why I’m picking Baltimore to get a win on Christmas Day.
Prediction: Ravens 31, Texans 20
