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With the NFL season now heading into Week 17, we have special Christmas Day matchups. The second game on Wednesday features the Baltimore Ravens traveling to Texas to take on the Houston Texans. Both teams are heading toward the playoffs in a couple of weeks; however, they can still move up or down in the standings. Throughout this article, we’ll dive into both teams’ Week 16 recaps, while making a Ravens @ Texans pick.
The Ravens come into this one off an AFC North divisional win over their rivals, the Pittsburgh Steelers. They won the game 34-17 behind strong performances from QB Lamar Jackson and RB Derrick Henry.
Starting with Jackson, he has struggled throughout his career against the Steelers. However, he got the better of them this time, throwing for 207 yards and 3 touchdowns. He was slowed down on the ground, rushing for just 22 yards.
The one man who wasn’t slowed down on the ground, however, was Derrick Henry. Henry rushed for 162 yards on 24 carries. This part of the season is why the Ravens signed Henry in the offseason. When the weather changes, there’s not one running back you’d rather have than Henry because of his physical presence.
In the pass-catching department, WR Zay Flowers led the Ravens in receiving with 100 yards on 5 catches. He was not, however, one of the pass-catchers to score a touchdown. Those went to TE Mark Andrews, TE Isaiah Likely and WR Rashod Bateman.
The Ravens defense, which was extremely poor at the beginning of the season, is figuring things out at the right time. They held the Steelers to just 17 points, which was the fourth time in five games they’ve held an opponent to under 20 points.
As for the Texans, they didn’t have as good a Week 16 as the Ravens. They lost to the reigning Super Bowl champions, the Kansas City Chiefs, 27-19. Not only did they lose, but they also lost WR Tank Dell to a dislocated kneecap, which was a very scary situation.
The Texans offense struggled to get into a rhythm at times against the Chiefs, especially after losing Dell. QB C.J. Stroud threw for 244 yards and 2 touchdowns. The downside of his stat line was throwing 2 interceptions.
The running game didn’t get going either. RB Joe Mixon had just 57 rushing yards and 14 yards through the air. Mixon has been great at times this season, but he has been slowed down in the past two games, totaling just 80 yards combined in those games.
Dell was on his way to having a huge day for the Texans. He led the team in receiving despite leaving early with the injury. He had 6 catches for 98 yards and the touchdown he got injured on. WR Nico Collins had a quieter day, catching seven passes for just 60 yards and failing to score. TE Dalton Schultz caught the other touchdown pass from Stroud. With Dell now injured, Schultz should have a bigger role in this offense.
This game is one of the best on the Week 17 slate of games, and we get it on Christmas Day. What could be better than that? Both teams will look to create some momentum before heading into the playoffs over the next two weeks, and it all starts with this tough battle.
As mentioned above, the Ravens defense has been better lately, holding teams under 20 points. Their defense against the run has been awesome all season. The Ravens have allowed the second-fewest rushing yards in the NFL this season, at just 83.1 yards per game.
We also mentioned that Mixon has stuttered in the past couple of weeks. We expect that trend to continue in this game against a tough Ravens run defense. That’s why our Ravens @ Texans pick is Joe Mixon rushing for fewer than 65 yards for the third week in a row.
Dylan has had a love for sports since he was a kid. Four years ago, he decided to dive into the sports content-creating industry specializing in Fantasy Football, NFL and NBA. He has since had his work published on sites that include Fantasy Alarm, Fansided, and Fantasy Six Pack.