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Week 16 of the NFL season has a monster slate of games in store for us. One matchup we have our eyes on in particular is the early Saturday game between the Houston Texans and Kansas City Chiefs. That’s right, Saturday games are back in the NFL, and we will preview this Texans-Chiefs matchup. Before previewing that matchup, we will also recap their Week 15 action.
It’s never pretty for this Texans team, but they find a way to win. They took down the visiting Miami Dolphins 20-12 on the back of a terrific defensive performance. Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa came into this rolling, and the Texans defense intercepted him 3 times and held him to under 200 yards passing.
With the defense dominating in this one, the offense for the Texans didn’t need to do much. QB C.J. Stroud completed 18 of his 26 passes for 2 touchdowns, but he only threw for 134 yards. He was also sacked four times in this one, which has been a problem for this Texans offense throughout the season.
The leading pass catcher was RB Joe Mixon, who had 5 catches for 33 yards. Although Houston’s passing attack didn’t produce much, WR Nico Collins bailed out fantasy owners, as 2 of his 4 catches were touchdowns, and he finished with 17 yards.
Not even the running game got going for the Texans. Dare Ogunbowale was the leading rusher with 35 yards on one carry, while Mixon carried the ball 12 times for just 23 yards. If the Texans want to win Saturday’s game against the Chiefs, they need to play much better on the offensive side of the football.
The Kansas City Chiefs walked out of Cleveland in Week 15 with a 21-7 victory over the Browns. Unfortunately, it did not come without the cost of losing the best QB in the NFL, Patrick Mahomes. The Kansas City superstar suffered a high-ankle sprain and has been listed as week-to-week. So, it is uncertain if we will see him play on Saturday.
Like Stroud, Mahomes also had a quiet game. He went 19-38 for 159 yards but did throw 2 touchdowns. Backup TE Noah Gray and WR JuJu Smith-Schuster were on the receiving end of the touchdowns from Mahomes. The leading receiver was rookie WR Xavier Worthy, who had 6 catches for just 46 yards.
The running game also did not get going, with RBs Kareem Hunt and Isiah Pacheco each splitting carries with 13 each. Hunt had 45 yards on the ground, while Pacheco had just 32 yards. The running game needs to get going for the Chiefs, especially if Mahomes were to miss any time.
As for this matchup, it is an interesting one. Both teams have been winning games; unfortunately, they are never pretty. With this being a short week for both teams, that could make for a slow-going contest.
Even though we expect this game to be a lower-scoring affair, we do have one guy that we want to target in this matchup. That man is Nico Collins, who is coming off a two-touchdown performance in Week 15.
In the last few weeks, the Chiefs defense has struggled against opposing teams’ #1 wide receivers. Just last week, Jerry Jeudy had 11 catches for 108 yards. The week prior, Josh Palmer of the Chargers had 76 yards, and the week before, Brock Bowers had 10 catches for 140 yards and a touchdown.
That said, we anticipate that Nico Collins will have a big day in this one. We expect Collins to be able to find the end zone at least once. However, we believe it is more likely for Collins to rack up the receiving yards. So our final Texans @ Chiefs NFL pick is on Nico Collins tallying more than 85 receiving yards.
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.